Amazon didn't kill Toys 'R' Us. Here's what did

[Igel]

15. So it's a series of things.

3. Amazon and online retailers kept it from recovering.

2. Bain bought it out and it couldn't handle the debt that resulted.

1. But before that it was already floundering and its stocks reduced to junk status.

The only reason to miss the first cause, the one that put it in trouble and would have killed it, was to focus on (2). The "predatory" companies are often more like predators that bring down the sick and wounded or scavenge among the dying and dead. In some cases they help the company and make money; in other cases, the profit comes from dismembering the remains after keeping the thing on life support.

If not for that company, it's likely we'd have been talking about Toys 'R' Us' demise when DU was perhaps 3, 4 years old.