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Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

bloomberg.com

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Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#31

Post by oh_sigh »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #17
whatsstolat wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope that shit is getting disrupted. Ultimately mattresses will come from amazon.

After buying a Serta from Amazon and a Tuft and Needle, I will never buy a mattress again without being able to lay on it first. Disrupted? Try to fit a king foam mattress back in the box to meet return obligations when you don’t like it, before we touch on the counterfeit product issue from Amazon.

The problem with this is the most common problem I see in mattresses isn't how comfortable they are initially, but how comfortable they are after 9 months of sleeping in a very similar position night after night.

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#32

Post by bobthepanda »

ccozan wrote: post #16
thisisit wrote: post #8

Retailing seems to be dying in US irrespective of the company: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-17/retail-st... Couple of years ago, one of my friends bought a store at a strip mall. The store was making a loss. And the previously owners were an elderly couple. So my friends thesis was that they weren't exactly tuned into the digital presence business and it was still entirely possible to run a store i…

As a, maybe, counter example, in my small bavarian city they opened 3(!) new shopping malls in the last 5 years. Me being more global than the rest of the fellow locals, I was baffled.

The US in general is heavily over-retailed.

> By one measure of consumerist plentitude—shopping center “gross leasable area”—the U.S. has 40 percent more shopping space per capita than Canada, five times more the the U.K., and 10 times more than Germany.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/retail-...

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#33

Post by koolba »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #28
koolba wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is “Certa” a typo (for “Serta”) or some kind of knock off? I’ve had great experiences with buying mattresses online. The secret is to have friends with a variety of mattresses so that their homes become your showroom.

Typo fixed. Gracias! None of my friends are local unfortunately.

For the name brand mattresses best to go local with either Sleepys (or whatever it’s called now) or Sears. The margins on mattresses are insane so you can haggle them down quite a bit. Only chumps pay for shipping or box springs.

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#34

Post by prostoalex »

aviv wrote: post #11
thisisit wrote: post #8

Retailing seems to be dying in US irrespective of the company: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-17/retail-st... Couple of years ago, one of my friends bought a store at a strip mall. The store was making a loss. And the previously owners were an elderly couple. So my friends thesis was that they weren't exactly tuned into the digital presence business and it was still entirely possible to run a store i…

In a few years strip malls will be occupied only by food businesses, pharmacies, check cashing places, and urgent care clinics.

> pharmacies

Anecdotally, a guy at the gym I frequent is a commercial real estate broker of some sort, and according to him shopping plazas with CVS/Walgreens as headliners are selling at a discount to comparables, as the market figured out that if Amazon didn’t enter the pharmaceutical retail sector this year, they will next year.

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#35

Post by bobthepanda »

gkoberger wrote: post #22
jaysonelliot wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing about the brick & mortar toy space that's inherently living on borrowed time. It was Toys 'R' Us' own mismanagement that doomed it. Toy stores can be a destination. Provide a compelling experience for parents and kids alike. It's easy to imagine a space where kids get to play with toys hands-on, and parents get to judge for themselves whether they think they're appropriate in terms of fun and quality—…

It's easy to rattle off a list of things on HN, but a lot harder to build. If people were invited to come play with toys, they'd just do it for free, enjoy the day, and buy it online after. Your other ideas just seem like... free babysitting? It's not like parents are going to shop for toys while their kids are babysat for free. I agree the stores aren't great now... but they were working with insane debt and a dying…

Anecdotally, I have been to many bookstores and board game shops that allow people to play or read for free on site and taking it home is what costs money. The way they manage to make it work is usually by having a cafe with food and refreshments onsite; it's like how movie theaters do not primarily make money on the tickets, but on the concessions. It's also why McDonalds' has their Playplaces.

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#36

Post by triviatise »

I dont know the economics of our local toy stores, but the ones that seem to thrive allow you to actually play with the toys. If it was more like a theme park or a playground you would get parents to bring their kids in just to play.

For example, let kids drive power wheels around a track. Have playscapes that they can play on and buy. And sample toys that kids can play with.

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#37

Post by duxup »

aviv wrote: post #11
thisisit wrote: post #8

Retailing seems to be dying in US irrespective of the company: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-17/retail-st... Couple of years ago, one of my friends bought a store at a strip mall. The store was making a loss. And the previously owners were an elderly couple. So my friends thesis was that they weren't exactly tuned into the digital presence business and it was still entirely possible to run a store i…

In a few years strip malls will be occupied only by food businesses, pharmacies, check cashing places, and urgent care clinics.

Don't forget spas and nail salons!

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#38

Post by [deleted] »

aviv wrote: post #11
thisisit wrote: post #8

Retailing seems to be dying in US irrespective of the company: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-17/retail-st... Couple of years ago, one of my friends bought a store at a strip mall. The store was making a loss. And the previously owners were an elderly couple. So my friends thesis was that they weren't exactly tuned into the digital presence business and it was still entirely possible to run a store i…

In a few years strip malls will be occupied only by food businesses, pharmacies, check cashing places, and urgent care clinics.

[deleted]

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#39

Post by wgerard »

What a trip.

I used to go to the Times Square location with people who came in from out of town, as an attraction for when they inevitably wanted to check out Times Square. The article doesn't really do justice to what a spectacle it was (which is saying something, since the article calls it out repeatedly). The person-sized Lego Hulk they built for that store is still my phone background.

Made this even more shocking to read, since it was always packed:

> In late 2001, Eyler oversaw the opening of a flagship store in New York’s Times Square, with a 60-foot Ferris wheel, a life-size Tyrannosaurus rex, and a Barbie dollhouse bigger than many Manhattan apartments. Eyler promised that 20 million people a year would visit, and maybe they did, but the store never made money.

Of course, thinking back on it, I went several times but rarely bought anything from the store.

Maybe that's the (21st century) story of Toys "R" Us, summarized into a sentence.

Re: Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die

#40

Post by booleandilemma »

aviv wrote: post #11
thisisit wrote: post #8

Retailing seems to be dying in US irrespective of the company: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-17/retail-st... Couple of years ago, one of my friends bought a store at a strip mall. The store was making a loss. And the previously owners were an elderly couple. So my friends thesis was that they weren't exactly tuned into the digital presence business and it was still entirely possible to run a store i…

In a few years strip malls will be occupied only by food businesses, pharmacies, check cashing places, and urgent care clinics.

And gyms.
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