Toys R Us’ final day of business was Friday, June 29th…
Toys R Us filed a motion to liquidate its US business in March, initiating the closing or selling of all 735 of its US stores
Here’s the message:
Thanks to each of you who shared your amazing journey to (and through) parenthood with us, and to every grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, and sister who’s built a couch-cushion rocket ship, made up a hero adventure, or invented something gooey. Promise us just this one thing: Don’t ever grow up. Play on!
http://www.businessinsider.com/toys-r-us-posts-heartbreaking-message-on-last-day-of-business-2018-6
I am one of the younger Americans considered part of GEN X ,born in ’78, and remember seeing those commercials on the boobtube often. Remember?
“I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid,” yada yada yada…
Definitely a catchy gingle considering I still remember the chorus line over 25 years from seeing the commercials.
My parents never bought anything there, never could afford going there (no biggie either). Remember, this was before Wally World, we shopped the Blue Light specials at K Mart and bought shoes at Payless.
I refer to our Generation as the Toys R Us generation…kinda like Peter Pan never growing up, with the Atari, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox evolution in our lifetime, countless hours of alpha males wasted away hypnotized by the black mirrors they stare at. These mirrors reflecting back to them ecstasy, the power they lack in the real world, and offering US something WE can control and be rewarded for…..a cocktail of distraction from the “scary” “adult” REAL world and satiation of the existential angst associated with the journey of LIFE THAT we all wrestle with.
The years of conditioning of my Generation, like we are dogs of Pavlov, makes for a difficult spell to break
and
yet,
HERE I AM.
I’ve heard someone else refer to Gen X as the Burger King Generation, “Have it Your way, the Right Way” slogan synonymous with Burger King. I think the observation is an apt description of the entitleness not just afflicting Gen X, but large swathes of the Baby Boomers, Millenials and Gen Z. I guess you could say it is associated with our cultural characteristics.
What are your thoughts, observations, rants, accusations, grammar erections TBPers????
We was toys an shit.
Jack, you a funny guy. What I find disturbing is that Plato is not only a noob, he’s still in diapers and I have yet to find a topic to write about. I just didn’t want to grow up.
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Thank you Nkit….i have a terrible time with adding pictures….its probably for the best anyways haha
Don’t tell Francis…
Don’t care. Toys R Us is just another legacy business that failed.
If you watch Company Man’s explanation, it’s their 2005 leveraged buyout that killed them. If you want to avoid successful businesses failing, don’t let them be LBOd. Seems like that’s when the failure gets baked in.
When I’ve visited a Toys R Us in the last few years, I wasn’t impressed. It seemed like a wide, shallow, shitty selection to me. I saw a toystore called, no joke, We B Toys. They had a great idea-they put samples of the toys out for kids. There might be others that do that, too, but this was the first one I remember seeing.
I’ve mentioned this story before when Toys R us first stated they were going out of business, but it still pisses me off. Years ago, growing up in Chicago, one of the first Toys R Us was on the Northwest side. They actually had a sign on the entrance stating no child under the age of 12 admitted without an adult! Apparently that never affected their success, but one of the more bizarre business decisions I can recall (and never forgot).
Another big box seller of Chinese shit goes belly up. Big deal! Toys R Us was founded around 1957 and was one of the first of the retailers that help spark the death of an American industry by buying its wares only from the Orient. Soon I predict ALL such companies will be dead, as they all have ignored this very basic premise: The only people who will buy your products are the ones who have the money to do so.
You know, Henry Ford was the one who said that people first have to have money before they can buy your products, so he raised the salaries of his auto workers knowing that most of that money would eventually flow back into his hands. These people we have today running businesses are fucking shortsighted idiots!
Rarely went in, even in the mall locations. They tried, bless ’em, but capitalism has winners and losers – and the banks kill more businesses than even the government. Was it a Harvard MBA who approved the LBO that sank them? Wouldn’t be surprised, their elite educations make them incapable of doing business in the real world.
James, the real story is criminal looting. A private equity group, like Bain Capital, rustles up a pile of cash and takes the company “private.” Then, they load the company with debt, lots of debt They sell bonds at a lucrative rate in the public markets and GORGE on the loot, sometimes billions in awards to themselves. Do they intend to pay back the bond money? NO. Do they care that they consign the company to failure? NO. Do they care that employees will be screwed?NO. Do they care that buyers of their bonds will be screwed?NO. Is this legal? Sadly, yes.
@ Turlock
Wow!
MAN! Just, man!
Excellent observations.
+ 1000
BTW,
Like the name, Turlock, Ca, is a decent, quant town…sure has grown over the years.
Thank You. I saw this theft/liquidation first done on a venerable American company back in the 70’s…….Woolworth. Meschulum Ricklis( who knows if I spelled his name right) actually laughed at the bond sales, called them rouble bonds after the nearly worthless Russian currency. Put family members and a mistress on the payroll for millions and millions in salary. Literally laughed all the way to the bank. These psychopaths destroy the lives of countless savers, investors, and workers. They become wealthy and it is all legal and tidy. Makes me want to vomit.
I don’t know why that kind of shit is legal, except it helps make a few people a lot of money and helps ruin the lives of a whole lot of other people. Win/Win!
James
If it were only pure capitalism, with the invisible hand of the market not controlled nd manipulated through algorithmic high frequency a.i. run trading these days…
More like Crony Capitalism, since it’s just a different form of control like the other isms…
Mussolini’s description of Fascism aka Corporatism seems to be what is happening to all the brick and mortar stores now that online shopping and Amazon has created vertical integrations within their business models.