Well, "clearances" have started, but with signs that promise only up to 30% and reality being a mere 10% on most toys... this isn't even a proper sale yet. They need to cut a lot deeper before this is worth the kinds of crowds I saw this weekend.

Seriously, what's wrong with people? These prices aren't even down to the level you'd find at other stores!

 

Stores can markdown individual items, but usually only do so when there is reason for it, such as returned items, significantly damaged packaging, and/or missing pieces. They do not have the freedom to reduce the price of all units of a particular item even if they have been sitting on shelves for three years like Lego Chima sets.

Starting a liquidation sale (during which some employees may still retain jobs until the very end) is still markedly different from just suddenly closing up shop with no warning or further sales.

 

What does that got to do with being told right after Black Friday that the whole company is completely done? We were not expecting the whole company to go all of sudden, even though the writing was on the wall considering the year before that they closed hundreds of stores.

All Liquidation is to get rid of merchandise, which is the norm for any company closing shop.

Toys R Us is likely headed in the same situation once Bain decides to pull the plug after they fill their pockets a little bit more.

 

It's just about the question of whether or not KB closed "suddenly." You insist that it did, but I think the rest of us are using a rather different definition of the word than you are.

I'm reminded of an old sitcom joke (was it Monty Python? I no longer know):

"She died very suddenly."
"She was sick for years!"
"Ah, but the end itself, that was sudden, wasn't it?"

As NeilJam said, there ARE stores that just close up shop one day. No "liquidation period." Just a store that was open one day, and gone the next, with all of the workers left without jobs that same moment.

 

People are addicted to the prospect of short term gain, like Pizza the Hutt eating himself in the back of his limo. Plus there's the fear factor, like where the news picks up a story about some lunatic fringe "attacking" your business and people who don't even like you or what you sell come out of the woodwork to buy stuff.

 

But this isn't even about "short term gain" vs. anything "long term." TRU at 10% off is still worse than Target/Wal-Mart TODAY....

 

With KB there was some unexpectedness though. The company has just taken out loan that was supposed to help them refurbish stores, and my closest store was actually hiring for a couple spots including a vacant management position (the asm had gone on maternity leave and decided to stay at home) until the day before the announcement.

 

This is where I will indeed allow for my ignorance, but I can't imagine that this kind of thing isn't common to nearly all large-chain closures.

Just to be clear, however, when I suggested that KB's closure wasn't sudden, it was precisely because of the long, protracted, clearance period, itself coming on the tail end of a couple of bankruptcies over the previous few years. That's not uncommon, but neither is it universal.

 

I was privy to some of what was going on. I had a friend who was a regional vp and even there it was talk of them, and the loan, and renegotiating some heavier mall leases, helping right the ship. If it was known what was going to happen, it was only at the very top. When I was with Gamestop, they did keep store closures from the lower level employees, but the management team always knew a month or usually more ahead of any closing announcement. And they would transfer someone into a management slot to see how well they'd do as a potential future manager rather than go through the hassle of hiring off the street.

 

I find it very unlikely that Toys "R" Us completely collapses in the immediate future. They simply need to restructure again, which is what they are doing.

Other retailers in much worse financial position have eeked along for long periods of time.

 

That's exactly why they start low. People will eat it up like it's a big deal. Sell as much as you can with that deal before going to deeper discounts.

 

Oh, I get it. I was just commenting that people are (bluntly) kind of stupid to be taken in by it, since only a cursory glance should tell them that they could still do better with most other stores' regular prices.

 

If TRU raised prices 20% and advertised a 10% sale, there's still a perception that they're pulling one over on TRU. Retail is just a big psychological game.

 

See my post just above yours....

 

BFE=bum fuck egypt

 

The new round of closures is going to, quite possibly, impact their exclusives in a negative way. If your brick-and-mortar inventory is slashed in half, it's going to be more difficult to move those exclusives. Hasbro, I think, has a minimum wholesale number that needs to be met...and if TRU doesn't think they can order the goods, then Hasbro loses out on a good distributor.

WalMart is less interested in exclusives and more interested in what it can get for the cheapest in bulk, which is generally pallet-drops of regular retail toys.

Target may end up being the home of Masterpiece and other exclusives when all is said and done...but that's only if they want to risk placing small-packaged $80-100 toys on the toy aisle.

Also, it's going to be difficult to get WalMart and Target to accommodate Titan-class figures like TRU does. That could spell the end of that size-class for awhile if no one is willing to stock it at brick-and-mortar.

 

I suspect that HasLabs is a direct result of TRU closing half of its locations worldwide. (This is news to US, I suspect that it was not news to anyone at Hasbro this morning. They have no doubt known about this for awhile.)

Rather than being viewed as a sign of Doom, this is an opportunity. This gives Hasbro a direct connection to the fans for expensive exclusives like Jabba's Barge and the remaining Titan class Transformers.

Clearly Omega Supreme and any Guardian Robot redeco could be worked into the upcoming Generations trilogy, but this would also give them a legit reason to make a perfectly accurate G1 Scorponok Titan, whether he fits that year's line wide gimmick or not.

They could even work jointly with Takara Mall to sell Metrotitan, Black Zarak, Gigastorm and Brave Maximus as well. Maybe they could even import Grand Maximus this way. Get as much milage as possible from each mold, and only sell them if they can get a minimum number of pre-orders. If the diehard fans want big ticket Exclusives, let them pay upfront thru a Kickstart program. It's not as if Hasbro will disappear with your cash one day. It's Hasbro. We know where they work.

Hasbro could also begin importing Takara Masterpiece toys this way as well, as long as they are made to US safety standards. If Hasbro can 'kickstart' a minimum order (say 1000 units) of a new Takara Masterpiece, they could release every new Takara mold (that aren't G1 Megatron) right as they are released in Japan. It would basically be pre-ordering a Takara Masterpiece from Hasbro, who then pays that money to Takara to manufacture that number of extra pieces for Hasbro to sell.

Worldwide brand unification and all.

(I'm sure BBTS would object to that, since it would effectively take away their Masterpiece pre-order market.)

Yes, it would take some effort on Hasbro's part, but again, this news can be viewed as an opportunity rather than a sign of impending disaster. I think that's why we see HasLabs today. It's all very exciting.

 

So should we expect massive clearance sales at the closing stores
or will stock just get moved to other stores lol

 

If the news I read during the first announcement of closings still holds, that's what they're gonna do.

Anything they won't mark down (probably electronics) will be sent to staying stores and anything they want to clearance out will be sent to closing stores.

So unless plans change, expect closing stores to be filled with all the crap they can't sell now at a markdown.