I’ve never heard of a large chain doing that. There was a local stereo chain in the DC area (Myer Emco) that did. It really sucked for the people who had stuff in for repair at the time.

 

I don't have the patience to put up with Indian websites that stutter and lag trying to scroll through broken search results 5 items at a time. Yet I spend thousands of dollars each year at BBTS because their site actually works. Major retailers with their Indian disasters don't see a dime, except TRU because I felt bad for them.

 

I'm hoping so too. Maybe they have kind of deal in place with a new buyer.

 

I think the Star Wars (and Marvel?) stuff might migrate over to the Disney stores. They have lots of market penetration in malls and you can only sell so many Lilo & Stitch plushies.

If you knew how Amazon treated it's employees maybe you'd consider the $2-5 premium to have a brick & mortar in your area worth the trouble.

Don't engage in a hobby that costs you hundreds of dollars a year and complain about a few bucks.

Forbes is already looking at how a shuttering of all TRUs will decimate the commercial real estate market. Which has been shaky for years anyway.

Farewell Toys R Us, We Will Miss You

Others are saying B&N isn't all that healthy and sporting goods are kinda flat.

After a decade of most people not having money, now that we've finally started earning some cash, there's nowhere to spend it.

 

Perhaps, but they wouldn't be the first.

Sam's Club did just that.
Hometown Buffet did just that.

It's actually not unheard of for a business to violate labor laws and just shut down. Especially if they're bankrupt anyway. They really have nothing to lose and they can't really pay the fines anyway.

 

I'm sorry, but if you think Amazon mistreats their employees then you must have never worked at other warehouses. They require as much or more For much less pay and most of the time no benefits

 

I work at an Amazon warehouse. While I'm not exactly being mistreated, compensations are still not what I'd expect from The World's Biggest Online Retailer.

 

I can tell you that compensation is much less at other warehouses. Places like Amazon, Grainger etc are considered the grails of warehouse jobs. The only thing is that they expect you to work and work hard, but that's the way those jobs are. Most people can't handle that type of work and never last.

 

Well they're not supposed to do something like that, doesn't mean it can't happen.

However there's probably way too much inventory to just close out right, I doubt anyone would buy it all wholesale and it would cost way too much to ship it anywhere, anyway. They are going to have to spend some time in liquidation.

There was a Bob Evans in my town a few years ago, one Sunday morning people showed up to work as normal when some corporate guys showed up saying they were shutting down the restaurant and told everyone to go home.

So yeah, it has happened. And much like the food industry, the retail workers at TRU and elsewhere don't exactly have a union or any organization in place that would even attempt to stop something like that from happening.

 

I can't see them just closing the doors with all the stock still in the store. They would probably make major discounts every few days to try to clear the stores in a few weeks in the extreme case.

 

Online Shopping will kill TRU eventually?

The problem with online shopping is while hassle free, you can't be sure if the items you bought is free with defects.
I mean compared to going on a physical store you can ACTUALLY CRITICIZE the item before buying it. While on online, you just have the perfect reference image. You CAN'T examine or criticize the item. It's like a "blind bag" or something.

Heck, a customer has a right to inspect the item before buying. Right?
Ok let's say you can return it back via a courier and waited for replacement, how can you be so sure the replacement item is the right fit for your standards? It's gonna be a "back & forth" thing until you're contended.

I know times are different nowadays. But that doesn't mean a person should be lazy going on an actual store.

Maybe some of you guys are very used on buying toys online on a regular basis. Well I respect that.
As of me, my collectibles (for the past 10 years) are bought like 90-95% from a physical store.
5-10% are from online advanced reservation from trusted sellers (from toy communites, not online shops like Amazon, BBTS, etc.) which is my last resort in getting Takara-Tomy Legends figures.

Actually never experienced yet ordering toys from amazon, bbts, hasbro toy shop, etc...
I just get my hard to find items from "trusted guys" in the hobby.

 

And they are not gong to..they have to sell everything. That is what liquidation is,but apparently some people can't read.

 

Not likely. Restaurants close like this when they close because of food supply issues, etc. But retail stores can recoup at least some of the lost revenue by clearancing things out.

There’s also likely the terms of any rental agreements. Radio Shack kept some stores open with just a pack of lifesavers so they wouldn’t violate rental agreements. It was literally cheaper to have one guy come in, ring up a pack of lifesavers, and close the store so it was technically “open.”

 

They can. Other companies have locked down with stock still on site. They send in crews to help catalog and prepare for liquidation sale behind closed doors. They can be sold to other retailers, they could end up in auctions or auction lots, even the fixtures and furniture.

Ever see an estate sale? The person's passed, but the family has allowed people in to buy their loved ones items? Usually to pay off fees or to rid themselves of the stuff they'll never have use for.... Think the same thing, but the customer won't be the public like a lot of liquidations.

That's if, and only if, this is the end and they immediately liquidate.

People CAN read, but you're not getting that liquidation can work more than one way.

Stop being like...this.

 

Sams was a really weird case. In those situations the stock of the store was all moving on to other Sams or Walmart’s. Those Sams closing all fit a profile where another store was extremely close geographically.

Usually stores won’t close instantly. It just too much lost capital if you have stock you can clearance out. Restaurants do but that’s because of food delivery issues.

Quoting to clarify other stuff I’ve said. It is possible TRU could go out like this but it’s unlikely. Restaurants are different as to stay open and keep the menu you have to deliver new food daily. Sams was different because the stores closed had proximity to other Walmart’s or Sam’s. But a national chain is likely to at least try a sale for a few days to burn off stock. I’d find it really surprising if TRU was able to realistically catalog and sell the stock on the kind of scale that would justify immediate closure.

 

I don't recall whether this is normally done in March, but the TRU nearest my work (Fullerton, CA) had several inventory staff on hand today, and a handful of sections (I noticed TMNT & Wrestling) were being pulled off the pegs & placed into shopping carts.

 

It's not gonna work the way you think. I know the game and what's going to happen with it.

 

I miss seali_me. I'm glad that he was around while we weren't speculating whether TRU would tank or not.

 

Phase moves. Just work and business as usual.

 

According to Wikipedia, there are 698 stores in the U.S. and 4 stores in Puerto Rico to give an idea of the scale that a sudden closure and inventory liquidation would involve.