Toys R' Us Bankruptcy - RIP June 29, 2018, or coming back ???

[Skywalker(OG)Kush]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

I've always found this point of view to be odd, but If you've never worked retail then maybe you wouldn't understand. You get "Walmart type customer service" at most retail stores because the majority of these greedy companies don't pay their employees s**t. Lots of the jobs their are very labor intensive too, I'm not saying everyone in retail has it bad but a lot do. There's no incentive for people to care when your busting your ass and barely make $8 dollars an hour, especially when you deal with rude ignorant people all day long.

That was the flaw in thier businese model, they charged top dollar for products but paid thier employees ****, so customers recieved ****** service from employees that didnt care because they werent paid enough to care. Nordstroms pays their employees well, and it shows thier sutomer service is top notch so i dont mind paying a bit more for thier products, because the service I recieved more then made up for it. If a company expects me to pay more then msrp they better have good customer service, if i walk into a store and get absolutely no help or the employees are rude and lazy i wont really care if its pricing is comparable to walmart. I dont mind getting no service, i shop at walmart on occassion, i have no issues finding **** myself when im shopping at a discount store but to pay premium prices for the kind of service toys r us offered was not cool

 

[FriendlySamurai]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Kind of sad just because its an icon. A trip to Toys R Us when you were a little kid was like the be all end all of your existence.

 

[karamazov80]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Yeah, I don't know that bad retail behavior is something you should blame on customers. Your job in retail (which I did for awhile, as well as waiting tables--hated both) is to service clients and make them walk away feeling they have received decent service. If the TRU salaries and benefits, management structure, culture, or something else aren't contributing to the customers being satisfied, then that's a problem the TRU corporate needs to address if they want to compete with something as easy to use as Amazon and other websites.

Chick Fil A and Raising Caine's chicken are two restaurants where, no matter where I've been, the employees do a great job, the facilities are clean and organized, and customers never have much to complain about. If I walk across the street to Burger King, it's the opposite story. I don't know what all the differences are between these places, but it's a free market, and these things affect competitiveness. Toys R Us don't have brick and mortar competitors, but they have competitors. And frankly, I avoid TRU like the plague, because I know going in that I'm going to get crap service. I've walked out on more than one occasion waiting for people who didn't give a **** if I got what I needed or not.

 

[Pro Design]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

to me from reading the info available, i'd say it's safe for you guys that are tru fans... it sounds more like a restructuring of debt move vs. closing. don't think we'll actually see many if any stores closing. they've already stated people aren't loosing their jobs, gift cards are fine and don't loose any value, stores aren't closing etc... this sort of thing happens all the time. ABC liquor, Boston Market, etc... bankruptcy doesn't always mean going out of business and closing.

 

[karamazov80]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Not immediately, but they are in severe debt for a reason. Unless something from up on high can really change consumer behavior toward TRU, then they eventually will go under. Just restructuring debt and maintaining the status quo won't allow them to pay off that debt.

 

[Skywalker(OG)Kush]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

to me from reading the info available, i'd say it's safe for you guys that are tru fans... it sounds more like a restructuring of debt move vs. closing. don't think we'll actually see many if any stores closing. they've already stated people aren't loosing their jobs, gift cards are fine and don't loose any value, stores aren't closing etc... this sort of thing happens all the time. ABC liquor, Boston Market, etc... bankruptcy doesn't always mean going out of business and closing.

They should go out of business, restructuring debt isnt going to solve their problems. Lowering prices or paying employees to serve thier customers better will be the only long term solution. If they dont plan on doing either, all this is doing is delaying the inevitible, in fact I wouldnt put it past them to raise prices even higher in a futile attempt to make up for these restructuring losses

 

[karamazov80]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

As much as I've been complaining here, I'm not sure the best customer service on the planet would be enough to combat Amazon.com. But in a way, if they do go out of business, then it would be the end of a pretty major era. When I was a kid, I loved nothing more than going to the toy store and looking for a certain GI Joe or whatever. I had dreams about it, and still sometimes do. Kids today won't have those experiences. But then, even if they stay in business, kids today still don't have the relationship with toy stores that many of us did, given their relationships with electronic devices.

 

[Khev]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Well there's still Target, Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc. TRU going under doesn't exactly signify the end of brick and mortar toy purchases. Hell even when I temporarily collected ROTS figures 12 years ago the only time I'd ever venture into a TRU was if they had an exclusive or something.

Even as a kid most of my action figure purchases were off the toy pegs of the local grocery store. Every once in a while I'd get to visit the motherload by going to a Sears or K-Mart or something. I remember the TRU TV commercials and silly jingle more than any fond experiences of the store itself.

I rarely had enough cash to buy myself toys anyway so if it wasn't birthday or Christmas time I just lived vicariously through the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, lol.

 

[Skywalker(OG)Kush]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Well there's still Target, Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc. TRU going under doesn't exactly signify the end of brick and mortar toy purchases. Hell even when I temporarily collected ROTS figures 12 years ago the only time I'd ever venture into a TRU was if they had an exclusive or something.

Even as a kid most of my action figure purchases were off the toy pegs of the local grocery store. Every once in a while I'd get to visit the motherload by going to a Sears or K-Mart or something. I remember the TRU TV commercials and silly jingle more than any fond experiences of the store itself.

I rarely had enough cash to by myself toys anyway so if it wasn't birthday or Christmas time I just lived vicariously through the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, lol.

Yup.. when i was kid i loved going to toysrus but unfortunately every time i went i left disappointed because my parents never bought me much from there. As i got older i understood why, they were just as overpriced then as they are now. But my parents were sneaky they would take me to toys r us to see the stuff i liked then they would go to target or other retailers to buy the stuff for me for xmas or my birthday. Nothing has really changed in the last 30 years or so i assume, parents probably still do this.. which is why you see so many kids throwing temper tantrums in toy r us...

 

[Captain Clown]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Is NECA's business really that dependent on TRU? I mean hey, if they stopped doing what they're doing, maybe more high-end companies would get in on the licenses they hold. And, you know, put out figures whose joints don't snap just by looking at them.

Aside from that, don't think I'll be missing TRU. I visit the store maybe a couple times a year to kill time, see what they're carrying. Rarely am I ever impressed.

Go! Games & Toys and FYE get a lot of NECA stuff. I'll probably start going there instead.

 

[Rudimus]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

On a totally side note I actually worked part time at a TRU way back in the early 90's. I basically unloaded trucks in the back and built bikes and things. One very strict rule that they had at the time was that we were to *never* pull something out of a box from the back if a customer on the floor asked us to hunt around for something. We had to give a canned "everything available is currently on the floor, we don't know what's in the sealed boxes until we open them after hours, bla bla bla" type response.

However I could never resist a little kid coming up and asking if we had any Gambit figures (they were always quickly snatched off the pegs) back when X-Men figures were hot at the time (I'm assuming that's when the cartoon series was popular as well.) I always knew where the X-Men figures were in the back and honestly it was probably the high point of working there to be able to tell some kid "dude, I gotcha covered" and then come back with a shiny carded Gambit figure. The "Oh my gosh, YESS!!! Mom, Dad, they had him!!!" made it all worth it, lol.

I always remembered how it made my day back in 1983 when a lady who worked at Sears went and grabbed me a Biker Scout figure from a closed drawer hidden away from the pegs so it was cool to be able to pay it forward for a new generation.

But how did you treat your fellow adult toy collectors? haha just kidding, cool story man. Usually the best reward in customer service is making somebody else happy.

 

[Khev]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

But how did you treat your fellow adult toy collectors?

Honestly they didn't really exist at the time. That was before the SW renaissance, online stores, ebay, etc. Just little kara coming in to ask for his X-Men figures.

 

[Rudimus]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Honestly they didn't really exist at the time. That was before the SW renaissance, online stores, ebay, etc. Just little kara coming in to ask for his X-Men figures.

Ok gotcha. I started working right around the Star Wars resurgence in the mid '90s, it was a good time hunting for toys back then.

 

[DiFabio]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

It's Chapter 11, they'll be fine for a bit. They're definitely going to die eventually though, which sucks.

 

[karamazov80]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Getting toys at Wal-Mart was never the same as going to tru, Lionels playworld, or children's palace for me. But the times they are a changin.

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[Khev]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Getting toys at Wal-Mart was never the same as going to tru, Lionels playworld, or children's palace for me. But the times they are a changin.

For a time there was Kaybee Toys in malls before they too went belly up. I miss Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Booksellers too.

 

[ReplicantSavior]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

I remember when Toys R Us was popular. That was the place to go for the majority of toys. There was one or perhaps another store where I picked up the rare or maybe popular Japanese anime type toy like Voltron and Robotech. But for everything else it was mostly Toys R Us. Many of those old toys I rediscovered in an old thread here:

https://www.sideshowcollectors.com/...igures/69948-vintage-collectibles-thread.html

Also, I just started a where did you buy your vintage toys and games thread after the news of Toys R Us.

https://www.sideshowcollectors.com/...3793-vintage-figures-toys-videogames-kid.html

This is really bad but not unexpected. I think only one or perhaps two of the Toys R Us stores that I used to go when I was a kid still exist. The last time I went to Toys R Us was around the Star Wars Prequel period. Maybe 2002 Attack of the Clones time. I remember going every week or so to look for the new Jedi figures. But they were never there. Some eBay sellers had them online but I wanted to see them and not pay a premium. The Toys R Us representatives didn't know when they would get them. I even caught a Hasbro representative in store on a few occasions and they didn't know and told me to keep checking. How can a Hasbro representative not know I thought back then. And how crazy is it that the biggest toy store doesn't stock the newest figures and small eBay sellers have them? Guess where I ended up finding the new figures by chance? Target. I hated the Target setup and was only there for something else but I thought let me check and there they were. In a small, messy aisle with no one around. Nothing like the days of kids always looking for the newest releases.

I don't get small figures anymore, Hot Toys stopped that, but that Star Wars experience told me everything about modern Toys R Us. The experience was similar for videogames as well. The games used to be well displayed with tickets in long walking areas. They changed that to a small corner area in the last Toys R Us I visited. Which was around the XBox or end of Dreamcast days. Sad days but Toys R Us stopped doing what made them successful. And these days people are all about the lowest price and ease of purchase. So that means big discount retailers and home delivery.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

It was always KB or Toys R Us

 

[Ropen]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

Cable TV will soon go the way of the dinosaurs. But the monopoly that so many cable companies have finagled over provision of internet service will easily offset that. And the movement of the current administration regarding net neutrality is only going to magnify those problems.

Cable is not going amywhere...

It's Chapter 11, they'll be fine for a bit. They're definitely going to die eventually though, which sucks.

Thats what I am saying, the reason they are filing for bankruptcy is because of the previous restructuring and former debt they had from a previous buyout, they actually make 500million in earnings.

As i become a vintage collector i noticed toys r us is the place to go for good collector pieces, granted i visit them everyweek, but still nothing will ever top their rewards r us program, ever. Online doesnt give you 20 dollars off because my transformers masterpiece mpm04 box from the factory arrived open.

Screw online retailers many of you dont know this but on hot ticketed items bots purchase inventory and start the whole scalping process.


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[potato]

Re: Toys R' Us Files for Bankruptcy!

It's Chapter 11, they'll be fine for a bit. They're definitely going to die eventually though, which sucks.

well Takata lasted quite a few years with all those liabilities & suitcases.