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Final day of Toys R Us set for next Friday


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9 hours ago, Eliwoodman12 said:

I am so confused by this. Couldn't they have made this announcement/decision before they decided to close all of the physical assets? How much did they make in selling all of these assets? Was it enough to contribute to this decision?

 

I assume they didn't pay off all of the debt with selling the physical assets. So my question is is that debt still attached to this revival? And if it isn't, why not?

If they made the announcement beforehand I'd wonder if it would interfere with the bankruptcy process since the whole reason for it is to sell off assets in order to pay back some of what is owed to their creditors.  Announcing that beforehand that they'll just prime the brand for revival after the fact would suggest they have the capital necessary to do so in which creditors would rightfully take issue with it.  But, I've no idea how bankruptcy proceedings work in that regard and even moreso I don't know if that debt even still remains.  The way I figure it after Chapter 7 went through then any remaining debt is written off as a loss at the creditors' expense, but then it begs the question why they would be allowed to wait so long and as of now be able to maintain control of intellectual property assets.

 

In any case, part of me is glad that Toys R Us will continue on in some form and part of me is conflicted because the way this was handled was dirty and even now there are people I've worked with who are still facing hardship trying to get back on their feet after losing their job, let alone the other 33,000+ employees.

 

By the by, a bit more elaboration on what this revival plans to do along with quotes from members of the toy industry who aren't a fan of it:

 

Toy Industry Not Thrilled with Idea of Toys R Us Comeback

Edited by Kezay
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21 hours ago, Kezay said:

 

The end of that article pretty much would sum up my feelings on the matter.

 

And the whole using TRU store brands as brands to be carried in other stores seems kind of shady too.

 

I still think there are only 3 major retailers that could accommodate the vacancy of TRU from the toy game: 1) Wal Mart/Sams Club, 2) Target, and 3) KMart.  All three have toy departments of decent variety and stock levels and could easily try to expand their floor plans to accommodate more toys.

 

But, again, the whole bugaboo about this the reason that was stated for TRU's demise, the online toy selling market.  Which, basically means amazon.com at this point (as I am not sure who else is a major player for online toy sales.  I get there would be that brick and mortar void... who would want to take on the inventory?  Who would want take on the margins?

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8 minutes ago, purple_beard said:

 

The end of that article pretty much would sum up my feelings on the matter.

 

And the whole using TRU store brands as brands to be carried in other stores seems kind of shady too.

 

I still think there are only 3 major retailers that could accommodate the vacancy of TRU from the toy game: 1) Wal Mart/Sams Club, 2) Target, and 3) KMart.  All three have toy departments of decent variety and stock levels and could easily try to expand their floor plans to accommodate more toys.

 

But, again, the whole bugaboo about this the reason that was stated for TRU's demise, the online toy selling market.  Which, basically means amazon.com at this point (as I am not sure who else is a major player for online toy sales.  I get there would be that brick and mortar void... who would want to take on the inventory?  Who would want take on the margins?

Eh, I doubt Kmart could help to fill the void as it's not doing too good these days, alaong with Sears.

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I still think it will be tough for even Walmart and Target to fill the void without doing a notable expansion.  I have Super Targets and whatever the larger Wal Mart stores (super Wal marts?) in my town and neither have a toy department that accommodates nearly as much as the standalone Toys R Us stores had let alone larger side by side superstores like the one I came from.  The Super Target I go to carries Star Wars toys in about 12ft worth of a 20 ft long aisle including a 3ft endcap.  The Toys R Us I came from had at minimum an entire aisle to itself at around 40 ft of space and four 3ft endcaps (an additional 12ft of space). The reason I say at minimum is because around this time of year and especially in a year where a new movie drops it also gets the entirety of the feature area at the front of the store which at our store was an additional 28 ft of space.  Granted, some of that could be cut down because some items had multiple facings/spots but most areas were completely unique SKUs covering various lines of just that one product.  Star Wars Black Series, Hot Wheels, Micro Machines (at the time), Collectible Figures, Funko Pops, standard lightsabers, build sabers, RC toys, Nerf branded toys...it's a lot of different brands that the Star Wars product line alone covers.  Then you consider other large toy lines like Marvel, Barbie, Nerf, Disney, Disney Princesses, Cars (yeah that's Disney too but it's a big enough property that it had an entire aisle all to itself, Hot Wheels...the list goes on and on.  And these are all toys Wal Mart and Target both carry but not nearly the same amount of unique products.

 

Without doing a fairly extensive expansion their best bet to even match that would be to expand toy lines on their respective online marketplaces, something Amazon apparently is already doing and advertised about not long after TRU went under.

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Apparently, the Toys R Us website has been revamped a bit to reflect their intentions to go forward with keeping the brand alive.  Just kind of weird looking through it especially the history part where they laud the creator of Toys R Us and how far his dream went considering what they did to his dream just a few short months ago.  The press release has some interesting wording in it though:

 

Quote

The transition of the business to its new owners is pending approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court and all major creditor constituencies are supportive. Geoffrey, LLC thanks all parties that participated in discussions with the company over the prior months, particularly those that submitted proposals, for their thoughtful and diligent engagement.

So basically, not a done deal on paper yet but there's enough support that it might as well be.  Makes sense considering they are moving forward with it to some degree.

 

Quote

Geoffrey, LLC, as reorganized, will control a portfolio of intellectual property that includes trademarks, ecommerce assets and data associated with the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us businesses in the United States and all over the world, including a portfolio of over 20 well-known toy and baby brands such as Imaginarium, Koala Baby, Fastlane and Journey Girls.

This was something I didn't think about at first. When it come to intellectual properties I didn't even think of them retaining their owned brands like those they listed above.  A lot of them were really good alternatives to the popular brands they followed suit.  Imaginarium for instance had a train table that was designed to accommodate its own train cars/vehicles as well as those of Thomas the Tank Engine toys which was good considering how expensive the Thomas branded toys were.

 

Quote

In addition to continuing to service these markets, the new owners are actively working with potential partners to develop ideas for new Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores in the United States and abroad that could bring back these iconic brands in a new and re-imagined way.

Though it was assumed at this point they are definitely planning to return with brick and mortar stores again one day since I know a lot of the early speculation assumed they would just selling once RUS branded toys at other retailers or sell exclusively through an online RUS marketplace.

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One of the only articles I could find that has some sparse details about how this new TRU/ Geoffrey's Toy Box will begin rolling out.  Biggest surprise to me is that the TRU HQ apparently had a skeleton crew working there all this time.  We knew they had some staffers there during the last weeks of liquidation to handle last minute oversight, data storage and logistical duties but no idea that the place was essentially still running all this time.

 

How Toys R Us Plans to Make its Comeback

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Meant to post about this when I came across it earlier last week but this pretty much gives a roadmap of what the "new company" plans on doing with the brand going forward.

 

Toys 'R' Us Is Making A Comeback As Tru Kids -- With A Modern Customer Approach

 

Basically, some former execs remained to get this upcoming project off the ground and are operating under the name TRU Kids (get it, Toys R Us Kids? Heh...yeah) Anyway, they're still going to continue some of the in store displays that cropped up this past holiday season but are looking to push into having their own brick and mortar establishments as well.  If they do, it won't be anything like the previously existing stores as they instead will be operating with a smaller footprint and focusing on in store experiences as part of the business.  But that's "IF" they go that route since things still seem to be in planning.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I heard they're trying to relaunch TRU overseas first, before they try to get into the US market again.  Asia, India, and Europe are their current targets for opening 70 new stores and they're also looking to get back into e-commerce too in viable markets.  TRU Kids Brands HQ is apparently still going to be stationed here in New Jersey, so I have no doubt they'll be expanding into the US again at some point once they figure out the best strategy.  Stores are going to be much smaller, probably about 10,000 square feet and the aisles are not going to be stacked as high.  Probably going to be aiming for more space to host play areas for children and their parents to try out new toys.  Sounds kind of similar to what Issac Larian (MGA Entertainment's CEO) wanted to do when he was trying to buy the rights to TRU last year.  

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That was my thought too, but apparently Geoffery's Toy Box was only the name of their experimental pop-up shops in Kroger supermarkets.  TRU Kids Brands might not even be the name of the upcoming stores themselves, but rather the name of the company that owns the rights and assets to the brand.  Whatever they do ultimately name their stores though, you can be sure it'll be something very similar to the original.

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