Toys R US Sold for $6.6 Billion

[xstoys]

You can read more here:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/17/news/fortu...dex.htm?cnn=yes

[1 VF-1 2NV]

Alright. Let the speculation begin. I personally think many Toysrus stores will be shuttered and resold. The land that these stores are sitting on are valuable depending its location. The babysrus won't be affected greatly since most are profitable.

Does this mean we will see more buy 2 get 1 free sales or liquidating specials . Too bad, Toysrus is one of my favorite stores. Ah the memories as a kid .

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

so what does this mean exactly? does it mean there's not gonna be any more Toys R Us? either way, it was a good place to find those hard-to-find toys and even US versions of many gundam toys. i'll have to go there at the end of the month, just to see what's there...

[zeo-mare]

i heard they were having a hard time competing with Wallmart in prices i cannot figure out why Toys R Us is a store dedicated to toys where as wallmart only has a small section, there is a much better selection of stuff that should have gave them a edge.

chris

[CoryHolmes]

i heard they were having a hard time competing with Wallmart in prices i cannot figure out why Toys R Us is a store dedicated to toys where as wallmart only has a small section, there is a much better selection of stuff that should have gave them a edge.

chris

Walmart and Target have been undercutting their prices for quite some time now, especially during the holiday shopping season.

[Pat Payne]

i heard they were having a hard time competing with Wallmart in prices   i cannot figure out why Toys R Us is a store dedicated to toys where as wallmart only has a small section, there is a much better selection of stuff that should have gave them a edge.

chris

Walmart and Target have been undercutting their prices for quite some time now, especially during the holiday shopping season.

"Wal-Mart: We abuse our employees and act like hypocrites, and pass the savings on to you!"

[mikeszekely]

Ah, to me, Children's Palace was where the real memories were, and Toys R' Us as always been the upstart newcomer. In any case, I didn't shop there often. They did have a nice selection, but I'm really not that into toys (I prefer Best Buy for my toys), and they really weren't priced all that competetively (aside from when they dropped the prices on GBA games... I got Sword of Mana for $10.98, and Aria of Sorrow for $14.98, brand new!).

That said, though, I never buy toys at Wal-Mart. Their selection is, and always has been crap at best. Who cares if it's cheap, it's still crap.

I guess I'll buy most of my toys at Target now. They at least have fair prices and a decent selection.

[mikeszekely]

i heard they were having a hard time competing with Wallmart in prices   i cannot figure out why Toys R Us is a store dedicated to toys where as wallmart only has a small section, there is a much better selection of stuff that should have gave them a edge.

chris

Walmart and Target have been undercutting their prices for quite some time now, especially during the holiday shopping season.

It's not just their toys. They'll do it with a lot of stuff, figuring they might take a loss on something, but you'll probably buy more stuff while you're there. That's why used stuff is such a big part of Gamestop and EB... if they only sold new, they couldn't compete, especially with Target's habit of releasing new games for $37.77. If we (Gamestop) price match, we take a loss, and if we don't, we lose a sale.

[VF Strike Valk]

Even though Target has a smaller selection...they actually have stuff I want. All of my alternators, so far came from Target...except for Tracks...which came from a Taiwan Toys R Us.

[JELEINEN]

I buy most of my toys (LEGO mainly) from Target and TRU. The local Walmart has three, very short aisles for their entire toy dept. It's gotten so that I don't even look there anymore.

[Greyryder]

TRU's biggest problems are that they don't get the new stuff in first, (you would think that the toy store would understand toy waves) they don't advertise, (a mailed flyer every month or two would keep them fresh in people's minds) and they charge exorbitant amounts for their exclusives.

The big chains don't care that toys ship in different waves. If TRU would simply make an effort to get the newest waves in the stores, when they ship, they'd have a huge edge on the big chains. They can't compete price wise, having the newest stuff first is their only hope. Instead, they wait untill their outdated stock has finally sold off, the same way the big chains do.

[Wes]

Any ideas on how to find out about store closings in my area? I wanna get good deals.

[1st Border Red Devil]

Another problem is Toys R Us wont special order items for customers. Of course, neither will Wal-Mart, but it simply drives customers elsewhere, like to online stores. Toys R Us had to learn the hard way that the world is populated by those that adapt.

Sucks to be them, but I ain't gonna shed a tear. Their stores have been suck ass places for years now.

[do not disturb]

ha! whoever bought them got robbed!

TRU has been sucking balls for a while now. the real problem with keeping a toy store profitable is, kids aren't into toys like they used to be. yeah, of course kids like toys, but since the invention of the console gaming unit, thats where all the money goes. everytime i walk into a toy store, the gaming section seems to get the most traffic. also keep in mind, that the parents buying this stuff will also play the games as well and they'll continue to buy games for themselves and their kids.

IMHO, the only way the toy market will take a turn for the better is if someone creates a new stir in the cartoon community and builds a toy line to push the name brand. no pokemon BS, no yugi-o crap, little playing cards are only profitable for so long. i mean like a cool freakin cartoon with fresh vehicles...GI joe-esque type stuff. and it can't be just one cartoon, they need to create a bunch of new cartoons all with a possibility of starting a toy line.

[JELEINEN]

Any ideas on how to find out about store closings in my area? I wanna get good deals.

We probably won't know until after the new owners take control and start working on things. At least, six months, I'd say.

[Graham]

This news doesn't bother me too much. In fact I wouldn't be bothered if TRU closed down and went out of business for good.

I haven't bought a toy or model for myself at TRU in years. I don't know about in the US, but here in HK, the TRU stores are very overpriced and don't stock the sort of toys I like anyway.

The only good thing I'll say about TRU is that their stores have excellent baby sections.

Graham

[Renato]

I bought a 1/48 Super Millia from TRU at Y7,500 just a couple of months ago. Most of the time TRU suck, but there are some god-send deals when you can find them.

[Roy Focker]

This news doesn't bother me too much. In fact I wouldn't be bothered if TRU closed down and went out of business for good.

I haven't bought a toy or model for myself at TRU in years. I don't know about in the US, but here in HK, the TRU stores are very overpriced and don't stock the sort of toys I like anyway.

The only good thing I'll say about TRU is that their stores have excellent baby sections.

Graham

In the US Toys R Us was truly the world's greatest Toy Store in the 80's and early 90's. You walk in and see a mountain of toys. You need a map, light and a canteen to navigate through every section just to get to the section that you wanted (boys action figures of course). Then they started remodeling them to be more open looking, old stuff stayed at high prices and nothing new really came in. The baby section were always great and now when I go into a Toys R Us I see that 80% of it is a baby section.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, I can remember when a TRU was organized in nice long aisles... you had the video games aisle, the gi-joe aisle, one for board games, one for radio controlled cars, one for all the bikes and power-wheels things, one HUGE one for legos, plus the usual SW toys and barbies, sports equipment, etc...

Then one day, all the nice aisles were replaced by a mish-mosh of angled displays, all disorganized, ridiculously set up, and the biggest waste of space I've ever seen. It literally took me half an hour to turn the right corner to find the Legos, cause they were in a weird nook facing away from everything. Ticked me off. I've hardly gone there since. It just got too hard to find anything, and it looked like the whole store had been redesigned by some neo-cubist modern artist.

[Chronocidal]

ACK.. stupid internet.. sorry, double post

Edited March 18, 2005 by Chronocidal

[sidearmsalpha]

Yeah, the new look of the inside of the stores is what pretty much finally got me fed up with going there, too. It doesn't help that I think most US toys and figures just aren't very cool. Aside from some Transformers and Gundams and the occasional Lego Star Wars vehicle, I don't really care for what the US toy market has to offer. It's too bad TRU couldn't import stuff and sell it in their stores. That would be a HUGE draw for me.

[Valk009]

In Hong Kong, Toys R Us are only for suckers or people with deep wallet who could not care less

The last time I popped into one was ages ago and I must say their collection has drastically reduced as how I remembered it when I was young. Basically, they have outdone themselves by expanding too big too fast.

[Gerwalker]

Wait a minute! If Toys RUS close that means that the only "toy stores" (at least in the Boston area) would be KB toys (very small shop!) aside from the small space at Target, K-Mart, Walmart? That sucks big time. (I'm not counting a pair of hippie-like toys stores -i.e. no action figures but wooden non-acation figures)

sad...