m_go_T

March 8th, 2018 at 5:35 PM ^

but its also kind of great that Dave Brandon failed so miserably. I recall reading that when he would go to UM Football related events prior to getting the AD job, he would introduce himself as "Dave Brandon, All-American...in business." 

It is sad to see Geoffry the Girrafe go though 

pdgoblue25

March 9th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^

Rather than grab an Uber?  Give me a break.  When I was in Amsterdam we took a cab from the airport because it was right there.  We took an Uber back to the airport when we left for half the price.

I feel bad for the people who will lose their jobs, I feel bad seeing a name go away that brought me so much joy in my youth.  However, something better came along, and Toys R Us didn't find a good enough answer for it.  Unfortunately that's how this stuff works.

The Harbaughnger

March 8th, 2018 at 10:07 PM ^

This is the thing- you have two paths: Sustain your existence by innovating for tomorrow's customer, or simply accept that someone else will replace your existence by innovating for tomorrow's customer.  Either way, it's your choice, and the people that lose jobs to 'evil' big business still have to own their decision to remain at the businesses built to serve yesterday's customer.

I understand the personal feelings associated with it, but the very logical framework used to justify blame and anger towards the big businesses, could have been used to justify blame and anger towards whatever businesses the mom & pops outmoded.

Zoom out...it's all the same, and the winners are the one's like Bezos who saw enough of the bigger picture to realize that the Toys R Us's of the world were basically begging to become obsolete the moment someone else figured out a better way.

So...blame Amazon?  Or blame the lazy minds leading yesterday's business models?

I blame the latter, even if I'm one of the ones getting paid by said lazy minds- it was my choice to stay too long.

I mean, come on- If it wasn’t Walmart, it would have been some other retailer.  If it wasn’t Amazon, it would have been some other massive company.  The only common denominator in every ‘they took our jobs’ scenario, is the crusty business model.

Two fitting quotes:

"If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more." -Eric Shinseki

"I do not believe you can do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow." H. Nelson Jackson

Navy Wolverine

March 8th, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^

Their fate was probably sealed with the Leveraged Buy Out back in 2005 which loaded the company with massive debt that they could never dig out of. We all hold a lot of disdain for Brandon but the guy probably never had a chance; probably should have never taken the gig if his goal was to rebuild his reputation after his debacle at U-M and poor performance at Dominos.

I can see how Toys R Us struggles to compete against Target and Amazon but always thought Babys R Us did pretty good business. My wife and I went there all the time when our kids were born.

Tater

March 9th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^

Brandon almost killed Domino's.  He almost killed the University of Michigan athletic department.  Finally, on his third try, he "succeeded."  He killed Toys R Us.  

I know there were plenty of outside factors, but when everything falls down around an executive everywhere he goes, sometimes you have to hold that executive at least partially responsible for the outcomes.

Bodogblog

March 8th, 2018 at 5:15 PM ^

Easy to lol at this, especially around here with Brandon. But this company is dead and has no future, therefore the execs have no future there. They do have options, however, so in order to incentivize them to stay, bonuses are sometimes needed. Everyone walking away would make an even bigger mess of things.

It's worse when the execs drive the business into the ground. Not really true here, they were attempting to revive it.

UMmasotta

March 8th, 2018 at 6:03 PM ^

The most surprising thing to me is that the entire US operations may end up in liquidation. I get that it's a bad situation, but I have to think there is some part of the business that's worth something. 

That probably falls more on the advisors and lawyers negotiating the reorganization than it does the executives running the company. 

rainingmaize

March 8th, 2018 at 5:44 PM ^

Yea, people like Brandon are greedy assholes, but money isn't everything to them. What is important to them is preceived power, ego, and social standing. For example, Dave Brandon once took a massive paycut to become the Michigan AD. This is the same guy that had the nerve to chop down the nets in the NCAA tourney. I would imagine the fact that Brandon now knows that he failed at his past two positions is more damaging in his mind than loss of money.