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Toys R Us closing all 800+ US stores


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1 hour ago, bigvis497 said:

They say they won't be closing stores but I have no idea how that works in any form of reality. 

 

They'd be stupid to announce store closings before the end of 4Q. Stores will have to close just not until 2018. I heard this morning up to 100,000 jobs could be lost.

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Well... to be honest, I haven't bought more than a handful of non-minimate items from TRU in ages. If they dropped minimates, I'm not sure I'd even poke my head in the door anymore.

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The 4th quarter holiday season will most likely what makes or breaks them, at least for the short term. If they can get decent sales numbers and their profit up I think they'll be able to get through next year. But make no mistake, there will be store closings. Maybe not widespread, at least at first, but they HAVE to cut their overhead down if they want to be profitable. Poor performing stores will be shuttered and I'd look for separate TRU and BRU stores to combine in some locations.

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While I agree this will eventually have some effect on stores, it's very little about TRU's inability to operate, their myriad of issues at the retail level or any of the such. They got caught up in bad investments and huge amounts of debt from Bain Capital and places like that. It's not because there's a bunch of low performing stores. And ultimately closing stores isn't going to help them get out of debt. They will probably slim down the less profitable ones, but their debt has been holding them back for ages, not necessarily sales. Obviously all these things play a factor but this has far less to do with Amazon and Walmart and much more to do with Wallstreet.

Edited by SCW
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4 hours ago, bigvis497 said:

The reorganization success rate coming out of chapter eleven is only about 10% but they will at least buy themselves time. They say they won't be closing stores but I have no idea how that works in any form of reality. I would expect at least 50 US stores closings announced within a year. Foreign sales have been down too but I'm not as familiar with that aspect of their operations. I don't think TRU is alone here, retail in general feels like the next dot com bubble.

They're going to have to re-evaluate their relationships with their vendors.

They're going to have to completely overhaul how they approach online retail. Not just "I can't order the Minimates I want" but a ground-up restructuring of how they approach inventory in general.

I wouldn't be surprised to see them merger with someone who wants a bigger presence in baby furniture. Like.....Walmart?  

4th quarter will be interesting for obvious reasons. That's going to be make it or break it time and we'll have a much better picture of their future at that time.

For context, the mark-up in Australian stores is ENOURMOUS. I went in to browse their Marvel Legends figures the other day. The Dark Phoenix/Cyclops 2-pack is $80.00.
Despite the difference in the value of the US$ and the AU$. That is a BIG chunk out of a persons weekly wages. Prices at Australian TRU stores are generally like this. On top of that, Australian stores don't do mark-downs the way the US seems to. When a toy has been opened and had parts removed, or is replaced with a newer line, TRU will discount the product by 20%... maybe up to 35% at the most. There are no 1/2 price sales to help clear out all stock. That stuff tends to just sit on shelves for months. Sometimes years.
While I love having a store here dedicated to selling toys, I'm a bit surprised that TRU are still going strong. Perhaps we're just a very different toy buying market to the US.

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Foreign sales are completely unimportant in this. Only North American TRU has filed for bankruptcy, that's just US and Canadian Toys R Us. Apparently all international TRU is fine.

I find the whole "TRU hates black people" argument a bit odd. It's not like TRU controls how many black Barbies or action figures are made or how many they order. Seems like just another excuse to pile on a failing company. There wasn't one concrete example in that article, that I could find. Heck, when there was that brief "urban toy movement" in the 90s TRU was about the only place you could find Sun Man and other Olmec toys like the Bronze Bombers and MLK. 

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I gave the article a read and it ended up putting blame on TRU for a lot of things out of their hands. When I walk into TRU I see all kinds of diversity in customers, signage, marketing material, everything. Complaining about the lack of ethnic action figures (less of a problem in the girls/dolls section from what Iv'e seen, but maybe I'm wrong) and saying its the retailers fault is ridiculous. Falcon is your only black action figure you can find? Blame the toy companies that don't offer that diversity. Limited diversity of licensed products falls to the source material. Most of the movie based product lacking diverse products is more a result of Hollywood money not diversifying their products. Hasbro made a few Finn figures from star wars and on multiple occasions now have been hit by backlash for their exclusion of women products based off the idea that kids wont buy female (or ethnic) action figures as much as white male figures. Mattel spent a long time not diversifying their dolls for girls, and their Barbie dolls are still bad at doing so. Referring to a toy store as having been a "horrific bombardment of white supremacy and exclusion for black children, and the sooner folks take their shopping online and to other outlets, the better off and healthier we’ll all be." is ridiculous. The whitest thing about any TRU is the tile and the walls.

But maybe can restructure and attract more black kids.

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1 hour ago, arnim zola said:

I gave the article a read and it ended up putting blame on TRU for a lot of things out of their hands. When I walk into TRU I see all kinds of diversity in customers, signage, marketing material, everything. Complaining about the lack of ethnic action figures (less of a problem in the girls/dolls section from what Iv'e seen, but maybe I'm wrong) and saying its the retailers fault is ridiculous. Falcon is your only black action figure you can find? Blame the toy companies that don't offer that diversity. Limited diversity of licensed products falls to the source material. Most of the movie based product lacking diverse products is more a result of Hollywood money not diversifying their products. Hasbro made a few Finn figures from star wars and on multiple occasions now have been hit by backlash for their exclusion of women products based off the idea that kids wont buy female (or ethnic) action figures as much as white male figures. Mattel spent a long time not diversifying their dolls for girls, and their Barbie dolls are still bad at doing so. Referring to a toy store as having been a "horrific bombardment of white supremacy and exclusion for black children, and the sooner folks take their shopping online and to other outlets, the better off and healthier we’ll all be." is ridiculous. The whitest thing about any TRU is the tile and the walls.

well said!

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Not to speak for Zach, but I assume he meant that if the line does well, perhaps that will make manufactures and movie companies, to continue to put out more black characters/lines/movies, etc. If Black Panther helps to bust the "myth" that these toys don't sell. 

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It's not just toys. My company makes product for sale at TRU and we've no plans for Black Panther at all. For what it's worth we didn't do anything for Doctor Strange either. 

 

I do hope Black Panther product sells well. From what I've seen in the style guides there's only one white dude of any significance in the picture. The graphic designs are brilliant so apparel should move. However, I can see little white boys in certain U.S. regions having trouble running around with toy masks pretending to be "Black Panther."

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Walgreens is apparently increasing their Minimates quantities by offering more than exclusive assortments based on animated series. That's a big vote of confidence in the brand from their toy buyer. And Walgreens is set to gobble up half of Rite-Aid stores so they're only growing in marketshare.

 

I might complain about the low number of Walgreens locations in my area but as it stands now, I have more of those than TRU stores. Add in all the Rite-Aid locations that might rebrand to Walgreens and carry Minimates and things are looking up for DST.

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13 hours ago, Mattallica said:

is this supposed to be a joke?

No. We are making a Black Panther action figure, multiple PVC statues, and a line of Minimates that is at comic shops, Toys"R"Us and Walgreens. Most of the cast is black, and three of our Minimates are of black women. Only Klaue and Martin Freeman's character are white, at least as far as our toy line goes. So not only do I hope it does well for us, I hope our line and Hasbro's are appealing to boys and girls of all races, and show retailers that toys of Africans (and by extension African-Americans) can sell, thereby leading to more of such products on shelves.

We also made Minimates and a PVC for Luke Cage, but neither was at TRU, if I recall correctly. Our Thor: Ragnarok Valkyrie and Heimdall Minimates will be at TRU, but not the Valkyrie PVC we're doing. But hopefully specialty sales of these products lead to more confidence at comic shops, as well.

Hey, I just realized that Smeagol AND Bilbo Baggins are in Black Panther! Two Hobbitses!

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1 hour ago, MisterPL said:

Walgreens is apparently increasing their Minimates quantities by offering more than exclusive assortments based on animated series. That's a big vote of confidence in the brand from their toy buyer. And Walgreens is set to gobble up half of Rite-Aid stores so they're only growing in marketshare.

 

I might complain about the low number of Walgreens locations in my area but as it stands now, I have more of those than TRU stores. Add in all the Rite-Aid locations that might rebrand to Walgreens and carry Minimates and things are looking up for DST.

Yeah, my closest Walgreens is about an hour away. Same with TRU and any comic shop that might have Minimates.

Very frustrating. >:( 

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Still waiting on that meta moment of Ross with Dr. Strange interaction too.

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