R.I.P. Toys R Us

I actually thought about this a lot - if they weren't so horribly mismanaged, cannibalized by their investors, and saddled with all that bad debt, you'd think/hope there'd be a market for dedicated toy stores. I think making the store an experience is a good idea - kind of like the old FAO in New York City, the TRU in Times Square, Hamley's in London, or that three story FAO that used to be in Vegas... Some of the toy stores in Japan and China are mind blowing...

Hamley's is amazing. All those demo stations are so enticing. I bought 2 products just based on the demos (that are still in the boxes today :lol).
 
Toys 'R' Us rejects bid from Bratz CEO.
Isaac Larian placed a $675 million bid for 200 of the remaining 735 Toys "R" Us locations in the United States, and almost all of more than 80 locations in Canada.

"Sources with knowledge of the matter say the bid was too low."

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/17/news/companies/toys-r-us-rejects-bratz-ceo/index.html

He's on Twitter asking for their counter offer:

https://twitter.com/isaaclarian/status/986445549619441666

Twitter.

Where the world holds important business these days :lol

(not a jab at Isaac btw ;) )
 
Toys 'R' Us rejects bid from Bratz CEO.
Isaac Larian placed a $675 million bid for 200 of the remaining 735 Toys "R" Us locations in the United States, and almost all of more than 80 locations in Canada.

"Sources with knowledge of the matter say the bid was too low."

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/17/news/companies/toys-r-us-rejects-bratz-ceo/index.html

How is *ANY* bid too low at this point? They're going out of business! Their company isn't worth a plug nickel.
 
How is *ANY* bid too low at this point? They're going out of business! Their company isn't worth a plug nickel.

Depends on their debt. File bankruptcy, wipe away the debt and close all stores. Walk away clear and free.

or.....

Accept an offer for the business that is less than their debt, then they would have to pay the money they received in the buyout and then still owe the banks or other lenders x-amount of dollars that went unpaid.
 
Depends on their debt. File bankruptcy, wipe away the debt and close all stores. Walk away clear and free.

or.....

Accept an offer for the business that is less than their debt, then they would have to pay the money they received in the buyout and then still owe the banks or other lenders x-amount of dollars that went unpaid.

Or take the buyout, include all of the debt in the buyout and let the new owners deal with it, or take the buyout, use the money to pay off some of the vendors who otherwise wouldn't get a damn thing, and go bankrupt on the lesser amount. Either way, at the end of the day, current employees and owners walk away with nothing (except their golden parachutes). The company is worth less than zero at this point.
 
Stopped in tonight and store was full of products and only 10-15 % off. Signs say “up to 40%”, but I didn’t see anything that cheap yet.
 
They must have a lot in storage or something to keep it all stocked.
Wonder if they'll do what some stores do by saying there going out of business everything must go.......which sometimes will last like 3 years.
 
Stopped in tonight and store was full of products and only 10-15 % off. Signs say “up to 40%”, but I didn’t see anything that cheap yet.

At least they're restocking your store. Not here. The shelves are empty, at least for anything that I'd want to buy.

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You'd think by now they would at least increase the sale a bit more.

From what I understand from in-store signs, they expect this to go through at least June.
 
At least they're restocking your store. Not here. The shelves are empty, at least for anything that I'd want to buy.

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From what I understand from in-store signs, they expect this to go through at least June.

Hmmmmm.... if you walked through our store, it is completely stocked. I mean, aside from the sales signs, you would not even know it was going out of business.,
 
Hmmmmm.... if you walked through our store, it is completely stocked. I mean, aside from the sales signs, you would not even know it was going out of business.,

Not here. I figured they'd be clearing out warehouses but apparently, they're all empty already, at least in my area.
 
I went to ours today to be ambushed by "nothing held back!" & "Everything must go" plus "Accepting offers on all store fixtures!". Then I saw the display of the child's riding Landspeeder. It had a sign on it that read "not for sale" :lol
 
I went to ours today to be ambushed by "nothing held back!" & "Everything must go" plus "Accepting offers on all store fixtures!". Then I saw the display of the child's riding Landspeeder. It had a sign on it that read "not for sale" :lol

Weird, Ive seen stores that had 'ask management about buying store fixtures' on signs at the front. Someone in management must be trying to reserve that fixture lol.
 
Well one of the private equity firms (Bain) that bought TRU and precipitated its decline by saddling it with debt in a leveraged buyout and soaking TRU out of management fees also did the same thing with KB toys. It's one of the major dangers of taking your company public.

Anyway, I went with my kids to TRU over the weekend looking for the electric landspeeder, but my 6-year olds are already too big for it. I had no excuse to buy it. Instead they were more interested in a more spacious 12V Ferrari plastic car, although my son kept returning to the landspeeder looking for an excuse also.
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