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Abandoned - Toys R Us

Pix

Pix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
676
I've been a fan of BrightSunFilms for the past couple of months and I've eagerly anticipating this video since the March announcement of Toys R Us going under. Like many of you I have a lot of fond memories of the store and even though they had a massive amount of debt, the closure itself was just sad.

This video goes into really good detail about Toys R Us by explaining their past, how they succeed at first, their eventual downfall and how a lot of the stores will probably remain abandoned. I highly recommend you watch this video and check out BSF's other content as well especially his abandoned series. Let me know what you think and feel free to share your memories about Toys R Us.

For the record this mainly applies to the US since the international stores will remain open. Australia just recently confirmed they would cease operations as well and Canada recently found a buyer.

 
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Thisman

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,841
Things like toys, shoes clothes, I don't know if online experience can provide that experience of using the toy rather than looking at images and videos . It's just not a good way to buy .
 
Tendo

Tendo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,424
I love brightsun! So happy to see a thread for it in era. He frequently works with Dan Bell who also did a toys r us video today.

They also collab on the new season of another dirty room which is hilarious.
 
OP
OP
Pix

Pix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
676
Tendo said:
I love brightsun! So happy to see a thread for it in era. He frequently works with Dan Bell who also did a toys r us video today.

They also collab on the new season of another dirty room which is hilarious.
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Oh yeah I should probably watch his series soon since BSF frequently works with him and I'm used to see a lot of his footage in Abandoned.

Razgriz-Specter said:
Absolutely love this dude's videos, I seriously could watch them all day.
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Same
 
borghe

borghe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,112
outsider said:
Thanks for sharing. Always makes me sad to think my kids won't get to experience this.
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Yah this is defintely the closure that hit me the most. Some of my earliest and fondest memories at stores were k-mart (2600), and Best Buy and TRU (8-bit), not to mention the best place to get LEGO sets and 90s Star Wars toys.

Crushing.
 
JimJamJones

JimJamJones

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,286
Toys R Us was a huge part of my childhood. Just hearing the name always got me excited. It's hard to believe it's all over.
 
Mido

Mido

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,686
Very sad indeed. Many Power Zords and Beast Wars transformers were purchased in those gigantic stores back in the day...
 
OP
OP
Pix

Pix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
676
I think the saddest part of this whole thing is that Charles Lazarus passed away just a week after the liquidation for the US was announced. :(
 
Netherscourge

Netherscourge

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,948
I was just talking about this with a friend.

Toys R Us stores tend to be in big shopping centers with large established stores alongside them.

The one near me has a Wal-Mart and there's a Best Buy, Home Depot, Supermarkets and Target within a mile of it.

What large store will take it place?

Maybe a gym?

We got plenty of those too though...
 

Deleted member 135

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,682
outsider said:
Thanks for sharing. Always makes me sad to think my kids won't get to experience this.
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Thisman said:
Things like toys, shoes clothes, I don't know if online experience can provide that experience of using the toy rather than looking at images and videos . It's just not a good way to buy .
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Yeah it fucking sucks. My twins are 18 months old and I'm upset that chances are they won't have this experience. I relished the times I was able to run around KB Toys and pick out something.

Hopefully the KB Toys revival that's in the works actually happens and is successful.
 
Zan

Zan

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,438
Canada's are still open, oddly enough. Just saw a sign last week.

Why can retail seemingly thrive up here? (Barring Target, OFC)
 
Dreams-Visions

Dreams-Visions

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
41,368
Miami, FL
Very nice video. As with everyone else here that grew up in the 80s/90s, I have a handful of good memories that I'll keep, along with the feeling of excitement that I always had when going to TRU.

Best memory was probably getting my copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 at the local one after a lengthy pre-order/reservation process. But it was a magical store in those days.


Are all of the stores in the US officially gone now? Any still selling off the last few items before shutting down forever?

Zan said:
Canada's are still open, oddly enough. Just saw a sign last week.

Why can retail seemingly thrive up here? (Barring Target, OFC)
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watch the video.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,206
Netherscourge said:
I was just talking about this with a friend.

Toys R Us stores tend to be in big shopping centers with large established stores alongside them.

The one near me has a Wal-Mart and there's a Best Buy, Home Depot, Supermarkets and Target within a mile of it.

What large store will take it place?

Maybe a gym?

We got plenty of those too though...
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I dunno, it took a long, long time before all those empty Circuit Cities stores moved on to something else, at least around here. Might take a while.
 
Vagabond

Vagabond

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,330
United States
Netherscourge said:
I was just talking about this with a friend.

Toys R Us stores tend to be in big shopping centers with large established stores alongside them.

The one near me has a Wal-Mart and there's a Best Buy, Home Depot, Supermarkets and Target within a mile of it.

What large store will take it place?

Maybe a gym?

We got plenty of those too though...
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Several here turned into grocery stores.

One turned into a Barnes and Noble. I found it ironic...
 
Akira86

Akira86

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,594
I walked through one a week ago. I thought it was going to actually survive, but nope. closing sign was put up a month ago, and it only has 2 aisles of merchadise by the time I walked through.
 
EvilChameleon

EvilChameleon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,793
Ohio
Anything with BrightSunFilms or Dan Bell in it is great.

My favorite BSF video is where he was at WDW during Irma. Walking between Contemporary buildings with the wind gusting. Hoo.

 
Nacho

Nacho

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,123
NYC
Wow, I didn't know all of that about how it failed. I just assumed that it was online retail, it turns out it was doing just fine all things considered and it was just some shitty business decisions by a takeover from companies. Gotta love people with access to money who are stupid and ruin things for everyone else lol.
 
ExtremelyBitter

ExtremelyBitter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,944
I was watching the video, thinking how sad it was that online shopping meant kids in the future won't quite get the Going To Toys'R'Us experience... and then he got to the part where there was a VC Buyout involving Bain. I'd apparently ignored all that at the time, but goddamn I hate vulture capitalists. Couple seconds of Google later, and it really wasn't the march of time that did things in, it was good old fashioned greed.

Declining sales were a thing at some points, but they weren't the biggest problem--the biggest problem was having to repay the firms that bought them out completely devouring their cash reserves and taking what could have been profitable, albeit decreased profit, and running them negative:
On its own, that shouldn't have been catastrophic. The problem was the massive financial albatross the leveraged buyout left around Toys 'R' Us' neck. Just before the buyout, the company had $2.2 billion in cash and cash-equivalents. By 2017, its stockpile had shriveled to $301 million, even as its debt burden ballooned from $2.3 billion to $5.2 billion. Meanwhile, Toys 'R' Us was paying $425 million to $517 million in interest every year.

This enormous cash drain probably made it impossible for the company to invest or innovate even if its trio of buyers had been up to the challenge. It also made it impossible to sustainably turn a profit. Toys 'R' Us consistently saw net losses from 2014 to 2017. But in the last three years, those net losses were considerably smaller than its debt payments. In fact, the losses were shrinking amidst a general boom in toy industry sales; by 2017, its losses were all the way down to $36 million.

In other words, if Bain, KKR, and Vornado had never come along, Toys 'R' Us wouldn't be doing stellar, but it probably could've muddled through. As recently as last year, the company still accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. toy sales.
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Toy aisles in big box stores just don't capture the same feeling as a giant building dedicated solely to toys.
 
super-famicom

super-famicom

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
25,229
I've got my last shift at Babies R Us tomorrow, though the store closes a week from today. The sales floor is still full of strollers. We also somehow got some copies of Splatoon 2, which are only $30.
 
Lynd

Lynd

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,440
Found out yesterday the Australian branch is being shut down too. Although when the US news happened it seemed they would be fine here.

Guess not.
 
Dreams-Visions

Dreams-Visions

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
41,368
Miami, FL
Zan said:
I did. I meant in general. We should be following the patterns of the us, not bucking them.
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I see. It's just that the answer to the question was in the video.

The US chain failed because of a bad buyout by 3 financial firms that put it into unnecessary and ultimately irrecoverable debt. Furthermore, it was simply too big. 1700 stores is ridiculous.

The international stores were not part of that takeover. So I mean, that was the answer to your question of why the US stores failed but Canadian stores are still open. They didn't get put into crazy debt and the number of stores was far smaller and more manageable.
 
DrewFu

DrewFu

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Apr 19, 2018
10,360
Just out of curiosity - why did Toys R Us stores seem to always have that double entrance thing? Like, you enter that little room, then you enter the store. lol
 
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perfectchaos007

perfectchaos007

It's Happening
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,250
Texas
Was going to make this thread. Glad it has already been made!
God bless the Resetera search function. Long may it rein!
 
Blader

Blader

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,626
I went into a Toys R Us last weekend. Just happened to be driving by and saw a "10 days until closing forever" sign. It was prob the first time I had stepped foot in a TRU in maybe 15 years. Always loved going as a kid, but seeing it in this stripped down, zombie apocalyptic state was just really weird and depressing.
 
OP
OP
Pix

Pix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
676
Zan said:
Canada's are still open, oddly enough. Just saw a sign last week.

Why can retail seemingly thrive up here? (Barring Target, OFC)
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I'm actually surprised the Canadian chain is still going because Walmart is eating up retail in that country, It forced Sears and Target to go out. That's the main reason why retail isn't as big.
 
Kickmaster Kim

Kickmaster Kim

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,227
Mementos
I never got to get anything from one or go inside because every time I asked my mom she always said "You got some Toys R Us Money?" Now I feel like I'll never be able live my childhood dream.
 
Dingens

Dingens

Circumventing ban with an alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,018
The video reminded me of that weird tendency for monopolies to form in the US. I wonder why that is.

outsider said:
Thanks for sharing. Always makes me sad to think my kids won't get to experience this.
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Go to Canada, or better yet, take them on a family vacation to Europe.
 
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Xbox Live Mike

Xbox Live Mike

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 29, 2017
2,435
USA
Kids these days just look at toys on Youtube and then put it on an Amazon wish list. I'll always remember getting my banana yellow N64 controller there.
 
joecanada

joecanada

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,651
Canada
Zan said:
Canada's are still open, oddly enough. Just saw a sign last week.

Why can retail seemingly thrive up here? (Barring Target, OFC)
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Lots of problems with online sales still. Hidden fees , border fees , sellers charging high shipping or advertising on eBay.ca who don't even ship to Canada . Can be a gong show if you don't know what's up.
 
Prax

Prax

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,756
Pixelbuster said:
I'm actually surprised the Canadian chain is still going because Walmart is eating up retail in that country, It forced Sears and Target to go out. That's the main reason why retail isn't as big.
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I thought Sears Canada was actually doing relatively ok. Sears USA actually dragged Sears Canada down with it more than anything.. lol.
Target was just a disaster of logistics. I don't think it was due to Walmart competition.

Retail, I think, is performing okayish in Canada. Our malls are still profitable in general because they are usually in major metropolitan hubs instead of stranded in suburbia or something?
 
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