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Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

bloomberg.com

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Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#31

Post by TorKlingberg »

vinhboy wrote: post #11

I think Amazon should do it. I personally believe Toys R Us just missed an opportunity to run a proper business. They have a ton of retail space, but every time I've been there, it's run like Walmart. Shit everywhere, no one to help you find anything, etc... There's nothing suburban parents like me want more than an indoor play space for my kid (for extremely hot or cold days). If they properly utilized their store a…

How does running a play space with lots of staff fit into Amazon's business model?

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#32

Post by olivermarks »

ceejayoz wrote: post #29
MadBohr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's important to note that a lot of the failure of Toys R Us has to do with private equity buyout rather than a poor business model. Of course, their business model was flawed, but remember that Toys R Us was bought in 2005, and the toy market was MUCH simpler back then. Amazon was hardly the player it is now. The private equity firm then loaded them up with crippling debt. Move forward a few years, and enter Amazon…

Cite for the above: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-16/who-kille... Buy company. Take out massive debts on company's books. Withdraw hundreds of millions in "fees". Let company collapse. Rinse, repeat.

Taking a corporation private, loading it with billions in debt, starving it of funding and sucking it dry before collapse should be a criminal offense IMO

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#33

Post by martinald »

MadBohr wrote: post #24
gedy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Issue is, a company does that and then parents still search and buy the toy for cheaper on Amazon from their phone. I have family members who run a small retail store with excellent inventory and service, and they barely scrape by due to people show rooming. They are not in toys, but they simply cannot compete on price, as Amazon, etc sells it cheaper than they can buy from the suppliers.

People will generally pay a premium for better service, but in the case of retail, it's usually hard to beat the service of "instant purchase with free two day delivery to my doorstep". I for one, very rarely buy something w/o checking if it's cheaper on Amazon (or some other online retailer) first. It's gotta be a tough market that's for sure.

Ironically though I don't think Amazon often offers the best prices.

On various 'crapware' (cables etc), eBay is cheaper (especially if it is an 'addon' item and you have to pay for shipping).

For larger purchases I've done usually a different online store has similar prices, but a free extended warranty/accessory.

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#34

Post by kirykl »

aswanson wrote: post #20
vinhboy wrote: post #11

I think Amazon should do it. I personally believe Toys R Us just missed an opportunity to run a proper business. They have a ton of retail space, but every time I've been there, it's run like Walmart. Shit everywhere, no one to help you find anything, etc... There's nothing suburban parents like me want more than an indoor play space for my kid (for extremely hot or cold days). If they properly utilized their store a…

Youre right. There's something unclean and bad about the aesthetics...its like stuck in the 1980s. They need someone that can redesign and modernize it. Whoever did that work for Target would probably know what precisely to do.

That Target guy is Ron Johnson, the same one who built Apple retail and tried to help JC Penney

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#35

Post by jasonjayr »

TorKlingberg wrote: post #31
vinhboy wrote: post #11

I think Amazon should do it. I personally believe Toys R Us just missed an opportunity to run a proper business. They have a ton of retail space, but every time I've been there, it's run like Walmart. Shit everywhere, no one to help you find anything, etc... There's nothing suburban parents like me want more than an indoor play space for my kid (for extremely hot or cold days). If they properly utilized their store a…

How does running a play space with lots of staff fit into Amazon's business model?

How may physical stores complain that shoppers go in, examine the objects on the shelf, and then compare to Amazon via their phone to just finish the purchase there?

If Amazon ran the store, they could just buy it right there @ Amazon prices, and within the Amazon ecosystem That would kill the other stores.

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#36

Post by unpwn »

xapata wrote: post #23
gedy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Issue is, a company does that and then parents still search and buy the toy for cheaper on Amazon from their phone. I have family members who run a small retail store with excellent inventory and service, and they barely scrape by due to people show rooming. They are not in toys, but they simply cannot compete on price, as Amazon, etc sells it cheaper than they can buy from the suppliers.

If Amazon sells it cheaper, they could act somewhat as an Amazon affiliate. Or at least buy from Amazon instead of their more expensive suppliers.

Probably amazon buys it from the same supplier, but they can sell it for less margin, because they don't have the overhead of running a store, and they have the scale of being amazon.

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#37

Post by MadBohr »

olivermarks wrote: post #32
ceejayoz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cite for the above: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-16/who-kille... Buy company. Take out massive debts on company's books. Withdraw hundreds of millions in "fees". Let company collapse. Rinse, repeat.

Taking a corporation private, loading it with billions in debt, starving it of funding and sucking it dry before collapse should be a criminal offense IMO

Unfortunately that's the nature of business. Sometimes it's impossible to predict market situations 10, 15 years out. I doubt anybody at Bain could have predicted in 2005 that Amazon would completely dominate the retail market in 10 years. Also, some responsibility falls on the debtors themselves for taking on potentially risky investments, but there are so many loopholes and gotchas here that I really can't comment much on that. While this type of private equity story seems more and more common these days, the opposite happens fairly often as well, and private equity firms like Bain make insane amounts of money from these types of strategies.

Bankruptcy in general is shady though and no matter what, when it happens, somebody is getting screwed out of a lot of money... usually the debtors.

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#39

Post by filoleg »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #14
vinhboy wrote: post #11

I think Amazon should do it. I personally believe Toys R Us just missed an opportunity to run a proper business. They have a ton of retail space, but every time I've been there, it's run like Walmart. Shit everywhere, no one to help you find anything, etc... There's nothing suburban parents like me want more than an indoor play space for my kid (for extremely hot or cold days). If they properly utilized their store a…

Shit everywhere, no one to help you find anything, etc... It would fit right in with Amazons style of business then.

After visiting retail Amazon bookstores on more than one occasion, I have to strongly disagree with your vision of possible Amazon retail ventures.

Re: Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores

#40

Post by brianbreslin »

jpindar wrote: post #19
CodeCube wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is part of the reason that IMO a lot of retail is failing ... customers don't want or need a static display of inventory; they can easily get that from their already-installed Amazon app. Retail needs to evolve to be an event destination ... a place that gives the consumer a _reason_ to get out of the house and go there. A place where they can experience something other than just simple consumption. Obviously, n…

Radio Shack should have tried to evolve into maker spaces rather than cell phone stores.

Radioshack in the 1980s/90s was like the original maker space. I bought so many circuit boards and magnets and batteries there. Their staff all knew their stuff too.
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