It's Time to Crack Down on the Toys 'R' Us Vulture Capitalists

[gollygee]

https://www.thenation.com/article/its-time-to-crack-down-on-the-toys-r-us-vulture-capitalists/

Ann Marie Reinhart Smith worked at Toys “R” Us for 29 years. Now, the Durham, North Carolina grandmother is unemployed after being laid off as part of the iconic American toy store’s bankruptcy and liquidation.

Smith is just one of more than 30,000 US workers who face unemployment as the 70-year-old retail chain unwinds its business after a decade of disastrous management by the Wall Street firms that purchased the company and saddled it with billions of dollars of debt.

Workers with decades of retail experience are being left with no jobs, no benefits and no severance pay. Meanwhile, the private-equity barons who bought the company in 2005 have reaped nearly $500 million in extracted profits, and top executives are set to leave with $16 million worth of golden parachutes.

Smith’s story is a potent reminder of the human cost that Wall Street vulture capitalists inflict on working-class people in their seemingly never-ending pursuit of profit. “Retail workers are already poorly paid,” Smith says. “Now, to be let go without any severance is devastating. Not knowing how you’re going to pay your rent, feed your family, and pay your bills is absolutely humiliating.”

[RandomAccess]

1. Mitt Romney's firm did that to K-B Toys too

And that was a great little chain of stores.

[gollygee]

2. Yeah, that's what this reminded me of

They're killing all the toy stores!