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No! Toys R Us was not at all a “perfectly viable business”, rather a deeply troubled retailer with long history of decline, mismanagement, terrible earnings, an
by DLA 7y ago
No! Toys R Us was not at all a “perfectly viable business”, rather a deeply troubled retailer with long history of decline, mismanagement, terrible earnings, and a disaster of a balance sheet! [1] And “if not for the ridiculous debt-load” is like saying Flint Michigan had delicious water except for the poison. Debt load destroys companies unless they are growing revenues and can service and retire the debt.
Thousands of workers lost jobs because the company leadership and market pressures crushed the company; oh, and that debt.
Enter PE and a much needed restructuring. Now Toys R Us is reformed into more of an experience vice pure retailer. [2]
While not as large as it once was there are jobs there now whereas absent the reforms PE brought there would very likely be only some real estate for sale and a footnote in business history. And no jobs.
So yeah, blame PE.
[1] https://www.retaildive.com/news/inside-the-20-year-decline-of-toys-r-us/526364/ https://www.retaildive.com/news/inside-the-20-year-decline-o...
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/toys-r-us-executives-plot-retailers-comeback-with-tru-kids.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/toys-r-us-executives-plot-re...
- DerekL 7y agoThe complaint is about the leveraged buyout in 2005, not the restructuring happening right now.
- xkcd-sucks 7y agoThe former Toys R Us liquidated its stores, and a different company called Tru Kids acquired the Toys R Us brand name. There are a few people in common between the two companies, but intuitively it doesn't seem that the original Toys R Us survived. At the end of the day, people owed money didn't get paid, and a historically uninvolved PE firm did get ppaid. The article [1], rather, seems to present the 2005 buyout as the terminal blow to a weak company; it was only after 2005 that maintenance of the physical stores was neglected. Also, it's not clear how the specific reforms proposed by Warren prevent restructuring and changes in management.