Toys r us entering liquidation

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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Warcry wrote:All I've been hearing about the liquidation sales in the US is that people are flocking in to buy things at 5% to 10% off that didn't sell when they were advertised at 25%+ off in recent flyers. Same sort of thing happened when Sears went out of business here: people who would never even think about shopping there because they were "too expensive" even during sales absolutely swarmed the place once the going-out-of-business sales started, even though the starting prices weren't even all that different from their regular prices (and in some cases were actually higher!)

I'm sure some sociologist somewhere had a field day writing a paper about that sort of behaviour.
When I went through this in retail, a team from Staples came around and told us "you'll suddenly have customers you've never seen before come in and buy stuff up. They're like vultures." :lol:
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

A surprising amount of TF movie stuff has gone from the one on Merry Hill, still some RID bits.
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Post by Tantrum »

I stopped by TRU Saturday and found some Lego (and a Q-bert non-Lego) for 5% off. Most other stuff was 10%. But, with TRU's normal prices being a bit higher than most other places, and the all sales are final/no refunds or exchanges policy, that's still a worse deal than Walmart or Target, where you can at least exchange a faulty product for a good one.

As for why people who wouldn't bother with a regular 20% off sale buying stuff at 10% off: That regular 20% off sale might be topped by a later sale, so you might save more money waiting. They'll restock, so your choices appear to be: 20% off now, or 30% off later.

With a going out of business sale, by the time the discount gets any higher, the item might be gone, and there's no restock coming. Your choices appear to be: 10% off now, full price at another store, or never getting the item.
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Post by Clay »

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Post by Tantrum »

Clay - If Infernocus gets marked down enough, will you get a bunch to go with your Prime Abomini?
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Post by Warcry »

Tantrum wrote:As for why people who wouldn't bother with a regular 20% off sale buying stuff at 10% off: That regular 20% off sale might be topped by a later sale, so you might save more money waiting. They'll restock, so your choices appear to be: 20% off now, or 30% off later.

With a going out of business sale, by the time the discount gets any higher, the item might be gone, and there's no restock coming. Your choices appear to be: 10% off now, full price at another store, or never getting the item.
I guess I'm just thinking about it the other way around -- if you didn't think it was worth buying at 20% off, then why is it worth it now at 10% off? And if it was worth it at $20% off, then why wait six months just in case you might be able to save an extra $1.99 later?

I'll never really put off buying sale items to wait for a bigger discount, because those bigger sales are pretty rare. And also because a lot of times they don't restock, at least not with the same stuff. It doesn't do me any good to hold off from buying Slag and Swoop for 25% off if all I can find when the 33% off sale hits three months later are Sludge and Snarl.

I'm not sure the regular consumer thinks that way anyway, though. A lot of these people probably haven't looked at a Toys'R'Us flyer in five years, so they probably don't even realize that the price was lower a month ago for some of the stuff they're buying.
That makes sense. Sales are a big driver of consumer behaviour because they're attention-getting. If the prices are always the same (even if they're always low) there's no sense of urgency driving people to get there and check the place out this week while the sale is on.
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Tantrum wrote:Clay - If Infernocus gets marked down enough, will you get a bunch to go with your Prime Abomini?
Nah. I've looked at it a bunch of times, but it just doesn't click with me.

I haven't looked at more Abomini in a while, though I suppose I should since people'll be shedding them in favor of the G1-styled Abominus in generations.
Warcry wrote:I guess I'm just thinking about it the other way around -- if you didn't think it was worth buying at 20% off, then why is it worth it now at 10% off? And if it was worth it at $20% off, then why wait six months just in case you might be able to save an extra $1.99 later?
I think you may be overestimating how many people will come in to look at toy clearances after the holidays versus... well, the chain shutting down. The people combing over the stock now may simply have not been interested in looking at any of it before the closure.

Have I mentioned that all the Kmarts around me have closed, too? The chain still is going, apparently, although the demented parasite at the top remains.
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Post by Denyer »

If anyone's following, a toy manufacturer is making a bid for getting the stores out of the hands of the ****ers at Bain Capital Partners LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Vornado Realty Trust.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toys ... SKBN1HK1ZF
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Post by praetorian »

There's a buyer for stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toys ... SKBN1HS0C2
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Post by praetorian »

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Post by Warcry »

I'm not sure if that's a model that'll stand the test of time. With so many big-box stores disappearing, how long are you going to be able to parasitize (for lack of a better word) their customers? But maybe they're just planning to use that as a launching platform that'l lead to independent, small-scale retail outlets of their own?

Hopefully the creditors do a better job of running the business than Bain and co. did, anyway.
Clay wrote:Have I mentioned that all the Kmarts around me have closed, too? The chain still is going, apparently, although the demented parasite at the top remains.
Sounds like he's finally managed to kill off Sears, now. Of course, now that there's no value left to suck out of the business he's resigned as CEO. Bolting out the door with billions of dollars and all of the company's still-valuable IPs and real estate, no doubt...

Not a surprise, after they had to shutter their operations up here last year. A bit sad, though. I don't know if the landscape has changed as much in the US or the UK, but here in Canada all but one of the big department stores that owned the market when I was a kid have all died off. And the one that's left has seen its footprint shrink a fair bit.
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Post by praetorian »

Warcry wrote:I'm not sure if that's a model that'll stand the test of time. With so many big-box stores disappearing, how long are you going to be able to parasitize (for lack of a better word) their customers? But maybe they're just planning to use that as a launching platform that'l lead to independent, small-scale retail outlets of their own?
I'm skeptical, as well. It seems like big-box retail can't get over the fact that most consumers have gotten over big-box retail and expect low prices, price cuts, and especially quick and free shipping on most things, from some online store. Surely one of the reasons for the downfall of Toys 'R US was their horrific online presence. Small online stock of many Transformers, shipping charges, and mark-ups on prices before all that. It seems to me that toys is a major area of consumer spending that fits with online shopping: it's not like clothes that you want to try on before buying.

We've had big store closures here as well. Area shopping malls have gaping holes where a retail store used to be, with most unable to fill those huge spots with anything else. Malls themselves are on the decline. Strange times; retail stores are going to have to be creative and dynamic in order to survive.
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Post by Denyer »

Wasn't entirely the fault of TRU though -- the bastards that saddled the company with debt basically prevented them investing and developing a competitive online operation.
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