Toys R Us bankruptcy filing?

alaskaguy

madforLEGO said:

Yeah, but wasn't TRUs over pricing of LEGO due more to trying to pay off debt than trying to squeeze consumers?
Once upon a time, TRU had great LEGO deals like BOGO50 and B2 get 1 free before Bain moved in.

As if the customer cares about their debt problems.

What the customer sees is, "Hey, they're pricing this ABOVE MSRP! Screw that. Screw them. I'll buy elsewhere." and that's also the thought people learn to have when they even think of TRU - "oh yeah, the place that overcharges.  I'll just buy buy it on Amazon". 

monkyby87

alaskaguy said:

One thing that might have saved TRU would be if they turned themselves into play centers where you could also buy stuff.

Consider - you pay a fee (daily, monthly, yearly) for admission to the play area, where you can play with certain things - where the certain things are rotated periodically to provide variety and keep you coming back. This is already done by various toy clubs, including Lego specific toy clubs.  However, TRU would ALSO have the toy show room - where you can then BUY stuff you like, and parents see you playing with - and maybe strike while the moment is hot.  It ALSO gives parents a way to shop for toys while keeping their kids occupied. Also birthday party area, events, etc. It also provides some reoccurring revenue, a way to actually ENGAGE with customers. 

All of this is relatively cheap and easy to do, is something that can't be done by on-line only retailers, and not easily done by general-purpose retailers like Walmart and Target.  Yes, it requires the stores to give up some square footage from the sales floor, but you don't get something for nothing. In any event, I think they should have given something along these lines a go.  Added bonus points if they could turn some of their parking lot area into an outdoor playground, to make the idea usable for a wider variety of toys.

I don't see any of that working out, ever.

monkyby87

eggshen said:

They should have taken the Walmart approach and gone for volume over margin. They should have closed all of their BRU stores 10 years ago (there's a reason the vast majority of the list in January were BRU stores). Also, they should have eliminated all of the "premium" brands and gone for middle tier goods. No one is going to TRU to buy $2500 trampolines and playsets or $20 Mcfarland collectibles. 

I'm hoping a better toy store rises from the ashes.

Those are some gross exaggerations.  Just because you didn't buy those things doesn't necessarily mean other people don't either.  You also aren't the market for BRU.

pharmjod

It appears they didn't have enough of a market for BRU regardless. Maybe saying no one goes there to buy those things is an exaggeration. But if the number is so low as to be insignificant does it really matter? I think it's safe to say relative to everything else they sold those types of items were probably a waste of space and resources.

exciter1

Well, I can honestly say we bought most of the supplies stuff for our kids at BRU.  My wife also liked to shop there for clothes.  Granted, we used coupons, gift cards, and rewards, but we bought plenty of stuff there.

eggshen

monkyby87 said:

eggshen said:

They should have taken the Walmart approach and gone for volume over margin. They should have closed all of their BRU stores 10 years ago (there's a reason the vast majority of the list in January were BRU stores). Also, they should have eliminated all of the "premium" brands and gone for middle tier goods. No one is going to TRU to buy $2500 trampolines and playsets or $20 Mcfarland collectibles. 

I'm hoping a better toy store rises from the ashes.

Those are some gross exaggerations.  Just because you didn't buy those things doesn't necessarily mean other people don't either.  You also aren't the market for BRU.

Umm, I've got 5 kids, my youngest is 4. Pretty sure I'm actually the exact person BRU wanted to come into their stores.

I live in an area with quite a few affluent people and have had many, many conversations about merchandise with the TRU folks. I was the manager of a local toy store so I had a vested interest in their success, I checked their stock levels on almost every category at least 3 times per week. In our area (again, pretty affluent) no one was buying the high end stuff. Maybe in some places it was selling but I would hazard a guess that it doesn't sell at most TRUs nationwide.

alaskaguy

monkyby87 said:

I don't see any of that working out, ever.

I'm not remotely surprised.

Sierra26

Charles Lazarus toys r us founder died this afternoon probably from the stress of the demise of his company.. 

madforLEGO

alaskaguy said:

madforLEGO said:

Yeah, but wasn't TRUs over pricing of LEGO due more to trying to pay off debt than trying to squeeze consumers?
Once upon a time, TRU had great LEGO deals like BOGO50 and B2 get 1 free before Bain moved in.

As if the customer cares about their debt problems.

What the customer sees is, "Hey, they're pricing this ABOVE MSRP! Screw that. Screw them. I'll buy elsewhere." and that's also the thought people learn to have when they even think of TRU - "oh yeah, the place that overcharges.  I'll just buy buy it on Amazon". 

Obviously if a company was over retail then they would lose money.
That is not what I was talking about. If a new toy retailer came online, with no 6 bln in debt, and was more like the TRU from 10 years ago when they were not saddled with that load, my argument is such a store could still do well.

SumoLego

Part of the $6B paid for the massive expansion of TRU and the creation of BRU. 

The demise of a large entity like TRU isn't much different than trying to pinpoint "the" reason for the 2008 Financial Crisis, how Trump became President of a large country, or the fall of the Roman Empire.

560Heliport

As in, "WTF just happened?"?

JooTog

At the local TRU as I walked in:

madforLEGO

Yeah, according to an article on cnn.com it starts tomorrow now. My guess is the delays are for trying to determine what will be liquidated and what will be sent back to creditors/vendors. Wish it would begin on Saturday, so at least everyone has a chance to try to get some good deals

Thanos75

From what I heard from my local manager is that the Lego will be starting at 10% off...... So Lego will be on sale for RPP.

Rakul

Here is the FAQ posted on their website, no more rewards coupons if that was not already said.

https://www.toysrusinc.com/customer-faq

SumoLego

Thanos75 said:

From what I heard from my local manager is that the Lego will be starting at 10% off...... So Lego will be on sale for RPP.

Time to buy those CHIMA sets!!!!

daewoo

I spoke with a manager the other day at my favorite TRU and she said that she did not believe that Lego would be included in the liquidation pricing.  I'm stopping by today on my way home from work to check things out.

teal93mr2

Pretty shady if they suddenly ended the redemption of the reward dollars after they announced last week people would still have 30 days to redeem.

eggshen

I just stopped by my local store. They are hanging signs up in the aisles, 5%, 10%, or 20% for entire categories. All construction is 5% off, so on a lot of LEGO items not even below RRP. Most categories are 10 % off, only a few are 20% off (books is the only one that comes to mind). All of the junky stuff at the front was 30% off (spinners, etc). 

teal93mr2

I stopped by to try and use up my reward, no dice.  Lego was 5% off and was pretty well stocked.  

juggles7

teal93mr2 said:

Pretty shady if they suddenly ended the redemption of the reward dollars after they announced last week people would still have 30 days to redeem.

The announcement was about TRU gift cards, not reward dollars. 

madforLEGO

teal93mr2 said:

I stopped by to try and use up my reward, no dice.  Lego was 5% off and was pretty well stocked.  

And at 5% off much of it will probably be stocked still.

SumoLego

Quick survey of the Greece, NY store - that had already been scheduled to close in the initial round of announcements:

40 Finn Brickheadz @ 40% off;
Seven large Technic sets (five of them bucket haulers) 15% off;
One CHIMA Mammoth - 10% off;
And this:



That's a wholelotta Laval...
(...a wholelotta Laval...)

prevere

^Honestly those would have to be $1 and EVEN still I wouldn’t buy more than a few.

brickmatt

I stopped by TRU today and Lego was 5% off; most of the rest of the stock I saw was 10-20% off, with a few things 30% off. I went to Barnes and Noble afterward and they had TLBM sets 20% off plus my 10% member discount.

madforLEGO

Yeah, I think the major vendors are not letting TRU severely discount their product right now, while that could change Im not holding my breath.

SearchlightRG

Sierra26 said:

Charles Lazarus toys r us founder died this afternoon probably from the stress of the demise of his company.. 

May have had something to do with being 94. 

Mynatt

I have only been paying attention to it all off and on but I found this video to have given a nice over view of what happened with toys r us.

https://youtu.be/7Actdg5JcM8

LEGO_Dad77

I was in my favorite store yesterday, Reno Toys’R’Us, looking for another Speed Champions set for myself, and a pokemon toy for the Boy. Found what we were looking for pretty fast; had already said our good-byes and had our “sad” visit a week prior, so we headed to the registers. Super long line, and we each only had our one thing. Kinda like usual, except we were in a hurry! Didn’t complain though, just agreed that if we had to leave our purchases, we had our “last toys” from TRU from last week already, so it wouldn’t be so bad. Lady behind us started complaining about them only having 3 cashiers....... here’s (edited) what I texted to my wife as we were leaving, again, having to leave what would have been our LAST Toys’R’Us Toys because we had an appointment.

“People are actually b******* about there being only 3 cashiers. Hmm, could it be because you f****** didn't shop here until NOW cuzza the “big sale”, that this usually isn't a high traffic time of day, so there aren't as many people on the f****** schedule? Not to mention, some people may have already been unceremoniously let go, or found new jobs to, you know, pay to be alive!?!? >:(“

Would’ve liked to have said that out loud to the lady, but with lots of children and grandparents around, better to just keep it zipped.

Yes, I know Toys’R’Us is overpriced and that they did this to themselves... but not at store level. We only got by shopping there from time to time (“our” store is almost 2 hours away) by using coupons, shopping sales, and their Rewards system. But we did give them good money on a regular basis, because we love the whole experience of shopping at a real live brick and mortar TOY STORE, the store I grew up with.

Just, I dunno, people complaining about long lines at a place in the middle of having gone under... ugh. Just wish people like that (they were obviously well off) complaining... I didn’t sympathize at ALL.

madforLEGO

Seeing that most people still at the store are either workers who have been told they no longer will have a job or temp workers who barely know TRUs systems, long lines are likely inevitable.

SumoLego

I imagine it's difficult to keep shift employees if the store is literally closing in 30-60 days.  

I wonder if the buzzards complain about the lack of silverware when picking at the carcass...

alaskaguy

eggshen said:

I just stopped by my local store. They are hanging signs up in the aisles, 5%, 10%, or 20% for entire categories. All construction is 5% off, so on a lot of LEGO items not even below RRP. Most categories are 10 % off, only a few are 20% off (books is the only one that comes to mind). All of the junky stuff at the front was 30% off (spinners, etc). 

That is what I found today.

Lamest going out of business sale EVER!!

TRU...can't even conduct a GOBS properly. No wonder they're GOB.

willobee498

alaskaguy said:

eggshen said:

I just stopped by my local store. They are hanging signs up in the aisles, 5%, 10%, or 20% for entire categories. All construction is 5% off, so on a lot of LEGO items not even below RRP. Most categories are 10 % off, only a few are 20% off (books is the only one that comes to mind). All of the junky stuff at the front was 30% off (spinners, etc). 

That is what I found today.

Lamest going out of business sale EVER!!

TRU...can't even conduct a GOBS properly. No wonder they're GOB.

They are trying to make the most amount of money in the small time frame they have left. If everything was immediately 80 percent off, they would make very little. 

madforLEGO

alaskaguy said:

eggshen said:

I just stopped by my local store. They are hanging signs up in the aisles, 5%, 10%, or 20% for entire categories. All construction is 5% off, so on a lot of LEGO items not even below RRP. Most categories are 10 % off, only a few are 20% off (books is the only one that comes to mind). All of the junky stuff at the front was 30% off (spinners, etc). 

That is what I found today.

Lamest going out of business sale EVER!!

TRU...can't even conduct a GOBS properly. No wonder they're GOB.

I think manufacturers like LEGO are preventing TRU from selling their stuff and huge discounts as well.

JooTog

willobee498 said:

alaskaguy said:

eggshen said:

I just stopped by my local store. They are hanging signs up in the aisles, 5%, 10%, or 20% for entire categories. All construction is 5% off, so on a lot of LEGO items not even below RRP. Most categories are 10 % off, only a few are 20% off (books is the only one that comes to mind). All of the junky stuff at the front was 30% off (spinners, etc). 

That is what I found today.

Lamest going out of business sale EVER!!

TRU...can't even conduct a GOBS properly. No wonder they're GOB.

They are trying to make the most amount of money in the small time frame they have left. If everything was immediately 80 percent off, they would make very little. 

I agree. If my memory serves me well, most (all?) GOBS have same pattern (start with small discounts) to get the most money as some people will buy at different discount levels. Circuit City, Comp USA and Borders went out the same way. Also, isn’t the GOBS out the hands of the company (TRU in this case) and actually driven by the liquidator company? (I don’t know much about these things)

I stopped by my local TRU today just to see what the ambience was. Same as what others have reported here: very long lines, 5% on LEGO (1/4 of the area it used to be), 10% on video games and collectibles, and 5% on video game consoles (at least Xbox).

PapaBear

SumoLego said:

The demise of a large entity like TRU isn't much different than trying to pinpoint "the" reason for the 2008 Financial Crisis, how Trump became President of a large country, or the fall of the Roman Empire.

Well I guess I'm doing good then cuz I predicted Trump prez at the start of 2016 and also called TRU GOB.

willobee498 said:

alaskaguy said:

eggshen said:

I just stopped by my local store. They are hanging signs up in the aisles, 5%, 10%, or 20% for entire categories. All construction is 5% off, so on a lot of LEGO items not even below RRP. Most categories are 10 % off, only a few are 20% off (books is the only one that comes to mind). All of the junky stuff at the front was 30% off (spinners, etc). 

That is what I found today.

Lamest going out of business sale EVER!!

TRU...can't even conduct a GOBS properly. No wonder they're GOB.

They are trying to make the most amount of money in the small time frame they have left.

That's exactly what got them in this mess.

SumoLego

At the Henrietta TRU, all of the third-party vendor items were gone.  (Pokemon, books, etc.) And most stuff was a whopping 5% off.  Including LEGO!

Still plenty of stock of just about everything.

pharmjod

I was amazed at how much LEGO was actually sold at 5% off at my local store.

alaskaguy

madforLEGO said:

I think manufacturers like LEGO are preventing TRU from selling their stuff and huge discounts as well.

I went to a different TRU today. Just happened to be driving by so I stopped in because I saw a "everything up to 60% off sign".

They were mostly cleaned out. There were some "Legos, 40% off signs" but they were cleaned out of Legos. I asked one of the salespeople about it - he said they were gone within minutes - people were buying 5 shopping cart loads at a time.  I never had a chance.

Looking around the rest of the store.....there was very little stuff I would take for FREE, let alone pay anything for.  So much CRAP!!!  No wonder they're going out of business.

Store was also selling fixtures...of course, anything interesting had already been sold.  I wonder how much their bike repair rack went for. 

Oddly, the large size die cast metal cars that sell for $5.99 were NOT on sale. When I called this out to the sales guy he said, "yeah, not everything is on sale."  I responded then what does the big sign that says, "Liquidation - nothing held back!!" actually mean?  He didn't have an answer.

SumoLego

alaskaguy said:
Oddly, the large size die cast metal cars that sell for $5.99 were NOT on sale.

That likely means that stock is not 'owned' by TRU,  so the manufacturer (or merchandiser) has some discretion to dictate the sales prices.

As I noted above - similarly situated products like some trading cards have been packed up and returned to the manufacturer.

Astrobricks

alaskaguy said:

Oddly, the large size die cast metal cars that sell for $5.99 were NOT on sale. When I called this out to the sales guy he said, "yeah, not everything is on sale."  I responded then what does the big sign that says, "Liquidation - nothing held back!!" actually mean?  He didn't have an answer.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure “nothing held back” is both a legally and functionally meaningless phrase. If it means anything, it’s just that all their stock is available for purchase. 

CaptainRogers

pharmjod said:

I was amazed at how much LEGO was actually sold at 5% off at my local store.

Same here. It was so odd... Legos scanned at a mere 5% off, but they had really been picked through.

SumoLego

It definitely gives one an idea of how much product TRU moves at retail price.   (When they don't have stock to replenish.)

There'll only be scraps left once the meaningful discounts arrive...

jedijason1138

At one store, I heard an employee talking on her radio: "that's my cart in the back. Don't re-shop it. I'm holding some things."

I bought some things for my sons. They are 7 don't really understand the whole going out of business situation. I tried to explain it to them, but it's hard for kids to imagine a toy store having too much inventory.

pharmjod

I saw a customer hide something in electronics under a shelf yesterday when I was there. I debated pointing it out to the staff but decided against it. If I go back again I might check myself and put whatever it is on the shelf.

SumoLego

Boggles the mind, sometimes.

dehnehsu

Toys R Us Sunnyvale, Calif. LEGO only 5% off the already marked up price. Most other stuff only 10% off. The LEGO section was already picked thru by customers that don't seem know what a good deal is or what LEGO should cost. I saw lots of overpriced abandoned LEGO by the scanners.

77ncaachamps

dehnehsu said:

Toys R Us Sunnyvale, Calif. LEGO only 5% off the already marked up price. Most other stuff only 10% off. The LEGO section was already picked thru by customers that don't seem know what a good deal is or what LEGO should cost. I saw lots of overpriced abandoned LEGO by the scanners.

Funny thing about this "liquidation" is... prices were cheaper before!

teal93mr2

77ncaachamps said:

Funny thing about this "liquidation" is... prices were cheaper before!

That is a very funny thing I have never understood about the liquidation sales in this country.  People will flock to these stores and buy things to save just a couple of pennies while smart, savvy shoppers (such as the good folks of Brickset) save tons more on a regular basis.  Seldom are there actual deals, and in the end all that is left is junk. 

560Heliport

Some people hear "sale" and just assume it's a deal! I've come to the realization that I'm better off working more overtime and paying RRP than driving all over the place looking for a sale or clearance price. "Luckily", I have a job where I can choose how much OT to work- more or less.