Perhaps it's just me thinking too much

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

"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 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.

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.

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

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?

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

?

Indeed Anniebach

Not everyone is as sensitive, gentle and caring as you GG

It its very sad to read of this and think of the effects on all these people, especially at Christmas time. Of course companies come and go but the help available to people going through these changes, has changed over my lifetime and is now very precarious. I find those who just wipe away the individual difficulties quite perplexing.

It is interesting - possibly only to those who frequent the politics threads - that you could have guessed many of the replies from some of those who have posted on here. Those who believe in the personal capitalist dream have tossed off a 'that's what happens' reply. Of course they are right; in the world we have configured it is. Those we know to be more socially concerned and more interested in democracy are disturbed by the world we have made and how it treats those at times like this.

You keep showing your concern millymouge. You may be able to do little about it but those whom we have asked to run our world need to know that at least we still care.

I too hate it when redundancies are made just before Christmas or just after when money which could have been saved has been spent. Although I suppose in most cases the writing has been on the wall and the employees have a good idea of what's coming, it's still a bad time for it to happen when so much enforced jollity, seasonal goodwill and pressure to spend is pouring out of every advert.

I don't mind the rich being rich just as long as they spend it. Then it filters down shedding pennies (if not pounds) to all and sundry along the way. Better still a bit of charity and philanthropy doesn't go amiss. It's when money is hoarded in tax havens and just sits and accumulates it annoys me.

I agree with you Day6...we can’t allow ourselves to stagnate. If I hear my husband have another rant about the ‘good old days’ I think i’ll clonk him with an old fashioned frying pan, when he goes on about technology..computers ...lap tops...I-pads...smart phones all being ‘just a passing phase!!!’ ...I point to his smart t.v with 500+ channels...wall to wall live football..indeed ANY sport you can mention and give him a withering look! Ask him if he’d like to go back to Saturday night highlighted football ...1 hour a week. No live at all unless it was an international match....would he like to watch it on a 12” screen in black and white again.!! He gives the universal answer reserved for non-thinkers everywhere...” that’s different” ...times passes and we MUST go with it, or wither away both personally and as a country!

I’m with you Not Too Old... they are horrible stores....stacked to the rafters with plastic toys you can’t access and have to ask staff ...who then have to fetch a ladder! I’ve two grandkids ...the stores are NOT child friendly at all...and my grandkids hate them . They needed a complete re-think...and nobody bothered to do it! Argos great for toys...as is Smyths. Shan’t miss them at all, and neither will the staff
when they’re re-employed. Good luck to them all.

Our local Homebase also closed Eloethan but was re-born after a total re-fit as Bunnings. Local press reported that all Homebase employees were offered jobs and more staff were recruited. It’s a very different store, personally can’t say I enjoy going in there but it does serve a purpose, seems busy and I can only hope it thrives.

Good grief, now it's the fault of the government that a chain of toy stores are closing .