>>7729387People saying that Star Wars killed Toys R Us are only partially right. Yes, they were full of unsellable Star Wars garbage. Star Wars isn't selling in my area's stores or collector circles that I run in. It's dead. Every idea from Hasbro ends with "and let's price this at 50% more than it should cost." They're releasing a TVC X-Wing at $100, even though it's barely worth $50 and every other vehicle they've put out at that price range has flopped.
But...TRU was also saddled with Romney/Bain buyout debt, commercial rent is sky high, and their customer base had become massive poorfags.
Financial engineering debt and sky high rent are afflicting tons of retailers. Payless Shoes, for example, closed up here but is still going in South America. JCPenneys is in serious trouble too. Sears/KMart is on death's door. These aren't trendy startups with no market or plan, they've been around 50+ years, some through the Great Depression, and now there's no room for them? Once these stores have a little debt, it's like they can't recover. I saw this with my own business. As soon as you start to make a few bucks, the landlord or some service you need jacks up their rates and pushes you back down.
Customer poorfaggotry doesn't help either. When TRU was around, poorfags outright lied about their markup. $1.15 more than Walmart ($19.99 vs $18.84) on Marvel Legends suddenly became "double MSRP" even though _actual_ MSRP was $22.99 or $24.99. I hear it all the time - "b-b-but it's cheepur on Amazon." Well, hope you're happy with smashed boxes and their pricing algorithm that prices higher that TRU ever was, to say nothing of being a one stop shop for resellers to flip everything under the sun. Why put up with driving around or distributor fuckery when you can scoop up only the hottest figures with a single click?
