Comment by replicatorblog | Hacker News Reader

Comment by replicatorblog | Hacker News Reader

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This is an excellent point. I don't think I've read an account of the TRU fiasco from the POV of a person with kids. By my read, TRU's problem isn't debt or Amazon, but changing substitutes. E.g.:

+ YouTube + Amazon: Lets kids see what a toy looks like in HD, whereas previously you'd need to go to a store to see the big images on the box, or to press the "try me" buttons. As you said, the brand drives most of the sales, so the store experience adds little.

+ Advanced Supply Chains/McDonalds: The toys in Happy Meals are insanely nice, I wouldn't be surprised to see them retail for $5-10 at a toy store. High-quality toys are throw-ins for a lot of stores now, obviating the need for a special purpose store, save for Christmas/Birthdays.

+ YouTube + Grocery Store: The rise of Surprise Eggs over the last few years has been astounding, to the point that a decent amount of our toy budget is spent at the checkout line at the grocer, where these eggs are increasingly on offer.

+ YouTube + DIY: The explosion in popularity of DIY slime is another development where tactile time is invested in a project rather than a packaged toy.

+ Apps: The YouTube Kids app and the many thousands of quality games on offer in the app store are great substitutes for plastic junk.

No doubt debt played a role, but I think almost every story has underplayed massive changes in the toy market that are an additional headwind to the industry.

The other problem is that Toys R Us was a terrible retail experience. Warehouse-like, dim flourescent lighting, reminiscent of an old KMart. Dirty floors, unattractive steel shelves in narrow aisles for displaying merchandise. Indifferent, bored workers. I think I shopped there twice before giving up.

terrible retail experience, yes and quite standard for retail, especially that that purposefully encourages the whine and cry for things they want at eye level at registers.

I avoid certain stores in order to avoid the whole "I want this, I want, I want, whine whine" in the store and then at the checkout. I understand Toys R Us playing to this, going in you know it's going to happen...

but rather than really trying to increase it with impulse things at the entrance and then at the checkout, especially with things like candy, they could innovate.

Giving the kids a scanner like some of the walmarts have available and letting them zap all their wants, like some stores have with wedding registries, then letting them print a list or send to an app and then be able to sort by most wanted, etc - easy sharing.. could increase sales, and take care of the whining problem for example.

I'd also support a non candy aisle by spending more money if it had fresh fruit / veggy snacks for example, and I think others would as well.

The wall street greed that pushes some of these methods of selling is backfiring in some ways that are uncountable - if your app could detect the times I need something, yet drive by your store because kids and your impulse check out aisles..

Apps - yes. Addictive electronic entertainment has taken over. I imagine many other parents also have a few piles of toys that were cool / must have / licensed by the popular things, that just sit in that pile and take up space while phones / tablets / consoles other addictive electronics get used constantly.

Why waste money on things that get an initial "wow!" - only to be tossed into a pile and never used, when there are tons of privacy stealing ad supported free things that take all the time and attention.

Last holiday I looked through the TUS online and offline catalogues for 10-12 age range, found 2 things that may be interesting to the youngin' here; one was a watch.

Strangely card based games like pokemon yugio mtg can actually get groups of kids involved without the need for electronics, but I don't think those alone would keep a large warehouse in business. I am also not driving across town when target has the card packs a mile from here, and specialized card shops are all over town.

I did see TUS expand it's electronics section, but the ad supported freemium models don't sell many games, just hardware once every so often.

Sad to see TUS go, unlike GP commenter, I don't think the author is crazy, I believe that shareholders often influence places to make decisions that may raise profits in the short term yet lose the war after a couple of years. It may not be the only reason, but I'd wager it's one of the main ones out of the top 10 perhaps.

These are all good reasons. Add onto it that most people are paycheck to paycheck. Its cheaper to shop online then drive tour car across town even if you enjoy the store experience.

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