Another sizable part of that was used for expansion.

I'm not sure Bain didn't expect TRU to survive - they wouldn't have spent SO much money on immediate expansion of Babies R Us brand, something that was a smart move at the time but it's completion coincided with the bottom falling out of the bricks-and-mortar baby business.

Not to mention, they stretched it out a really long time, if they were just going to tank the business.
But that's not to excuse the shady practices that did lead to it's demise either.

 

Thats exactly the point of venture capitalism - or vulture capitalism, as I like to call it. They prey on walking corpses of businesses and feast on their remains. They only stretched out TRU's existence because TRU was paying them for buying them out. They had no intention of actually saving the business. They were in it for the money alone.

 

Yep! Which means they won't be selling the stuff we really want. Not sure how long they will last on the TRU branded (generic type) toys because they didn't sell that great in the first place.

 

I like how the author called Sears a big seller of toys. Who's seen toys in Sears since KB shut down a decade ago?

 

I'll link to the article. https://nypost.com/2019/04/25/toys-r-us-plans-to-return-for-the-holidays-with-downsized-stores/

 

They were starting to do that here in the uk before they went under, mostly opening them inside existing shipping centres.

 

I have more faith in this than I do the K-B guys.

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens with this. Most likely, it won't happen in my area...I don't think Wichita was on the list of stores that was going to make the cut the first time around to avoid closure.

The "pop-up stores" in Kroger were a joke. They were actually just a couple pallet drops...nothing I'd call a "store".

 

If the same management at the top owns it, any version will likely continue to be a joke as they are now a rebranded, broken & untrusted start-up that no longer has the deep purchase power it once had & many toy clients likely demanding cash up front to play - I would not offer them a cent in credit for purchases. The market readjusted already. Manufacturers still supply in horrible ways. While there is potential to grow, if they cant get you merchandise to stock for sale, at a speed & volume to compete with all the e-front stores, whats the advantage of saying you bought it from Geofrey vs on-line?

In the end, the giraffe is dead, the ghost of a disaster seems to live on. Just let it go....let it go....

 

via Imgflip Meme Generator

 

TRU Kids branding made $3 BILLION dollars last year? Huh.

 

Saw this on Twitter:

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

We already have threads about this.

 

In that case, my bad.

 

The article is new, but still.

 

I’ll believe it when I see it. It seems like every 6 months, we hear about TRU returning. Rumors of its return stay in the news for about two days then we hear nothing else and forget it about it. Rinse and repeat. I hope it comes back, but, like I said, I’ll believe when I see it.