The megaland for kids. The one store they go to and step in and go "Ahhhh." Used to be a kids dream. Not anymore, as I'm finding out lately.
WTF happened to ToysRUs? It used to be the megaland for toys. Now I go in there crossing my fingers that I can find ANYTHING. My daughter loves Strawberry Shortcake and Lalaloopsy. Every single time I go there (which isn't a lot anymore) the shelves are empty. It seriously looks like they're going out of business. I'm looking for Doc Mcstuffins toys now. My daughter loves Doc like the sister she hasn't had. I look on the website. And just like the Strawberry Shortcake dolls, it says "not in stock for shipping, but available in stores." Not my fucking store. I'm lucky if I find ANY Strawberry Shortcake at my store, much less the "hot" toys!
I know the assistant manager at my local ToysRUs. I worked with him previously in another retail environment. He says the company is focusing more on the BabiesRUs side of things. Great. So there's absolutely no chance of me getting any kind of hot toy unless I trek to that shitty store EVERY fucking day (with no guarantee they ever get any in stock), or pay twice as much on Ebay. No thanks.
I understand that there's competition in the toy market. There's Amazon, Target, and Walmart that sell the same toys slightly cheaper (maybe) and actually have them in stock. Last year I found Lite Sprites, the HOT holiday toy, at Walmart in September. I never did see them at my local ToysRUs. A big sale lost to them! I don't think ToysRUs ever "got" the internet competition. Maybe they have ancient CEOs who just don't GET the internet. What they don't understand is that they're losing their "core" customer in this Babies/Toys stores remodel.
Let me explain. When I was pregnant/just had my daughter, I was a huge fan of BabiesRUs. I visited frequently. I was also less internet savvy than I am now. I can name at least five friends who have recently had babies that use the internet to shop for their baby stuff. Customers LOST.
Now that my kid is older, I want to visit the ToysRUs side, and it's non-existant. As I've mentioned before, they never have anything my daughter wants. The company is focusing on babies, so they lose my business. Customers LOST.
It seems they adapted to the changes a little too late and will lose the customers they are trying to keep. Sad.
So your store is doing the remodel to add the Babies R Us? Ours underwent that change a couple of years ago, but after it was all done, everything got way better, on both the toy and baby side. Things were suddenly in stock again!
ReplyDeleteOur store did the remodel about a year ago. Well stocked for a few months, now it's back to the way it was before the remodel. I went to a couple of ToysRUs' in PA and NJ recently, and learned it IS just that my store blows. The ones up north had so much more stock!
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