Toys R Us to close 180 stores in the USA, list inside
 

Hi all. Sad news if you love shopping at TRU. A bunch of stores are closing. Yours might be on the list. Have a look for yourself:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/24/toys...ss-the-us.html

perfect.. all the ones near me are closing :/.

How will I get the latest nintendo stuff now

So does this mean TRU is actually going out of business like people said when they filed in for bankruptcy sometime ago? Or are they just restructuring and closing down stores that don't meet much profit anymore? How many TRU stores are there in USA even?

I've never understood why TRU was more expensive than the other options. I can't speak for other countries, but in my country, TMNT and wrestling action figures are always a few euros more expensive at TRU than anywhere else. Sadly TRU are basically the only toy shops here these days. Ofc TRU looked like somewhat magical place when I was a kid, and boy did I love their Christmas catalogues and making my wishlist at the end of them, but the place does seem to lack a "soul". It's just ugly on the inside. It's like a giant warehouse. Its lack of wall decoration just looks ugly and sad.

Chapter 7 is the one where you go out of business. They filed for 11 which is just a restructure. I work at one and the wrestling and TMNT figures aren't THAT expensive. If 10 bucks is too much (which they're near that price range anywhere) don't buy any lol.

Ooof, all those workers...

Online shopping is taking over.

There will still be four stores which will survive that I can still easily make it to, but the one in my city is closing. It's the one where I got an SNES Classic too.

The closest store to me is closing. I frequent it a number of times, and I've always thought the staff was helpful. But it often feels like lots of empty space... except for December.

Looks like the one here in Arkansas is a Babies R Us location.

Jesus, where do you freaking take a kid to go and look at toys to buy anymore? This is insanity.

Toys are going the ways of the dodo. I wonder if there's room now in the market for a smaller KB Toys like store in shopping malls, then again, shopping malls are dying as well.

Toy stores have a difficult time competing against video games, smart devices, online toy retailers and even general supermarkets like Walmart/Target.

It's worth noting that Babies R Us is a big factor of many of those stores closing, baby stuff has gone exclusively online over the past few years which was TRUs biggest revenue.


This will impact companies all toy companies from big ones like Hasbro to smaller ones like Neca.

Such a shame to see so many stores closing, I shop on-line like others but often go to the toy store near me for toys rather than shop for toys on-line, same with clothes, prefer stores for that too, see what I am buying.
Agreed toys have taken a hit with things like video games and devices etc but there's still room for them, I've but enough for my children over the years (but then I held off video games until recently)

Looks the Toys R Us over here isn't closing, but wouldnt be surprised if they close more stores after these.

Do kids play with toys much anymore? I genuinely don't know, I haven't been around many in the past few years. I feel like it's probably harder to catch kids attention these days with how popular things like video games are or mobile devices.

My 10 year old plays with tons of toys and always has. Used to be more of the stuffed variety, now it's Littlest Pet Shop and other such things.

Also, children today watch less toy commercials. So if you mean action figures, it's hard times:

https://exstreamist.com/report-netfl...rcials-a-year/

That sucks for the business. They rely on that stuff. The thing is, people have always hated commercials, but there was no way around them. Now, with the growth of streaming, they're going to have to come up with other ways to adjust.

Parents are probably thrilled, though. I've heard many a tale of peoples parents getting annoyed and snipping about the "glorified toy commercials" we watched. Which... I mean, some old cartoons really were not much more than that.

My sister used to be into Littlest Pet Shop when she was younger. It seems like one of those enduring brands.

If Toys R Us shuts down for good, it would be a sad day for all those who grew up in the 80s. Toys R Us used to be the only place to buy video games.

Kids of today outgrow toys fast. I have younger siblings and they're glued to the ipad, phone, or youtube all day.

Kids just don't play with action figures or dolls as much as they used to. By the time they get to 9-10 they already move on. The modern year of the 2010's is a lot different than the 80's and 90's.

Toys are becoming a thing of the past like online message boards.

By the time I was 10 I still bought some toys but I had for the most part moved on to video games, Once I had my Nintendo 64 I never asked for toys anymore only video games, I would still get one or two from time to time and still played with all my toys but yeah all my money was for video games and most of my time too.

That's a normal age I think, I'm sure tablets/phones are affecting a lot but the trend started many years ago I think.

True, I really only collected TMNT action figures myself, my brother collected Dragonball Z and Star Wars figures and B:TAS toys, so I had a lot of toys in my house growing up.

Now you see people buy those high-end collector statues at $100-150.

Here are TRU's short term plans:



I think they're feasible in making the store more profitable. I do think it'll be affecting the plans of a few companies, next years toy fair may end up being a bit disappointed and "safe".

amazon is killing stores. People don't even buy videogames at Toys R Us anymore because you can get them all cheaper online.

The hybrid "Babys 'R' Us"/"Toys 'R' Us" stores probably hurt, too. If I was a kid I know I wouldn't want to buy my TMNT figures next to the aisle where moms with screaming babies are picking up diapers. I wouldn't even want to walk in the door.

Which boggles my mind, because I remember when the local mall got its first toystore (Kay-Bee). Prior to that K-Mart, Bradlees, and Woolworths were where we got our toys.

And the kid stuff was largely grouped together.

TRU got a lot of revenue from Babies R Us though, in fact all these closings are because Babies R Us is under-performing while toy sales aren't amazing they're normal but without the high profit margins of baby articles that Amazon and other online stores have taken TRU took a big hit. In general TRU isn't doing that bad, it just needs very high profit margins to be able to operate.

Long story short, TRU was purchased under a big loan, and to be able to make payments they need a certain profits margin or they can't pay the bills.

Mine too. It was there forever until maybe 10 years ago.

That was the whole reason to go to the mall as a kid. You know, play some games at the arcade (long gone), look at the toys in the toy stores (also long gone), then flip through some magazines and stuff at the book stores (also long gone). You could spend a good 2, 3 hours doing that and not being bored.

Why do kids even go to malls anymore?

Malls are dying and have been dying for a decade. The mall model just doesn't work anymore and that's the reason, it's another lengthy explanation but you can find it if you google it,I linked some shorter "why are malls dying articles though.

That's why many malls are transitioning to be more like outlets to get people to go.

The years from 1983 to 1996 were great to accompany an animated TV series and comics with action figures. Less government regulation, gave us and what most of us came to like. Heman in 1983, GI Joe and Transformers in 1984 and TMNT between 1987–1996 and many more.

Great things have been done later too, but sadly the number is limited because of reintroduced regulation.

https://www.awn.com/animationworld/d...-optimus-prime

(this journalist seems to see it as a problem, but I don't care)

I see that mentioned a lot by parents online these days, which is why I openly wondered if toys are still big business earlier. They really do have a lot more competition for kids attention these days.

That's how it was for me too. Once video games took hold, that was about it. Though I did hold on a bit past ten, primarily because I really liked Beast Wars, so I still occasionally asked for some Transformers toys.

A place to hang out, if they go at all. As spd said, malls as we knew them are dying, as a natural consequence of internet ordering. I've seen it in person; some malls are like ghost towns with only a few open shops at a given time. They don't have enough unique about them to be worth going to, they're overpriced and most malls that go under are outside cities, which is where you're even likelier to just order something on the internet.

Eh, I agree with him. Nostalgia aside, most of those shows weren't very good and had the most obnoxious "buy this as a toy variant in stores soon" stuff. You really have to skim for the best episodes, nowadays. I'm not particularly sorry those days are over, if only for the sake of cartoon quality.

That said, those days brought about a lot of things that shaped my childhood, so I'm not sorry they happened, either.

Yeah, if it wasn't Amazon it would just be something else. I don't think it would have taken much longer than Amazon's creation for mankind to discover the "People like to be able to quickly and efficiently order stuff online" secret.

It doesn't help that most US malls I've seen don't have anything interesting going on outside of the requisite movie theater, either. I've seen some thriving malls outside the US, but they've generally got more going on and if they don't, they're at least in cities.

Animated Batman improved quality during the arly-1990's and it was before the current legislation had entered full effect. So that would probably still happen. I'm not a big fan of government regulations for children's TV.

Maybe. Though the influence wasn't entirely shed back then either. But thankfully we didn't have to deal with an episode at a time showing off some variant armor we'd never see again because it was part of the toy line (and man, do I remember some of the stuff that came with the toys, it would have made the show ridiculous).

I have no idea how it is in USA. In my country, action figures are more expensive at TRU than at other places.

Yeah, TRU stores are big and feel quite empty.

I asked for toy up until I was 14 or so. When the 2k3 TMNt cartoon came out, I finally could achieve my childhood dream of having TMNT action figures. Asa teenager I got wrestling action figures and also played with them up until I was 18-19 or so. Ofc I loved video games more.

Tbh I'm not a huge online shopping fan. I only use it as a last resource. I prefer going to a store, buying my item and having immediate access to it than having to wait a few days or more for the mailman to arrive with my order... and I might not be at home when he comes and then no one opens the door for him(I live in an apartment block) and I have to go pick up my order at the local post office station and wait sometimes in a long line. Not really fun.

Whenever I shop online it's usually clothes-. As in t-shirts and hoodies. You know why? because it's hard to find metal band t-shirts/hoodies(unless it's like Metallica or Iron Maiden) and video game ones at regular stores, so I gotta go online to get some cool ones. It's like every clothing store I go to only sells clothes for hipsters, metrossexuals and businessmen. It's weird.

This doesn't help the case but... most times I go to the store to buy something (like, a Gamestop for a game, or a Barnes and Noble for a particular book)... I can't find it. So I just go click click and order it from Amazon on my phone.

I feel bad about it but... what are you gonna do?

We're in a transitional period on how we get our stuff. Amazon launched the first store without registers. I'm guessing it'll be something like that and more to show products, they'll only carry the stuff you need.

Stuff like one day shipping and delivery to the stores will become the norm. We'll see these things as "normal" in during the mid/late 2020s.

As I said earlier, yes toys have taken a hit because of tech etc, but it's not gone, it's just less... and more with older children than young, younger children still play with toys.
There is also a difference between a child wanting and then playing with the toys much when they have them, there has always been the children who play more and those not so much. Some children really get into the video games and electronics and then others just play with them a little.

I seriously doubt toys will ever stop existing. I also grew up with cellphones, computers, the internet, video games, etc... and still played with toys. Granted there is a major difference between a modern phone and a Nokia 3210 or 3310 that pretty much only had the game snake as a source of entertainment, but back then we didn't know any better. I had a lot of fun listening to the various ringtones my phone came with, for example. And snake was pretty addicting anyway.

Video games and electronic devices offer a very different experience from toys. In a video game your favourite characters have to follow the story or the setting written and developed by the programmers, not to mention they can only perform the moves they've been programmed to. With toys you make your own stories. Total freedom.

So yeah, toys will never stop being popular, I'd say.

Times are changing. We're not in the 80's or 90's anymore, or even the early 2000's.

Most people shop online now, kids play with electronics over toys, people don't go to malls much anymore. We're in "the future" now. It is a different age, 2000's kids grew up in a totally different world than us old people.

I love change. Whenever something old goes away or goes out of business, I feel like I'm "in the future" as I never would have believed it would happen. For example there are barely any pay phones on the streets anymore, unbelieveable.