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Toys R Us went down due to private equity shell games. I’m not sure if they could’ve survived the Amazon era, but they never got the chance. For what it’s wort

Toys R Us went down due to private equity shell games. I’m not sure if they could’ve survived the Amazon era, but they never got the chance. For what it’s worth, we went to Toys/Babies R Us all the time when our daughter was born six years ago. When you’re out of diapers or the bottle breaks or you need a last-minute birthday present for a friend’s party, you need supply in 30 minutes; even same-day isn’t fast enough. The stores filled that role for my family. Amazon has struggled to launch their own line of diapers and baby products multiple times, they shuttered the Quidsi acquisition after they couldn’t make it work, etc. I don’t think it’s foregone that Toys R Us would’ve become another one of their victims.

AgloeDreams 7y ago
While this was 90% VC based, I will say that this is one of the good situations to show that competition isn't really that good for the consumer. Amazon's loss leading methods (helps) kill other companies whereas the companies killed might have filled important roles that are not directly filled by others. Another good example is tablets. Amazon pushed the tablet game down to $49.99 which created a nightmarish expectation in customers as to what the price of a tablet should be while at the same time showing customers a low quality product, thus throwing customers to neither pay for a high end product and believing that tablets are low quality, killing all competitor's sales.
- bradknowles 7y ago
  And that is why Apple refuses to go bottom feeding on their iPad prices. Whatever you may think of iPad quality versus the competition, you can't argue with them deciding to keep premium pricing.
  - diminoten 7y ago
    iPads are like ~$300 now, they're definitely diving way deeper than they used to.
Noos 7y ago
There were other toy retailers, though. Kay-bee Toys comes to mind. Toys in general were hammered by the rise of discount retailers like Wal-Mart and Online
- verisimilidude 7y ago
  Agreed. If Toys R Us could’ve failed on its own terms, without dragging all the play debt, I imagine their downfall would’ve come from other retailers moreso than Amazon. Walmart and especially Target are really good at serving kids of all ages.

AgloeDreams 7y ago

While this was 90% VC based, I will say that this is one of the good situations to show that competition isn't really that good for the consumer. Amazon's loss leading methods (helps) kill other companies whereas the companies killed might have filled important roles that are not directly filled by others. Another good example is tablets. Amazon pushed the tablet game down to $49.99 which created a nightmarish expectation in customers as to what the price of a tablet should be while at the same time showing customers a low quality product, thus throwing customers to neither pay for a high end product and believing that tablets are low quality, killing all competitor's sales.

bradknowles 7y ago
And that is why Apple refuses to go bottom feeding on their iPad prices. Whatever you may think of iPad quality versus the competition, you can't argue with them deciding to keep premium pricing.
- diminoten 7y ago
  iPads are like ~$300 now, they're definitely diving way deeper than they used to.

Noos 7y ago

There were other toy retailers, though. Kay-bee Toys comes to mind. Toys in general were hammered by the rise of discount retailers like Wal-Mart and Online

verisimilidude 7y ago
Agreed. If Toys R Us could’ve failed on its own terms, without dragging all the play debt, I imagine their downfall would’ve come from other retailers moreso than Amazon. Walmart and especially Target are really good at serving kids of all ages.