Perhaps it's just me thinking too much

lemon, lusted after him for quite a few years , it was his voice, I have a thing for voices. No I have not started hearing them ?,

"In my life I have never known a government that cares so little for hardworking people who earn so little that they rely on food banks to feed their children. "

Apologies - and I fully agree Lemon that Coco51s comment should be on another thread entitled "Yet Another Tory Rant"

All I am saying is - food banks represent a strange sort of progress in many ways. Now food is donated and given to people who cannot buy it for whatever reason. The poor a decade or so - and they existed then - poverty is not new - would have gone without food and remained hungry - and under a Labour government too! Disgusting!

Redundancy is not new either, unfortunately, and I do hope that workers losing their jobs at TrU are able to find something else in the retail industry.

Our local Homebase has just closed.

Morgana The person buying that expensive handbag is keeping a lot of people in work. They should be encouraged.

Good posts Quizqueen and Day6

Annie what do you see in Alan Rickman ?

You are on the wrong thread Coco51 this is about redundancies at Toys R Us.........look for the thread entitled
‘Tory Rants R Us.’

Console yourself with the thought that he was probably quite ordinary as a husband Anniebach

I don't think it's the government who have decided to close ToysRus
Although in fact they have made civil servants redundant over the years.

This Tory government is cruel to the extreme. In my life I have never known a government that cares so little for hardworking people who earn so little that they rely on food banks to feed their children. There is no need for austerity - it is an ideology designed to crush the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us, while giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy and corporate sectors. I’d like to think karma will catch up with the whole rotten lot of them.

I think anyone paying these ludicrous prices for a handbag is mad! Yes we might have a high level of employment, if you believe the government figures, but many of the jobs are zero hours and /or poorly paid. Think how many people in employment are using the food banks. What concerns me about the closure of these toy shops is that they are likely to be in poorer areas where job opportunities are scarce.

I have to buy cheap, no choice , I accept it, waste of time thinking what others have . Envy must be horrible, though I confess I was rather envious of Alan Rickmans wife. ?

Following fashion is hardly new.

Is it the Times newspaper that has a section called "How to spend it" so the rich need ideas for what to spend their money on.

There's nothing wrong with expensive handbags, as long as everybody else can afford to live a reasonable life, and have a reasonable handbag.

As for people being poor because they have made poor choices, can any of us say hand on heart that we have never made a poor choice.

Also circumstances change, circumstances have changed for ToysRus, their business model is becoming outdated, just as some peoples skills become outdated.

there is ultimately a price to be paid somewhere along the line for buying "cheap".

Yes, but that is a coin with two sides, isn't it?

Many people can only afford 'cheap' and quite like getting a bargain. I can buy many things online for cheaper than they are in the shops and there is also a great convenience in having them delivered to the door too.

We cannot turn the clocks back. Life changes constantly, not always for the better, and we learn to adjust. Heaven forfend that us Gransnetters hark back to the good old days!

We are using computers now. Some things are better, but the way many of us shop, work, get information and form opinions has changed drastically since we were children. Not all changes are good or popular but we do adjust and yesterday becomes another page in the history books of time.

Time marches on. We have to bend or break, or stagnate.

Sadly Toys R Us was likely to be a casualty of the way we shop now. It is easy to get toys in supermarkets and online. (I used to take the children to TRU hen little as a treat - like window shopping - and we only bought pocket money sized items. Most of the toys there were more expensive so I always had to shop around. I am not surprised it has had to close its doors.

As for the handbag, it is ridiculously expensive. Another sign of the times is the way people are exposed to celebrity scrutiny more because of social media and many follow fashion like sheep. I cannot understand the need for overpriced items only the rich can afford. So many youngsters get into financial difficulties trying to live the dream.

Life is hard slog for most. We want for more but most of us have to live within our means. It's a valuable lesson to learn.

We do have high employment at the moment and no doubt people can find jobs, but what sort of jobs? Many jobs in the so called gig economy are paid very poorly and there is often no choice but to take them. I feel sorry for the delivery drivers haring up and down our road, many of whom get paid a pittance for each delivery. Buying on the internet creates work for some, but much of it poorly paid warehouse or delivery jobs, and there is ultimately a price to be paid somewhere along the line for buying "cheap".

Such a shame when people lose their jobs at any time but just before Christmas is truly awful ! The wholesale warehouses of Palmer & Harvey went into receivership and some of their delivery drivers only found out in their lorry cabs through messages from fellow workers ! That is a disgusting way to treat employees ....and with the government refusing to discuss Social Mobility, the discord over Universal Credit, the length of time to wait before receiving any benefits when the wages, as in the case of a sudden closure, are not and are not likely to be paid.....I would be in despair , I truly feel sorry for these workers ....

Are you saying, Mollym, that expensive products should not be made because not everyone can afford to buy them, if so, then a lot of other people will be out of work too! Does everyone on here who complains about inequality choose to live in a small wooden shack because not everyone can afford a 3 bed detached, can they? If you have ever bought anything online then you have contributed towards the downfall of stores like Toys r us. If some people have more, it doesn't mean they are any happier or more fulfilled in life. Some people often have less because they have made poor choices in life, should everyone else not buy the things they can afford because of that.

I go to Toy r us about once a year because the nearest store is about 20 miles away, if it was on my doorstep I would have used it more. It was a management choice to have large warehouse style stores in out of town locations and now that novelty has worn off, like radicalnan says, their business is suffering for it.

Nanawind the owner of the company made a good move - apparently the handbag has sold out, so I presume there will be no redundancies there!

Ooh wonder if they have That Handbag cheaper in TK Maxx?
Perhaps not, I prefer one with a shoulder strap

There's a special offer at one of our supermarkets for one of these 'special' handbags - with tokens, reduced to 90€ from 300€.
No thanks - I'll keep my real leather John Lewis one which I bought 20 years ago. I've mended the lining a few times, but otherwise it's perfect.

The inequality measure is significant because when it gets too large it leads to social unrest. We appear to be reaching the tipping point now that is statistically significant. I wonder if it affected the Brexit vote? I'm certainly watching America closely and China is also on the horizon - will it implode? Russia seems to have got there.

It seems to be the way of all empires.

Nothing lasts forever, even your own life.

Change is the way of things and that business model is old hat now.

Sad for the employees perhaps, however we don't know that they won't find better jobs. Here in Somerset the Moorlands sheepskin factory closed and huge numbers of jobs went but people were able to find other work.

Not so easy when the skills aren't transferable like mining of course but retail is pretty flexible.

I loathe those expensive bags, we have Mulberry locally, I would be afraid of it being stolen for its value. OK for Meghan she has a body guard, but carrying a bag worth hundreds of pounds is just another risk the way things are now.

Give me something sturdy from a charity shop any day.

As far as I understand it Toys R Us are focusing on opening smaller stores in town. Rather like the Tesco Metro and smaller Sainsbury models.
One has just opened in the city mall near me, after being a large out of town store, for many years.

Hopefully employees will be redeployed in the new shops and it heralds a move back to regenerating city and town centres.

Retailers go bust just before Christmas because, for many that is when they make most of their sales and all their profits. 'Black' Friday is so called because that is the day after which a companies finances go from unprofitable (red) to profitable 'in the black'.

A retailer may be struggling, but hoping the Christmas upturn will be good and pull them through. Come October/November some can see that, for them, the upturn isn't there or is insufficient and the final decision is made to pull the plug. They keep trading until Christmas to maximise what profit there is, and, sometimes keep going a few weeks after for closing down sales, but banks and lenders will not lend money to companies that they know will never repay it and who can blame them.

Regarding the handbag a news report over the weekend stated that the owner of the fledgling company sent it to Megan Markle for free, in the hope of giving the business a boost and not make anyone redundant, it hopefully for the workers worked. Still a lot of money just to carry your bits and pieces in. Some people have more money than sense to spend that much on a bag (the one I use cost £8 in the sale)
So sad re Toy's r us, always got our children's presents from there, sad time for the workers.

Can’t stand Toys r Us horrible shop with overpriced tat. Sorry for the staff, but let’s hope they find jobs somewhere a bit nicer.