Toy store chain Toys R Us is planning to sell or close all 800 of its U.S. stores, affecting as many as 33,000 jobs as the company winds down its operations after six decades, according to a source familiar with the matter.

There were reports earlier this week that Toys R Us had stopped paying its suppliers, which include the country’s largest toy makers. On Wednesday, the company announced it would close all 100 of its U.K. stores. In the United States, the company told employees closures would likely occur over time, and not all at once, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Amazon share comes not from nothing.

As a result of the liquidation of Toys R Us, 30,000 employees have lost their jobs and they are also not receiving the severance packages they expected. Employees were blindsided by the bankruptcy and are now facing a precarious situation of possible unemployment.

@rockroadpix

It is such, but also you miss important thing. For such grow rates of Amazon someone must fall, it is monopoly rising.

@rockroadpix

It is common error you are making.

In such competition someone always wins, you can blame others for management errors, but usually smaller ones are closing and loosing as they do not have unlimited funds and enough leverage on manufacturers.

Amazon is sample of new financial capital approach - make artificial monopolies and do so by working without profits or even with big losses until you wipe competition out.

@eatstoomuchjam - Not joking. Where did I say it was Amazon's fault? Please point that out.

@rockroadpix Sorry, yeah. I grabbed Amazon from VK's post, but you mentioned their lack of a stronger online presence in yours which I conflated with that. That part was my mistake

Were there unprofitable stores that they should have proactively shut down? Maybe. I don't have any insight into store-by-store performance.

Should they have teamed up with another major online retailer? Maybe? There aren't a ton of successful partnerships like that to point to which are clearly/obviously contributing substantially to the classic retailer's bottom line.

Should they have had more online presence? Probably.

Was the management horrible? Maybe. I have no insight into that either.

There are a lot of contributing factors to the downfall, the weights of which could be debated at length, but one thing is for absolute certain - a recipe for continued health of a company is not to buy it, pay yourself a huge bonus for it, and increase their debt to the point where the interest accounts for 97% of operating profit. That gives them absolutely no margin for error or budget to innovate (without taking on additional debt).

I totally believe you that they weren't cutting-edge - but bear in mind that updating systems costs money. 2004 is right around the time they were acquired (2005) so most of your friend's time was there during the Romney age.

And from the article that I linked...

The company eliminated positions, loading responsibilities onto other workers. Schedules became unpredictable.

If the company was struggling with antiquated systems before, eliminating staff and offloading their responsibility on other workers without investing in upgrading the systems is not a recipe for future success... and one of the primary pitches of a private equity company is that they come in and improve bad systems. If they come in and explode a company's debt without either significantly decreasing costs or increasing profits, then they are acting exactly like a parasite that will eventually kill its host.

Had they not been there, Toys R Us could have presumably invested some of the profits that it was making in 2005 into modernizing and improving.

Ever since I learned about private equity companies during some other major retailers closing, I've looked them up every time I've heard of a major retailer shutting down. The vast majority have been strangled by trying to pay interest on private equity debt.

Ah, I thought you meant he was there from 2004-2012. :)

Future of Retail Shopping:

Flash mobs rob Lululemon and Apple as store clerks watch.

They didn't get any AC adapters! Maybe Lululemon will develop a kill switch for their pants!

https://losspreventionmedia.com/insider/retail-security/flash-mob-robbery-and-the-retail-threat/

Sears is planning to close up to 150 of its department and discount stores and keep at least another 300 open, while the fate of Sears’ remaining 250 stores uncertain. 90,000 jobs are at stake, according to Sears filings.

Sears will likely file for bankruptcy protection in New York as soon as Sunday night,

US Retail closings October 8, 2018

Mattress Firm – Up to 700 stores

Victoria’s Secret – 20 stores

Brookstone – 102 stores

The Fresh Market – 15 stores

Chipotle – 65 stores

Toys R Us – 735 stores

Starbucks – 150 stores closing in 2019

H&R Block – 400 locations

Subway – 500 restaurants

Bon-Ton Department Srore– 256 stores

GNC Nutrition – 200 stores

J. Crew – 20 stores

Abercrombie & Fitch – 60 stores

Best Buy cell phone stores – 250 stores

J.C. Penney – 8 stores

Sam’s Club ( Walmart) – 63 stores

Macy’s – 11 stores

Gap and Banana Republic – 200 stores

Teavana ( Starbucks )– 379 stores - All stores

Ascena Retail Group – At least 268 stores ( women clothing - Ann Taylor, Loft, Dress Barn, Lane Bryant, Justice etc)

Michael Kors – 100 to 125 stores

Foot Locker – 110 stores

Sears and Kmart – Several hundred stores

Orchard Supply Hardware – 99 stores

Sears Holdings Corp. is preparing to potentially wind down the iconic retailer after Chairman Eddie Lampert’s bid to buy several hundred stores out of bankruptcy fell short of bankers’ qualifications, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The retailer started laying the groundwork for a liquidation after meetings Friday in which its advisers weighed the merits of a $4.4 billion bid by Lampert’s hedge fund to buy Sears as a going concern, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-06/sears-said-to-prepare-for-possible-liquidation-as-esl-bid-fails?srnd=premium