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Toys R Us probably not Dave Brandons fault

I worked for Toys R Us for a couple years.. And Christmas was a rush and hourly you got paid with all the hours you got.
 
I think we discuss this when they did their bankruptcy filing

Yes the problems stem from the buyout

But Brandon still receive some significant bonuses this year
 
michchamp said:
Oh man... they're totally rad!
Click to expand...

Not rad...the thread is about Toys R Us, and MitchRapp posted about his experience with Toys R Us, and I posted about mine.

If anybody's post is rad...it's his...he's the one who worked at one...
 
tinselwolverine said:
Not rad...the thread is about Toys R Us, and MitchRapp posted about his experience with Toys R Us, and I posted about mine.

If anybody's post is rad...it's his...he's the one who worked at one...
Click to expand...

Did I just get in trouble?
 
Gulo Blue said:
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/ar...-store-closings-a-how-not-to-guide-for-retail

I enjoy saying bad things about Dave Brandon as much as the next Wolverine fan, but this article about the demise of Toys R Us doesn't include any missteps that were caused by Brandon. Sounds like Bain Capitol put them in a bad place before he got there.
Click to expand...

you must've missed that in the earlier thread.

Michlady said:
I think we discuss this when they did their bankruptcy filing

Yes the problems stem from the buyout

But Brandon still receive some significant bonuses this year
Click to expand...

I guess what sunk them was the failure to secure adequate financing to make it through the bankruptcy reorganization. They got denied though, and so their chapter 11 bid, turned into a chapter 7.

Gulo's article didn't shed any light as to why. I don't know if Brandon made any missteps, in addition to the bonus issue.

It seemed like they would be able to secure stopgap financing, since by all accounts, even with the competition from amazon, they were profitable, BUT FOR the interest costs due to the buyout in 2005, and those would've been wiped out by the bankruptcy, so once they emerged, they should've been okay.

I forgot Toys R Us had that deal with amazon. bad idea... but back then, they were still the little underdog company just trying to make ecommerce work for everyone... no one knew how evil they'd turn out to be.
 
This is a bad deal for my kids. We really enjoyed cruisin out to Salt Lake City every couple of months to hang out at Toys R Us. Searching for your next toy in those aisles can be exhilarating for a child. My son goes through every single aisle, doesnt matter if its the girl toys or baby toys, there is something cool in almost every aisle. This blows
 
Toy R Us should have called Hallmark and asked them how they invented all those holidays.
 
Gulo Blue said:
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/ar...-store-closings-a-how-not-to-guide-for-retail

I enjoy saying bad things about Dave Brandon as much as the next Wolverine fan, but this article about the demise of Toys R Us doesn't include any missteps that were caused by Brandon. Sounds like Bain Capitol put them in a bad place before he got there.
Click to expand...

I didn't read the article, but I've read a few that say things similar to what you're saying here. I don't think Bain Capital, KKR and Vornado were really responsible either (Vornado was involved because REIT conversions were all the rage at the time and a lot of folks thought Toys R Us was a potential REIT on steroids - a big chunk of the valuation was from their RE holdings). As part of an interview for a hedge fund in 2004 the PM assigned Toys R Us to me to write a research and make a buy or sell recommendation so I did a decent amount of research on the company.

Yes, the leveraged buyout was a bad idea but it probably bought toys r us another decade or so of operations. The reason the buyout was a bad idea is that it was a doomed business model. Toys R Us lost money 11 months a year and made their year in December with Christmas sales. Even before Amazon came around, Walmart was killing Toys R Us because they could convert a chunk of their stores to toys for the Christmas season, then shrink their toy offerings the rest of the year while Toys R Us had this massive fixed cost burden they couldn't do anything about for 11 months of the year. Once Amazon came along they basically had no shot - not much they can do with 2 massive discount retailers crushing them on price. One article I read said they could have spent money updating stores and adding things like party rooms for birthday parties and things like that but I don't see that being the saving grace.

And who knows, as a private company Bain, KKR and Vornado may have extracted enough value over the last 12 yrs to make a profit but I doubt it.
 
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Best memories as a kid was buying a new video game from there. You'd find the section, grab the yellow slip/ticket thingy, and have to take it to the guy behind the glass window to get the game.

Don't know why, I miss that.
 
dubbsco said:
Best memories as a kid was buying a new video game from there. You'd find the section, grab the yellow slip/ticket thingy, and have to take it to the guy behind the glass window to get the game.

Don't know why, I miss that.
Click to expand...

Are you old enough (and did you grow up in the right place) to remember Service Merchandise? Very cool experience as a kid.
 
Gulo Blue said:
Are you old enough (and did you grow up in the right place) to remember Service Merchandise? Very cool experience as a kid.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I don't remember being excited about it.

in metro Detroit in the 80's there was also another toy chain called Children's Palace. Remember that? It went out of business at some point and liquidated, I guess because those nice guys in Wall Street who do LBOs to save jobs didn't decide to give Children's Palace a lot of money like they did with Toys R Us.
 
michchamp said:
Yes, but I don't remember being excited about it.

in metro Detroit in the 80's there was also another toy chain called Children's Palace. Remember that? It went out of business at some point and liquidated, I guess because those nice guys in Wall Street who do LBOs to save jobs didn't decide to give Children's Palace a lot of money like they did with Toys R Us.
Click to expand...

I don't think I ever went to Children's Palace.

I don't know how to sell the Service Merchandise experience as an adult (especially since airport luggage claims are a very similar and boring experience), but as a kid, watching a conveyor belt for a new thing that you are going to get was pretty exciting. I may have only done it once, not sure, but at the time, it was the coolest.
 
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