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Amazon Will Publish Toy Catalog This Holiday To Fill Toys R Us Void, Says Report (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: In a drive to win the business up for grabs after the demise of Toys "R" Us, the online giant is going conventional with plans to publish a holiday toy catalog. The printed guide will be mailed to millions of U.S. households and handed out at Whole Foods Market locations, the grocery chain Amazon bought last year. The move is part of Amazon's push to incorporate traditional retailers' tools into its business model. It even looked at acquiring some Toys "R" Us locations earlier this year. That came after its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods made a big splash as it pushed into brick-and-mortar retailing.
For all its woes, Toys "R" Us, which is closing all U.S. stores after failing to emerge from bankruptcy, was still a force during Christmas. Its "Big Book" toy catalog was a staple at 100 pages or so, with toymakers often starting their holiday advertising to coordinate with its arrival in late October. Even with the emergence of screen time and smartphones, kids still enjoy searching through toy catalogs -- which Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. also produce -- to make their wishlists.
For all its woes, Toys "R" Us, which is closing all U.S. stores after failing to emerge from bankruptcy, was still a force during Christmas. Its "Big Book" toy catalog was a staple at 100 pages or so, with toymakers often starting their holiday advertising to coordinate with its arrival in late October. Even with the emergence of screen time and smartphones, kids still enjoy searching through toy catalogs -- which Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. also produce -- to make their wishlists.
News Flash!: The internet will now respond to the lack of a Victoria's Secret Catalog with endless amounts of... oh, wait. That's exactly what killed the Victoria's Secret catalog.
I think this pretty clearly shows plenty of Demand for a toy store. Point being Toys R Us didn't die, it was murdered.
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sears should of keep doing there catalog
That's got to sting a little.
Now the knock-off counterfeiters will know which toys to make more of.
I wonder if Amazon wishes they'd held out on that high-bid buyout of Whole Foods right about now.
Since apparently nobody has tried following the link about the catalogue, nobody has figured out that it goes to a story about a Chinese medical startup.
printing a flyer that didn't help toys-r-us for last 8 years is stupid ..going after Walmarts toy mailer and flyers would be a smart idea
Walmart makes a big deal out of the holiday toy area.
It goes to a story about a Chinese startup.
right? They got Bain'd. A company bought them, loaded them with debt, paid themselves bonuses with that debt and then the company collapsed under the weight of that debt. Toy stores need to be fun places to go. When my kid was little she desperately wanted a wood toy train set because she played with it at Toys R Us. We eventually bought the $150 model (the one set up there was close to $400 IIRC). The last time I went to a Toys R Us (looking at Star Wars figures after the first of the new Star Wars came out) there was nothing like that. Nothing cool for the kids to play with. Hell, they didn't even have video game kiosks set up. I remember being a kid and buying a Sega Master System because I played Maze Hunter 3D on a kiosk and later a Sega Genesis because I played Sonic the Hedgehog.
Toys R Us had none of that because they had no money. They didn't have the resources to build a fun place to play so parents stopped going. At the end it was just a warehouse. That's not how you compete with the internet. You compete by making spaces people _want_ to go to. But that costs money. Money they were spending on interest payments to loans that were paid to CEOs as bonuses.
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Toys-r-Us should have charged for prime space in their catalog, unless that's they did, then nevermind.
You know Amazon or Google would profit off it, that's all that I'm saying.
Many of you are too young for this and you don't know what you are missing . . .
Once upon a time a long time ago (1960's ish) Sears would publish the 'Christmas Year Book' their Christmastime catalog.
That was one druool maker! I would spend hours upon hours drooling all over that Christmas Wish Book! Wishing I could have all those wonderful toys that my family could not afford!
I wish that can return!!!
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
Darth Bezos: I’ve been waiting for you, Charles Lazarus. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.
#DeleteChrome
Seriously, Sears, jc penny, Walmart, target, etc have brick n morters that are ideal for showing toys. Yet, not a one of them would think to jump all over this. In fact, right now would be a good time for Sears or jc penny to even push for new innovative American made toys. But they do nothing. Otoh, the engineer is all over it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Former, in the long long time ago.
Cry me a river.
Only appropriate Online Toy Store:
bigbadtoystore.com
Amazon Will Publish Toy Catalog This Holiday
No they won't. They'll publish it for this Christmas.
Nobody talks like that ... nobody says "this holiday".
If you are afraid to say the name of a religious holiday, fine ... but you just sound ridiculous talking this way.
Or at least say "this holiday season", if you must. But there is no mysterious occasion named "Holiday".
It's as phoney sounding as a TV commercial with some lady chatting with her friend about how she uses "Dawn brand dish liquid (TM) etc.". Absolutely nobody talks like that.
Huh, I didn't notice that until you pointed it out.
Do I care though? Not at all.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
I'm not their market anymore. I stopped by because I was in a new town that was a much bigger city and was expecting to see a more impressive setup than what I got in my Podunk town. I did not. I got Walmart with the toy section expanded.
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There will be photographs of children enjoying themselves. You can look at the photographs and imagine what it is like to be happy.
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I never buy toys; even for nieces/nephews; maybe a cheap one here or there ($10-$20 or so). I must admit, I do love going to Toys R Us to look around (nostalgia from being a kid). But, I never burned money on expensive toys; some of which were priced between $100-$250. I never understood how people could do this; buy these really expensive toys, especially if your kids dont take of their shit and break it.
Granted, I do buy vidya gaymes; which are technically toys I guess?
Seriously. 0 out of 4 links actually claim what the summary does. I had to hunt for it;
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-04/amazon-said-to-take-page-from-toys-r-us-with-holiday-catalog?utm_source=google&utm_medium=bd&cmpId=google
In comparison, here's the Bloomberg link in the summary;
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-02/a-6-billion-china-startup-wants-to-be-the-amazon-of-health-care
Maybe Slashdot should focus on culling the hyper-political mega-contributors, and get back to posting valid and accurate content...........
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Labour day? Halloween? Thanksgiving? When you replace Christmas with holiday in such a way that the meaning is lost, you've lost it.
Sears was almost criminally mismanaged. The CEO Eddie Lambert bought into some crazy Ayn Randian scheme where he decided survival of the fittest would make Sears strong so he pitted his departments against each other expecting competition to make it all work. In practice humans did what humans do when they compete instead of cooperate and stabbed each other in the back.
After a decade of losing ground to Walmart on the low end and Costco on the high end and Amazon on both ends they started a final death spiral when Lambert gave up on the company and began the slow process of legally stripping the corporation of everything of value. This takes decades since they're still a publicly traded company and he's got to at least pretend to have the company's interests at heart.
Toy R Us, OTOH, was a company that couldn't afford to run it's stores because all it's money went to servicing Debt. There's nothing to compare there to Sears except maybe at the very end if you compare how a wealthy schmuck is bleeding the company dry at the expense of the employees, customers and other shareholders.
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To get all their toys, stores, etc. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).