Toys 'R' Us Says It May Leave the Toy Business

[kysrsoze]

Battered by intense competition from discounters like Wal-Mart Stores, Toys "R" Us announced yesterday that it might bow out of the toy business altogether.

The $11 billion company, which rose to become the nation's largest toy retailer by developing a once-successful formula that pushed its rivals out of business, said in a statement that it was determined to split its toy business and its faster-growing baby supplies division, Babies "R" Us, into two companies. It also said it planned "to explore the possible sale of the global toy business."

Abandoning the world of Barbie and Lego would be a startling denouement for a company that rose to supremacy during the 1990's. Behind the bobbing head of its corporate mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe, it surpassed rivals like F. A. O. Schwarz, which filed for bankruptcy late last year.

But the troubles at Toys "R" Us show how Wal-Mart and other large discounters, once seen solely as a threat to mom-and-pop stores on Main Street, are now squeezing previously strong national chains. Bookstores, music retailers, electronics chains and supermarkets have all struggled to compete with Wal-Mart's low prices and its enormous power over its suppliers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/12/business/12toys.html?hp


Man, I fuckin' hate Walmart!

[Kadie]

1. That's just not right

Toys "R" Us is more than just a toy store, it is a complete experience. Even as an adult I love walking through the isles looking at and playing with all the toys. This is so sad that something like this is happening.

[gmoney]

2. Karma, I guess...

After all, Toys R Us drove all the local toy stores and department store toy sections out of business over the past 20 or 30 years...

What goes around comes around?

That said, I'm sorry to hear of another Wal-Mart victim. I just wonder at this point if they are going to completely FUBAR the entire global economy before I drop dead, or if I'm going to be around to see it all fall to pieces.

[Tight_rope]

9. I agree with you...especially after the whole Tyco toy fiasco!

[mac56]

19. What was the Tyco toy fiasco?

nm

[Piperay]

10. Yeah, I remember when Toys R Us

ran out all the independents, they even intimidated toy companies and told them they better sell to them exclusively. Toys R Us even drove alot of the department stores out of the toy selling business, stores like Sears etc.

I don't like Walmart taking over everything but Toys R Us brought this on themselves. If they hadn't of run everyone else out maybe they would'nt be left out there battling Walmart on their own, so I don't feel that sorry for them.

[CO Liberal]

28. I Hear You

My wife's family owned a small hardware store on Route 18 in Old Bridge, NJ for many years. They did will until Channel Lumber opened a tore nearby. Eventually, they were forced to close their store.

Eventually, Channel Lumber was driven into bankrupcy by Home Depot.

Yep - karma permeates the business world.

[kestrel91316]

3. New name: Quitters 'R' Us n/t

[unblock]

4. whoever buys it would no doubt keep operating it

and unless the buyer is walmart, they'd probably purchase the 'toys r us' name as well.

this is just another way of saying they're splitting in two companies. it's just that the executives want to end up in the 'babies r us' side instead.

[DivinBreuvage]

5. I hate Wal*Mart as much as anyone, but good riddance. Toys 'R Us SUCKS.

Their selection SUCKS. Their servicepeople occasionally SUCK. The fact that they never have enough registers open SUCKS. I can't remember the last time I went shopping for nieces and nephews and Toys 'R Us actually had the big items I was looking for. I'm not talking about the sold-out number one toy of the season, I'm talking about things like Playmobil and Fisher Price playsets that Toys 'R Us can't be troubled to stock because they don't sell as big as Barbie, the movie hero of the month, or some other mass-marketed whorespawn.

I'm genuinely sorry for the working people who are going to lose their jobs (except for the assholes who pretend to "check" on an item for me and then never come back), but as far as the store itself goes, you can't die quick enough for me; and if there's any justice your upper management and shareholders will all go broke and curse in ashes and sack-cloth the day they ever heard your name. Screw you, Toys 'R Us. Françoise spits on your grave.

[Piperay]

11. I could hardly make

myself go in there after the dirty deal they gave the independent toy stores. I can't stand Toys R Us, also the one near me is disorganized, dirty and rundown.

[DivinBreuvage]

13. Yeah, there are two in my area and one of them is a dump like you describe

Fortunately for me, after my last unhappy experience with Toys 'R Us I discovered a little independent toy store down the road a ways and they have all kinds of cool things that Toys 'R Us is too good to carry. So I'll be able to do my toy shopping there from now on.

[Ready4Change]

6. The Store.

One day, we will all go the The Store. There we will buy the Things. Whatever they are. We will marvel at the Prices, allthough we will no longer know why, for there will be no other place to go buy Things. But the Advertisements will advise us of the low low Prices, and we shall listen as we eat the Food in the Living Room of the House.

We will wonder at the loss of some Things. We will tell the Children of the Smaller Stores, and the Children will laugh, for they know the Store is big, it is not small.

We will tell the Children of Main Street. They will be confused, for streets are just streets. We will say no, some streets used to be different. Some streets used to be special. The Children will ask why, and we shall realize we no longer remember.

We will lie in the Bed with the Wife or the Husband, and we will wonder, what happened to the People we used to talk to, in the Smaller Stores? Did they move? Do they still talk to Other People?

We won't know. And the TV won't tell us. We will turn off the TV with the Remote, then turn off the light, and fall asleep in the Dark.

[Voltaire99]

7. Nice post.

You have captured the essential blandeur, as the poet Kay Ryan called it, the immense and staggering banality of American society.

[Ready4Change]

22. Heheh, I like that term.

Blandeur. I've got to start using that one. Thanks.

[lostnfound]

12. Well put. Isn't it similar to their warnings about totalitarianism?

We will end up the same way, it seems. At least in terms of limited, preprogrammed options for purchases, and for the absence of creativity and individuality.

[Ready4Change]

26. Thanks. Don't honestly know of which warnings you refer.

I wrote it on the spot, thinking of how economies of scale in an unchecked capitalist system will eventually trend to a single monopoly, and what that implies.

Taken to extremes, it doesn't end at the store front. It extends into our lives, our homes, our families. Businesses, given the chance, will extend their grasp.

[lastliberalintexas]

24. In the early 1990s or late 1980s,

I remember hearing this trend described as the McDonald's-ization of America. I think that Walmart-ification is now the more appropriate term. You captured the oh so appealing prospects of that situation quite well.

[Fleshdancer]

8. as long as they don't turn in to an Adult Toys "R" Us store.

That would just be weird.

:evilgrin:

[zanana]

14. Will they rename it

Toys Aren't Us?

[gasperc]

15. $11billion company goes poof

other than toys, what they got?

[Shadder]

16. No loss really

I and my two sons are really into Lego's (I'm just starting a scale model of Union Terminal in Cincinnati that will take at least 15,000 bricks) Of the three stores they have close by us, while they may have a good selection the prices are for the most part $2 to 3 more than we can get the same sets for in other locations so we never really shop there all that much. When we do go in, just as someone else said, the store tends to be dirty and disorganized.

[nonkultur]

17. Toys "R" Us drove smalller toy stores out of business.

Now Wal Mart drives them out of business.
Eventualy someone will drive Wal-Mart out.

Most likely it will be Target or Costco who will do the deed.

[lil-petunia]

18. Agreed or, aGREED

the last time I visited at WeBeToys'nShit, it was filthy. It reminded me of a sea of plastic crap, threatening to swamp the outside sidewalk. As for toys? Nothing mentally challneging. No puzzles, not models (planes and boats, not those lanky, underdressed runway ones) few games and everything premade, pre-colored, pre-played and pre-programmed.

I used to remember a corner toy store, small, but oh, so much fun. It was inventive, creative and at every single turn, my mouth would drop and I would go, wow. I'd still feel that way today, if it still existed.

[BiggJawn]

20. As Ye Sow, So shall Ye Reap....

"...which rose to become the nation's largest toy retailer by developing a once- successful formula that pushed its rivals out of business..."

Wally-World should sit up and notice.

I miss the local Hobby Shop. But I guess not enough kids actually cut out ribs and bulkheads from balsa wood anymore to make it profitable. A city of 80,000, and no place to buy a Du-Bro bellcrank or other model airplane stuff...

[kysrsoze]

23. I'm upset. I'm having a lot of difficulty finding a hobby shop in Chicago

In the burbs, Hobby Lobby (which sucks) took over, but they are closing too. My favorite shop in Chicago closed in the last few months. I don't know where else to go but online.

This is terrible. I think you're right - the demand is simply not as strong and all you can get at crappy Walmart is NASCAR models.

[Corgigal]

21. What ToysRUs does on Saturday

here in my local area is wonderful. My little boy is disabled and every Saturday morning they have a YuGi-Oh card swapping/playing.
I have been taking my son over there for over a year now. Now it's nothing special. Just an area where they set up a few tables and have one worker monitor the kids to be sure no one is stealing any of the cards. Yeah I know why they do it too. I know I pick up more things they I would normally. I have to sit in the ToysRUS for two hours.

However no one else does this little gesture. Not Walmart or the local private toy store in town. My little son and the other 25 or more kids that meet every Sat at ToysRUs will miss it.

Flame away but you guys might not understand how hard it is to have anyone do anything that includes disabled people.

[lastliberalintexas]

25. I agree

I've heard that the Toys R Us store in my area does it too. And there *aren't* any local toy stores to shop in this area, so if the Toys R Us closes, that will force me to shop at Target or Walmart. Or else drive to Houston, which I have oh so much time to do.

And the store here in town is clean, has a great selection of toys, games, videos, etc. that Walmart and Target DON'T carry, and the people here are very nice.

It isn't perfect (what corporation is?), but it isn't as evil as Walmart.

[noonwitch]

27. There's a part of me that thinks the company deserves it

They forced a lot of toy companies out of business over the years with monopolistic practices. I believe they were even charged once with anti-trust violations. Everything Wal-Mart (and I am not defending them, either) has been accused of since Sam Walton died, Toys R Us has been doing for years.

Remember all the toy stores there used to be? Circus World. Children's Castle. Penney's and major department stores had great toy departments back then (Hudson's in Detroit certainly did). Kaybee is still around, but much scaled back from what they used to be. Toys R Us put an end to a number of toy stores in the 80s.

On the other hand, Toys R Us does have the best selection of toys. I guess I will end up buying more and more presents for my neices and nephew at The Doll Hospital (a vintage toy store/expensive doll shop in Berkely, MI) and at Borders, since they are all readers now.

[kysrsoze]

29. I don't know how bad I really feel for Circus World, Kay-Bee, etc.

Their selection and prices were terrible. I always liked them to shopping at Musicland or Sam Goody for CD's - horrible choice, but convenient location.

I'd still hate to see Toys R Us go out because of Wal-Mart and Target. I do like Target though and I've seen how well they've done the toys section.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

30. I grew up on Toys R'Us

I can understand that it drove the smaller independent toy stores out of business and that is very sad and perhaps it is receiving its Karma. But that place has a lot of fond memories for me when I was growing up and I'll be sorry to see it go

[GinaMaria]

31. Bargain Town

I remember when Toys R Us was Bargain Town and they carried all the Romper Room toys. I'm old :/

Is there a place on line people can purchase toys?