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Amazon Has Considered Buying Some Toys ‘R’ Us Stores
- DanCarvajal 9y agoI mean there has to be an non-dilapidated Toy 'R' Us location somewhere right?
- ribosometronome 9y agoI imagine they're more interested in the location and store size than how recent the tile has been replaced.
- mc32 9y agoThese are. I've been to one. Not a bad store at all. Resurrecting a highly nostalgic brand may be a viable option, if Amazon has some trick up their sleeves. The one thing they can't fix is low birth rates though, so it would have to transform the stores a bit.
- __abc 9y agoWhole Foods me. As a parent, put a craft beer/craft coffee in my hand (mark that up too, I'll pay) and give my kids and myself an experience, more than just a static display. Blicks, a store for art supplies has done this with wine nights, painting lessons (with wine), etc. Ignoring all the damn alcohol, it's brands that will compete by creating an experience that may stand a chance (IMO)
- mc32 9y agoMaybe if they combined it with some maker stuff --however, I think perhaps the maker stuff has a too limited audience. And besides, their locations do not lend themselves much to drop-ins. Like, while I'm at it buying something at [some place] I'll drop in at Toys R Us. They tend to be in out of the way locations.
- vinceguidry 9y agoToys'R'Us was the victim of a leveraged buyout in 2005. The business hasn't been doing all that poorly, just not well enough to pay off all the debt. So capex is taking a backseat to debt servicing. It's a slow-motion train wreck. The same thing just happened to Clear Channel. The bankruptcies aren't likely to kill off the business, but hand ownership over to the debt holders.
- tclancy 9y agoThe one in Portsmouth, NH is perfectly nice inside and not dated-looking.
- praneshp 9y agoThere are, I live near one in Sunnyvale, CA, and it's awesome. It's got more hot wheels cars than I ever want to play around with.
- joezydeco 9y agoThe Canadian stores were very well kept and actually performed so well that MGA Entertainment (Bratz dolls, etc) was trying to get a group of other toymakers together to try and keep those stores open.
- jgh 9y agoOn the topic of toy stores / toy store innovation, that American Girl doll store is insane. My wife and I went there to buy a doll for our friend's daughter for Christmas and holy hell is that place busy / kinda weird. It's like a Bloomingdale's or something for dolls. Kids can even sign up for "doll spas" and bring their dolls in to have their hair and nails done and stuff. Obviously I don't really get it because I'm not an 8 year old girl, nor do I have any kids but that place must be making a ton of money.
- CodeCube 9y agoThis 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, not every single storefront needs to be that (grocery stores come to mind) ... but for the average mall, no one wants to actually go there and walk around any more. The mall needs to be a place that entices people to go there and simply exist ... do stuff, hang out with people, even if they spend no money at all.
- jpindar 9y agoRadio Shack should have tried to evolve into maker spaces rather than cell phone stores.
- LandoCalrissian 9y agoThey kind of did at the very end. They were at least dedicating some space to it, but I think it was too little too late.
- CodeCube 9y agoyep, my local radio shack, in the end, started to start stocking some interesting stuff ... and they had a series of drawers that had a variety of resistors, leds, and other such things that you could pick through. But as you said, too little too late. They could have taken the lead on the maker movement, given that they had the infrastructure in place ... but despite them having this stuff, the workers knew little to nothing anytime I asked them a question, they were just there to take the money at POS and restock the shelves :(
- empath75 9y ago> Additional stores would give Amazon space to showcase its popular Echo line of devices, which run on the Alexa voice-activated platform. I'm pretty sure they're not going to buy a big box retailer to jam a bunch of echos into it.
- kevindqc 9y agoWould be fun to say something over intercom, then hear hundreds of echos answer back.
- 6ak74rfy 9y agoThe article is full of speculations like these. It's as if they didn't have enough content but needed to hit certain number of words.
- libria 9y agoThey already have one in Seattle with a large section dedicated to Echos and Kindles, so it's not without precedent for them. Now why an ecommerce giant is retrogressing to brick and mortar I can't imagine.
- CodeCube 9y agoIt's just an additional sales channel ... if they can have a place where a) people can go to physically preview inventory, and b) can go to immediately obtain merchandise when they can't wait for it. Additionally, it can help to simplify logistics ... if there are more locations where they person can go pick up their package rather than having to deliver it, surely that can be a boon to their operations.
- slouch 9y agoSo they can same-day-deliver to my house in [not a big city].
- excalibur 9y agoObviously they would sell other things too. But the Echos would likely be front and center. The toys for enriching young children would be replaced by toys for enriching young AI. It's like a private hell designed specifically for a toy store.
- vinhboy 9y agoI 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 and made it more like a play space, I would bring my kid there every weekend. Right now I am paying money to go to those "kids museum". Why didn't Toys R Us think to capitalize on that market? Also, if they had people to playfully demo the toys to my kid, I am pretty sure we would buy way more toys instead of just leaving frustrated because we can't find what we wanted.
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoShit everywhere, no one to help you find anything, etc... It would fit right in with Amazons style of business then.
- jimmy1 9y agoAmazon has a search engine, recommendations, and 24/7 customer support to help you find what ever you need.
- josefresco 9y ago24/7 customer support: TIL
- km3k 9y agoAmazon customer support helps you select items to buy?
- filoleg 9y agoAfter visiting retail Amazon bookstores on more than one occasion, I have to strongly disagree with your vision of possible Amazon retail ventures.
- nolok 9y ago
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bob_theslob646 9y agoPeople are not getting it. If they are going to get into the business ( acquiring retail space) it will be one that fits into their equation for their last mile problem and be at fire sale prices. If they choose to purchase retail real estate, it will most likely be a combination of retail/grocery/banking all in one, sort of like a Walmart, but way better experience. This most likely will be their approach to get baby boomers to shop and to learn how to shop online. As everyone knows, Amazon loves getting things cheaply and will do so if they can. > Webvan was an online grocery business that went bankrupt in 2001 after 3 years of operation and was later folded into Amazon.com. > CNET named Webvan one of the largest dot-com flops in history > Webvan placed a $1 billion order with engineering company Bechtel Corporation to build its warehouses, and bought a fleet of delivery trucks. > In 2000, Webvan bought HomeGrocer, a competitor that was also losing money, for $1.2 billion in stock.[11][12] At its peak in 2000, Webvan had $178.5 million in sales but it also had $525.4 million in expenses. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan)
- lph 9y agoAs a parent of young kids, I've been in to Toys R Us twice in the past few years. The first time it was really depressing: prime-time hours for retail and the store was practically empty. The second time was last weekend, and it was bustling with people hoping for fire sale prices. Probably the best weekend that store has had in years.
- anigbrowl 9y agoThey should buy all of them, use them as display space for a wide variety of Stuff, and continue shipping normally except for small items that can be sold at point of sale and stored at low overhead.
- Notorious_BLT 9y agoMan it's sad to see them go. I WISH Amazon would buy them and open them back up as toy stores, but that's a pipe dream. I'm something of a toy collector, and I feel like much more could have been done to save Toys R Us. I used to go to the Toys R Us in Chicago (the only one) every once in a while, when the mood struck me. They always seemed to get new releases far too late, and it was always dead quiet, and empty even on what should have been peak hours. I eventually gave up on them and bought everything online, (from Amazon, most of the time) as they rarely even had what I was looking for when I bothered to make the trip. There are only like... 3 other toy stores in the city that carry collector-focused lines, and they are smaller, independent stores that manage to stay in business by trading in both new releases and older toys, both online (through ebay) and in their brick-and-mortar locations.