Toys R Us

Apparently it's the"Amazon effect" and several other household names are close to the edge.
Both stores were pricey compared to online shops.

I have Toys R Us. There is often more choice and often as cheaper prices in our local toy shop. On odd occasions when we have gone there because we were close, we have even found the same thing cheaper in JL! The staff in ours are surly and lack knowledge of their stock.

On the other hand,Maplins staff are beyond helpful and I have never been treated as a little old lady - even though I am. I am really sad about their closure.

My phone is in revolt today.

I do not have Toys R Us, I hate it.

When Toys R Us arrived, many small toy shops had to shut down in the end as they couldn't compete.

Whenever we went to Maplins, there were rarely more than a few customers.

I do hope we don't end up with a situation where we have to do the majority of our shopping online. It's useful but I do like to see what I'm buying.

And, with out the lovely boys in Maplins I wouldn't know what to buy!

It depends on stores integrating their 'bricks and clock's well. JL and M&S seem to have done that fairly well.

What's happening to our High streets? We are losing all the shops one by one. C&A, Woolworths, BHS, Littlewoods, Jessops, Jaeger, Alexon, Maplins, plus others. All very much missed. Others are moving out of the town centres so can't access them without a car. It's very depressing. Our lovely little wool and haberdashery has now closed its doors. I'm getting quire depressed about it.

Toys R Us have been living on borrowed time, while my children were small i went to our out of town store only 3 times. Each time I found the staff unhelpful to the point of rudeness, the prices uncompetitive and the whole atmosphere hostile and unfriendly. Maplin on the other hand are staffed with helpful and informative staff and I am sorry to see them go.

The last time I went to Toys R Us was just before Christmas. I'd ordered 2 items online and, as I knew I'd be passing the store later in the week, I elected to collect them from the store rather than have them posted. I took the order reference number etc and went to "customer services" to pick them up. They had no trace of my order and were totally disinterested in doing anything to find it. It was only when I made a very obvious point of asking for, and writing down the name of the assistant, that he reluctantly telephoned HO to ask for advice. Turns out 1 of the items had been sent to another store 15 miles away and the other was out of stock and wasn't expected back in before Christmas. I didn't leave the store until I'd got my money back. Nightmare company to deal with.

I won’t miss Toys r Us, overpriced huge lumps of plastic aisle after aisle. Feel sorry for the staff but not for the company.

I can't say I've ever been inside a Toys R Us but from the outside they were a complete blot on the landscape (even an industrial zone landscape). Another garish US import I'm afraid.

I’ve never managed to find anything in Toys R Us that I’ve wanted to actually buy. Either not in stock or overpriced. Small grandsons each have £20 vouchers from Christmas so would like to find out if store is prepared to honour these.

I hate those vast warehouse style shops, so avoid Toys R Us as much as possible anyway.
Online shopping will continue to push out High St shops as time goes on.
I think niche small shops will do well though, and coffee shops and places to eat seem to be growing, and even bookshops are making a comeback.

Not just online shopping pushing them out, but supermarkets also selling clothes and toys, so convenient when you are there doing the food shopping.

I think I ve only been in Toys R Us once and wasn’t impressed at all and there isn’t one near me anyway so I ll not miss it Rarely go into Maplins but thought they seemed pretty expensive when I did however I feel sad for the assistants
We ve lost a lot in our town centre too but the outskirts here seem to have a bit of an uptake in small independent shops I live about a mile from the town centre in which used to be a small area with loads of little shops in fact there was everything butchers bakers clothes fish greengrocers grocers bike shop banks post offices jewellers pharmacy furniture habidashery and so on, gradually they all died The banks (five) all went the sub p o went the rest dropped out bit by bit until it was mostly a few charity shops, eating places and a few bigger shops still trading Over the last year or two a few more independent shops have started to creep back and open up which is lovely to see and I have hop3 that these smaller areas may pick up but it’s sad to see the town centre with just American coffee shops telephone shops pound shops and charity shops

I've only ever ventured into Toys R Us if all else failed and usually failed to find anything I liked there. I couldn't face taking a GC there because if I found it bewildering, probably they would too.

All else failed once and I did find the Lego I wanted for DGS, but it was very pricey.

Yes they have a Lego set for sale at £40 which you can get online for £15.

Katek, They said on Breakfast this morning that you should spend vouchers asap as there was no guarantee how long they would be honoured.

It looks as though Carpetright may be going the same way. They've issued the 2nd profit warning in 6 weeks.

I don't think that this can be put down to the 'Amazon Effect' can it? Or have they started selling floorings online too...

I suspect that these failures are more down to the 'people feel poor' effect..

Thanks for info kitty-tried online yesterday but site said it was “non transactional” (!) Will try to get into store for them when roads are better as they don’t have outlet near them.

I have never ever been into Toys R Us. There is one opposite the Wickes we use regularly. The main reason is that we have rarely bought toys for our DGC. They get so many toys passed on to them we have given them clothes, tickets for the ballet or decorated their bedrooms.

This Christmas the 7 year old got a pond for his nature reserve at the bottom of the garden and the 10 year old, a party dress and shoes. None of this is available in Toys R us.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For all their economics degrees and "blue sky thinking", no one seems to know how to run a company these days. (Come to that, very few people seem even capable of running countries either)

The company I work for has driven itself into ruin for the past few years. They claim to have been manufacturing in their field for 60 years. You could have fooled me! Every year when the new ranges are brought out on to the market, mistakes are made in calculation, marketing, timing and communicating important things like prices and lead times to the customers.

This is a global phenomenon - all the PTB are interested in is the bottom line, and they try to get it at the cost of the employees. There's a name for it, but I can't remember what it is at the moment.

In the meantime, Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon, has become the richest man in the world.
Not difficult to work it out.