Opinion: Why I Was Never a Toys R Us Kid and How I Would Have Tried to Fix the Mess





It's no secret that the brick and mortar retail landscape is being cannibalized by online retailers like Amazon. People are up in arms because Toys R Us, the largest toy store chain in the United States is about to shutter its doors for good. I am not among those people filled with nostalgia and outrage. No I am not a scrooge that wants to take toys away from kids but I am a business minded person who is a kid at heart and has long seen the demise of Toys R Us coming.





Toys R Us cites declining birth rates by millennials as a primary risk to their business model. Less babies means a smaller market size and less toys to be sold, but I would contend that the driving issues leading to the toy giant's demise had less to do with birth rates and more to do with several other factors where Toy's R Us just didn't deliver.

High Prices

Before Amazon started taking all retailers to the cleaners, Toys R Us was losing market share to Walmart and Target. Both of these retailers offered the same toys for a considerably lower price. I recall my last attempted purchase of a Scrabble board game which cost $19.99 at Toys R Us and I was in a hurry and didn't want to deal with traffic. I looked up the price at Walmart online and it was $14.87, more than 25 percent less and worth a 10 minute drive.

Terrible Customer Service

When I think of a toy store customer service rep, it should be someone who loves both toys and kids. Someone who wants to help connect kids (and parents) with the toys they desire. I have never been offered help in the store in over 2 decades, and the times that I did request help finding something created a fruitless and lackluster search which ended up with me at another big box store buying the item(s).

Joke of an In-Store Pickup Program

Just this year, my wife and I attempted to purchase an item from a baby registry for a friend. We had an ebates coupon we wanted to use and Toys R Us had the item in stock at our local store (or so we thought). I placed the order with relative ease and received a confirmation email that it was successful. Within 5 minutes, I received another email saying the order was cancelled. Obviously it was now out of stock, but we still wanted the product. We ordered from another Toys R Us about 45 minutes away and the order was successful. When I arrived at that store, they had no record of the order and a 40 minute search ensued until someone could finally locate my order and retrieve it for me. It was such a hassle and I can conclusively say we would have saved more money and time just buying from a nearer big box store.





Bad Rewards Program

My wife was a member of the "Rewards R Us" Program which offered a less than generous $5 reward for every $125 spent. She tells me the rewards also had some restrictions and a relatively quick expiration date. A 4% rebate when spending between 5% and 25% compared to Walmart or Target is hardly a reward and didn't really provide a value add to the consumer.

Crowded Stores with Poor Layouts

I've been in several Toys R Us stores over the years, and they all seem to feature narrow and tall aisles that are crowded and difficult to navigate. Kids are small and they can't see the top shelf. Parents are taller, but shopping carts need to fit through the aisles so that items can be purchased. Kids also need some open space to wander (not far) and wonder in what should be a magical space. To me, the layout looked like a narrow Walmart aisle labyrinth with less desirable merchandise on the shelves.

Nothing for Kids

I have fond memories of a small toy store called Children's Palace back in the late 80's and early 90's which felt like toy heaven to me. I could sit in the electric cars, touch the toys, play the video games, and have a grand old time while my parents shopped. This was magical to me. I actively observe people as they shop (partly because I'm strange, and also because I'm fascinated by consumer behavior and psychology. My anecdotal observations overwhelmingly saw anxious kids sitting in shopping carts that just didn't want to be there. They seemed to behave much the same way they would in a grocery store or bank. Unless they were able to convince their parent to buy something, there was no joy to be spotted. Sure toys r us would leave a wooden train set in the middle of the store, but what kid gets excited over the same play set they use in a doctor's office?

No Exclusive Products

With higher prices than every other big box retailer, Toys R Us needed something else to draw customers into the store. Offering a purple Hatchimal (that isn't even in stock) instead of a green one isn't exactly the type of exclusive product that will bring in kids. Children have moved to electronic devices like ipads and iphones. A search of "ipad" on the company's website returned zero ipad listings for sale, only a couple of standard ipad cases. So they don't even have one of the most in-demand products that kids demand. Kids are all about youtube, why not an exclusive YouTube production studio with green screen? STEM education and learning is all the rage, why not be the one stop shop for something that both kids and parents love? I walked through Target recently and they have a whole aisle dedicated to drones, robots, coding, and other STEM projects.

What should Toys R Us have done?

It's really easy to be a critic from afar, and hindsight is 20/20, but I never like to be critical without offering an idea or 2 of what I would have done to try to improve the operation.

First, I would need to make Toys R Us a place for kids. This sounds ridiculously stupid to its core, but hear me out. Toys R Us became simply a place to buy toys. A place parents

to go, not a place that kids

to go. Toys R Us became Hallmark in the sense that you

to go to hallmark for a card and a trinket when invited to a party or on a holiday. Toys R Us should have been more like a Red Robin who offers something simple for kids - a balloon and games to play at the table. My 10 year old loves going to Red Robin without even liking the food. She just wants to play the game at the table and get her balloon on the way out! If toys r us were to provide a unique and interactive experience for kids by allowing them to demo exclusive toys, carry toys that no one else carries, or even partnered with an arcade or fun zone to bring in kids to stay and play. Can you imagine a partnership between Toys R Us and Chuck E Cheese? Toys R Us eliminates half of the retail space filled with toys that don't move to free up a game center and daycare where kids can play while mom and dad shop! This would provide an additional revenue stream while giving parents a reason to pay a premium price.





I believe that absent a partnership and/or expansion into another related market, Toys R Us, needed to "right size" into a smaller boutique toy shop with ultra unique and exclusive toys with a very strong and efficient online presence. If Walmart can figure out the online game after all of their struggles, then so can a large company such as Toys R Us (before it was too late). It just took vision and leadership to navigate the waters, rather than to simply blame a lack of births by millennials. Unless a last minute partner comes about, it appears all of this is in vein, and we will witness another giant retail fixture disappear into the history books. I will remember the tag line and the giraffe, but I've never thought of myself to be a "Toys R Us Kid" so I won't miss the place.





NOTE: These thoughts and anecdotes are my own opinions and do not represent the opinions of any other company, organization, or outlet. This is purely an editorial piece based on my personal observations and experience in business and marketing.