I recently found my old Toys R Us gold card, which I'm sort of nostalgic about.
I spent good times buying from their clearance shelves in the late 90's and early 00's. So many cool dead lines like Marvel Super Heroes and Defenders of the Earth. I bought tons for my toy fair stall. I still regret not getting an end of line boxed Supernaturals castle tho.
Thinking about TRU I began to wonder why they eventually folded here in the UK? I'm sure there were many knotty business reasons, but it seemed that almost immediately another toy chain arose in their place.
Smyths.
How come? They're both toy shops. How can one rise where the other fell when they basically do the same thing?
Strange.
Do you like Smyths?
What's the big toy shop chain in your neck of the woods?
Internet shopping destroyed their US parent company ToysRUs and it went with them. They could not compete with Amazon etc. Who can as you can get just about anything ? ToysRUs UK still has a few concessions areas in WH Smiths though even Smiths is dying out too these days.
ReplyDeleteSmyths is an Irish company that bought up many of the ToyRUs stores throughout Europe and seems to be doing OK.
On the high street The Entertainer is a smaller company that famously banned Harry Potter and Halloween toys as the owner was very religious. That ban has since been lifted.
Pre Internet my favourite was the old Beatties (Beatties of London) model and toy shop that had stores throughout the country. A twice yearly trip to to their Leeds or Sheffield shops to see the latest model kits, remote controlled cars and planes was a highlight of my teens. They always had an amazing model train display in their window. The advent of video games destroyed that company though. Some of the shops were bought up by Modelzone and lasted a few more years before that also went under.
My first adult job was as the Toy Manager at a Child World store. Child World was a close rival of Toys R Us - in fact, we were mortal enemies! I could tell you stories of all sorts of shenanigans at that store! Child World went under, due to a hostile corporate takeover and a long-winded Consumer Safety lawsuit. As a Child World loyalist, I have never entered a Toys R Us in my entire life! SFZ
ReplyDeleteI read recently that TRU was a successful company that was bought out by a trust fund or something. They pulled the purchase price from general revenue and sank the firm.
ReplyDelete