Forum - View topicNEWS: Toys R Us Plans to Sell or Close Over 700 U.S. Stores
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Nate148
Posts: 480 |
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how did Yo-Kai Watch do in the west anyways never was sure
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MoonPhase1
Posts: 492 |
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Only the games were really successful. The Anime only seems to do ok on Disney X-D but the long breaks for new episodes does take its toll. The toys I always see them in the Clearance sections like at Wal-Mart and Gamestop. The 99 Cents store usually has at least something for Yokai Watch. |
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explosionforgov
 Posts: 80 Location: United States of America |
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From what I've seen, young kids like the franchise because some of them see Pokémon as "old" now. Older fans like it because some of the Japanese aspects weren't taken out, and because both Pokémon and Yo-Kai Watch have interested them in the actual concept of yokai, which are not super well known on our shores (especially when compared to Ancient Greek and Egyptian, and to some extent, Norse mythology), and have kind of a neat, unique aesthetic. |
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CastMember1991
 Posts: 859 |
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I have a feeling that Walmart might buy the Toys "R" Us brand in the States. There is a great opportunity here to not only re-open some closed TRU stores, but also re-brand the toy isles in the mainline Walmart chain using the Toys "R" Us brand. The brand is an American icon, and it would be a shame to see it just fade into history.
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ZeetherKID77
 Posts: 981 |
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If this hurts Zoids Wild's chance at licensing I hate venture capitalists more than ever. Bain Capital should burn in hell. They pulled this SAME THING with KB Toys and Hostess. Garbage, garbage corporation full of smug billionaires. It makes my blood boil to know that this wasn't the fault of sales but a bunch of suits who decided to dump debt on them and then shut them down. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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That’s not really Walmart’s style. Not to mention, they don’t really need the boost. They are already the largest toy seller in the US, having passed up Toys R Us years ago. Walmart is focusing on online sales growth, and Toys R Us would do little to help there either. If they were going to spend billions on another acquisition, it would probably be another online venture, especially since Toys R Us would likely draw antitrust scrutiny. With Amazon expanding its physical presence, and having a large war chest, they are the only company I could see that could consider picking them up, or perhaps the Canadian chain and top 200 US stores that management is trying to bundle together. But I feel even that would be a very long shot. Amazon would probably love to have the higher margins in Toys R Us stores, but wouldn’t want to be saddled with their high debt and poorer performing locations. |
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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I've only been to Toys R' Us twice in my life. Once as a little kid, and once last year. Wish I would've been able to go more.
I did see a picture on Twitter recently of Toys R' Us carrying more anime/manga material, including the manga of Boruto, Fairy Tail, and Tokyo Ghoul. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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Not really, no. Twenty years ago Toy R Us fell behind Walmart, Target, and Amazon... and not only have they never caught back up, they've been steadily falling ever further behind. TRU's reputation far, far exceeds their actual impact on the market. Like Kmart before them, and Sears and J.C. Penny currently, they tried to bank on their cultural relevance - and failed. As to those pushing the "vulture investors" theory... Well, partly the same answer, partly "it's more complicated than that". When they bought out the company in 2005, it was already in fourth place and steeply declining. It's market value was already less than half it's early 90's peak. Their annual sales have been more-or-less flat for most of a decade now. They've already had several rounds of store closures in an attempt to stay profitable and solvent. This isn't something sudden, it's been coming for a long time. It's not clear that lacking debt would have changed much. |
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CastMember1991
Posts: 859 |
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I'm sorry, but how is Yo-kai Watch's 400,000 copies sold considered a success compared to - let's say - Super Mario Odyssey, which sold over 9 million? |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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Not to mention TRU's business model is based on premium pricing and trying to eke out a living from Dec 26th to Nov25th - and then discounting, feasting, and stocking up for the coming drought from Nov 26th to Dec 24th. (And while their discounts looked impressive - it's only by comparison to their rest-of-year pricing.) Amazon's model is based on discount pricing and steady year-round sales. The holiday season is, was, life or death for TRU... While at Amazon the holiday season is an annual bonus. On top of that, TRU's market was the middle half (a half that's taken and is taking some pretty heavy blows). Amazon's physical ventures so far are clearly aimed further up the scale. Which means it's not that TRU's poorer performing locations that are problem... It's that all but a handful of the locations are outside of Amazon's target. Basically, there's nobody with any real interest in maintaining TRU's physical presence because either they already have their own (Walmart, Target, JCP, Sears) or their presence is a mismatch and not their main focus (Amazon). As far as brand presence... All of TRU's main competitors already have their own branding and re-branding would likely only dilute that without returning equivalent value. As I said above, TRU's cultural relevance has been dropping for years now. They're not *quite* a footnote, but they're certainly no longer on the A-list. Nobody is going to be interested to spend the money to fix that. |
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2293 Location: In front of my computer |
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Honestly, this does make me sad. While I'm not yet a mom, I wanted to have my future kids experience the awe and wonder of stepping into a toy store and seeing so many things you just can't find at a Target or Walmart. TRU is the only toy store out there now - other than a few small places that specialize in education toys and some mom-and-pop shops - and now it'll fade away into obscurity. And with it, any and all licensing left over from KB Toys and FAO Schwartz, because I really have doubts that anyone will be wanting to pick up the licensing agreements for those (far as I know, they are strictly licensed to TRU).
I admit, I hadn't bought TOO much from them over the years, but I have bought plenty of Pokemon, Barbie, and Monster High toys there (the latter two just for the clothes because they fit my dollfies, but meh), and their selection was far better than any place else I've gone to for these things. It's going to be sad knowing that now I'll have far less choices for these things and if I really want something, I'd be forced to buy it online (I do shop online, but I don't enjoy it nowhere near as much as I like going to a store, buying it, and having it physically in my hands that same day). On a more personal level, it's going to suck for the town next to mine that has the TRU. The location it's in is unfortunately within a dead zone (there's a mall next door that probably sits at 35-40% occupancy, and a strip mall that now only has one store open since Kmart closed early last year, leaving 8-10 storefronts empty), so now it'll join that side of the town with very little business. I can't imagine the town is going to be happy with the loss of revenue and jobs (which I believe has one of the highest unemployment rates in our state as it is already). |
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Lynx Raven Raide
 Posts: 412 Location: Central Coast, AU |
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I don't know how it is in the US, so this is just from my own AU perspective. I have kind of mixed feelings with this, because of the job losses, but at least here I could see it coming. Here they are overpriced compared to other stores, so they kind of priced themselves out. As I said, though, I feel for those who are unfortunately about to lose their jobs over this.
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Primus
 Posts: 2779 Location: Toronto |
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In the English speaking world, not particularly well. Level-5 wasn't thrilled with how the first game sold in North America. The followups have almost certainly performed worse. Merchandise seems to have done poorly, with a tonne of the stuff Hasbro put out showing up at liquidation retailers. The dub is continuing (as well as the game localizations), but with a major caveat: for budgetary reasons the original English cast have been replaced. It seems production has moved to Vancouver. Outside of the English world, things have fared better for Jibanyan and friends. Hasbro has committed to releasing more merch in France, as well as Spanish speaking markets. A lot of the companies getting on board with Yo-Kai Watch were expecting it to be the next Pokemon. That's not what they got. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Also, the two competing store chains basically took over all of TRU's business: Except for a big established toy brand like Barbie or licensed property like Pokemon, most 00's-10's toy sale was down to movie and TV properties-- And when Dreamworks made their big deal to only sell their movie tie-in toys at Wal-Mart, Target had to follow suit with store-exclusive Beat Bugs and Last Jedi toys, etc., until the resulting Coke vs. Pepsi wars between the two titans left increasingly little for the only remaining independent toy chain. Both chains now see themselves as being "the" holiday Christmas destination that TRU used to be, Target more so than Wal-mart. Walmart would, but Target really should. |
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CastMember1991
Posts: 859 |
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I said it before, and I'll say it again, Pokémon proved to be insurmountable at the end of the day. Speaking of which, you gotta wonder what Nintendo thinks of this sad news. They had a pretty good business relationship with Toys "R" Us when the NES saved the US video game industry after the collapse of Atari. |
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