Toys R Us to close all 800 of its U.S. stores

Tripredacus

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I went there today and everything is just 10% off, game consoles are 5% off.

BUT, keep it in mind when/if (they may not) get down to selling "fixtures" to be on the lookout for signage. I never really looked before, but the one I went to has these gray plastic sign holders up in the game section. They have dumb ads in the plastic windows, but each one of them have a company or brand name on the top. They had these sign holders with Activision, Vivendi Universal, Wii, Xbox, PSP and PS2 logos on them. So never forget to look into buying signage when going to a store that is doing a liquidation. Currently, TRU is not at that point yet, but may be soon.
 

Neo Alec

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They're crazy if they think Kaybee will thrive in malls in today's market. Just look at This is Dan Bell or, the Proper People on Youtube...malls are literally becoming places for urban exploration.

I watch that crap on Youtube too, but the holiday season is the one time of year when malls are busy, and that's the only time they plan to have these pop-up KayBee stores open.
 

Neo Ash

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Looks like MGA's (Bratz, L.O.L., Lalaloopsy, etc.) founder/CEO Isaac Larian is trying to save about 400 of the closing Toys "R" Us stores now, starting with $200 million, at a GoFundMe page; hopefully, he succeeds:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/22/news/companies/save-toys-r-us/index.html

The irony of GoFundMe pages like this, is that if people were simply shopping there it wouldn't be needed. Now it's all let's save this iconic store I haven't been in for years/decades and totally forgot about....wait...I give a fuck about it again.
 
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norton9478

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Liquidation sales are for rubes.

I laugh at the people piling in (my GF was one of them).

OMG! 10% off!

Last November, just about everything was 20%-30% off retail.


Now if they were to start pulling shit out of the back, NOS stuff left in a corner and fixtures.. that might get interesting.
 
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Psygnosis8

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Liquidation sales are for rubes.

I laugh at the people piling in (my GF was one of them).

OMG! 10% off!

Last November, just about everything was 20%-30% off retail.


Now if they were to start pulling shit out of the back, NOS stuff left in a corner and fixtures.. that might get interesting.

Don’t hold your breath. They’ll probably just shutter the place with whatever they got left in there and sell the leftovers to another company. Or destroy it like GameStop.

And I agree, the sales are not worth the hassle. I’ll save $10 on a $50 switch game. Big whoop.
 

NeuroticMoose

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Don’t hold your breath. They’ll probably just shutter the place with whatever they got left in there and sell the leftovers to another company. Or destroy it like GameStop.

And I agree, the sales are not worth the hassle. I’ll save $10 on a $50 switch game. Big whoop.

I remember hearing the horror stories from back when they shut down all the WB Studio stores how the employees were tasked with destroying the marble statues of Looney Tunes and DC Comics characters
 

norton9478

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Don’t hold your breath. They’ll probably just shutter the place with whatever they got left in there and sell the leftovers to another company. Or destroy it like GameStop.

And I agree, the sales are not worth the hassle. I’ll save $10 on a $50 switch game. Big whoop.

Probably.

Depends on who they got to run the liquidation sales. Toy's R Us has always been rather dysfunctional, so if the individual management teams do the liquidating, then it could be good.

As for the video games, I think they were 5% off. Jesus.
 

snes_collector

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Yes it seems that way to me also. I can't speak for how the store near where I work is on weekends, because I only go during the lunchtime break. And on Tuesday it was as dead as usual. But last saturday the parking lot was full. The other store I go to on weekends is always busy on Saturday or Sunday. But I see a lot of people online (and in this forum) saying they never go there, but even TRU is not expecting adults to go there to buy things for themselves. A co-worker or mine is noting that kids (even his) aren't playing with toys as much as they used to, and his kids friends are not into them. It seems the time is changing and perhaps it is related to cartoons not being on every morning or on saturdays besides a couple of cable channels. And let us not forget that toy prices have been going up a lot in the past few years. Retail Transformers, per size class, is at least double in price than they were 10 years ago. I'm sure this is also true across the board.

This is a good point. I keep seeing on Facebook my former classmates who are now parents post about how their kids don’t play with toys and don’t want others to buy toys for their kids. They say they want to give their kids “experiences” and take them lots of places. I don’t understand why it has to be that way- you can’t go on a trip everyday. I guess it boiles down to parents don’t want to buy toys at current prices and kids no nothing other than a smart phone from birth.
 

aoiddr

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My local Toy's R US was in the first wave of closures announced, so they were 40%-60% last week. On Sunday, they had a manager's special that took an extra 20% off on top of that. Everything worth buying was just about gone by the time it hit 20%-40%, but they seem to keep bringing new stuff out that I've never seen in the store at all before. I've mostly been raiding what few superhero-related blind box items I can find as those sometimes have decent markdowns. (There are some items with zero clearance markdown at all, though, and nobody can override it.)
 
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Xavier

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I disagree with a bunch of you, there's a need for physical games stores.
The place ha been ran by an investment firm for awhile now.
They had a blackout in the late 90's and pretty much gave up selling on line since.
All the specialty toy store have gone out of business, now there's nothing but online and department stores.
I buy my kids toys and department stores selection sucks.
Last kids birthday was a month ago and I let him pick out some toys from Amazon but it was nowhere near as cool as running through a giant toy store.
 

aoiddr

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Went into my TRU today and they had cleared off the entire back wall shelves and had started putting items from various sections into the front aisles to try and get it to move. I might go in there one more time before it closes, but it's getting down to just dregs and fixtures now.
 

HDRchampion

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I'll probably go check it out tomorrow after my kids teacher conference meeting. I'll let them pick out something for the last time. Any posters left over/fixtures?
 

Psygnosis8

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I disagree with a bunch of you, there's a need for physical games stores.
The place ha been ran by an investment firm for awhile now.
They had a blackout in the late 90's and pretty much gave up selling on line since.
All the specialty toy store have gone out of business, now there's nothing but online and department stores.
I buy my kids toys and department stores selection sucks.
Last kids birthday was a month ago and I let him pick out some toys from Amazon but it was nowhere near as cool as running through a giant toy store.

Oh, I agree with you. It’s really sad.

Meanwhile Kay-bee is trying to make a comeback I guess. They said there’s going to be “pop up stores“ over the holiday season, which sounds like those Halloween stores that temporarily take space in the mall. Will see where the sensor, but I don’t have high hopes.
 

aoiddr

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Meanwhile Kay-bee is trying to make a comeback I guess. They said there’s going to be “pop up stores“ over the holiday season, which sounds like those Halloween stores that temporarily take space in the mall. Will see where the sensor, but I don’t have high hopes.

I remember Kay-bee's first time doing "pop up stores" in the early 00s. It was mostly just them filling an empty mall space with overstock items and their usual barking dog and ferret ball displays to lure people in. No games and a very limited selection of merchandise. I recall Toy's R Us trying this also. Lots of foot traffic, but not a lot of people buying, if I recall.
 
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wizkid007

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Fuck this place, stole like 200 cans of silly strings for wars in the parking lot.
 

FilthyRear

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There will never be anything like going up to "the cage" after you checked out at the register.
 

fake

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I'll always remember scheming on what I'd spend my Geoffrey Dollars on, those vertical rainbow slabs, the blast of air conditioning and the bubblegum machines at the entrance, the slips of paper for games, and the smell of the bike section. RIP.
 

sylvie

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my memory of TRU isn't so much video games but GUNDAM ACTION FIGURES!!!!! and playsets!!!
 

mr_b

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Like Hostess, it will be reborn.

There's too big of a need for it. Give it a year or so. With the Canada branch stays in business it will be back.

As a parent with young kids, there is nothing like going to an actual toy store with them.
 
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