OT: Toys R Us Closing all US Stores
"The company confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that Chief Executive Dave Brandon had shared the news with employees in a conference call. A spokeswoman for Toys R Us told The Record that Brandon told employees it was a sad day and that customers and others would be sad to see the brand disappear."
March 15th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^
I'd have done it for half price.
Like more than once.
I know, right?!
And that giraffe.
Couldn’t afford that place when I was a kid, wouldn’t waste my money there as an adult.
IBD BTW
March 15th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
homeless people."
Almost the opposite. They're creating them.
Few work at horse and buggy stores now either. Called transition.
March 15th, 2018 at 12:42 PM ^
and provide medical care for their families for this transition right, H.G. Pennypacker?
It's already dead. Just stop.
that talked about the downfall of Toys R us without the Dave Brandon Mentioning found it interesting.
is fading away on the store side - online will drive most of them out of business
Yes, Amazon (and before them Walmart) is killing everyone on price, but many of the corporate bankruptcies happen after a private equity firm bleeds the company dry.
If Toys R US didn't take on such a massive amount of debt to enrich its corporate masters, they would have been much better able to compete on price. Hell, many of their stores have been there long enough that they probably own the real estate they sit on outright.
Bain and KKR are both well known for bleeding companies dry. With TRU, they even brought along a real estate company! They leveraged heavily to buy in, and bled everything they could get out of it. Now they get rid of it in bankruptcy without actually losing out on the 'investment'.
You'd think they would have problems getting loans in the future for other 'investments', but they won't. The bankruptcy, and leaving thier lenders dry, won't hurt at all. They'll end up providing a loan to some other 'investment' firm that will bleed out some other sad sack company, and the cycle will repeat itself.
BTW, if you work for a company that Dave Brandon takes over, start betting large amounts on its future bankruptcy. It's what Brandon does, and he's good at it.
March 15th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
and accurate a take as we're likely to get here. Everyone have a good day.
March 15th, 2018 at 11:33 AM ^
Please Dave, be the Ohio State AD.
Please Dave, be the Ohio State AD.
Please Dave, be the Ohio State AD.
Funny its day?! It is STILL funny today.
March 15th, 2018 at 10:18 AM ^
part of yet another Happily Ever After.....
It is for him. Probably getting a golden parachute, just like at Michigan
possible solution--Brandon stays on as CEO, orchestrates sale of all Toys R Us locations in the continental US to Arizona State University, creating a network of nationwide satellite campuses/internet cafes where you have to pay to access websites that aren't ASU online. Everybody wins, but the real winner is the American dream.
March 15th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^
I guess the buy two cokes and get a free slip n slide promotion didn't work.
March 15th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
It was an hour away in GR, so we rarely went, but the local Meijers only had two or three aisles of toys, where toys r us had a whole aisle of star wars toys alone. Such a crazy experience as a child.
When I've been in them lately, they always seemed like they looked like they day after black friday, except it was just a normal random day. Stuff everywhere, packaging of toys destroyed. It looks like Bain bought in just to destroy the place.
March 15th, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
Agreed.
They have, in fact, been going out of business for the last decade.
At least they have been acting like it.
March 15th, 2018 at 11:39 AM ^
March 15th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
This is the "creative destruction" of free enterprise.
Let's not forget, Toys R Us itself put a lot of mom and pop toy stores out of business.
They weren't "evil" for doing that, they had a better business model that people liked. And it made them successful.
Now people like Amazon.
Believe it or not, there will be a day when Amazon's time is done. That's how it works.
I remember when K-Mart was the 800 lb. gorilla and could never ever be stopped. Until it was.
Your grandparents remember when it was Sears.
And so on.