Perhaps it's just me thinking too much

?

I always found ToysRus stocked exactly the same products as other shops. No difference at all.

All the thinking in the world will not help - in fact, using High Street stores and other shops, large and small instead of internet shopping will help to stop redundancies such as these.

~Who is guilty of shopping on the internet and not going into somewhere like ToysRUs for presents this Christmas.

And who amongst us has never encountered redundancies in our families and know exactly what it is like?

And - how many small toy shops and local businesses selling baby equipment etc were forced to shut down when ToysRUs opened in the UK?

Have you seen the TV adverts for toys at B&M? Maybe if Toys R Us kept their prices down they wouldn't be closing so many shops.

I imagine most shops will close, eventually. Maybe the only ones left will be the nice little shops as they were when I was a child.

"Who is guilty of shopping on the internet and not going into somewhere like ToysRUs for presents this Christmas."

Jalima, ToysRUs has a web site on which toys can be ordered. Big stores like John Lewis report rising web sales as footfall in stores declines. Have the big retailers developed a new source of golden eggs at the expense of employees made redundant as the stores close?

I'm sure you've hit the nail on the head, annodomini - just like self-checkout, for example.

I don’t think so annodomini because some big stores are very successful, in fact JL have just opened a very large store in the city nearest to me.They have obviously got things right, but the stores who don’t will be the ones closing down.There will always be a need to see/ touch what we are buying, so can’t think we have a shop -less society.
I use my local town shops a lot, and love all the independant shops.

JL John Lewis Partnership plc interim results for the half year ended 29 July 2017

"Online sales represented 37.3% of total merchandise sales, up from 34.5% last year."

It will be interesting to see what this figure will be after this Christmas season.

Have the big retailers developed a new source of golden eggs at the expense of employees made redundant as the stores close?
You're probably right anno

Overheard in a shop today, one young woman to another:
"Don't go to ToysRUs to get it, Smyths are much cheaper"

I thought at first she meant W H Smith, but I realised later, of course, that she meant Smyths's (an Irish chain of toy stores, where I have occasionally bought stuff for the DGC).
Lack of foresight on the part of management, resulting in ToysRUs paying to maintain huge premises and perhaps failing to realise that a canny customer wants the best value for money.

I like to see what I am buying most of the time - and at least you can be sure that you have the product having paid for it - unlike some internet shopping where they fail to deliver, fail to let you know it is out of stock and fail to give your money back nearly three weeks later. Then fail to answer the phone.
Think Curry's

I don't think the problem is that shops are closing and retail is changing. Other things - more experience based shopping destinations - are growing, as is online shopping and all these will employ people. The problem is the attack on the vulnerable made by the government.

We would not have to be overly concerned if we knew the system would pick up the pieces for the people made redundant and help them find work instead of putting them under greater pressure and pointing them in the direction of food banks.

Sadly there has always been redundancies, from cotton mills of yesteryear to toy shops of today , things do not stay the same , never have, never will. We have lost the car industry, steel industry, coal industry and these have meant unemployment affecting whole communities

Toys R Us is not a retailer that sells tat IMHO. It most certainly stocks the leading toy and game making companies products and educational learning products but the range is huge in the larger stores and will cater for all price ranges . Times we have used the 3 for 2 offers and were happy with the price we paid.

It is very sad for anybody to lose their job, full stop, that goes without saying and just before Xmas it's horrible.

I believe Toys r Us are 5Billion dollars in long term debt and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and voluntary reorganization proceeding under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) . As far as I understand the operations in Europe, Australia and Asia have not followed suit.

It is obvious the company will close stores , not only here in the UK but other countries too. I hope it can restructure and the smaller stores proposed prove to be the better option in the long run.