Their final collapse is going to take alot of people by surprise. The CEO is still cooking the books to cover shifting Sears real estate assets into his own portfolio. He needs suppliers to be fooled into thinking they're still engaged in retail trade while that's going on. When he's done, though, expect either a "sudden" announcement or an "unexpectedly" bad quarterly filing that reveals what everybody already knows. The FTC will slap the empty husk of Sears Holding Corp with a fine it can't afford to pay, people will lose their jobs overnight, pensions/401Ks holding the stock will take a dive, and the mastermind of this fraud will skip away scot free clutching sacks full of million-dollar bills.

 

Either way, it's just a matter of time before the next round a TRU closings happen and they all go away,especially with Bain in their control.It won't happen yet or in the next year or two,but when it does,it will happen all of a sudden of closing all stores.Been there,done that with Kaybee

 

Funny how one word left out can ruin an entire statement. I meant to say that they should not model their sections like Walmarts and targets.

Well, I take that back. TRU, imo, should model their store after Walmarts and Targets in the idea that every department has its own manager, but give them the flexibility of a local supermarket department manager.

For a specialty store like TRU, the ability to control your individual stock is crucial to keep customers coming back. My store can't or won't put Blaster on clearance. So, I stopped going there looking for transformers. star wars black series is the same way. Likewise Marvel Legends. If it weren't for exclusives and the fact my store is next to a Lowe's and Walmart, I would never set foot in the place.

 

Well it's kind of sad for me in one way, I remember working the holidays at one of the ones on the list that is closing. I remember going to pick up the latest games. Even younger I remember the amazing feeling before I left the country of seeing a complete aisle of G1. I guess everything eventually changes.

 

A friend of mine used to do the markdowns before his store closed a few years back. The stores _do_ have control over what gets marked down. As it was explained to me, though, the controlling factor is that it only has so many "points" to use per month. If it has other toys that need flushed away more urgently than those Blasters (like the recent flushing of those Disney Amiibos), then Blaster is going to sit for awhile.

I hear you about not setting foot in a store. Closing the Harrisburg location was the worst move. Every remaining store within driving distance is 30-45 minutes out of the way (and the closest of the three is a dump). Where I used to hit the TRU on the way home from work, now I only have a WelfareMart and a Target.

 

Whatever happened with KB... it really wasn't sudden. We all knew it was coming (much as can be said of K-Mart/Sears... much more so than with TRU), throughout multiple (not just one) bankruptcies in short succession, and when the final axe fell, there were still several weeks/months worth of clearance sales.

 

We kind of already knew they underperformed based on the previous comments about 'missteps' during the holidays.

Won't they have to release the quarterly results eventually though?

 

Sure, but it was sudden for the closing of the whole company. Stores were closing before that (a year before ) but instead of just another round of closings, it was boom,we are done! The liquidation part doesn't count as that is part of the transition to being completely done.

 

Again, I just don't see it that way. I wrote about this at the time, and at that time, it was clear that there were still bunches of clearance sales still to take place, even though the final end was then known to be imminent, rather than merely possible.

Is that what you mean by "the liquidation part doesn't count"? Because that still puts in rather different terms than other recent "sudden closures" in the news, such as when a bunch of Sam's stores were simply "done" one day, with no warning to those stores' employees.

 

Did you work there during that time? If you didn't, then you don't know what you are talking about of how it all went down. The end of Kaybee was a "all of sudden we are folding the whole company" (that's how I got the news), then leading into a 3 month liquidation headache.

 

we have two TRU stores in Tucson Arizona and it announced on the news last week the oracle location is being closed next month.

so now we're down to one TRU.

 

Yea, don't know how it works with TRU, but Home Depot only allowed for a certain amount of markdowns per year, and also tied markdowns to manager bonuses (which made it a terrible idea). We had a store manager who refused to mark down any returned/damaged/mis-ordered doors or windows for a good 5 years. When he eventually got promoted, our new manager wondered why we had no extra stock of doors in the overhead. Had two aisles worth of stuff he had to take the hit on the markdown when he found out.

Only silver lining is about 2 months after the terrible store manager got promoted, they consolidated regions and his job got cut. Guy was a prick.

 

In order for TRU to hire employees that know about, or care about the toys they offer, they need to pay them more than minimum wage. <.< In my store, while I worked there, there was me, and two other people who knew a lot about everything, and well, one of them was a Supervisor, whom I was impressed, knew as much as he did, and another was a worker that's been there for a while. The three of us could literally run circles around the rest of the store in regards to product knowledge. Now they are down to those two as I needed to leave....because I can't afford to make money.

 

following up on my past post, I learned today that the Glens Falls store apparently renegotiated their lease and is NOT closing!
I'd cheer more about it but hey, I no longer live there.  
Queensbury Toys R Us gets a reprieve

The TRU in South Portland is staying open. (I was there yesterday, they have big "WE ARE NOT CLOSING" signs on the door and in fifteen other places around the store.) The Babies R Us is closing.

 

Cool thanks bud. My daughters will be stoked.

 

Yeah I heard this from my buddy who saw it in the paper, was pretty glad to hear it. Only TrU I can really reliably get to

Same dude. Well, daughter & stepson, but they were stoked to hear it's not going away as well

 

I never use toys r us. I'm actually glad to hear the one nearest me is closing cuz maybe I can hop in there now and find some decently discounted stuff.

 

... awesome. You're happy for the staff to lose their jobs?

 

Ehh I didn't think about that actually. Not quite as happy now...