What will be the Impact of Toys-R-Us?

[retro junkie]

This is it! No more Toys-R-Us! The last toy store closes its doors!
I remember driving from Kentucky to Tennessee and purchasing my Turbo Graphic 16 from a Toys-R-Us. That is where I purchased a majority of its games. I purchased my Turbo Express,  Neo Pocket Color, PS1, Saturn, and my Dreamcast from the same store. All but a few of my Dreamcast games came from that store. My Daughter grew up visiting that store every weekend as we would drive to that area to eat out. Presently we would visit that store looking for collectible figurines.

It is very obvious that not enough of us were purchasing from the store for them to make a profit. But as the announcement of the store's complete closure was realized, stocks to major toy companies fell.

What impact will this have on the industry as a whole? Will there be a toy war, example Walmart, for store shelves? Will there now be limited toy lines?

[BLUEVOODU]

I'm hoping this isn't the start of a new trend ... and the closing of many different store brands.

We already have issues with Sears / Kmart.   We lost many HH Gregg's - or all of them.

Some companies that were hurting have benefited - IE Best Buy really benefited.   I guess because of mistakes made at Toys R' Us... there are opportunities for others to fill the void.  But it won't look the same way as Toys R' US did.

I could tell something was wrong for the last few years because when you went into a Toys R Us... the vibe was different, less employees, R Zone (if it was still called that) lacked and didn't have anyone staffed over there.   It is a bit sad... I really liked going there... surfing the Nerf gun and Lego Isles... and then heading over to the Video Game Isles.

Not sure of the overall impact yet... but some one will have to step in and fill the void.

[targetrasp]

too little too late on the online sales front.

When they started trying to sell online the sight was atrocious and nothing worked right.

I think this trend of brick and mortar retailers shuttering will continue until the online shopping trend changes (and it may not). Small, high touch boutique retailers will probably gobble up the small niche left for those looking for personal service but lets be honest. Any big box retailer has nipped costs so much that you might as well be shopping online. When's the last time someone at home depot or Lowes offered their assistance? When was there a manned video game counter in a toys r us? The only benefit left is being able to physically hold the box or getting your item same day. Even same day service has turned into a problem. When my washing machine broke I walked into best buy asking what I could leave with that day... there was nothing. It'd take 2 days to have something shipped to the story. The kid wants this crazy huge lego set, chances are it has to be ordered. Retailers have screwed themselves

[BLUEVOODU]

I don't think the shopping trend will change ... though it should in some ways.  What I've been noticing here... micro communities within a city will have a small block of small business stores.  Some do online business and some don't.   They've been chipping away at the big retailers - almost a reversal from what Walmart was doing.  In some ways, they are a big part of the future... but most are coffee shops with art stores/ galleries, Organic groceries, geek topic molded chocolate...etc.  This is not something that would work well for mass produced toys... but for works well for custom artist's toys.

The church we attend puts on a free event for anyone and everyone.  Beer tents are setup outside (good Lutheran beverages LOL)... And for a few hours during the day, the police close off the street and there is a huge block party.  It's quite awesome.   They have local music talents... anyone from highschool to local performing artists.  Some of them are EXTREMELY good.  But the point is... anyone and everyone are welcome to come and have fun.

We purposely shop at and spend money locally AND online.   When I closed down my shop... I cannot tell you the number of people that told me how much I (and the store) was going to be missed.   But at the same time...  some purchased and it help, others didn't... but we discussed many things.

Bottom line.. if you want to see something stay around... make sure to do business with them.

[targetrasp]

Ever since I've lived in this town I've watched shop after shop come and go. They'd be the hottest thing out for a year or so then they'd slowly die off. Businesses like Starbucks would come in a buy up all the small coffee shops but at some point a small faction of caffeine junkies revolted and started supporting the little places where the baristas could do cool designs with the frothed milk.

Now that micro brews are huge, the big guys are coming in to get back their market share.. Sierra Nevada just opened an east coast brewery 10 minutes from me, and one of the best local breweries just got purchased by Anheuser-Bush.

I really don't know what point I'm trying to make other than it seems like the small guy is almost always bought out or run out of business by the bigger guy, who in turn creates some sort of backlash that brings out a more refined version on the little guy that costs too much so we're back to square one buying PBR from Wal Mart.

posting at 1:21 AM is a bad idea

[BLUEVOODU]

I get what you're saying.

Sometimes it's costs a bit more to buy local but it's worth it.  We support quite a few small businesses. Coffee shops, restaurants,  art galleries / centers , and other stuff. 

It's impossible to support local guitar stores anymore. Well.  We have one that I support but they've probably eclipsed guitar center in size... which is OK...but they've bought other local stores out as well and incorporated them into their store. That's cool in its own right as those places live on in this place . But they're doing the same thing as the big guys... and getting Involved in local politics.  That part I don't totally agree with... but ...

They've put a massive dent into guitar center here...

[mastermario]

I think, before it's too late, some of these department stores should join forces to create some kind of HH Gregg/Sears/Toys R Us/Circuit City/Kmart mega-stores. It's the only way that Wal-mart would really ever going to have competition in the department store business. Each of those specializes in various products so take the best/cheapest of each and put it all in one place.

I'm sure it would never work, but would be cool to do haha.

[targetrasp]

I think becoming relevant will take a mix of innovation, price, and luck.

Walmart won on price. Target is carving a whole in the market share by being trendy. Target is competitive in price, especially when you get their membership card. BestBuy won on price in its market. Amazon continues to cut into all these because of their price / convenience. All those folding lost the price war, plain and simple.

Innovation will be key when / if all these new laws / tariffs / trade propositions go into effect. When abroad stops being cheap all these guys will start having to raise price, or figure out loopholes. If an innovation akin to what the assembly line did for cars becomes realized in American manufacturing while imports go up would rocket the benefactor to the top of the heap.

Price - self explanatory.

Luck - there's a lot of moving parts, but a few words out of trumps mouth caused amazon to lose a billion. Some combination of laws falling in someone's favor with a decent marketing strategy and some revenue management could make the next alphabet / amazon / Walmart. Joining forces seems like a good idea but I can't think of an example where two failing companies combined to save one or both. Sears / Kmart was a flop, AOL Time Warner flop, crysler benz... typically a merger that doesn't involve a good company buying and stripping a failing company on the cheap or a good company buying a good company (think disney and everyone they've purchased) seems to have failed, at least in recent memory.