After news of the Toys “R” Us Bankruptcy hit in September, shoppers have clearly become wary of supporting Toys “R” Us stores this holiday season. Combine that with another sharp rise in online ordering, and they are seeing a noticeably slower holiday sales season this year. According to Bloomberg, sales have declined 15% from this time last year, and toy makers such as Hasbro and Mattel are sharing in that misery. With sales declining, Toys “R” Us is weighing the option of closing at least 100 stores in the US, with the option to expand that to 200 stores also being discussed. Here’s a snippet from the article:
Toys “R” Us Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in September, is considering closing at least 100 U.S. stores in the face of weak holiday sales, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
U.S. sales have declined about 15 percent this Christmas-shopping season from a year earlier, according to people recently briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The number of closed stores could reach approximately 200, one of the people said, but no decision has been made.
Both Hasbro and Mattel saw their stocks fall on news of the potential closings. You can check out the full article Here.
Toys "R" Us May Begin Closing Some US Stores
Pretty depressing news, all things considered.
Well so much for getting those two packs and aforce sets. Crap that means scalpers are the only option.....looks like ill never get em.
Kids just ain't into to toys sadly. Then again it doesn't help that the prices of Legends (to use an example) have sky rocketed in just a decade.
Sad news...but this is retail. The sad part is, most likely middle America will suffer I feel. Usually the coastal cities are safe but people will lose jobs.
Action figure collecting has gotten really expensive as someone mentioned above. In less than a decade, the price has almost tripled for legends.
Sales have declined and it is logical to say that, "kids aren't into toys." I was hoping for some Christmas "miracle," but alas, TRU look to be in some trouble for the foreseeable future. There is a lack of attachment as their are no real Saturday cartoons or Disney afternoon for kids to come home to. That build was so important in involving children to collect.
Adult wise, the "NEW" Star Wars toys sell terribly. I feel as the movies abandoned their true fan base, it will only get worse. Star Wars itself has become really too watered down as now many products are available at these discount retailers that don't sell in the big chains.
I have been in some struggling stores, and still the experience is much better than sitting home or an enclosed space and shopping online. IT does not help the fact that the population replacement is in dire straits in the west. That's probably a real underlying issue and might be a root cause.
Well I know of one store they could close here in CO that always looks like a hurricane hit it and they haven't gotten new products in in over a year. They still have 4 fresh cases of the Rhino Spidey wave on their pegs along with the Thanos wave.
Maybe they wouldnt be bankrupt if they would let me buy my freaking Grotusque Transformer!!!
This is unfortunate, I only have 1 TRU within 40 miles of my location and they never have anything worth purchasing. Peg warming waves of Marvel Legends, no Neca, no Figuarts, or Storm Collectibles. Rarely ever do I find a figure I want at any of my local retailers though, so the problem isn't limited to TRU. I prefer to find my figures in the wild since it helps the purchasing process to be able to see the figure in person. Hopefully they can find a way to make a profit before they go completely under, if they cater more to the adult collectors it may help, but that's if they haven't damaged their image/reputation beyond repair already
Serves them right. Here's why:
- The 2 Canadian stores near me have got NOTHING for the adult collector. Not one NECA, not much Star Wars Black Series, etc. They concentrate exclusively on baby and kids stuff.
- Their brick and mortar stores have a different toy inventory than their online (toysrus.ca) one. And when they share a common item, the price is often NOT the same.
- Speaking of the price, TRU can't seem to compete with the SMALLER online speciality stores like Northmencollectibles.ca and Canucktibles.ca.
Each time I decide to go hunting, I come back with NOTHING. They never get the newest lines until months after they hit the American market.
So why would I burn gas and waste my time when I can browse online at the aforementioned speciality stores, get the toys I want at a nicer price than TRU ever would be able to do?
TRU was THE store in the '80s and '90s - I have great memories going there with my Dad to shop for GI Joes and Transformers - but it has not kept up with the rest of the modern market. I say good riddance.
Olathe KS on 12-18-17
Sad if it does come to that. I've always had a love/hate relationship with ToysRus over the years.
Sometimes I've had great luck of being there at the right time to find something I'm after, but more often I would be walking out empty handed. The worst was when I was still collecting 3 3/4" star wars. There were long periods where they would have the same pegwarmers for months at a time with nothing new ever showing up. It got really bad during the vintage collection. Of course the same problem was at all the retailers at the time.
Speaking of star wars, I would say the abysmal disney films are having an impact too. The toys are not moving anywhere. I've seen many different stores now having BoGo sales week after week, and the merchandise is barely selling. These sales I've been seeing were nowhere to found back in the 2007-2013 period (roughly). I imagine this will continue to get worse.
It's true that in today's environment we see children having more interest in devices over toys, but parents do have a say in what their kids have.
Rising production costs and retail prices are a problem too.
While I know there are some locations out there that have put policies in place to prevent this sort of thing, I have witnessed some shady things at my closest TRU on a few occasions. I'm referring to employee scalping or hoarding.
Today, the only thing I go into TRU for is NECA figures. My nearest store has improved a lot when it comes to distribution. In the past, the selection sucked. It felt like the product was chosen at random. They never had the first few waves of the Aliens line, the predator line seemed to skip every other wave, and they never would have any of the horror related figures, ever. Same goes for Terminator. The distribution at my store has improved a lot over the last year or so. It's not perfect, but they seem to have more stuff out than before, and on time.
I hope they stick around, but I'm not counting on it.
Its been years since i really bought toys from TRU. I buy thru online shops. Most everbody does. obviously the prices and item selection is better online. Most big box stores have better prices. TRU - i just dont shop thru them.
Individual Stores need to be able to better manage their merchandise- if a manager sees the same stuff sitting around not selling then he needs to be able to update the ordering system and be able to clearance the crap out. My ToysRus nearb y has a pretty solid adult collector section with tons of Neca and import items- but there are also things that have been sitting untouched for several years- those things are still listed at full or almost full price. If they had a system of relocating those things to places where it sold- or being able to deep discount it to get it to move I think they would be in better shape.
Of course, sometimes they don't want to clear out stock because they don't want to look like they don't HAVE stock (seriously, bare shelves are NOT considered a good thing for retail even if it means all your product has sold through).
My closest TRU is...actually somewhat decent for Marvel Legends, NECA and Transformers, but virtually everything else you can forget about (especially Star Wars Black Series, where they're still sitting on Zuvios and unmasked Kylo Rens from TFA and Jedha Cassians from R1). I usually do have luck finding the exclusives if I'm persistent, though.
I'd be pretty bummed if it closed. It may be all right though...it seems fairly busy on weekends throughout the year and is slammed in the holiday season.
The silver lining to this is that we won't have to deal with the stupid TRU exclusive boxsets much long.
Still bitter about them canceling my Hydra 2pack order.
is this where i say: i told you so. TRU should cater to the collectors instead of kiddie stuff. Collectors are the backbone of TRU but yet they dont cater to us? they just maybe add half of aisle to us and thats it. people who buy kiddie toys just go in to the store maybe once a month, where the Collector goes 3 times a month and actually buys something. Collectors worry less about prices compared to the kiddie shopper. sure everybody wants a good deal but the Collectors knows some figures will be high in price and they still buy it...ive always had a love/hate relationship with TRU, its like hit or miss with the stuff you are looking for. for example: after the million times i go to TRU, ive only seen Masterpiece stuff one freaking time. the upside is that online sites will do better and LCS as well if TRU is a goner...
3 times a month? I go in 3 times a week! Maybe I have a problem….
The local TRU has had no collectors section since around 1994. They dont carry any mature collector toys like NECA or Mc Farland stuff, just Hasbro Star Wars, but its always mostly bare shelves or dozens and dozens of the same unwanted fig warming the pegs. They don't really sell any toy guns of any sort anymore except Super Soakers, no war toys either really, not even GI Joe! When something cool does come in, they let scalper aholes buy 20 of each, and leave none for anyone else. And restocking shelves is a rare event. Ugh!
So I'm pretty glad they are going OOB, its about time, its just a shame that the other local chain called Toys and Wheels had to go OOB when Toys R Us arrived, as it was about 1000x better toy store.
People buy toys at discount stores like ROSS now... IMO kids nowadays don't really care if they get the latest toys or not, so the parents or whatever don't mind buying cheap toys that are a couple of years old.
I don't see how this is news. There used to be 10 within 30 miles. Now there are 2. They've been closing stores for a long time.
i'm sad to hear any toy store close. They are few and very far between.
Personally, Toys R'Us is a childhood icon and was nostalgic for both my childhood and for my family & friends' children. Most of the time i found what i was looking for and that is saying something, since the closest one is 50 miles away.
Was it the perfect store? No, but, then no store really is. And with Toys R'Us closing its doors, there will be even fewer places to shop for our toys. Many Arkers and Tankers know how difficult it can be to grab online discounted collectibles when they are available for mere minutes before selling out. That common picture may likely get worse.
While online shopping can be a steal at times, there is something to be said about actually finding something in store. Not to mention soaking in the scenery of being surrounded by shelves of toys.
Keep reading: Toys R Us May Close Some US Stores - Page 2
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