[Pretty darn OT] A rant

[MeepoTheMighty]

[rant]

Why on earth does Toys-R-*fricken*-Us have worse selection and higher prices than Target, Walmart, or any other department store?

I went in this store for the first time in a few years today, and it was completely deserted. The only cars in the parking lot belonged to employees.

And then their prices seemed to be around 10-20% higher than their competitors.

Now, I'm not a business major, but I think if you run a store called Stuff-R-*fricken*-Us, you ought to at least try to compete in the marketing of Stuff.

Maybe the illiterate kid who scribbled the "R" in their company name is now CEO?

[/rant]

 

[Cedric]

This hugely depends on the Toys R'Us. The one in the town I used to live in was like yours...suckville.

But the one in Austin near Lakeline is very nice. The only problems I have with Toys R' Us are the lame licensing crap that goes on.

Try though we might we couldn't find anything that had Tweety on it for my daughter...and we don't have a WB store in our area.

Ticked us off...

Cedric

 

[starwolf]

Try though we might we couldn't find anything that had Tweety on it for my daughter...and we don't have a WB store in our area.

Cedric

I quess this means they closed the WB store in Highland Mall?

Too bad, I loved that place......

 

[BMF]

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago about Toy's R Us. It said they wern't doing very well and were in the process of rethinking their stratigy and "downsizing." It said earnings for them had been trending down for quite some time, due largely to the things you cite (strong competition from Target, Walmart, etc.)

Sucks for them.

 

[Vaxalon]

Their strategy had been based on heavy advertising. They wanted to be the first place people thought of when they shopped for toys... and it just doesn't work that way anymore. Too many other outlets have big toy departments, so toys have turned into an impulse buy.

 

[Blood Jester]

I quess this means they closed the WB store in Highland Mall?

Too bad, I loved that place......

Ummm....

Didn't you guys know that AOL (who bought Time-Warner a few years ago) decided that they are an online company, and had no interest in running retail stores, so...

Early last year they closed all the stores, summarily putting hundreds of employees on the street, and leaving a big hole in the revenues of DC comics?

From Jan 25 2001:

At least 1,000 more jobs - and perhaps as many as 2,400 - will be cut and all 130 of its Warner Brothers retail stores will be closed or sold in a widening shakeup of AOL Time Warner, various reports said. Citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, The New York Times, Daily Variety, and other publications said the move also would affect the company's music business, its Time Inc. magazine unit, America Online, the Entertaindom.com Internet portal, and New Line Cinema movie studio...

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Their strategy had been based on heavy advertising. They wanted to be the first place people thought of when they shopped for toys... and it just doesn't work that way anymore. Too many other outlets have big toy departments, so toys have turned into an impulse buy.

I haven't heard a single toys-r-us ad in years. The last one I can remember is the "I don't wanna grow up, I'm a toys-r-us kid" jingle, and that must have been at least 10 years ago.

 

[Jeph]

My big beef with TRU is that they named their stupid mascott after me. They fricken stole my name! Can you believe their insolence?

"Jephrey the Girraffe." Humf. Morons.

 

[Zerovoid]

I haven't found Toys are Us to have bad prices. Not good prices either, but pretty much they and Target and Wallmart all sell things pretty much at the MSRP. It could also be that kids don't have as many toys anymore. Of course, no longer being a kid, I wouldn't really know, but I remember buying lots of video games at Toys 'R' Us when I was a kid, but I would definately shop at Best Buy first now.