/toy/ - Toys » Thread #7004284

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Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 01:49:59 No.7004284 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>7004313 >>7004974 >>7005033 >>7009538 >>7010385 >>7013002 >>7015615 >>7015934 >>7017713 >>7019447 >>7022258 >>7023478 >>7031421 >>7031537 >>7032967

How screwed is the toy industry without TRU? Fewer sales will lead companies to either go out of business or jack up their prices significantly.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 01:54:11 No.7004288 Report

Quoted By: >>7004332

>Fewer sales
That implies TRU was actually selling product.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:04:16 No.7004310 Report

Quoted By: >>7004991 >>7005115 >>7021493

>Fewer sales
The audience won't just disappear because Toys R Us is gone. It's absence creates a void for other retailers to fill. Walmart, Target etc.
I don't believe the marketing for Toys R Us was significant enough in recent years that it was keeping toys in the minds of children. I don't think toys sales will decrease at all as a result of the loss of Toys R Us. (If anything it would just be kids losing interest in physical toys over digital gadgets).

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:05:02 No.7004313 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
>How screwed is the toy industry without TRU?
Not very

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:06:46 No.7004317 Report

Quoted By: >>7004337

the 'toy' industry was screwed already even before tru folded.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:19:02 No.7004332 Report

Quoted By: >>7021822

>>7004288
They very much were making sales. Toys R Us as a store was profiting, they just were not profiting enough to makes ends meet with the tremendous debt their executives saddled them with during that stupid merger years back when. Operating costs and product costs weren't hurting them, Amazon wasn't making much a dent either. They got slapped with an assbackwards loan they didn't even make.

Bain Capital back in 2005 bought toys r us, and then said "Hey, we bought you for $6.6 Million, now you need to pay us back for what we bought you for, OH and we are also making you a privately traded company so the public can't buy trade your stock any more." That is what ruined them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:21:55 No.7004337 Report

Quoted By: >>7004350

>>7004317
I still can't fathom how the toy industry itself thrives in this country. toys arent necessarily like groceries. We only need one of some toy, and the only time we need another is if it breaks, for """"investment"""""""""", or if some significant other doesnt have it yet.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Bandai Marvel figs Disk Wars.jpg, 400KiB, 704x1161

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:29:49 No.7004350 Report

Quoted By: >>7004370 >>7005056 >>7021470 >>7032149 >>7032975

>>7004337
Because a lot of people think they're necessities.

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but almost every other country that isn't the USA has toys that cost a butthuge load of money. Even toys made by US companies will cost much more than they do here and this is likely because the toy markets in those countries are shit.
The only country that seems to have sane prices (compared to the US) is Japan, but even their shit can have crazy high costs as seen with Figuarts/Figmas/Revoltechs and even kiddy shit like this. Some saner priced toys are blind boxed, so that they can sell more of them before kids/adults get exactly what they want.

Anyway, TRU going down can and will lead to various toy companies going out of business. They make up a large part of sales in the US and even companies like NECA, Mattel and Hasbro will be hit hard.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 02:42:15 No.7004370 Report

Quoted By: >>7004401

>>7004350
i didnt mention japan because from this end, it looks like they have a much larger customer base than ours. the only kind of toy that seems to thrive for kids here more than action figures are blindbox toys

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO toy market world.png, 43KiB, 689x486

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 03:01:24 No.7004401 Report

Quoted By: >>7004432 >>7016152 >>7031350

>>7004370
Japan's toy market isn't even the second largest in the world.

So you can see why US toys are so damn cheap, because they sell to a much larger market and can keep their prices lower while producing higher quality goods.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO surely you're jestin.png, 720KiB, 1808x562

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 03:25:37 No.7004432 Report

Quoted By: >>7004511

>>7004401
>So you can see why US toys are so damn cheap, because they sell to a much larger market and can keep their prices lower while producing higher quality goods.
Buying straight from China or even a Japan import is typically cheaper than getting American toys.

>higher quality goods
Pic related. Would you rather have 3 figures with 8 points of articulation, aren't show accurate, have grey splotches as weapons, and are reissues of old molds for the low, low price of $79.99 -- or would you rather have a figure that has over 20 points of articulation, is show-accurate and well-molded, has well-made plastic weapons, an alternate head, and 2 pairs of hands for $64.99?

America is all about volume, not quality. That's why we can't get rid of POPs. They attract retards who'll eat anything up.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Armored-Batman-050.jpg, 366KiB, 2048x1231

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 03:56:46 No.7004511 Report

Quoted By: >>7004526

>>7004432
>Buying straight from China or even a Japan import is typically cheaper than getting American toys
If your market is too small, of course shit is going to cost more even if it costs less in other countries. It's a simple matter of supply and demand.

And you're comparing apples to oranges. Those are kids toys and the same type of toy in Japan sells for $30-45.

Here's a DCC $45 figure that has equal amount of engineering to that Figuarts, but higher amount of paint, and has working electronics that don't get in the way. Sold to collectors.
They had other figures planned and they were all $40 or under.
The Mezco one sold for $120 or around there, but that was made in limited numbers. Key word here : limited. The price almost always reflects the strength of the market.
Mafex was $50.
Just by looking at the cloth alone you can see a wide difference in quality from the Mafex and the others. There's more paint apps on the armor. As mentioned earlier, engineering/articulation is practically identical. So there's more value and features to the toys, despite being cheaper (not the mezco).

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 03:58:36 No.7004514 Report

Quoted By:

>raise prices like mad
>decrease plastic quality, amount of paint, articulation, accessories
>blame consumers for sales going to shit

Neither inflation nor material costs have gone up enough to warrant the price hikes.

>Trump increases China tariffs because "wwah they steal IP from the rich" which will probably cause price hikes everywhere because the racist kike needed to feel powerful

You call the man "daddy" now bend over so daddy can fuck you. He won't pay you to raise the kid he sticks you with either.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 04:09:44 No.7004526 Report

Quoted By: >>7004538 >>7007011

>>7004511
But you're posting examples of toys that were outsourced to China for manufacturing. I'm saying American-made toys are low quality, and generally are at an unreasonable cost. The rare exceptions are generally limited pieces and / or run cost out the ass.

It's just a fact that Asia is better at figures and the general toy market than us, even if their market is marginally smaller.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 04:11:15 No.7004527 Report

Quoted By:

Not at all, Target and Amazon have been more important as retailers for a while now.

Parents don’t want to go to TRU, but they’re willing to buy a toy or two while out buying groceries and clothes.

Source: I work in the industry

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Bones-Beastmen.jpg, 241KiB, 540x540

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 04:21:01 No.7004538 Report

Quoted By: >>7004545

>>7004526
... uh, everything is outsourced to China.
Probably the only lines that aren't outsourced are Acid Rain and Hot Toys, but only through a technicality of Hong Kong not sorta kinda really maybe considered part of China.

What are American-made toys? Not those Power RAngers, as those were also outsourced to China.
So your point is either ignorant or mistaken.

Here's one of the few "toys" that are actually American made.
Sorta like how gunpla kits are made in Japan.
Simple unpainted models, and in the case of Japan's: unbuilt.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 04:24:22 No.7004545 Report

Quoted By: >>7004573 >>7004576

>>7004538
Except the molds were done and produced by Bandai of America, which now does all of their shit here in, you guessed it, America.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 04:47:17 No.7004573 Report

Quoted By: >>7004583

>>7004545
Are you 10?
How the hell do you think toys are made?

No wonder you have such ignorant beliefs about other things.
I thought i was just talking to some foreigner because of how strange your vernacular is, but it's obvious that you can't think clearer than how you speak.

The molding process is nearly identical for nearly every single toy company.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 04:53:43 No.7004576 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004545
none of the products you have in your picture have molds made in U.S. The molds are made in China for those particular toys you chose.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 04:56:10 No.7004583 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004573
You are 100% correct. Bandai of America and similar outfits are mostly just regional offices that do things like translation and market research. They MAY do new toy development but that’s only really research, design, maaaaybe preliminary CAD and prototyping. Mold making and production happens in cheaper countries in Asia.

It would be completely retarded to tool the molds in the US and then ship them to China, much cheaper to send design drawings and/or preliminary CAD through the internet.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 10:46:25 No.7004856 Report

Quoted By: >>7006234

TRU AUSTRALIA IS KILL
>all stores to close after the US ones
https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/all-australian-toys-r-us-stores-to-close-soon/41436/

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Megantik-Toys.jpg, 164KiB, 960x720

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 11:15:59 No.7004878 Report

Quoted By: >>7005044

>America makes better toys
>Japan makes better toys
>Forgetting about superior obscure Giochi Preziosi Spirit of Italia toyss

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 13:32:45 No.7004974 Report

Quoted By: >>7005171

>>7004284
I don't think you understand how economics work

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 13:51:34 No.7004991 Report

Quoted By: >>7005044 >>7014125

>>7004310

If Walmart and Target actually take on a more active role in catering to toy sales, I think I’ll die of shock. Try being a Transformers collector. Walmart bullies and controls the industry, but keeps pegs and shelves empty for months at a time. Target isn’t much better. There’s really barely any brick and mortar choice for buying these days.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 14:37:46 No.7005033 Report

Quoted By: >>7005074

>>7004284
I don't know
but I do wonder what this means for small town sellers. More buyers, or canary in the coal mine?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 14:53:39 No.7005044 Report

Quoted By: >>7005086 >>7005121 >>7005674

>>7004878
Giochi Preziosi has one good line and the rest of their work is terrible garbage.

>>7004991
What is with the tards on this board thinking that adult collectors matter to the toy industry? Do they just not have any accomplishments worth being proud of so they just latch onto stupid bullshit for a sense of pride? If adult collectables sold better they’d have more shelf space, but they don’t so they don’t. Lines that sell well get more perminant space, children don’t care about Transformers so that space is given to lines kids want.

Only reason TRU could dedicate a section to Transformers is because they were a bigbox store dedicated almost exclusively to toys, they thought they could afford to waste space with garbage until it killed them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:04:59 No.7005056 Report

Quoted By: >>7005067 >>7005070 >>7005708

>>7004350
>NECA
Will be fine. They've already gotten new retail partners lined up.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:11:08 No.7005067 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005056
At what cost? Will their prices rise? What places should I look out for that will be carrying them?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:15:31 No.7005070 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005056
Who? With Hastings and TrU gone I've got no local options. I've seen some Borderlands 2 stuff at Target, but other than that, nothing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:19:20 No.7005074 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005033
Small town sellers are struggling in the exact same way they’ve always been just on the fact they’re independant. Now that TRU is gone they’re the only shops completely dedicated to toys offline so sales are better.

It’s like with the rise of any internet retailer and the simultanious fall of any bigbox specialty store: mom and pops have more freedom to specialize because people go to them for the experience of going to an offline toy store.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO hqdefault[1].jpg, 13KiB, 480x360

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:25:16 No.7005084 Report

Quoted By: >>7006129

I've heard KB Toys is coming back.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:30:22 No.7005086 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005044
>What is with the tards on this board thinking that adult collectors matter to the toy industry?

Same reason any other niche group that gathers on the internet begins to think they're bigger than they really are, I suppose.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:36:42 No.7005091 Report

Quoted By: >>7005104 >>7005120

>how screwed is the toy industry

Very. Anyone who says different literally doesn’t know what they’re talking about. A lot of toy manufacturers are in deep shit right now.
The ONLY people that this MIGHT help are tiny indie companies.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:46:20 No.7005104 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005091
No? On every point? If anything this hurts indie production companies. Big companies have stronger supply lines and more retail partners. They can make agreements on production volumes before a toy even GOES to production because the have the money to force their way through problems that could arise. Not even joking, Walmart and Target are very active in even the toy design stage. Big production companies are reliable and have connections that indie producers can’t even handle.

Joe Schmo’s Unreliable Niche Tchotchkis can’t even reliably get product to production and no one but autists want their product so it’s back to the internet to die in obscurity for them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 15:54:18 No.7005115 Report

Quoted By: >>7005145 >>7006726 >>7006777

>>7004310
>It's absence creates a void for other retailers to fill. Walmart, Target etc.

Neither Wal-Mart nor Target actually care about their toy sections 10 months out of the year. For most, the toy sections are their worst money makers as they take up a lot of space for products that don't move. Without TRU around, the big box stores have no real incentive to increase their toy aisles (which have been shrinking for years as is) because now there's no other physical competition in terms of toys.

If these stores actually cared about their toy sections, they would have put more effort into competing with TRU, but they don't and never really have. They push their one stop shopping above all else and only even have toy sections to keep parents from going to a dedicated store for them. Because the parents really don't care what toys their kid gets, as long as it's cheap and keeps the kid quiet while they're shopping.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 16:00:56 No.7005120 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005091
>The ONLY people that this MIGHT help are tiny indie companies.

As other Anon pointed out, smaller companies will be hit the worst from this. TRU was more willing to stock toys from smaller companies because they simply had more space to fill. They knew they had collectors coming to their stores for mass produced figures already, so they could take the risk with the smaller run figures as those are made for those very same collectors. Neither Target nor Wal-Mart care about collectors and give as little space as possible for toys so they're never going to stock those small run, unknown, high priced indy toys.

Hell, some TRUs even stocked S.H Figuarts and other Japanese lines at resolvable prices, something other stores wouldn't even think about trying.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 16:02:37 No.7005121 Report

Quoted By: >>7022102

>>7005044
I don't think this anon is talking about adult toys. Walmart is a big name. When toy companies want to sell in stores, Walmart often is able to tell them for how much, what they want to see, etc. Not getting a deal at Walmart is make or break for some companies.
Meanwhile, even when they DO get the deal, Walmart's supply chain and their underpaid employees don't give a shit enough to make sure the product makes it to shelf. That's why you end up with empty pegs, or only 1 or 2 items in a section. It's not about how much the store gives in the planogram, it's how often the toys actually make it to the pegs allotted.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 16:31:52 No.7005145 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005115
>Neither Wal-Mart nor Target actually care about their toy sections 10 months out of the year. For most, the toy sections are their worst money makers as they take up a lot of space for products that don't move. Without TRU around, the big box stores have no real incentive to increase their toy aisles (which have been shrinking for years as is) because now there's no other physical competition in terms of toys.

Yup, toys are loss-leaders for big box stores.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 16:48:44 No.7005171 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004974
What exactly do you think is wrong about his post?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 22:00:30 No.7005674 Report

Quoted By: >>7006100

>>7005044
You're a bitter little retard, aren't you?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 22:20:16 No.7005708 Report

Quoted By: >>7012148

>>7005056
Just because they have a new avenue to sell their stuff doesn't mean they will be selling them in the same quantity that TRU was ordering them in.

Companies like McFarlane have Walgreens and Target to sell their stuff through, but TRU carried far more of his products and TRU also ordered larger products that Target/Walmart/Walgreens didn't have the space for.

this definitely is hurting them

Also, Borderlands 2 stuff is McFarlane now, not NECA. My targets don't carry that, which shows how sporadic they are in carrying collector toys.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 22:23:12 No.7005713 Report

Quoted By: >>7005714 >>7005948 >>7006100 >>7012152

The toy industry is fucked. Within a year we will see numerous companies go out of business. Mattel, mega brands with them, jakks pacific, neca, etc.
Right now theyre all in damage control.

Ironically hasbro will likely survive a few years at least. They were the biggest offender for shelf warming shit, shortpacked shit, tru exclusive that went straight to ross and ultimately for pushing so much unwanted star wars shit that it will surpass the e.t. landfill fiasco and go down as a huge stain in history.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 22:25:24 No.7005714 Report

Quoted By: >>7005737

>>7005713
WorldClassBullshitters, is that you?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 22:36:21 No.7005737 Report

Quoted By: >>7005916 >>7008560

>>7005714
No, Im much worse. I am just telling it how it is. Buying a billion dollars worth of star wars toys and not selling fuck all is going to kill any business. Target, walmart and other chains have reduced their star wars to a foot width of shelf space, sold the toys for cheap, at a loss, brand new when they first hit shelves. Hasbro pushed the crappy blade builders and such on the companies in order to allow them to order the 6 inch and 3.75 figure lines. They were expecting fast sales of the star wars shit, and it didnt happen. Their hail mary pass went incomplete.

And I dare you to tell me the mountain of unsold star wars toys still at my local toys r us did not contribute to the company going insolvent.

And yes, alienating lifelong fans isnt going to move shitty toys. The sjw crowd will always have their attention drawn away to whatever whine of the week it is, theyre not going to dedicate their life to collecting toys. Once theyre done virtue signaling they move on to the next and discard all that was used for their social advancements.

And no, local stores arent going to be any better for the industry. They already jacked prices up so high theyve sat in merchandise for years. Youre either a store or storage depending on price. I dont want to pay $40 for a new marvel legends, or $25 for the new hot gi joe character.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 22:58:34 No.7005770 Report

Quoted By: >>7005800

With so many people here who just import, anyway, I doubt people here can fathom the impact this is going to have, a long with barnes and Noble probably going on the chopping block in 5 years. Gamestop isopening up preorders and expanding their toy selection, but they always cull it after a few years historically; there's just way too many Gamestops and not enough collectors out there for every gamestop to have a full assortment of collector's toys. I think people forget how many American toy buyers buy on impulse; they're more likely to buy something if they see it and take it home immediately vs preordering it. Look at how many people miss out on preorders here.

Its all cyclical, though, this always seems to happen. Back in the 2000s, a similar thing happened when Suncoast/Sam Goody and then KB went bust. Problem is, there's only so many stores that will fill those holes; a lot of chains go out of business,and there aren't many replacements coming.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO bandai 2014 stormtrooper.jpg, 49KiB, 700x800

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 23:16:06 No.7005800 Report

Quoted By: >>7005836

>>7005770
Preordering is shit though.
You have to buy the toy without knowing how it's going to end up.
And you're basing your purchase on only photographs of preproduction figures that is carefully painted, decals laid on by professionals, and then shot at the best angles.

The fact that there are so many people on /toy/ who believe they'll fix various sculpting/paint issues, it's no wonder there are so many deluded bitter fanboys who need to believe that they made the right choice on an expensive toy they purchased 3-12 months before they could even touch it

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 Jun 2018 23:40:01 No.7005836 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005800
Oh, I agree 100%, and its largely why I just got tired of collecting imports and switched to just scooping up older stuff on Mandarake that I know is good. Sadly, with less retail options, and even western companies producing in numbers where they run out fast, like Mezco, getting American toys at MSRP will involve preordering, too.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 00:37:38 No.7005916 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005737
>And no, local stores arent going to be any better for the industry. They already jacked prices up so high theyve sat in merchandise for years. Youre either a store or storage depending on price. I dont want to pay $40 for a new marvel legends, or $25 for the new hot gi joe character.
Yeah, well, wait for Ollies on everything and that's what you get. If I could've sold through entire cases at a profit, I would've done so. But people are so poor, I had to charge whatever the market would bear on the hot figures, or I would've drowned 3 months in. Even TRU, charging $20 on a $25 MSRP, was crucified by poorfags that couldn't afford to shop at WelfareMart and thought TRU owed them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 00:52:28 No.7005948 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005713
No way in Hell is Mattel going out of business anytime soon. That's either wishful thinking on your part, or stupidity.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 01:33:16 No.7006015 Report

Quoted By: >>7006024

ITT people who don't understand economics 101

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 01:40:55 No.7006024 Report

Quoted By: >>7006053

>>7006015
So how do you see the closing of TRU affecting the toy industry?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 01:52:04 No.7006053 Report

Quoted By: >>7006076 >>7006100

>>7006024

A big buyer in the market is gone, companies are going to produce less and therefore have less profits.

They'll cut down variable costs whether that means crappier sculpts, less development time on toys, cut waves, cancel more experimental ideas, less accessories etc. I don't work in the toy industry but any or many of these could be in the near future.

We'll see a bigger idea of where the market will go during Toy Fair as anything that releases this year has already been planned before this happened.

Basically it'll put a lot more stress on an industry that's already been losing ground to digital entertainment over the past decades. Remember how the toy industry changed after the 2008 crisis? We saw more 3.75" figures because of costs. So something similar, I doubt we'll go back to 3.75 as the standard for many toylines though and I doubt we'll see higher prices. Mostly shittier sculpts/paint apps or less diversity in toy aisles.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 01:59:30 No.7006076 Report

Quoted By: >>7006146

>>7006053
But Legends will be okay though right? I don't care if Star Wars and DC suffer.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 02:01:35 No.7006077 Report

Quoted By: >>7006129 >>7006146

KB Toys is coming to fill the void.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 02:15:54 No.7006100 Report

Quoted By: >>7006182 >>7012152

>>7005674
Sorry that your parents have to lie when they tell you you matter lol

>>7005713
Your only valid pount is that TRU dying might kill Mattel. They actually haven’t been doing well for a while, but it’s more retarded business practices than any kind of consumer pressure. They lay off 1/3 their employees every year and their departments are all incredibly insular, the average lifespan of a Mattel employee is 3 years. They’re killing themselves and TRU is just the gun they picked.

>>7006053
Reduced quality in the industry is a result of maintaining stagnant pricing at odds with inflation and material/labor costs. Toys are the cheapest they’ve ever been, and while technology has made parts of production less expensive, high quality isn’t sustainable unless prices are raised. It’s not the ‘80s anymore, $12.99 doesn’t pay for shit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 02:32:06 No.7006129 Report

Quoted By: >>7006146

>>7005084
>>7006077
But will it stand a chance?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 02:44:03 No.7006146 Report

Quoted By:

Mattel is not going to die, NECA will definitely be affected but it won't die either.
>>7006076
I don't work in the toy industry, those are just some normal market trends in most industries being applied to the toy industry but I'd guess big brands like Legends/Star Wars/DC would do ok. Star Wars likely has more to lose because of SW fatigue and over saturation than Marvel/DC.
>>7006077
Depends on how big they go, if it's like the original KB Toys and there's one in every mall then yeah it could fill the void. If there's only going to be a few KB toys in every other mall which is more likely since Malls are dying then it'll help fill the void but not completely.

>>7006129
KB Toys was successful it just had a lot of debt for similar reasons that TRU did, so yeah I think it has a chance and it's a niche that needs to be filled.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 03:00:18 No.7006175 Report

Quoted By:

New report, if it hasn't been mentioned already: The Australian branch of TRU just entered voluntary administration and will be shutting as well.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 03:03:26 No.7006182 Report

Quoted By: >>7007011

>>7006100
Sorry you're poor. Oh, wait, no I'm not.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 03:33:22 No.7006234 Report

Quoted By: >>7006610 >>7006673 >>7006726

>>7004856
Nothing of value was lost. Big W and K-Mart sell everything the normies go for for far lower prices and there are plenty of specialty stores for 'exclusives' that do the same. Every time I walk into a TRU here, I just get depressed at how retarded overpriced everything is.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 03:54:52 No.7006276 Report

Quoted By: >>7006608

You know, Gamestop could jump at the chance and increase their toy stock for older fans. They already sell a lot of merch, and I've notice a lot of Gundam kits, Figuarts, Figma, and NECA figures, so why not go all out?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 08:14:47 No.7006608 Report

Quoted By:

>>7006276
they need to do in-store pick up, because there's no way they can fit all those toylines into their tiny little stores

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 08:15:49 No.7006610 Report

Quoted By: >>7006762

>>7006234
>Every time I walk into a TRU here, I just get depressed at how retarded overpriced everything is.

>waaaah 2$ more?! that's EXPENSIVE

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 09:36:31 No.7006673 Report

Quoted By: >>7006762 >>7008154

>>7006234
Where do you live?
My TRU had more selection than WalMart, Target, KMart (haven't existed for years in my area), and Walgreens, and had the same exact price. Maybe WalMart had it for 3¢ cheaper, because they need to claim they're the low price leader by what amounts to a technicality.

Something tells me you either lived near a tourist area or haven't stepped in a TRU since you got trapped in your basement and read about how TRU raises their prices in certain locations.

BTW, i live near a city known for tourism and even here they didn't up the prices.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 10:26:29 No.7006726 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005115
>Because the parents really don't care what toys their kid gets, as long as it's cheap and keeps the kid quiet while they're shopping.

The problem is that modern, high priced toys have almost the same appeal as some bottom-tier dollar store knockoffs, but the dollar stores, fast food joints & new-toy-seller-but-it's-a-bargain-bin-Mexican-at-a-flea-market sometimes have better shit.

>>7006234
I live in PA, so I don't care about the loss of TRU for the most part, especially now, but if you were a kidlet and never taken to the NYC TRU with the Ferris wheel in the center, your childhood sucked.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 11:34:03 No.7006762 Report

Quoted By: >>7006782 >>7007298 >>7007575

>>7006610
This. If a dollar makes or breaks you, toys might not be a good hobby for you.

>>7006673
This too. Morons think TRU charged MSRP. They actually charged the same as Target. Well below MSRP.

Funny that you don't see complaints about KB, which actually was more expensive. But they went under 9 years ago. Maybe the average /toy/ soldier was still getting toys from Mommy and Daddy then.

What's really funny is how bad peoples' money management skills are that they think driving to Walmart to find any empty shelves over and over and over is "cheaper" than the alternatives. The closest Walmart is 25 miles away from home and 10 miles out of the way on my commute to/from work. If the average car gets 25 mpg, and gas sits at about $3 bucks per gallon, the cost of a trip to Walmart is between $1.50 and $6.

Now you look at the price of Marvel Legends:
Walmart - $18.84 ($19.97 taxed)
Target - $19.99 ($21.19 taxed)
TRU - $19.99 ($21.19 taxed)
GameStop - $22.99 ($24.37 taxed)
KB (hypothetical) ~ $22.99 ($24.37 taxed)
BBTS - $28.99 shipped

Assuming an average of $3.75 transit, it takes 3 trips to Walmart for the cost to exceed BBTS. I _wish_ I was batting .300 with Walmart. Judging by the complaints about distribution and (largely imaginary) scalpers, it sounds like alot of people are batting even lower.

For me, Target and TRU both have/had higher success rates, such that a second trip to Walmart usually negates any pricing advantage. In layman's terms, WALMART ACTUALLY COSTS MORE.

So this fixation on "saving" a dollar at Walmart is really just retarded.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 12:02:30 No.7006777 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005115
They competed directly with TRU by pricing their toys lower than TRU. Seriously, let’s look at when TRU first started their going out of business sale. Their “closing our doors” prices weren’t even beating wal mart or targets prices on the same fucking toys

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 12:04:41 No.7006782 Report

Quoted By: >>7007425

>>7006762
That might be true if I lived in East Bumblefuck, like you apparently do. But for me, I can drive to 3 different wal-marts and only drive about 10 miles

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 15:40:54 No.7007011 Report

Quoted By:

>>7006182
>inflation exists and the toy industry is ignoring it to its own detriment because customers expect to pay the same price to toys now as they did as children
>you’re poor lol

In spite of Jr’s best efforts you were absolutely left behind.

>>7004526
American-manufactured toys are shitty and expensives because of a mix of minimum wage and OSHA ban on the processes and mayerials that make toys good.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 19:21:39 No.7007298 Report

Quoted By: >>7007404

>>7006762
>They actually charged the same as Target.
Maybe for what you collect. Transformers had random price hikes well over MSRP.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 20:20:08 No.7007404 Report

Quoted By: >>7007434

>>7007298
>>They actually charged the same as Target.
>Maybe for what you collect. Transformers had random price hikes well over MSRP.
I collect TFs, ML, and SWBS. Target actually has random waves of ML priced at 20.49 too. You know what place is actually charging more? Kmart. Deluxes are $18 there.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 20:30:13 No.7007425 Report

Quoted By:

>>7006782
>northeast US
>East Bumblefuck
Also
>drive to 3 different wal-marts
>only drive about 10 miles
It must be blacker than Zimbabwe there.

I can't say for sure that 10 miles would find 3 toy-carrying stores, let alone 3 of the same store.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 20:33:32 No.7007434 Report

Quoted By:

>>7007404
Every store had PotP voyagers for $30 while Target stayed at $25. They also tried charging $20 or more for deluxes at certain stores to see if they could get away with it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 21:38:19 No.7007575 Report

Quoted By:

>>7006762
I don't even bother with WalMart when toy hunting, because they have absolutely jack shit.
When i have to go there with someone, they've had nothing but empty pegs for months. The only shit they had that i'd consider buying are the furry Stormtroopers from the HAn Solo movie, but that shit is shelfwarming everywhere too.

BTW, i live in an area where there are 3 walmarts no more than 10 minutes away from me, and one of them is just a five minute drive.
That's 3 walmarts full of nothing.

My Targets have more shit, but TRU had more too and offered a wider selection of toys. So i always went there first when looking for new stuff and they had the same price as Target.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO NECA_logo_-_Black.jpg, 54KiB, 720x225

Anonymous Thu 21 Jun 2018 21:52:56 No.7007596 Report

Quoted By: >>7008520 >>7018048

Hmm, now that I think about it, is there anywhere to buy NECA toys in person now that TRU is gone? Will NECA try to push into Target/Wal-Mart/etc, or go online-only?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 03:34:47 No.7008154 Report

Quoted By: >>7008161 >>7008163

>>7006673
If you have a single braincell left, you'd realise I'm in Australia. But obviously not.

A single LEGO kit that goes for 19 dollars at Big W is 27 dollars at TRU. A 24 dollar Lalaloopsy from Big W is 35 at TRU. But who am I kidding, the US is the only place that exists which makes sense considering how dumbfucktarded everyone is these days.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 03:40:13 No.7008161 Report

Quoted By:

>>7008154
>includes nothing exclusive to Australia in post
>hrr bblrr I’m obv Australian

Are... are you saying retardation is an Australian trait?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 03:41:12 No.7008163 Report

Quoted By: >>7008516

>>7008154
Australia never counts when it comes to discussing prices of stuff.
Everyone in not-America always gets raped on prices, because your toy markets are tiny and shit.

Who knew "Big W" wasn't walmart considering how so many backwater cities call walmarts all sorts of retarded nicknames.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 08:41:04 No.7008516 Report

Quoted By:

>>7008163
>Who knew "Big W" wasn't walmart considering how so many backwater cities call walmarts all sorts of retarded nicknames.
someone here calls it Wally World. which is long and dumb in internet standards

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 08:46:54 No.7008520 Report

Quoted By: >>7008521 >>7008537

>>7007596
NECA is already in target, and best buy, and Gamestop is confirmed for pretty much picking up everything else.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 08:49:21 No.7008521 Report

Quoted By: >>7008522 >>7008537

>>7008520
My Target only had the God of War oversized figure.
That's it.
Is that all NECA has released for the past 6 months?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 08:50:33 No.7008522 Report

Quoted By:

>>7008521
Neca sells out all the time, check again.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 09:02:07 No.7008537 Report

Quoted By: >>7008549

>>7008520
>>7008521
Same here, I have only seen the 7" Kratos at my Target, and it was in the gaming section. Is that where they're usually placed, or do they usually end up in the toy section?

I've been hearing people say they found NECA at Target and Wal-Mart for ages now, but I sure as shit have never seen them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 09:20:07 No.7008549 Report

Quoted By: >>7008551

>>7008537
Well its easy to deflect criticism without posting any actual proof.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 09:21:59 No.7008551 Report

Quoted By: >>7008553

>>7008549
...what? Did you reply to the wrong post or thread?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 09:23:57 No.7008553 Report

Quoted By:

>>7008551
I think Neca missed the wrong boar when shipping out all their stock to retailers, which is why none of them have shown up yet!

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 09:31:29 No.7008560 Report

Quoted By: >>7008577 >>7008809

>>7005737
>And I dare you to tell me the mountain of unsold star wars toys still at my local toys r us did not contribute to the company going insolvent.
The mountain of unsold Star Wars toys was insignificant compared to the planet-sized unresolvable debt the company was in for over a decade. I know you're absolutely pissed off about Star Wars but you're basically blaming a nail for ruining a tire when the tread was already bald and had a knife jammed in the side.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 09:56:05 No.7008577 Report

Quoted By:

>>7008560
a tire with thirty other nails in it, shards of glass, the knife, a bullet hole or two and missing the hubcap.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 14:48:05 No.7008809 Report

Quoted By: >>7009208 >>7009960

>>7008560
But if that mountain of plastic had sold out because it was merchandise that fans wanted it would have been profit for the company.
Maybe enough to keep paying the interest on their debt for a few more years
When closing hundreds of stores is looming over you, the alternative of floating for a few more years is still a good option

Nobody wanted Rose Tico or build-a-sabers. They wanted 500 repaints of clone troopers. And they would have sold.

But Disney has an undeniable agenda they openly preach every day and they have to signal their mega-corporation-victim-status to their communist-SJW-loyal-fans so the universe can collapse under the weight of their hypocrisy. So go buy 50 Rose toys you bigot incel! Get laid you pathetic micro-dicked Russian Nazi!

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO I'm helping.jpg, 14KiB, 480x360

Anonymous Fri 22 Jun 2018 20:39:58 No.7009208 Report

Quoted By: >>7009960

>>7008809
>I'm helping
That's pretty much what Star Wars did in killing TRU.

But you're probably right, they could have staved off death for another year or two if SW shit sold better.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 01:04:57 No.7009538 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
Walmart now has even more control of the market. Expect pressure to cut costs to lower prices.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 06:54:43 No.7009960 Report

Quoted By: >>7010730

>>7008809
>But Disney has an undeniable agenda they openly preach every day and they have to signal their mega-corporation-victim-status to their communist-SJW-loyal-fans so the universe can collapse under the weight of their hypocrisy. So go buy 50 Rose toys you bigot incel! Get laid you pathetic micro-dicked Russian Nazi!
Absolutely delusional.

Like I said, you're looking for something to blame Disney Wars for to feel justified instead of looking at the situation objectively. Toys R Us was closing inevitably. Star Wars didn't "kill" Toys R Us anymore than eating twinkies kills a cancer patient. You're grasping at straws.

Go ahead and accuse me of being a communist kike shill sjw or whatever nonsense lives in your head for free. That's the defense mechanism for your victim complex, isn't it?

>>7009208
>But you're probably right, they could have staved off death for another year or two if SW shit sold better.
MAYBE a year. The debt was clearly snowballing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 09:40:37 No.7010075 Report

Quoted By: >>7010084 >>7010216

Between the debt and how the company was run, TRU pretty much did it to themselves. The store I was near was understaffed a lot, nothing was ever upgraded (we slowly were running out of walkie talkies that were never replaced, for example), customers got away with dumb stuff all the time and theft was really high because there were not enough cameras in the store. There was no way the company was gonna survive if all the stores were cutting corners like that. I feel bad for my old coworkers (majority of them are wonderful people who didn't deserve how this went down), but almost anywhere they go after this they'll get treated a lot better.

As long as other companies don't run their stores like idiots for greed, take 'customer is always right' too far, and throw their employees under the bus, they'll be ok. The fact the TRU CEOs got their money before leaving and not giving any severance pay to any of the employees (while still expecting them all to stay and help close) says a lot in itself. I enjoyed the stores growing up, but as a company it can eat garbage with how it treated everyone.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 10:04:07 No.7010084 Report

Quoted By: >>7011710

>>7010075
>>7010075
>Gets saddled with debt by Bane
>can't afford to upgrade
>can't afford to innovate
>tries to chug along as being the largest toy store with widest selection of goods
>from time to time selects CEO that may offer a way out of debt faster
>amazon continues to eat away at physical stores, while larger discount stores like WalMart offer toys for a few cents cheaper to draw physical market away from TRU
>SW bombas badly with consumers
Can't really blame TRU, considering they actually do really well just selling toys, but there really was no way for them to update their equipment and look.
In times of great debt, that's a great way to sink your company faster, especially when their image had nothing to do with their faltering. Renovation is when you have extra cash lying around.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 12:24:47 No.7010163 Report

Quoted By:

>TRU starts shutting down in Australia
>Check out one of the few remaining stores in my state
>10% off is the highest they're going
>Literately NOTHING has sold since I last went there, minus one area
>The shelves are filled with pegwarmers and nobody will buy things like Lego for 5% off when it's still cheaper to get them from other stores

God TRU is garbage.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 13:41:55 No.7010216 Report

Quoted By: >>7011710

>>7010075
Did yours give out a free $20 gift certificate to anybody who REEEd for a manager? I always hate it when stores reward bad behavior, it just makes the bad people come back in a few weeks and cause more trouble. And decent customers probably get spooked and never come back after witnessing a shitshow.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1529096973826.jpg, 244KiB, 600x600

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 16:09:09 No.7010385 Report

Quoted By: >>7010394 >>7010456 >>7010792

>>7004284
In a way, very very very very very very very very very very fucked.

Toys R Us, no matter if you like it or not, whether their price are too high competition or not, they are the place where new toy lines are marketed and promoted heavily by Toys R Us themselves.

companies like Moosetoys and such would never have their toys heavily promoted by other big box stores like Target and Walmart.

The effect of TRU closing would not be noticeable for people like us, but it would destroy small-medium toy companies.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 16:18:46 No.7010394 Report

Quoted By:

>>7010385
>In a way, very very very very very very very very very very fucked.
Don't waste your time. /toy/ is full of poverty-stricken Randites that have never run a business or paid for anything themselves. They don't want to know why this happened or what's going to happen next.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 16:55:43 No.7010456 Report

Quoted By:

>>7010385
>TFW there may never be another underdog breakthrough like Moose Toys
No matter what problems trouble the industry, it always works out in favor of Hasbro and Mattel.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 20:58:25 No.7010730 Report

Quoted By: >>7010797

>>7009960
>Star Wars didn't "kill" Toys R Us anymore than eating twinkies kills a cancer patient. You're grasping at straws.

Is that why there is still a mountain of star wars toys and only a week to go before stores close? That was all that was left. SW and a few playschool boxes. There was a pile of power wheels land speeders, shelves full of tla, rogue one and even tfs shit. Oh and a peg full of halo yellow helioskrill figures.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 21:27:46 No.7010792 Report

Quoted By: >>7011226

>>7010385
The hell are you talking about? Moose dominates the girl aisles at Target with Shopkins and its 8 million spinoffs. That one line occupies more space than all the action figures at Target combined, and that’s before we consider Moose’s other lines.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 Jun 2018 21:29:17 No.7010797 Report

Quoted By: >>7011700

>>7010730
Whoosh, missing the point. TRU was already terminal before Star Wars shit sat around. They literally couldn't start paying off their debt because they were paying the interest on it every year instead. Star Wars didn't kill TRU or have any significant impact on its immediate future, despite how much your fanatical hatred of the new movies makes you wish it had.

Let me put this in perspective so maybe you'll understand. Toys R Us had about 800 stores before closing, yes? Now let's say they had $15000 invested in Star Wars stock at each store. Invested, as in what they paid for that stock, not what the MSRP was. That's $12 million dollars of unsold stock. How much was Toys R Us in debt for?

$200 million.

If all that stupid bullshit sitting around had sold for double or triple what they had invested in it, that's still merely just a bite out of the pie. A bite that gets filled back in every year. And you want to blame Star Wars for killing Toys R Us! GRRR MEAN OLD DISNEY KILLING THINGS SEE WHY I HATE THEM PLEASE HATE THEM WITH ME!

Fuckin iPads hurt Toys R Us more.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 02:55:19 No.7011226 Report

Quoted By: >>7011813

>>7010792
since you're a clueless dingbat and don't at least step foot in a Toys R Us, you don't know that most small toy companies got their start at Toys R Us. In fact, all toy makers that started 10 years ago wouldn't be here today if not for Toys R Us.

Its a game changer for small companies to be featured in at least the check-out lane in a Toys R Us, which Moosetoys got their start.

Most of the time, Toys R Us feature new toys in front and center ahead for 6 months to try to grab the market, also allowing the companies to reshape and retool their toys and strategies for their products before launching it at other big box stores.

if toys r us is gone, toys would be very safe and stale so they can be easily stocked and sold in big box stores.

That's why the MGA tried to save Toys R Us, their gratitude for Toys R Us giving him the start he needed for Bratz toys.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO flipdog.jpg, 163KiB, 1500x1500

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 05:27:42 No.7011424 Report

Quoted By: >>7011652

What would be the affect if KBs really does come back?
Having small stores in malls and strip malls means less space for larger items. Would the plastic loot box market get bigger?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 11:33:01 No.7011652 Report

Quoted By:

>>7011424
You can practically find the same kind of junk if you go to a 5 Below. I'm not sure what I would think of a KB return...

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 13:13:52 No.7011700 Report

Quoted By:

>>7010797
>How much was Toys R Us in debt for?
>$200 million

The leveraged buy-out left TRU with an approximately $6 billion debt and TRU's interest payments ALONE were between $425 to $512 million per year.

> Star Wars didn't kill TRU or have any significant impact on its immediate future, despite how much your fanatical hatred of the new movies makes you wish it had.

THIS.

TRU was pulling in about $13.9 billion globally in gross revenue at its highest point in 2012, and despite bankruptcy being on the horizon in 2017, TRU was still grossing a little over $11.5 billion. TRU's losses had grown just beyond 2%, but for a company that was still grossing billions annually and had a $2.3 billion cash reserve, a 2% hemorrhage could still be managed--- but NOT with the addition of the debt incurred by the leveraged buy-out, and not with private equity firms Bain, Vornado and KKR siphoning out hundreds of millions each year in fees and interest.

Star Wars or any other product line absolutely DID NOT kill TRU. TRU's death spiral began the moment they were bought out by Bain, Vornado and KKR. Given the availability of analysis articles and public financial documents regarding TRU's demise, the dogged belief by some anons that any one franchise product line like Star Wars killed TRU has got to be due to sheer willful ignorance at this point.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 13:30:11 No.7011710 Report

Quoted By: >>7011723 >>7012529

>>7010084
The issue is here that there are basic stuff that a company NEEDS to function, debt or not. There's a difference between upgrading for the heck of it and doing so when something breaks and needs to be replaced in order for a store to keep going.

Like the walkie talkies slowly breaking one by one til there's not enough working ones left. How can a store communicate between the floor, toy cashier area, baby registers, and back room if they don't have the proper equippment to do so? They can't do so as well, and in turn it takes longer to help a customer. If you don't have enough cameras in the store and don't add more, the issue with theft only gets worse and worse. If anything just adding some security or more cameras would have saved them money in prevented thefts and opened mystery box packages. They did combat some of the refund theft by attaching their merchendise credit to an ID, but they started it WAY too late.

Same with not scheduleing enough people off-season; you can't run a store on a skeleton crew and expect the service to be as good enough for people to want to come back. Each manager is only one person and can't be everywhere at once. There were a ton of other issues that would take forever to list, but the point is that they focused too much on the debt and not enough on actually running a business.

If Toys R Us was so in debt that they can't provide the basic stuff to keep a company running, they should have shut down long beforehand.

>>7010216
Nah, they instead did a bunch of returns and price adjustments to shut customers up, which still rewarded their crap behavior. Yours sounds horrific though and I'm sorry you had to deal with that. I worked for a different company that pulled that kind of crap several years back, and that was exactly what happened. All the good customers left after the top two managers kept throwing us under the bus and rewarding bad customers, and the store itself closed down after awhile.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 13:47:22 No.7011723 Report

Quoted By: >>7013088

>>7011710
>Like the walkie talkies slowly breaking one by one til there's not enough working ones left.

Haha, I thought that was just my store... We also had a huge problem with those fucking shitty scanners and printers. CONSTANTLY had to swap out and send some back for repairs.

It became a daily fight on who would get the newest working scanner...

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 15:39:16 No.7011813 Report

Quoted By: >>7012542

>>7011226
I get paid (still, until the local store finally dies) to visit TRU and other retail shops that sell toys as part of work. I have done design work for Moose (and others), and a grew up visiting TRU whenever I could.

Companies didn’t get their starts at TRU. TRU was a lot choosier with product than you’d think, you had to already have some promise as a producer before they considered your product, let alone put you in a good, visible part of the store. At the same time they hadn’t really been one of the biggest influences on the industry in years, Walmart and Target each account for more volume of toy purchases for retail than TRU had been.

The make or break moments for toy companies are industry shows like Toy Fair. If THOSE start closing up THEN hope is gone, but TRU hasn’t been that influential in the industry for more than a decade. It’s sad to see them more, but Walmart is more important and, as long as a company can get their asses in front of them at a show, there’s still hope.

And to cut you off, the reason there are fewer major toy companies now than previously (RIP Galoob) is because of supply chains at the production level. Bigger companies can afford to set up better supply chains, reducing costs in the long run. They can also afford to pay smaller companies enough to ether purchase promising product lines or whole companies themselves, reducing competition. The reason smaller and newer companies have issues entering the field is because the upfront cost for each individual product is immense and even if a company DOES get a product into production they often can’t guarantee that they’ll produce the kind of volume of product that retail chains need. This is also why big box stores don’t sell a lot of adult collectables: they tend to unreliably produce very small volumes of product.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 21:23:33 No.7012148 Report

Quoted By: >>7012542

>>7005708
>Also, Borderlands 2 stuff is McFarlane now, not NECA. My targets don't carry that, which shows how sporadic they are in carrying collector toys.
Not sure how recent it is, but Target has been moving stuff like McFarlane video game toys out of the toy aisles and into electronics. If you weren't aware of this before, then give that aisle a check over.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 Jun 2018 21:25:49 No.7012152 Report

Quoted By: >>7013795

>>7005713
>>7006100
>Mattel
A year or so, I would agree, but it looks like Mattel got some extra time given to them thanks to the Jurassic World line. Of course it could also be a case of 'too little, too late' but we will have to wait and see.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 02:49:47 No.7012529 Report

Quoted By: >>7013088

>>7011710
>how did stores run before walkie talkies were cheap enough for stores to give them to every employee
I know, i know, it's hard for you to currently even imagine how life was like before internet or even cellphones, but stores operated just fine pre-Chinese made electronics.

Sure, getting service isn't instant but that's just like how life was back in the day and customers were still happy. It's just like how it is in many stores today, where some still use telephones to get the attention of the workers in that area.

As for cameras, they never wanted to install cameras in every location, even when they did have money. As most any retail store will tell you, it's always employees who they need to watch out for the most, as they're responsible for the highest cost theft. So even places like WalMart just install fake bubbles to pretend there are cameras and always replace cameras when needed at the registers and the back.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 03:00:39 No.7012542 Report

Quoted By: >>7013795

>>7011813
>TRU hasn’t been that influential in the industry for more than a decade.
I find this hard to believe, considering how you can only find some products only in TRU. MegaBloks have like maybe one 2 foot selection of a shelf at WalMart/Target, while TRU gives them an entire 5 foot section across 5 shelves.
they carried a bunch of the larger vehicles, while TArget/Walmart had some ofthe sparrow vehicles and smaller military sets. Target never carried the shipping containers either.

>>7012148
I know, and my Targets in don't carry a lot. Destiny, maybe some of the Mass EFfect wave. That was it.
NECA only has the God of War giant figure and that's it.
Extremely limited, unlike TRU carrying just about everything /toy/ talks about.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 09:12:22 No.7013002 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
Not very. TRU have been irrelevant for years. They were typically the ones jacking up prices anyway.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 11:01:35 No.7013088 Report

Quoted By: >>7013892

>>7011723
Yeah we had the same issue with some of the scanners. I only used them a few times myself, but from what I saw some worked great and some were terrible.

>>7012529
Wow, you're making some pretty strong assumptions there and you're way off. Nice try, but I'm older than you're assuming AND you're missing my point entirely. If I'm on the floor and a customer needs to see if something is in stock in the back, a corded phone won't help me quickly help the customer, nor is it going to help the employee in the back moving around trying to find which item to bring to the front either. Sorry, but something portable is needed for employees that aren't tied to a certain section of the store.

Believe it or not, times and technology have changed enough where stores have to be more instant about how they can help customers now. What worked 'back in the day' isn't going to work now, and many stores that don't keep up with that close down or get left in the dust. Toys R Us not updating anything not only made it look very dated, but it made it fall farther and farther behind it's competition.

Having cameras only near the registers isn't going to solve the problem of customers shoving stuff into their purses or going into isles to open up unpaid merchandise. We dealt with so much of it we became a high risk store, but yet nothing was done to fix it (besides the refund policy changing, but it started too late). And not having enough employees scheduled isn't going to help to catch people doing it, nor are they really allowed to do anything about theft.

I'm only mentioning this in the first place to answer the OP's question; as long as other stores don't make the same mistakes Toys R Us did, the toy industry should be fine. They focused too much on the debt, refused to innovate to keep up with competition, took 'customer is always right' too far, and didn't utilize their employees correctly (but still blamed them for something that wasn't their fault).

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 11:43:48 No.7013137 Report

Quoted By: >>7013742

Holy FUCK are most of you retarded!!

"durr TRU had shit sales" - Hey mongoloid, TRU helped companies by BUYING their shit to sell. There were many manufacturers who ONLY survived on sales to TRU.

"durr others will step in to fill the void" No, they fucking won't. The remaining retailers are big on VOLUME, not variety. That's why you have those shitty shampoo-bottle style figures, because they are cheap o make and sell to the little kids.

You are going to get far less variety of toys, brand output is going to shrink. Learn some fucking economics before spouting off like the retard you are based on your redditor "feels".

Look at Jurassic World. Target doesn't even carry the full range of shit Mattel makes. And I'm not talking about the exclusives.

Toy manufacturers do not sell to us, they sell to the stores. And losing a huge chunk of dedicated toy stores IS going to hurt. Look at DST's 7-inch Ghostbusters. How many can they really sell to the direct market / etailers? They made it work by selling variation packages (less accessories) to TRU. Can they still afford new molds without TRU? We'll soon find out. But FUCK, most of you people are simpletons.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 19:47:06 No.7013742 Report

Quoted By:

>>7013137
Found the shitposter.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 20:16:36 No.7013795 Report

Quoted By:

>>7012152
Mattel’s problems can’t be solved with one successful line. It’s not a money issue, it’s a management and corporate culture issue.

>>7012542
TRU dealt in variety, while the Big Box stores deal in volume. Having a massive variety of products that sell moderately actually costs production companies more than singular products that sell well, and having stores that sell huge volumes of a smaller variety of products from a given line is producer life support.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 20:19:21 No.7013799 Report

Quoted By: >>7013821

Any Canadian anons think TRU will survive here?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 20:38:12 No.7013821 Report

Quoted By: >>7014189

>>7013799
Fairfax bought us up. We're good for a while at least. I feel like one thing they definitely need to do is revamp how much and what they order. A lot of product just sits there and doesn't have a chance to get refreshed. I also think organizing skus a bit differently could be helpful. Inventory really needs to be tracked better too.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 21:22:39 No.7013892 Report

Quoted By: >>7022135

>>7013088
>What worked 'back in the day' isn't going to work now
Bullshit, dude, because the vast majority of stores (like Walmarts) don't use those walky talkies. And 99% of the time they're only used to check up on a worker doing what they're supposed to do, rarely customer service.
There's very few chains that use them and how doesn't it work today even if most stores did use them? Calling a manager or some other higher up is like a 10 second deal at most.
I've never seen someone freak out over a 10 second wait, even when i myself worked retail at the most bitchiest supermarkets. It's other things that get customers all rankled up.

As for shrink, TRU isn't in the shitter because of that. Again, it's not important, because they already have teh cameras where they're needed the most. So they definitely didn't need to waste money on getting more cameras.

Everything you're talking about is shit that should only have been upgraded/maintained when they had surplus. Shit like that didn't kill them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 21:40:46 No.7013909 Report

Quoted By: >>7013926

How is Hong Kong doing?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 25 Jun 2018 21:49:52 No.7013926 Report

Quoted By:

>>7013909
Hk brunei thailand TW SG MY etc are all under Fung Group from the get-go as a franchisee back in the 80s. They are barely affected by all the mess happening to Geoffrey Inc. They've bought out the license to continue running their TRU franchise last I've heard. Like there's no liquidation sales or anything close to that in these countries.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 26 Jun 2018 00:10:31 No.7014125 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004991
>but keeps pegs and shelves empty for months at a time.
this is true in some cases at the local Wal-Mart
they have like this kinda large space for WWE figures like 4 pegs across but the last time I seen any merchandise on them must have been 9 or 10 months ago? the stickers are on the pegs like "WWE Basic" WWE Elite" but yet it is just this open space in the middle of the isle
with Ninja Turtles on one side and Transformers on the other

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 26 Jun 2018 00:59:38 No.7014189 Report

Quoted By:

>>7013821
thanks for the answer

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 26 Jun 2018 03:47:30 No.7014417 Report

Quoted By: >>7014763

http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/25/news/companies/toys-r-us-store-closings/index.html

There's an interesting tidbit at the end of this otherwise depressing story about the final days:

>On Monday Party City (PRTY) announced it would use 50 of the locations for its seasonal "pop up" stores, and expand from its traditional Halloween City stores to offer Toy City stores that will stay open through the holiday season this year.

>But those locations will be only temporary rentals and Party City does not anticipate using any of them permanently, Dan Sullivan, Party City's CFO, told CNNMoney.

Is this a viable plan? It's one thing to sell shitty plastic Dracula teeth and fake blood for a few weeks, but it seems like running a toy store for only a few months is a bit riskier.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 26 Jun 2018 10:37:57 No.7014763 Report

Quoted By: >>7031410

>>7014417
I mean TRU did the same thing with their pop-up stores. I'm not sure how viable it is though with any possible leftovers... How curious.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 26 Jun 2018 15:08:34 No.7015025 Report

Quoted By: >>7015606

YOU HAVE ONLY FOUR DAYS BURGERS

Meanwhile:
>#Savetoysrus: I just heard good news from Jean Charretteur (the GM of TRU Iberia) that he’s close to do a management take over and save TRU in France, Spain and Portugal. This is great news and I hope the hedge funds are reasonable with him so the same thing that happened to TRU in the USA doesn’t happen in Iberia.
— Isaac Larian

What about Poland?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 26 Jun 2018 21:49:33 No.7015606 Report

Quoted By: >>7016106

>>7015025
Last day for our store, actually. Pretty sad.

And I doubt that'll work out. All TRUs everywhere are failing, even Canada and Australia.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 26 Jun 2018 21:55:04 No.7015615 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
This. TRU's failure is at best symptomatic, not a future contributing cause. Retailers that aren't as specialized will sell the toys that acutally sell.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 27 Jun 2018 00:48:59 No.7015934 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
Maybe for you, filthy burgers.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 27 Jun 2018 02:24:38 No.7016093 Report

Quoted By: >>7016154

I don't see what difference it makes. Most people have stopped using them for years, myself included. I haven't stepped foot in a TRU in almost a decade, as there's no reason too. They sell nothing that's unique or that I cannot get elsewhere for a better deal.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 27 Jun 2018 02:28:39 No.7016106 Report

Quoted By: >>7021815

>>7015606
the TRUs in Japan are doing okay, actually, but from what I understand that section of the company is attempting to sell.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 27 Jun 2018 02:47:11 No.7016152 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004401
I guess if UK peeps ever cry abut not getting good shit i'll show them this

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 27 Jun 2018 02:47:21 No.7016154 Report

Quoted By:

>>7016093
You're not the whole world.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 27 Jun 2018 07:30:23 No.7016479 Report

Quoted By:

I WENT TO TOYS R TO FIND PUTRID PIZZA BUT THEY ONLY HAD DODGY DONUT FUCK them!

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 01:45:13 No.7017713 Report

Quoted By: >>7017745

>>7004284

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 01:58:47 No.7017745 Report

Quoted By:

>>7017713
He's moving to Canada. I for one welcome our new giraffe overlord.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 03:24:34 No.7017925 Report

Quoted By: >>7017971

I haven't been to one in decades, but I have good memories of being a kid and going to the flagship store in NYC around 2003 or so, it was so fucking cool with the ferris wheel, the gigantic lego sculptures, the T-Rex and the video game section on the lower level. I bought my copy of FFXI there and that game brought me some of the best vidya memories of my life, and I would have never bought it had I not seen a stack of FFXI boxies on that lower level and got my parents to get it for me.

Also FAO Schwartz, I read apparently they closed down their location on fifth avenue as well, fuck that was such a cool toy store with all the displays and shit inside including that kick ass star wars section, the wall of GI-Joes, and the lego section with all the displays. I miss that shit so much.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 03:49:43 No.7017971 Report

Quoted By:

>>7017925
TRU bought FAO so they just took over their store when that happened in the 00s

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 04:06:11 No.7018022 Report

Quoted By: >>7018997

Went to school with a kid who stole over a million dollars from TRU. He was the VP of shipping and used the credit card that was meant to pay the truckers to go on trips around the world and throw expensive parties. He's in jail now.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 04:20:47 No.7018048 Report

Quoted By:

>>7007596
FYE

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 18:12:35 No.7018835 Report

Quoted By:

Something wrong.
I hold my head.
Geoffrey gone.
A nigga dead.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 28 Jun 2018 19:46:41 No.7018997 Report

Quoted By:

>>7018022
While working there I stole Pokémon emerald, sapphire, Arkham Asylum, Metroid Prime 3, Paper Mario wii, and a few other things.

Also shitload of batteries.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 00:39:54 No.7019447 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
ive just completed my Toys R Us quest today. 2/3 were open, but only one still had toys left for 80% off.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 36343429_10209547704207966_10575 (...).jpg, 112KiB, 720x960

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 03:06:13 No.7019712 Report

Quoted By: >>7019714 >>7021360

My boss during our farewell party today. He worked at Toys R Us for 27 years.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 03:07:21 No.7019714 Report

Quoted By: >>7019818 >>7019843 >>7021360

>>7019712
Cake one of my co-workers made for the party.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 04:26:27 No.7019818 Report

Quoted By: >>7019831

>>7019714
>We never up! Toys
>Will grow were R us kids!

is your coworker brain damage

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 04:35:21 No.7019831 Report

Quoted By: >>7020235

>>7019818
No, but learn to use proper suffixes before you pull the retard card

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 04:50:52 No.7019843 Report

Quoted By: >>7019857

>>7019714
thats sweet. what did they use for the art? candy?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 05:05:04 No.7019857 Report

Quoted By:

>>7019843
Nah, it's all frosting. She drew it herself using some kind of frosting dispenser.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 12:08:56 No.7020233 Report

Quoted By:

italian here.
i had a little thought. here in italy we have this retail chain/franchise/whatever named toys. it is an italian branch of tru (so it might be fucked) or something that has nothing to do with it?
you guys know better than me.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 12:13:54 No.7020235 Report

Quoted By: >>7020246

>>7019831
what's wrong with people on this site (in this context, you specifically and your dumb ass) being completely unable to recognize obvious jokes? Not everything needs to wrapped in layers of irony and have a wojak attached to it to be recognized as facetious

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 29 Jun 2018 12:22:29 No.7020246 Report

Quoted By:

>>7020235
Don't make fun of his crush.
He never got to fug her.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 02:08:28 No.7021283 Report

Quoted By:

I bought NECA figures almost exclusively at Toys R Us, due to availability, price, rewards savings/coupons, and the fact that I could return broken figures. Going to miss them, also not looking forward to the crapshoot of online.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO NIGHTFALL%20IN%20USA.jpg, 61KiB, 962x722

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 02:51:17 No.7021347 Report

Quoted By:

About 11 PM Eastern time on 6/29. Any stores that were still open today will close within the next hour or so.

For my kids' sake, I hope this isn't the end of the industry.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 03:01:55 No.7021360 Report

Quoted By: >>7021456

>>7019712
>>7019714
That's nice.

So what happens now? Do most of your co-workers have somewhere to go? Did Toys R Us help you guys find another job beforehand?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 03:03:05 No.7021362 Report

Quoted By:

not going to impact it at all, Amazon, Target, and Walmart now have leverage over toy companies and will see their toy sales increase (moreso Amazon than any other).

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 04:03:08 No.7021456 Report

Quoted By: >>7021611

>>7021360
We had lots of companies offer jobs, and some of our managers helped us find new jobs, but a decent chunk of us ended up jobless, including myself. Our managers are writing us recommendations and letting us use them as references. My boss even offered me some jobs landscaping his place for some money to tide me over.

As of now though, we start applying for unemployment on Monday.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 04:10:11 No.7021470 Report

Quoted By: >>7021841

>>7004350
How is $16 insanely priced?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 04:25:48 No.7021493 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004310
>It's absence creates a void for other retailers to fill.
Book publishers took a massive hit after Borders disappeared. Toy companies took a hit when KB closed. Losing a market for your products, esp. one like TRU which some companies have said was 15% of their sales, is going to hurt.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 05:41:55 No.7021611 Report

Quoted By:

>>7021456
I'm at a loss for words. I really hope things work out for y'all. Stay strong.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 08:09:21 No.7021815 Report

Quoted By:

>>7016106
the TRU in JP are also starting to suffer but not because of competition, but because the low birth rates in Japan mean there's fewer kids buying toys made for kids. Instead there's an increase in adult collectible goods, but the qty that needs to be made to supply TRU and the lower production runs of stuff like the Tamashii Nations or Figma stuff mean the types of items that can be TRU are also lesser selection. Adult toys will never be able to supplant kids toys purchases.

The only tru in JP that are doing really well are the ones that are in urban centers accessible to tourists who bring their kids and adult collectors trying to get stuff that's rare in their own countries.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 08:13:02 No.7021822 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004332
*$6.6 billion
not million

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 08:29:16 No.7021841 Report

Quoted By:

>>7021470
They're 3.75" figures, have minimal paint apps and those minimal paint apps are extremely sloppy.

Also, they have about as much articulation as Mattel's JP 3.75" figures, which have more paint apps and have better QC too. Mattel's figures are $8.
So that's twice as much for a shoddier product.

Nevermind that that was 2-3 years ago and that's the old prices too. Wolverine and War Machine cost ¥2000 when they were actually released.
So they'd undoubtedly be more than ¥2000 if released today.

This huge price discrepancy is just another example of how tiny markets make for costlier products. And that's for a lesser quality product too.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 14:14:11 No.7022102 Report

Quoted By:

>>7005121
>Meanwhile, even when they DO get the deal, Walmart's supply chain and their underpaid employees don't give a shit enough to make sure the product makes it to shelf. That's why you end up with empty pegs, or only 1 or 2 items in a section. It's not about how much the store gives in the planogram, it's how often the toys actually make it to the pegs allotted.
Just FYI, if a mod has 1 or 2 figures that sit there for weeks or months, and get nothing new in, it's because we don't order shit.

Lemme rephrase: WE don't EVER order shit. Ever, in the whole store. Most employees aren't even allowed to do it. The computer does it, and it only orders a new case when an old case sells through 100% and the computer goes "oh there's none on the shelf and none in the back, better order more, it'll be here in 2-3 days."

I'm not shitting, this is how the entire store works.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 14:41:59 No.7022135 Report

Quoted By: >>7023004

>>7013892
>Bullshit, dude, because the vast majority of stores (like Walmarts) don't use those walky talkies
Walmart drone here. We absolutely still use the walkie talkies.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 15:51:36 No.7022199 Report

Quoted By: >>7022222

Did anyone go on the last day? Were there tears?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 16:16:06 No.7022222 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022199
a guy tried to use a gift card then left his items in a huff. apparently he has to file a claim for the cards

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 16:25:44 No.7022231 Report

Quoted By: >>7022241 >>7023029 >>7023822

Personally speaking, having lived in the US and see TRUUSA in its last leg and now see TRU oversea still doing fine, I think the overall industry within US is screwed unless the manufacturers start to innovate its points of contact with the customers and its supply chain.

With online shopping, having large department store serving niche market that is more than 30 to a hour drive away is no longer possible. Looking oversea, those TRUs that still survive and bringing in money are those located in urban center along with mom and pop shops.

In fact over here, local hasbro/lego actually spend a lot focus on mom and pop shops with them always getting the proper shipment on time. Though TRU do have the advantage of having the proper display setup by the manufacturer and larger stock when available. But the key here is the industry offices here (the big one, lego, Bandai, Mattle, hasbro anyway) actually do their leg works as far as I can tell.

I don't think I ever see their US HQ ever try this hard. They seemed to just dump their stock in TRU/Wal Mart/Target and that is it and could care less if the stock even arrive on time. And mom and pop either have to do scalping or just having minimal left over if they even carry any toys at all.

Now with TRU gone and target/wal mart could care less about toy, I am not sure if they know what to do at this point. You would think they would know how to work with US online retailers or even just having its own online shops. But even that they seem to be lacking in depth as as far as I can tell most people on /toy/ still buy from 3rd parties.

>And it didn't help when they keep making shit that adults nor kids would buy or making stuff that would sell but making too much of them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 16:30:06 No.7022241 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022231
Dude, Geoffrey Inc. going down is due to some 4D chess scheming by the finance companies that bought it. The overseas branches are doing fine because they are run by other companies.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 16:40:49 No.7022258 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
im more afraid of where else stores like Ross will get their overstock now.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO TRU_Homepage_TopCMS.jpg, 48KiB, 1368x212

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 16:49:39 No.7022268 Report

Quoted By: >>7022272 >>7022581 >>7023839 >>7024572 >>7031472

So what happens to the stuff at TRU that just couldn't sell? Bladebuilders. Superchargers. Funko Pops. Does it go to some place like Ollies or is it just trashed?

[email protected]

[email protected] Sat 30 Jun 2018 16:52:33 No.7022272 Report

Quoted By: >>7022286

>>7022268
Generally it gets bought for pretty much nothing and ends up in places like Big Lots and other closeout stores.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 17:04:12 No.7022286 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022272
when i was picking out the banners, i noticed 4 unopened boxes of Yokai medals under the cubby holes.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 30 Jun 2018 21:28:24 No.7022581 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022268
I will miss TRU.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 02:20:35 No.7023004 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022135
I think it depends on the walmart.
two of my local ones have none and only the bigger one does.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 02:33:06 No.7023029 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022231
I dunno about that.
I have 2 TRUs within 10 minutes travel of me. One was 15 minutes away.

The only one that was actually going to be closed with the first announcement was in the densely populated area. This one was about 20 minutes away in a larger city.

There are local company reps who ensure everything is up and up, but they can't do anything about overstock and making sure the pegs are full of current waves. Stores simply can't reorder without selling out of that shit first.

Anyway, there really was no actual problem with how TRU ran. YEah, they could have updated a lot of shit, but they couldn't because of the debt they were saddled with. All blame falls on Bain.
Despite TRU making billions of dollar every year, they could not climb out of that hole Bain stuck them in.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 03:52:52 No.7023187 Report

Quoted By:

TRU was never a thing in my country.
They sold the same crap as the other toy stores.
OFC no exclusives that you guys have from the US.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 07:16:21 No.7023478 Report

Quoted By: >>7023479

>>7004284
what exactly happens in a bankruptcy? so they close for good, but that means they can use unused funds to pay off their debtors? what if they dont have enough from pre-closing sales?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 07:18:02 No.7023479 Report

Quoted By:

>>7023478
Their debtors are the same fucking people that owned them, so who cares?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 14:44:06 No.7023822 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022231
This. US is an extremely minimum effort market. I just never could get to the point where I could afford a store because of how badly the distribution network fucked me along the way.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 14:58:24 No.7023833 Report

Quoted By:

Lexington, KY reps, DOA TRU

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 15:03:44 No.7023839 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022268
The Funko pops sold like hotcakes. They only had those sports 3 packs left.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 23:00:39 No.7024572 Report

Quoted By: >>7024590

>>7022268
Salvation Army bought the remaining stock in a few stores near me.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 01 Jul 2018 23:17:59 No.7024590 Report

Quoted By:

>>7024572
I remember when the Green Lantern stuff was pegwarming SO HARD, and it was all on deep clearance but never selling. They came in and bought every single fucking thing. It was a true miracle. Cleared out an entire 8 foot section of pegwarming merch.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 04 Jul 2018 21:12:14 No.7030080 Report

Quoted By:

Some kids in my class went to a candlelight vigil outside of TRU. I blew it off to see a movie with thots.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 14:27:07 No.7031350 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004401
>Japan's toy market isn't even the second largest in the world.

its literally third. the fuck point you trying to prove here

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 15:48:52 No.7031410 Report

Quoted By: >>7032093

>>7014763
ToysRus did something like 90% of their sales during the holiday season, so this model should work. My guess is that they'll do one or two year-round stores in big areas so they can sell off whatever the others don't sell during the rest of the year.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 15:59:33 No.7031421 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
It's a great opportunity to jump in and buy TRU for cheap!!!
Auction house anyone???

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 16:45:05 No.7031472 Report

Quoted By:

>>7022268
Closeout stores, thrift stores or the landfill

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 17:37:46 No.7031537 Report

Quoted By: >>7031722 >>7033014

>>7004284
Prices higher than anywhere else physically and online, except scalpers.
Turn a blind eye to mothers using strollers to steal toys.
Stocking what manufacturers Market Hype the most instead of what might sell.
Let drug dealers rule the parking lot.
Prejudice against men who stop in on the way home from work (I can't give you my backpack I have customer data in it, what about that woman hiding lego under the baby blanket?).

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 19:44:28 No.7031722 Report

Quoted By:

>>7031537
>Turn a blind eye to mothers using strollers to steal toys.
No, we knew they were doing it and tried to catch them as much as possible. It was always the same bitches, too.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 23:05:47 No.7032093 Report

Quoted By:

>>7031410
cough cough cough

There's a reason why there's a day called Black Friday in November, and that's because that's when the stores become profitable after 8 or 9 months of selling shit.

That 90% thing you're repeating is likely when they make their profits, not 90% of their revenue.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 05 Jul 2018 23:34:25 No.7032149 Report

Quoted By: >>7032985

>>7004350
All Western Countires aside from US and Canada have a VAT, and in EU its around 20 to 25 in all countries. Given how U.S has a sales tax of 3-8, that basically means that everything in Yuroland is going to be 15-25% more expensive with the same income level/competiton/production cost.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 06 Jul 2018 10:58:19 No.7032967 Report

Quoted By:

>>7004284
It's practically dead. Unfortunate, but true, many such cases! The data is pretty clear. Ever since TRU fell down, sales have gone to shit.
I guess I'll just have to find a new hobby now. I've been thinking about archery for quite a while. I'll probably be giving it a shot pretty soon, no pun intended. It's time to move on, guys.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 06 Jul 2018 11:09:30 No.7032975 Report

Quoted By: >>7032985

>>7004350
>this is likely because the toy markets in those countries are shit.

I'm an eurofag from a small country and I can confirm this. Neca, for example, costs three or four times as much here. It's considered a premium thing. Hot Toys and Mezcos are holy grails, that can reach well over a thousand bucks in native currency. It's a very expensive hobby and few people are into it.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 06 Jul 2018 11:22:37 No.7032985 Report

Quoted By: >>7032989

>>7032975
>>7032149
Man, everything is more expensive.

Back when /lit/ wasn't just college kids trying to get everyone to do their homework for them, it opened my eyes to how fucking expensive books could be elsewhere.
And if that wasn't bad enough, some of books are split up to get even more money from readers.

Shit's crazy and makes me wonder if they even read considering how expensive it can get.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 06 Jul 2018 11:33:06 No.7032989 Report

Quoted By:

>>7032985
There's a very strong market for books where I'm from, and they're not crazy expensive. The only moderately expensive books are those that are the original editions in English. The translated copies are cheap.
However, figures, statues and all kinds of niche products are expensive as hell. Even things that are in high demand like Legos are considerably more expensive here. The market for comic books is pretty dead here as well, because of higher prices and low demand, and because of this, a lot of publishers have went bankrupt over the years.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 06 Jul 2018 12:13:03 No.7033014 Report

Quoted By:

>>7031537
>that gaynon who threaten to sue for $50 for bringing in a backpack

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