A couple of things killed Toysrus for me: being more expensive than their competitors, and the fact that my kids are too old for toys now. That, and the restrictions, on rewards, coupons etc. They didn’t keep up with the competition. It’s a shame, but it’s a sign of our ever changing culture and world.

I truly believe another toy chain with physical stores will eventually surface.

30 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

I truly believe another toy chain with physical stores will eventually surface.

Agree. TRU was killed primarily by the debt Mitt Romney's Bain Capital saddled them with. Without that they ran at a profit. There is still a place for a profitable brick and mortar toy chain in America. 

Edited March 26, 20187 yr by marcandre

1 hour ago, exciter1 said:

I truly believe another toy chain with physical stores will eventually surface.

We can make it a huge warehouse-style layout and call it "The Incredible Circuit-Media-Toy Radio Shack R' Us Play City Universe"

1 minute ago, CosmicSpeed said:

We can make it a huge warehouse-style layout and call it "The Incredible Circuit-Media-Toy Radio Shack R' Us Play City Universe"

I do miss Media Play too.

Customer Service by phone starts at 8 AM EST and when I called on Sunday morning they already were experiencing a higher than normal call volume. So I arranged for the call back option and was called back within about 5 minutes.  I was asking about an order placed on March 17 that hadn't shipped and had gotten the dreaded "if it doesn't ship by 4/25/18 it will be cancelled" email.  The representative I spoke with basically confirmed that it was expected to ship this week, but they've been swamped with orders.

Maybe people might want to consider using some of their discount gc savings to bump up their shipping priority.

Apparently, Lego is out $30M with Toysrus liquidation plan.......

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/toys-r-us-suppliers-payments-liquidation/519771/

 

22 minutes ago, kouks said:

Apparently, Lego is out $30M with Toysrus liquidation plan.......

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/toys-r-us-suppliers-payments-liquidation/519771/

 

Hopefully those groups accounted for this loss of money in their planning for the future...from a different article in 2017.

"Toys R Us owes $14.06 million to Jakks, which last year posted a profit of $1.2 million, making the California-based toy supplier one of more than 100,000 creditors sideswiped by the toy chain’s bankruptcy in the run-up to the all-important holiday season. In total, Toys R Us owes $7.5 billion to a group that includes virtually every major toymaker in the country: Mattel (owed $136 million), Hasbro ($59 million), Spin Master ($33 million), Lego ($32 million), Radio Flyer ($12 million), Crayola ($2.6 million)."

13 minutes ago, kouks said:

Apparently, Lego is out $30M with Toysrus liquidation plan.......

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/toys-r-us-suppliers-payments-liquidation/519771/

 

Ok, incoming bad jokes: 

 

Is that $30 million at RRP or did they add the "above retail TRU tax"?

I heard 50% of the $30 million owed is coming from Jyn Erso buildables.

The amount owed was much less before but too many re-sellers returned those Bricktober mini-modulars.

The amount owed would have been less but TRU misplaced a bunch of polybags inside Megablox tubes.

TRU said they will be fine to pay because they already started selling 2019 sets ahead of launch.

 

3 minutes ago, CosmicSpeed said:

Hopefully those groups accounted for this loss of money in their planning for the future...from a different article in 2017.

"Toys R Us owes $14.06 million to Jakks, which last year posted a profit of $1.2 million, making the California-based toy supplier one of more than 100,000 creditors sideswiped by the toy chain’s bankruptcy in the run-up to the all-important holiday season. In total, Toys R Us owes $7.5 billion to a group that includes virtually every major toymaker in the country: Mattel (owed $136 million), Hasbro ($59 million), Spin Master ($33 million), Lego ($32 million), Radio Flyer ($12 million), Crayola ($2.6 million)."

Mattel's amount makes Lego's look like pocket change. Why on earth did Mattel and Hasbro extend TRU that large of a credit limit. I work in finance for a medium sized company and our customers have hard credit limits. When they hit their limit they are cut off. You need more product? Sucks to be you. Pay us our money to get under your limit and you get more product.  

Same reason we keep lending that one cousin money even though he had to borrow some last month and he’s using your old work car because his broke down. He will get his act together some day soon and then he will pay you back twice what he owes you, promise! And he will mow your lawn all summer and shovel the driveway in the winter!

I'm sure Mattel and Hasbro have already been discounting their credit to TRU to lessen the impact on their financials, but it's going to hurt them more because there isn't a retailer that can take their place right now.  The toy business is going to shrink and I can see the merger talks heating up again between the two.

Hey, my local TRU just made the news because one of the employees was arrested after a 4-year investigation, started at the request of TRU, that he had embezzled $100,000+ worth of inventory and sold it on eBay since 2014.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Ex-Toys-R-Us-Worker-Accused-of-Stealing-Toy-Selling-Them-Online-477937643.html

Never saw this guy.  

21 minutes ago, hockeyweasel said:

Hey, my local TRU just made the news because one of the employees was arrested after a 4-year investigation, started at the request of TRU, that he had embezzled $100,000+ worth of inventory and sold it on eBay since 2014.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Ex-Toys-R-Us-Worker-Accused-of-Stealing-Toy-Selling-Them-Online-477937643.html

Never saw this guy.  

That's pretty amazing.

1 hour ago, hockeyweasel said:

Hey, my local TRU just made the news because one of the employees was arrested after a 4-year investigation, started at the request of TRU, that he had embezzled $100,000+ worth of inventory and sold it on eBay since 2014.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Ex-Toys-R-Us-Worker-Accused-of-Stealing-Toy-Selling-Them-Online-477937643.html

Never saw this guy.  

If only he could of slide under the radar for a few more months . . .

1 hour ago, Mark Twain said:

If only he could of slide under the radar for a few more months . . .

Probably got super aggressive stealing 5x more stuff than usual after finding out TRU will close all stores.

Sad to see them go, but I believe in Business Dawinism. 
I just hope all these going out of business revenue is going towards employee's paychecks & TRU's creditors and not to line the pockets of the top officer's "Bonus".

4 hours ago, hockeyweasel said:

Hey, my local TRU just made the news because one of the employees was arrested after a 4-year investigation, started at the request of TRU, that he had embezzled $100,000+ worth of inventory and sold it on eBay since 2014.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Ex-Toys-R-Us-Worker-Accused-of-Stealing-Toy-Selling-Them-Online-477937643.html

Never saw this guy.  

I don't see why TRU has a problem with this guy. He learned this technique from them.  Check the TRU warehouses, they have millions of dollars of products they haven't paid for either. 

I've never heard of TRU having any loss prevention (which mainly exists not for shoplifters but employee theft).  I have no doubt they have been taken for years by some employees, and many employees made their own "severance Package" by taking whatever they want.  

In my Cardpool issue - they issued a full refund.

I’d suggest if you still have weird GC amounts that you bought from them, check online to see if you can use it. .com will tell you when you try to order whether it’s a merch return card.

If it is, get your money back now. April 15 is fast approaching and I’m sure Cardpool would rather stick you with the loss than take it themselves.

21 hours ago, jbacunn said:

Mattel's amount makes Lego's look like pocket change. Why on earth did Mattel and Hasbro extend TRU that large of a credit limit. I work in finance for a medium sized company and our customers have hard credit limits. When they hit their limit they are cut off. You need more product? Sucks to be you. Pay us our money to get under your limit and you get more product.  

Simple answer...because more than any other toy companies, those two needed TRU to be their "showroom."  I wouldn't be surprised if these companies also help resurrect TRU in some fashion.

Made a purchase the day before you could not use your rewards money. Just got a survey request in an email telling me to fill out for a chance to win a 500$ GC. LoL

Edited March 27, 20187 yr by rcdb1984

 

39 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

Simple answer...because more than any other toy companies, those two needed TRU to be their "showroom."  I wouldn't be surprised if these companies also help resurrect TRU in some fashion.

Agree.  It is/was in each toy company's best interest for TRU to survive.  Not extending any credit would have immediately secured TRU's demise.  Losing ~10% of sales hurts the main players to the tune of $350-500 Million.  Not all of that $ will shift to other retailers.  And it concentrates more power in fewer retailers which further squeezes toy margins.  Will be great case study to see how Mattel, Hasbro and Lego evolve in next 3-5 years.  Hasbro appears to have the best current strategy though it still hasn't fully figured out its place in such a volatile industry.

Good news

2 hours ago, trstnkn said:

 

Agree.  It is/was in each toy company's best interest for TRU to survive.  Not extending any credit would have immediately secured TRU's demise.  Losing ~10% of sales hurts the main players to the tune of $350-500 Million.  Not all of that $ will shift to other retailers.  And it concentrates more power in fewer retailers which further squeezes toy margins.  Will be great case study to see how Mattel, Hasbro and Lego evolve in next 3-5 years.  Hasbro appears to have the best current strategy though it still hasn't fully figured out its place in such a volatile industry.

LEGO is going to have a hard time of it I'm afraid.  You don't lose approximately 1000 retail LEGO "showrooms" across the USA and not have it affect both short and long term sales.  The rest of the TRUs across the world will soon follow their American counterparts.  

I know some might laugh at my idea, but I though it would have been prudent of LEGO to help TRU with its debt.  The money LEGO will lose from this over the next decade or more will pale in comparison IMO.  They are already 30 million in the hole.

1 hour ago, thombockerman said:

Good news

That is what you call "temp workers."