I mean, it's cool if KB comes back, but prices at most "pop up" style seasonal toy stores I've checked out before are usually marked up pretty badly, so hopefully they'll stick to msrp's as much as possible.
Don't mean to be the one to resurrect old threads, but I wonder if plans to bring back KB Toys fizzled or just proved unrealistic for this season like they originally announced. To the best of my knowledge nothing has been said about KB Toys since earlier this summer. I know Party City's "Toy City" pop ups seem to be happening though and they announced those plans way after KB's initial announcement.
...i think we'll see many spirit-halloween-style seasonal ventures pop up in about two months, kay-bee among them...
Well KB's was always marked up anyway. Can't be worse then Target, Walgreens or Rite-Aid's high prices.
They should channel Food Trucks and do a KB Truck. Same shit just more expensive. Oh wait .... they are already doing it.
Kay Bee toys should try something off thr beaten path too. Could save them money and make them alot in Return. How about a series of Mall stores which sell products with more of the adult collector in Mind. Anything from Marvel Legends, to GI Joe reissues, or box sets, Transformers Masterpiece, and takara Tomy diaclone reboot figures, as well as McFarlane Toys, Hot toys, Macross, Gundam, Movie action figures, DC comics direct, Mattel Dc Comics, specialized Legos made into Mecha, He-man classics and so on..have those smaller boutique still shops and make the larger stores more for the child in mind. Bring stores like Big Bad Toy Store into a small shop in malls, or higher end strip malls. Towne centers, they do well now. If anyone has them in their town or city, they are great to visit and walk about shopping. With a specialized Kay Bee collectors store, they could just hold my wallet indefinitely. They could carry DVDs of various anime. Transformers Gi Joe, He-man, anf so on..
Yeah, and we would have seen SOME indication of them opening up. You think they'll put up stores in a few weeks? The dead silence since their plans were 'announced' seems to indicate that it's not happening this year. If they were opening up, you'd think they'd be hyping it up through the media. Wal-Mart went and got media attention just for expanding their toy sections. Because they know that you need the attention before you actually implement, so you're ready for the season when it hits. I could be wrong...but I'd be surprised if they had any presence this year based on the total lack of any sort of presence so far.
Yeah, I've had my own ear to the ground because they should have at least been hiring management at this point so they could start recruiting staff. The silence seems odd....
It was unrealistic. If it happens, great. But don't count on it just yet. That doesn't mean something won't happen over time. There was a market and something will fill it.
My guess is that Toy City probably gave them second thoughts, plus Walmart's push to be larger. I'm assuming they figured out they couldn't hack it and cancelled, at least for this year. Shame. And if they open in October, what's the point? 2 months is not enough time, it isn't.
It was a publicity stunt piggybacked on the collapse of Toys R Us and nothing more. "Heeeeeeey kiiiiiiiiids! Remember Toys R Us? We used to be a store too! Look at us! Please...please...look at us..." Although I don't blame them for not opening. There's no viable business plan for them. They'll have people walk in once, see shelfwarmers at full price, and never return. Is it a market that's willing to spend money? A market alone is not enough. They've got to beat retail (not MSRP) with free shipping at a minimum. It doesn't matter if Amazon never has it in stock. They need to have all of the hot shortpacked toys in stock for less than Amazon and the shelfwarmers for somewhere between a can of off-brand soda and bus fare.
I don't think it was a publicity stunt, I think they were serious, but it turns out starting up a chain store around the country in less than a year from scratch is hard. Maybe next year? Maybe never? We'll see. Toy City will at least still happen, but that's because Party City stores are already located near shopping centers and malls where they can not only rent space and then share the same already established distribution network, but even share some of the already hired staff. A manager already working for the nearby Party City could easily run a small satellite store for a few months no problem.
Yeah, Kb Toys isn't happening this year and Toy City is only opening 50 locations nationwide. Nothing to see here.Nothing to see here.
I agree. But like others had pointed out, I was just surprised there was no announcement of hirings or media hyping up any openings this season especially getting this close to when retailers start getting ready for the holiday season. Not saying I don't think it might happen eventually but opening by this season was already most likely an unrealistic goal. I was just commenting on the fact that KB has been silent for months since they initially announced their initial strategy back in early summer. Again, I know things like this don't happen over night and could take a long while to get things off the ground, but what kinda bugs me is they made this announcement and made comments that indicated they were going to try to open this year and that they were going to try to hire alot of the former TRU workers that had just lost their job. They might have had every intention to try to open this year and I hope alot of those workers did manage to find other employement, but I feel sorry for the workers that might have been praying that KB would open and make good on TRU employees getting first crack at those jobs.
