I wonder how much longer they can hold on?
I’ll be more surprised if they still exist in 5 years than if they don’t, but I’ve been saying that about Kmart for forever now. And Radio Shack’s demise took far longer than anyone thought it would. But things aren’t looking good for Geoffrey and Co.
I heard about this via friend-with-young-children on Facebook. Friend is not surprised, given that most parents she knows, including herself, purchase toys either online or brick-and-mortar general retailer (i.e., Walmart). She swears by Target’s annual Christmas-in-July toy sale and plans accordingly so she won’t have to do any kid gift shopping later on.
There’s a Toys R Us at our local mall. Last time we went in there looking for Youngest Nephew’s birthday present we were very underwhelmed with its selection. There were more dolls than anything else. The manager was quite dismayed when Lego opened up its own store at the other end of the mall.
I wouldn’t be surprised. Aside from Christmas and maybe a few minor gift holidays like Easter, there doesn’t seem to often be much traffic through my local store. And, as mentioned, these days a lot of people would rather buy their Christmas stuff online than fight crowds or wait in lines at the store.
I feel like they had more selection when I was younger but I may have just been a smaller person back then 
Also, and I don’t know, but maybe there ARE less toys being made because they’re not as profitable in this modern age of video games and tablets and smart phones and color TVs.
Toys R Us problems are more about a leveraged buyout than a lack of ability to make money. If handled correctly they can be solvent again.
Just last year (or possibly earlier, I don’t go to that area much) they bulldozed the original Toys ‘R’ Us location in Rockville, MD to build condos. I grew up near there and every year on my birthday my father would take me to that store and I could pick out absolutely anything I wanted in the whole store, and then he would buy me the next, less expensive thing I wanted :D.
I just want to know when my local store is having their bankruptcy sale.
They have a lot of cool shit there for me to [del]pretend to buy for my nephew[/del] buy and I want it cheap!
My brother takes his kids to TRU from time to time. But I think he only makes the trip because they have an impressive number of “grown up dolls” or - Action Figures 
So they have definitely figured out how to get the 25-45 year old parents (and non-parents!) in there. I wonder how much of the sales come from figurines?
My older niece is a mere 8 and she’s already over Toys R Us for the most part. She prefers a place like Target where she can look at clothes and makeup and junk.
Probably won’t happen for quite some time. This is a buyout debt load issue and not a need to start closing stores issue.
I remember reading years ago that Toys R Us isn’t a toy store chain, it’s a real estate investment company. The stores may break even, but the real value is from the land they’re built on appreciating over time. No idea if it’s true.
I’ve heard that about other places, like McDonald’s for sure. I wonder if this is just a common thing.
Whether common because it’s true, or an interesting factoid, I don’t know.
I had no idea they were still open; haven’t seen one in ages.
From the article:
This has happened with a lot of businesses: the private-equity firms borrow almost the entire amount of money to buy the company–and then the company doesn’t generate enough profit to pay the interest on the loans.
Good things come to those who wait.
I take issue with the correct grammar in this thread title… it is inconsistent with the corporate history of the firm.
I suggest “We ain’t Toys” or “Toys ain’t Us”
So many stores from back then vanishing…Blockbusters, Kmart, and now JC Penny is going down the same path.
I hope it doesn’t go too soon tho because when they came here in the early 90s all the other non department store toy places were gone in 6 months … so its them, target or Walmart for toys
Unless they are somehow leasing the space to tenants, or selling properties with regularity, this isn’t a viable business model as they would have no way to convert the real estate into cash. Same for McDs. The land may make up a large portion of their balance sheet, but that’s not sufficient to consider them an investment company.
eta: actually, I hadn’t considered the effect of franchising. That’s a significant aspect of both the ToyRUs and McDs business model, so in that regard, I think there is truth to it as the parent company will collect fees from it’s franchise operators.
Beyond not knowing they were still open, I totally forgot they ever existed.
I never heard of ToysRUs using a franchise model for its US stores and the Wikipedia article doesn’t mention it. Do you have a cite for that?
BTW, a while back, the company split ToysRUs and BabiesRUs into separate stores but then discovered this was a bad idea. The story I read said that parents would visit ToysRUs perhaps a few times annually, but go to BabiesRUs once a week or so. (Obviously this would be for new parents.) So if the two stores are in the same building, the parent getting clothing, diapers or whatever might pick up a toy from the ToysRUs side of the business.