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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > R.I.P. Toys “Я” Us

R.I.P. Toys “Я” Us
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subego
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Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Mar 15, 2018, 01:34 PM
 
Not really a surprise I guess. They didn’t simply choose not to adapt, they did it aggressively.
     
andi*pandi
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Mar 15, 2018, 03:08 PM
 
They were one of the last toy stores, can't think of a brick and mortar place to go aside from target and walmart (brrrrrr), really.
Amazon killed them.
     
subego  (op)
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Mar 15, 2018, 04:13 PM
 
Amazon certainly didn’t help, but they seemed ridiculously stagnant on top of it.

It’s been ages since I’ve been to one, but the descriptions I’m reading sound exactly what it was like when I went there in my 20s to buy vidya games.

I was excited by the product, but it was kind of a depressing place.
     
OAW
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Mar 15, 2018, 04:40 PM
 
A flawed business model killed them more than Amazon. They got bought out and loaded up with debt by private equity firms. So money that could have been invested in upgrading stores was redirected to servicing debt. Customer traffic predictably sank. And it all became one big vicious downward cycle.

OAW
     
Doc HM
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Mar 16, 2018, 06:41 PM
 
Our local store was amazingly depressing for a place full of toys. when even your target market (my kids when they were, er, kids) don't like going to a toy shop, you have issues. I don't think I ever saw the car park with more than 10 cars in it. even at festive season time.
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
     
mindwaves
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Mar 17, 2018, 07:36 AM
 
Will miss the store. I love going there and buying Play-Doh. Walmart was killing it, as their toy section is quite good. No need to go to yet another store when you can do your clothes, toys, food, and electronics shopping at one store.
     
Ham Sandwich
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Mar 17, 2018, 02:20 PM
 
[...deleted...]
( Last edited by Ham Sandwich; Apr 23, 2020 at 09:46 AM. )
     
subego  (op)
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Mar 17, 2018, 02:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by mindwaves View Post
Will miss the store. I love going there and buying Play-Doh.
Have you tried Sculpey?

It gets stiff, but you can knead flexibility back into it. It doesn’t truly harden unless you bake it.
     
gorickey
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Mar 20, 2018, 08:59 AM
 
I bought so many Rickey Henderson Starting Lineups there back in the day! Bummer.
     
Doc HM
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Mar 20, 2018, 11:15 AM
 
Seems one of the reasons that Toysrus ran out of cash was a mysterious £600million loan repayment to an unnamed company in the British Virgin Islands.

So no tax there then.
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P
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Mar 21, 2018, 07:08 AM
 
Originally Posted by OAW View Post
A flawed business model killed them more than Amazon. They got bought out and loaded up with debt by private equity firms. So money that could have been invested in upgrading stores was redirected to servicing debt. Customer traffic predictably sank. And it all became one big vicious downward cycle.
It was the target of a leveraged buyout, yes, but KKR and Bain (yes, that Bain, although Romney had left before this deal happened) lost money too. They bought it for 6.6 billion. 80% of this was borrowed, with the dept to be serviced by Toys R Us and this did indeed cause the company to bleed money that it couldn't afford to lose, but the vultures lost the rest of the purchase price. Everyone lost here.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Laminar
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Mar 22, 2018, 04:22 PM
 
     
mindwaves
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Mar 25, 2018, 08:09 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Have you tried Sculpey?

It gets stiff, but you can knead flexibility back into it. It doesn’t truly harden unless you bake it.
It has been a long time since I have had interest in modeling clay, but it looks like a good gift item for some friend's kids I know. Thanks.
     
subego  (op)
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Mar 25, 2018, 01:16 PM
 
My pleasure!

A block of the color isn’t very large, so getting a lot of it can add up.

They sell bulk, white Sculpey for cheaper. Often times people will make the basic shape out of white, and put a thin layer of color over it, or if it’s going to be baked hard, the white can be painted.
     
   
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