Toys"R"Us Has Record Losses in 2013

[dinga]

Standard retail issues. Not being smart and losing touch with their customers. You have to be on top of the trends. Toys R'Us hasn't done that. How many times do you walk out empty handed? They don't have stock and what they do have no one wants. I see stock from years on the self. Bad purchasing. Of course it is easier said than done.

[66jedikiller66]

I just came from back from Detroit a few hours ago and stopped at a toysrus. They had a crap load of stuff in clearance, a lot of junk from the last year.
They started a new Clearance sticker program.
Green-40% off
Blue-50% off.
Yellow-can't remember what it was, maybe 25%.

Example-Prometheus Engineer giant facehugger 2 pack was $19.98 and 40% off.

Almost every aisle had a crap load of these stickers.

[Hantei]

Originally Posted by wedge1021

Having boat loads of the utter garbage that toy manufacturers are putting out these days has not helped TRU either. Hasbro is a major perpetrator here. Aisles full of Angry Birds, cheap 5 POA Star Wars and Marvel figures, either over-simplified or overly-complicated Transformers, and over-shipped toys of "popular" characters have proven difficult for even the most aggressive retailers to sell off. Meanwhile it has often been tough for us collectors to find the higher-quality, higher-priced items we crave so much (TF Masterpieces, Marvel Legends, 6" Black Series, etc, etc).

I wonder if that's one of the main reasons. Especially when it comes to stuff that collectors want, Hasbro is always short packing the desired figures. Just look at all the Captain America figures clogging the pegs. Haha, but at the same time TRU does have the highest mark up for them.

[Robimus]

Yes, the short packing kills Star Wars collecting for me a little. Secondary market retailers in Winnipeg won't even bring in cases anymore because of all the repaks they put with the couple new short packed characters.

[FETT1]

Originally Posted by StarwarsTF

They closed over 100 stores in the US and just cleaned house at store and headoffice level for Canada. Nearly 40 salaried managers across Canada and a couple of dozen H.O. People lost there jobs last week.

ADIOS....their customer service at HO is brutal...I know a manager from one of the EDMONTON stores...indication is STORE level has no direct contact with buyers ...so little if any input is allowed !And try finding out if item's are available ??? GOOD LUCK ..the manager I know says there is so much frustration at store level.

The north EDMONTON store treats many collector's like some evil eyed bandit most of the time !!It really is to bad that many stores have died over the years (TOPS AND TOYS ,TOY CITY , TOYS n' WHEELS)only to be stuck with a very limited amount of toy sources like WALFART,TARGET-ugh ,
It will be interesting to see how TOYS R US CANADA does this year ....hopefully there is light at the end of this tunnel ????....flicker flicker......

[iammingy]

Toys 'R Us need to educate their staff. Some don't freaking understand that the same items have the same barcode!?!

To be fair, I have had some very positive experiences at Toys 'R Us in the past. It's just that these friendly faces are all gone...

[joshimus]

Originally Posted by 66jedikiller66

Example-Prometheus Engineer giant facehugger 2 pack was $19.98 and 40% off.

Almost every aisle had a crap load of these stickers.

Thats part of the problem too. Never see those oddity movie figures. Take the new Godzilla. Stoney Creek, Burlington and Oakville got them but not Hamilton. Even worse (for me) the really big one i WANT, don't think we will even see it. States got the entire series. Why did Canada get most at select tru stores and not the morr imposing large one?
Between vendors and tru and online competition, tru is in for a tough battle. I would hate for them to close

[Stevan]

I discovered today that Cedarbrae Toysr us in toronto east end will cut their store and department in half. The other half of the store will be transformed into special ordering online. The store looks pityful right now. Some clearances on old junk and 90% of merchandise has been removed from the shelves. I was told by one of the sales people that they have too much competition from amazon and other online retailers. They will be the only toysrus location in toronto that will undergo such drastic changes and will be used for online ordering experiment i was told. Canadian amazon cannot pose a threat to them since they dont sell action figures like american amazon does. Anyway maybe this so called change in toysrus might be an omnious sign for the company in the future. Only time will tell.

[Blitzkrieg]

That really doesn't surprise me at all, if TRU's prices weren't so over-inflated then maybe the company wouldn't have to resort to this sales tactic.

[iammingy]

Originally Posted by Stevan

I discovered today that Cedarbrae Toysr us in toronto east end will cut their store and department in half. The other half of the store will be transformed into special ordering online. The store looks pityful right now. Some clearances on old junk and 90% of merchandise has been removed from the shelves. I was told by one of the sales people that they have too much competition from amazon and other online retailers. They will be the only toysrus location in toronto that will undergo such drastic changes and will be used for online ordering experiment i was told. Canadian amazon cannot pose a threat to them since they dont sell action figures like american amazon does. Anyway maybe this so called change in toysrus might be an omnious sign for the company in the future. Only time will tell.

Wow... How does that work? They set up counters where people can place orders and/or pick up (pre-)ordered items?
If that's really the case, I wonder if the shipping charges will be cheaper since shipments are more localized (instead of delivery to individual households).