Amazon didn't kill Toys 'R' Us. Here's what did [View all]

[PatrickforO]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: CNN Money

The company's biggest problem: It was saddled with billions of dollars in debt. That debt stopped it from making the necessary investment in stores. And that meant an unpleasant shopping experience that doomed the chain. The company told employees Wednesday that it would close or sell its US stores after 70 years in business.

Toys "R" Us' debt problems date back to well before Amazon (AMZN) was a major threat. Its debt was downgraded to junk bond status in January of 2005, at a time when Amazon's sales were just 4% of their current level.

A year later the company was taken private by KKR, Bain Capital and real estate firm Vornado. The $6.6 billion purchase left it with $5.3 billion in debt secured by its assets and it never really recovered.

The toy store faced several other big challenges at about the same time. There was the rise of big box retailers like Walmart (WMT), which now dwarfs Toys "R" Us in total toy sales. Last year toymakers Mattel (MAT) and Hasbro (HAS) each sold about $1 billion worth of their toys at Walmart, more than twice as much as what they sold through Toys "R" Us. Target (TGT) sold just about as many of their as Toys "R" Us last year.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/news/companies/toys-r-us-closing-blame/index.html

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Bain Capital. You remember them?

That's right - Mitt Romney.

Bain is a predatory capital firm that buys companies that are having trouble, saddles them with loans that are impossible to service, then sucks cash from them until they die. Then, when they go belly-up, they lay off thousands of people whose lives are now devastated because a few billionaire freaks saw a chance to turn a quick profit.

Profits over people is not a concept we Democrats should stand for or even tolerate. Profit is fine, but when CEOs make 300 times what their people make, and when it is OK to destroy lives with predatory practices like this, then we need to increase regulation.

Isn't it interesting that banking regulations were just loosened, and with the help of some Democrats. It was a BAD policy move, that. No good will come from it.

In the meantime, wake up, get active with your local Dem party and start choosing good candidates that will act in your best interest, not Mitt's.