Dark Times Ahead
 

Evening All,

Just saw this on a Twitter Feed:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ne-competition

JediTempleArchives has a couple other stories to provide background.

I hope they are able to come out of this on the other side and it doesn't mean their demise. Where I live they are the only other large scale alternative to WM.

Re: Dark Times Ahead
 

Ya looks like WM will be the only retail store soon for toys. Maybe other retail stores such as Best Buy can step in ? I know some of them in the US sell some collectibles & toys.

Re: Dark Times Ahead
 

It's been a long time coming. Online sales are killing brick and mortar stores. Its unfortunate but it is the reality that we are living in. Online shopping has become so convenient, it beats running around to 10 different stores wasting gas and time looking for figures that 9 times out of 10 aren't in stock.

As for other stores picking up the slack with toys and collectibles; I only really see Wal-Mart increasing their inventory on these kind of products. Best Buy will probably be the next chain you see closing their doors, I feel like every time I go to a Best Buy the inventory levels seem to be decreasing. The odd time you actually find what you are looking for there, the first thing you do is pull out the phone and start searching for a better price so they will match it.

With minimum wage increasing to $15/HR in Ontario, you can already see the writing on the walls in many retail stores and fast food chains, with far less employees on duty compared to say 2 years ago...Been to a McDonalds lately? The days of 6 or 7 tills being open to take your order are gone and have almost all but been replaced with giant iPads where you pretty much serve yourself with little to no human interaction.

SkyNet, folks...SkyNet.

Re: Dark Times Ahead
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...919-story.html

posted 2 hours ago
stores will be fine

Re: Dark Times Ahead
 

[QUOTE=turtle power eh;92949]Been to a McDonalds lately? The days of 6 or 7 tills being open to take your order are gone and have almost all but been replaced with giant iPads where you pretty much serve yourself with little to no human interaction."

its actually a fact most stores have had to hire more staff when putting in self service systems - honestly look it up, Mcdonalds alone had to hire roughly 7500 employees canada wide

i can only imagine what it did to wal mart -
minimum wage beig 15$ makes sense since it hasnt increased with inflation for how long?

Re: Dark Times Ahead
 

So with toy sales up the last 2 years( best since 1999) and most of their 1600 store making a profit it seems odd they are in trouble. Online sales are increasing but its still only 13.7% of toy sales and some of that would be TRU sales. Hope they pull through so we don't only have Walmart and Superstore left.

nvm..read they did some bad deals in 2005 and owe $7.5 billion that comes due this year. Looks like they are trying to get out of paying that.

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hoping they make the .ca look more like the .com so we can order more back stock - im sure that would help with the amazon and ebay orders - i hate that people in the US post pictures of stores with lots of older items and yet in Sudbury were pretty limited to what is being released at the moment and any old stuff is pulled from the shelves

Re: Dark Times Ahead
 

Service has only gotten slower at McD's since the self service terminals have been installed so I don't know where the extra employees are hiding. As of 2014 they had 1400 stores in Canada (including Wal-Mart locations), so that's only 5.35 new hires per store based on stats from nearly 4 years ago. Could the newly hired 7500 people be due to almost all stand alone franchises being open for 24hrs a day now plus all the new locations that have probably opened since? I'm sure McDonalds is smudging some facts regarding creating 7500 jobs to make for a heart felt PR campaign of "McDonalds loves Canada so much we just created 7500 jobs!". Of those jobs how many of them are full time positions vs part time/student jobs? How many people did the company lay off last year? How many people quit the company per year? How many of those jobs are beyond store level and actually with head office or IT support? McDonalds is a straight up evil corporation that masks that image with a smiling clown lol.

$15/hr as a new minimum wage is great in theory but its going to cause a lot of problems as other employees with more seniority/responsibilities won't reap the benefits of an additional $3 an hour on top of what they currently make on an hourly basis.

...but this is about TRU and 7.5 billion dollars is a lot of cheddar they are trying to dodge paying out. I really can't see them being open past the holiday season.

only an opinion here, not trying to start any wars...long day at work haha.

Re: Dark Times Ahead
 

I agree with you on the McDonald's stuff. There's no way they eliminated all but one till and hired more staff.
But on minimum wage though. Businesses complaining are the same ones that have no problem paying employees the lowest they can. In the end they will just raise prices so they can keep making their huge salaries and most likely use this as an excuse to lay people off and keep others at the new minimum for longer.
I live in Alberta and its funny how many people are complaining about the hike here yet have no problem with rig workers making 100k+. Most of my family works in the oil field and some complain about people making $15 yet would never take a pay cut so we could have lower gas prices lol.

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Yeah no way Ronald eliminated 6 cash registers per store and somehow increased man power per store.

With regards to the minimum wage hike to $15/HR: Do we not think that there will be a drastic inflation on the cost of goods everywhere as a result? Its insane to think that everyone will be making a minimum of $15 an hour and yet the cost of a loaf of bread will remain the same. Prices will rise on everything from chewing gum, to action figures, to cars and homes. My salary will remain the same and the guys I work with that have 1/8th of the responsibilities that I have (bless their hearts, I love 'em) will be creeping up on me with regards to salary...and if I complain I will basically be told where the door is if I want to leave. It's a double edged sword really, people will make more and the cost of living will go up...my comfortable living will change to more of a struggle and as a result my spending habits will change. Gone will be my days of picking up a wave of Marvel Legends on a whim when I see them in a store LOL