Toys R Us files Chapter 11

[pacman000]

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/news/co ... index.html

KB Toys is planning a comeback. The brand's owners plan to open 1000 temporary stores in November. The ones which do well may become permanent, if they can get a good lease.

[VideoGameCritic]

To be honest I don't think I'll miss Toys R Us as much as the idea of Toys R Us. We all know they were poorly managed. Ever try to buy something from their video game department in the last few years?

I have great memories of KB Toys at the local malls, so I welcome them back.

[scotland]

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/news/companies/kb-toys-toys-r-us/index.html

KB Toys is planning a comeback. The brand's owners plan to open 1000 temporary stores in November. The ones which do well may become permanent, if they can get a good lease.

Remember this is a new company that bought the name. I hope they can do well.

I have also heard FAO Schwarz is reopening a Manhattan store. There store really was a destination.

[Herschie]

Ever try to buy something from their video game department in the last few years?

I'll never forget what a pain in the rear is was to buy NES games at Toys R Us.I know that wouldn't exactly be considered "the last few years", but remember having to pull that ticket, convince your parents to pay, then wait at that stupid counter for the guy to go fetch the game? Oh, sure, they were in no hurry, they're getting paid by the hour! Meanwhile, time is dwindling on Sunday, and while you're waiting, your mom remembers that math homework you forgot to do. Then you start arguing with her, and get out of control.

Now you're grounded, and you won't get to play the game until Wednesday at the earliest, and that's if you haven't got a note home from the teacher. All this because Toys R Us took forever to grab your game.

This is why I usually opted for a Ghostbusters or WWF action figure, although I never could find Hulk Hogan. For some reason, they always had an abundance of Rowdy Roddy Piper. It never made any sense,

[Retro STrife]

To be honest I don't think I'll miss Toys R Us as much as the idea of Toys R Us. We all know they were poorly managed. Ever try to buy something from their video game department in the last few years?

Same feeling here. I rarely went in Toy R Us, and didn't feel that it was very good when I did.

I think the feelings people have about this is more about the fact that we are losing our last fully-dedicated toy store, rather than the fact that we're losing Toys R Us specifically.

Then again, people seem to have these same feelings when other big stores go out of business. Like when Walmart was killing all the department stores off in the late 90s, early 2000s. Those stores weren't very good either, but people still think they miss places like Ames, Caldor, etc.

[Atarifever]

Then again, people seem to have these same feelings when other big stores go out of business. Like when Walmart was killing all the department stores off in the late 90s, early 2000s. Those stores weren't very good either, but people still think they miss places like Ames, Caldor, etc.

I imagine you're right. I miss Zellers, but not because it was any good for the last decade or more it existed. I miss the version of it when it was the main department store in my town and carried 2600 and NES games, Ninja Turtles, and the arcade game in the mall entrance. There's probably more at the box store Wal-Mart here now than there was in the Zellers in the mall, but I still miss it for everything I ever got there as a kid. When you grew up somewhere like this when it was an even smaller town in the 80s, mainstream department stores, grocery store comic racks, and cable TV were your lifelines to the outside.

[pacman000]

I do wish there were other department stores around, like Gibson's, Venture, Ames, Zayre, etc.

Driving across country & seeing nothing but Walmart in town after town is boring.

[djc]

I don't know if more department stores are needed or more diversified items. The electronics section of the Walmart near my house is pretty meh. There is just nothing that interests me. All current game consoles are pretty much the same in terms of capabilities with many overlapping titles. Back when I was younger (and I am sure nostalgia is playing a part in this), I used to love walking into Toys R Us, KB-Toys, or even The Wiz (!) to look at the new game systems and computers.

Today all stores pretty much carry the three main consoles (XBox, PS4, Switch). In 1993, there was Genesis, SNES, CD-i, 3DO, Neo Geo, Turbo Duo, and Jaguar all selling at the same time and all on display in most stores. Hell even the Atari 2600 had just reached end of life and still had games available in EB, KB-Toys, etc... Way more selection with vastly different capabilities and titles and a lot more enticing and interesting.

[pacman000]

http://www.platypuscomix.net/history/toysrus.html

Someone explores Toys R Us as they close, taking pictures & talking about the displays.

[scotland]

I don't know if more department stores are needed or more diversified items. The electronics section of the Walmart near my house is pretty meh. There is just nothing that interests me. All current game consoles are pretty much the same in terms of capabilities with many overlapping titles. Back when I was younger (and I am sure nostalgia is playing a part in this), I used to love walking into Toys R Us, KB-Toys, or even The Wiz (!) to look at the new game systems and computers.

Today all stores pretty much carry the three main consoles (XBox, PS4, Switch). In 1993, there was Genesis, SNES, CD-i, 3DO, Neo Geo, Turbo Duo, and Jaguar all selling at the same time and all on display in most stores. Hell even the Atari 2600 had just reached end of life and still had games available in EB, KB-Toys, etc... Way more selection with vastly different capabilities and titles and a lot more enticing and interesting.

I thought about branching off your comment into a new thread - how even with the internet opening up the marketplace so you don't need physical retail shelf space to sell your product, that we still have just 3 current gen consoles - but I guess the internet also helped make the hardware just a secondary or even tertiary part of gaming. Its about software, and connected ecosystems. A thing like an Atari Box would need massive capitalization to build the software and the ecosystem to begin to claw its way into the marketplace. That's not impossible for a larger company like a Samsung or Apple or Google or something, but not for a startup.

Since Nintendo does their own thing, its certainly conceivable there could be a fourth player in the market, but it would take something special to kick it off. Even back in the early 90s, most of those consoles were only marginal success or worse.

But I do miss the diversity of systems. Different systems were like different restaurants, with their own menus of gaming goodness.