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Amazon Will Publish Toy Catalog This Holiday To Fill Toys R Us Void, Says Report (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the filling-the-void dept.

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.

5 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Party City is planning to open a toy city by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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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    1. Re:Party City is planning to open a toy city by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think this pretty clearly shows plenty of Demand for a toy store.

      No, it shows demand for a toy catalog. The kids would receive the Toys R Us catalog, lay down in front of the fireplace, go through the catalog page by page, and mark the toys they wanted. Then the parents would order them from Amazon.com.

  2. I Wish For The Sears Christmas Wish Book by mallyn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Folks:

    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!!!

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    1. Re:I Wish For The Sears Christmas Wish Book by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not only did the Wish Book last until 2007 (well after the regular catalogs disappeared), they brought back last year. It's only about 120 pages (about a third of the size of the classic Wish Books), but it is still there.

  3. Re:You do know where Toys R Us' debt came from by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The "last time you went the the Toys R Us", they were in year 7-10 of being Bain'd. That's why they had no money to set up displays. Because Bain fucked them over.

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