Potential Toys R Us bankruptcy

I'd like to see what this is about but, unfortunately, I can't read the article.

However, there needs to be something said about going to stores to buy stuff rather than just online. Maybe I'm just old-school, but depending on the item, I like to see and inspect the thing first before buying it. Be it toys, electronics, groceries, or just a spool of thread, I like seeing something in person first.
 
I'd like to see what this is about but, unfortunately, I can't read the article.

However, there needs to be something said about going to stores to buy stuff rather than just online. Maybe I'm just old-school, but depending on the item, I like to see and inspect the thing first before buying it. Be it toys, electronics, groceries, or just a spool of thread, I like seeing something in person first.

I am close friends with a owner of a toy store, well vintage toy store but they carry all kinds of new stuff including pop figures

He rents a spot in the mall, close to 3000 a month for rent. He says the days of malls and stores are coming to a end

He can't believe how many times people ask for something, he brings out the ladder climbs up, gets the item then hands it to them

They inspect it hand it back and say "thanks, I just ordered this off amazon and waiting for it to come in, I wanted to check it out"

He says this happens multiple times a day

I love amazon but sadly think it's going to be the end to malls and shopping stores in general

I don't know if this is nation wide but a bunch of Best Buy's in my area also closed. The largest one they kept open and use this as a "show room".

They too say it's easier for them to just sell online, try to buy a tv at the large show room, they barely have anything in stock there everything gets shipped to your house

My dad is old school and wants to go to the store and buy it, and bring it home. He gets so bull**** when ever he goes there because nothing is in stock and it gets shipped to the house lol

I just hope amazon puts Walmart out of business... I can't stand that company and how horrible they are to their employees

But my dad is the same way as you wanting to go to the store and inspect, too much of a hassle to have it shipped, not like it and return it
 
try to buy a tv at the large show room, they barely have anything in stock there everything gets shipped to your house

While I like shopping online and buying stuff on Amazon, I like having Best Buy around for the large electronic purchases. I like going and looking at the big ticket purchase, in person. I like checking out the features... in person. I like picking up the item and paying... in person. The way shipping companies treat items these days, I do not trust they will get my 70+ inch fragile flat screen, or $2,000 computer to my door without damages. To be able to pay and load it up myself is a big deciding factor of my purchase.

Now with a book store, or toy store... I am totally guilty of stopping by to look at an item, then I head home and do online searching to find the cheapest option.

- - - Updated - - -

I'd like to see what this is about but, unfortunately, I can't read the article.

here is an alternate article:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...possible-bankruptcy-filing-sources/ar-AArZMc2
 
I don't have a car right now so amazon is a perfect option for me. With prime it's at my house in 2 days you can't beat it

It's just sad in the end because I think amazon is going to be the company to end them all :(


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I don't have a car right now so amazon is a perfect option for me. With prime it's at my house in 2 days you can't beat it

It's just sad in the end because I think amazon is going to be the company to end them all :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is. But today we all seem to have to penny pinch, and when I can save gas by not running to Books A Million, and not buy the full priced $45 book there, all because I can snag it on Amazon for $15 and free Prime shipping. It is a no-brainer. That is happening and it is killing brick and mortar stores. Walmart came to town and killed the mom-n-pop shops because you could find everything in one location at a cheaper price... and now the online market is doing the same thing to Walmart.
 
I am close friends with a owner of a toy store, well vintage toy store but they carry all kinds of new stuff including pop figures

He rents a spot in the mall, close to 3000 a month for rent. He says the days of malls and stores are coming to a end

He can't believe how many times people ask for something, he brings out the ladder climbs up, gets the item then hands it to them

They inspect it hand it back and say "thanks, I just ordered this off amazon and waiting for it to come in, I wanted to check it out"

He says this happens multiple times a day

I don't know your friend but sadly he's correct as I have dealt with this first hand.
11 years ago I owned my own sci-fi collectibles/vintage toys/gaming/comic book store. We were VERY successful for the first few years until about 2005, when the internet (eBay) destroyed us. On a daily basis I would have to defend the price of everything. Yes, that Darth Vader figure is 6.00 and I'm aware that Walmart has it for 4.00, but I'm just one small store and I have to keep the lights on. Besides, don't you want me to stay open so you and your buddies have a place to game? Oh, you don't. You just want me to stay open so you all have a hang-out place but you don't want to spend any money here? What's that? You just bought this awesome new game on eBay and you and your buddies are coming into my store to play it? Gee, I have that game for sale right over here. I don't remember selling you one. Oh, you bought it on eBay because it was cheaper. What's that? You're hacked off because I'm closing the store?

Fortunately, we we able to sell the store to someone that was going to set it up in another state, so we managed to make a decent profit in the end before we met out doom.
Yup. The internet will see the end of the brick and morter store.
 
Wow. I don't even know where a TrU is near me anymore.

I do like to purchase from Best Buy if possible, but more and more, they just don't stock things. You go in and ask for something and the reply is: "We can order that for you and you can have it in 5 days." Don't they know I can order it from Amazon, many times same day delivery.

Another company I always supported was Barnes and Noble. But for the last few years, I just can't anymore. Look at a book on Amazon - $20. Look at a book on BaN online - $25. Actually haul my butt down to Barnes and Noble and the book is the full cover price of $45. I get having to keep the lights on, but sheese!! I got mouths to feed too. Plus their "making of" movie section usually sucks.
 
I still fondly remember the days of looking forward to the TRU Christmas commercials, and the holiday catalog. Sadly those days are long gone. Whenever I go into a TRU now, it's always the same. Horrible customer service, one..maybe two checkout lines open with a line down the aisle...poorly reshopped aisles and few new toys. It's just too easy to order online, especially with free shipping. Not having to deal with shopping experiences like I noted above...PRICELESS.
 
While I like shopping online and buying stuff on Amazon, I like having Best Buy around for the large electronic purchases. I like going and looking at the big ticket purchase, in person. I like checking out the features... in person. I like picking up the item and paying... in person. The way shipping companies treat items these days, I do not trust they will get my 70+ inch fragile flat screen, or $2,000 computer to my door without damages. To be able to pay and load it up myself is a big deciding factor of my purchase.

I also like going to Best Buy to check something out, but it usually is cheaper online. If it's not a whole lot cheaper I may still get it at the store. If we're talking over $20, and it's still cheaper after adding shipping, I'll get it online. That's why people call Best Buy "Amazon's Showcase".

It is. But today we all seem to have to penny pinch, and when I can save gas by not running to Books A Million, and not buy the full priced $45 book there, all because I can snag it on Amazon for $15 and free Prime shipping. It is a no-brainer. That is happening and it is killing brick and mortar stores. Walmart came to town and killed the mom-n-pop shops because you could find everything in one location at a cheaper price... and now the online market is doing the same thing to Walmart.

I like going to book stores. Then I was looking for a book and Barnes & Noble (the only close book store now) has it for $20-30 more than Amazon! No wonder they area losing business! We also used to have Books A Million and their sister store (maybe just here?) Books & Co., but Amazon killed them in this area.
 
I Stopped going to TrU when they decided to go PC and eliminated their toy gun Aisle. You used to be able to go in there, and come out (toy) Armed like Rambo. Yeah the tips were Orange but no big deal, then one day - mid 90s I go in and they're all gone because 'we don't support violence". Well then, I guess I don't support your store anymore, SEE YA.
 
Sad to see another familiar name on its way out. We never had Toys-R-Us locally when I was growing up but I remember seeing ads in comics and lusting over all the stuff they must have that we never get. We had Lionel PlayWorld which I have very find memories of. It bit the dust in the late 80's. This left us with KB Toys which in turn tanked when we finally did get three Toys-R-Us in the late 90's by which time the chain was a shadow of it's former self even then. We're down to a Babies-R-Us and one store and I don't remember the last time I was there. Maybe 4 months ago when the 40th Anniversary figures first started to hit and they didn't have what I was looking for.

The decline of brick and mortar stores has been very much in my line of sight for a long time. Record stores were always my favorite growing up and those are nearly all gone and the few that remain are also shadows of their former selves. Same with good book stores. We do have a Barnes and Noble which is really great -- I shop their magazine section for Cinefex and American Cinematographer. I also love their overstock/discount section.

I do have a rather large chip on my shoulder about Best Buy as they did to local businesses back in the 90's what Amazon is doing to everyone now -- only they were a little more snakey about it. Back in 1993 I worked for a family/employee owned electronics store that had been in business for 75 years. Best Buy blew into town in autumn and hired senior sales staff away from many local businesses, a few of our guys bailed, with the lure of lucrative commissions. They then proceeded to undercut everyone over the Christmas holiday season. The kicker was, once the holiday was over and they'd destroyed all the competition, they fired all the staff they'd head-hunted so they didn't have to continue to pay them. So, yeah, not a fan of BB.
 
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I also like going to Best Buy to check something out, but it usually is cheaper online. If it's not a whole lot cheaper I may still get it at the store. If we're talking over $20, and it's still cheaper after adding shipping, I'll get it online. That's why people call Best Buy "Amazon's Showcase".



I like going to book stores. Then I was looking for a book and Barnes & Noble (the only close book store now) has it for $20-30 more than Amazon! No wonder they area losing business! We also used to have Books A Million and their sister store (maybe just here?) Books & Co., but Amazon killed them in this area.


That's the rub - pricing. People go where it's cheapest. Always have, always will.

Best Buy nationally ripped the general public for coming into their stores to determine what to buy, then going online to get it cheaper. A good while ago, I did exactly that, too. Now, we're not talking sales tax difference here. As an aside, owners here bitch relentlessly blaming sales tax as the reason people go online. For $50 of merchandise, that's an average of maybe $3 in tax. Hardly enough to run home to get it on amazon instead. In my case, it was a TV. I was able to get the TV, Playstation 3 ($400 at that time), and 4 blu-rays, for LESS than best buys price on the TV before tax. So, uh, yeah it was Amazon.

Funny thing though, after that initial lashing, best buy embraced the difference and even got manufacturer's involved. Now the price of a TV is more or less the same whether it's best buy or amazon or walmart or wherever. Makers are setting mandatory minimums on pricing. I was talking to a very helpful person in the Magnolia section (shocking, i know) and they were saying how the claimed they price matched amazon. I said, my guess is that doesn't include tax and he said it didn't, but he said that's not the only way it works. I wound up with a couple HDMI cables and a soundbar setup that was pretty much the equivalent of tax. I looked up the sound bar when i got home - and Amazon had it for $500, i was surprised. It can't touch my surround sound setup, but it beats the hell out of the tv's speaker :)

Stores ARE trying, it's just with incredibly low overhead compared to a retail store, it's very hard to beat amazon. You can't fault them for that. Not sure how clothing could go online when single companies can't keep consistent sizing within their own divisions, let alone between companies. Very much company dependent. I own shirts Size L, XL, and XXL that all fit me the same...that'd be a royal pain to deal with online.
 
This is funny. The BB near my house is one of the worse places I have been in recent memory. I decided to try and upgrade my home theater system. I was in the Magnolia section. They were showing me Martin Logans that are $20k Seriously? I appreciate what you have in your home but I live in reality.
They are some of the most aggressive sales people I have come across. I used to be in car audio and home audio sales. I always believed in being honest and never trying to sell more than needed. But these sales guys are crazy. I wont even go into that store now. I went to a store 20 minutes away because they set me up with my own music to listen to and left me alone. I don't need nor want a sales rep breathing down my neck trying to push me into what THEY want to sell me. Hell half of the great audio companies now are online only. Out of the 5 speaker companies I am considering only one I can buy at a store.
As far as TRU I am confident they will come out of this ok. Supposedly the majority of their stores are profitable so maybe with some restructuring they will be fine.
On the other hand I think Amazon is evil as all hell even if I buy from them occasionally.
 
That's the rub - pricing. People go where it's cheapest. Always have, always will.

Best Buy nationally ripped the general public for coming into their stores to determine what to buy, then going online to get it cheaper. A good while ago, I did exactly that, too. Now, we're not talking sales tax difference here. As an aside, owners here bitch relentlessly blaming sales tax as the reason people go online. For $50 of merchandise, that's an average of maybe $3 in tax. Hardly enough to run home to get it on amazon instead. In my case, it was a TV. I was able to get the TV, Playstation 3 ($400 at that time), and 4 blu-rays, for LESS than best buys price on the TV before tax. So, uh, yeah it was Amazon.

Funny thing though, after that initial lashing, best buy embraced the difference and even got manufacturer's involved. Now the price of a TV is more or less the same whether it's best buy or amazon or walmart or wherever. Makers are setting mandatory minimums on pricing. I was talking to a very helpful person in the Magnolia section (shocking, i know) and they were saying how the claimed they price matched amazon. I said, my guess is that doesn't include tax and he said it didn't, but he said that's not the only way it works. I wound up with a couple HDMI cables and a soundbar setup that was pretty much the equivalent of tax. I looked up the sound bar when i got home - and Amazon had it for $500, i was surprised. It can't touch my surround sound setup, but it beats the hell out of the tv's speaker :)

Stores ARE trying, it's just with incredibly low overhead compared to a retail store, it's very hard to beat amazon. You can't fault them for that. Not sure how clothing could go online when single companies can't keep consistent sizing within their own divisions, let alone between companies. Very much company dependent. I own shirts Size L, XL, and XXL that all fit me the same...that'd be a royal pain to deal with online.

See, Im not sure if I believe that. I like going to a store to talk to the employees and ask them about stuff, but thats a problem that I see everywhere, is that employees dont know **** about what they are selling. I used to actually work at a Toys R Us when I was a teenager, and I was knowledgeable about the products. I think thats a big reason why Radioshack went under, aside from **** poor management, their employees dont know a damn thing! You ask if a certain product is compatible with another one that they sell, they dont know, they "just work here". Too bad that doesnt mean anything. Same thing as going into Best buy to look for a sound bar. The guy in the department didnt know a damn thing about it, I had to do research on my own, then made an informed decision. I still bought it from Best buy because I wanted it for the weekend, but the point is, is that the human element is to blame. I would pay a little more going to the brick and mortar store, knowing that there were knowledgable employees, and returning things is less of a hassle. I hate having to eat the shipping charge, and go to the post office/UPS store to ship something back and wait for that turn around in order to get my money. I think that sucks. If its something like a HDMI cord, then its no big deal, but something big like a TV or sound system, then I want to buy it from a store.
 
While I do admit to shopping mostly online I don't like it. I would love to walk into a store pick up my item and head home but the odds are they are outta stock or they don't stock it but they are willing order it for you.I can do that on my own without wasting gas and I still have to play the will it be delivered game.
As for TRU I'm kind of glad. I hated that place since they screwed me over when I worked there pre-2000. They screwed up my paperwork during Christmas and the bonus $.25 an hour per week if you weren't late or miss a day wasn't set as temporary so after the holiday season I was making more then my managers so instead of asking me to sign the paperwork to fix problem they sent in a kid from loss prevention I knew from scouts or school I didn't like or trust kept trying to get me to steal and when I didn't take the bait he wanted me to take "stolen" goods he planted outside the store again I didn't fall for. Even after proving I was honest I was taken to the back office a few days later and fired. I got even though as I was being interviewed by the loss prevention manager he was stupid enough to list all the best ways to rob them blind and I was taking notes. After getting home from being fired I promptly got online and posted all my notes. Within a few weeks I found out they where in the process of remodeling the electronics department and adding extra cameras in the blind spots. I don't know if they changed their raciest policy about following colored people with heavy coats.
 
I Stopped going to TrU when they decided to go PC and eliminated their toy gun Aisle. You used to be able to go in there, and come out (toy) Armed like Rambo. Yeah the tips were Orange but no big deal, then one day - mid 90s I go in and they're all gone because 'we don't support violence". Well then, I guess I don't support your store anymore, SEE YA.

Yes I remember that. Not the only thing are NERF or generic "space guns". Of course you also have dumb neighbors who act like you're abusing your kid if they play with toy guns. Kids have been doing that since the birth of the country. I'm sure back in 1700s kids grabbed sticks off the ground and played like they were guns. Not to mention, most kids back then were hunting when they were young with real rifles.
 
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