Toys R Us is returning in 2022 through Macy's stores.

[Werewolf]

Macy's is also running the toys r us.com website now.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/19/toys-r-us-is-coming-to-more-than-400-macys-stores-next-year.html

[ODBJBG]

Oh look, another day, another company dragging the corpse of Toys R Us out of the grave and parading it around saying "look at me, I'm alive and well" for another scam.

Lordy, we get one every year, but this year has already had this happen a couple times. WOW!

[Earth 2 Chris]

I won't believe a word of this until I walk into an actual TRU branded store...and with retail outlets dropping like flies, that isn't likely to happen.

Chris

[monitor_ep]

I feel bad I never went to the second opening with it was in Houston. I am with you, I will not believe these hype stories until I hear about the opening again.

[jwyblejr]

It would be nice if you had a Macy's to go to.

[TrekStar]

There’s a Macy’s at my local mall within walking distance. I want to make sure I understand this, Macy’s will have Toys R Us items in their stores and online or just available for online ordering only?

[ODBJBG]

There’s a Macy’s at my local mall within walking distance. I want to make sure I understand this, Macy’s will have Toys R Us items in their stores and online or just available for online ordering only?

Given what happened the last time someone did this, Macy's will likely rebrand their tiny toy section as "Toys R Us" and use some of the familiar TRU imagery. But it will still be the same small uninspired toy section they always have during the holidays.

[supes]

I think I read they will have a Toy R Us section in 400 Macy's stores.

[TheNewGiJoeWithKungFuGrip]

Headline should be "Dying store purchases dead store."

[Liu Bei]

Headline should be "Dying store purchases dead store."

Yeah, literally. Might as well pick up the Sears and K-Mart brand names while they’re at it.

[tmthor]

Except I heard the new smaller Sears stores (the ones outside of malls with no exhorbant rent) were doing well.

[ODBJBG]

Well to be fair, a ton of the TRU stores were profitable. Several stores, very much so, and had the Canadian TRU company been able to purchase the brand all of those stores were planned to stay open.

Actually, the entire business was turning a profit, but they got squeezed by venture capitalists who were intent on driving them to bankruptcy because it was more profitable to them. But TRU as a company was doing just fine overall, but they got their own debt leveraged against them.

Anywho.

[SeattleEd]

Here is great article detailing the history of the demise of TRU. All from a business perspective. Worth the read if you are interested.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-demise-of-toys-r-us/

Bottom line: Major debt, bad decisions, and lack of evolution.
If TRU focuses on instore TRU exclusives not available at Walmart, Target or Amazon, they will have a chance and make it a fun experience for the children and parents and not another warehouse store. However, the exclusive licensing from toy manufacturers is the killer cost and there are few major toymakers already in bed with the major retailers.

[ODBJBG]

That's an interesting article, but truthfully not very informative. Not trying to be argumentative, BTW.

But that is sadly as so many articles were, too focused on "Amazon" and "Toys don't sell" and not enough on the reality of what drove TRU out of business, Amazon and other failures to adapt hurt TRU for sure, but never came close to driving them out of business. Bain Capital and the other venture capitalists who were intentionally sabotaging the company is what killed TRU. It's what they do, it's how they make money.

A much better article here explains this: https://theweek.com/articles/761124/...sts-ate-toys-r

TRU has $11 billion in sales in 2017... But they were paying obscene amounts of interest because of the way the venture capitalists had things set up. Essentially the scheme is to buy a fledgling company, saddle it with debt and then make loans to that company with absurd interest rates that force them to pay YOU back for buying them. You then never invest back into the company (because your ultimate goal is to milk them dry and run them out of business) and that's what happened with TRU.

[Werewolf]

Yeah, it wasn't Walmart or amazon that drove TRU (or Kaybee) out of business. It was venture capitalists, like Bain, that raided their assets and saddled them with insurmountable debt.