Back in January, I shared news that Toys R Us would be closing 182 stores nationwide. The chain did promise to keep a number of stores opened as well as the online operations going; unfortunately the axe has dropped quickly in the past week and now things look very grim for the beloved toy store that we all grew up with.
My curiosity took me out to my local store that I was promised wasn’t closing after it was reported it would. And to my pleasant surprise, the shelves were stocked with new toys that I have been waiting to get my hands on. So it looks like they have cleared out their back stockroom with the announcement of them closing being inevitable.
A source told CNBC that Toys R Us is in the process of drafting the court motion for its liquidation plan and the toy store has also not paid some of its vendors this week. So by Thursday of this week we could learn their fate.
The announcement has also impacted Hasbro and Mattel. Their shares dropped last Friday after Bloomberg announced the possible Toys R Us liquidation and lost ground again after word of the missing vendor payments.
According to Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink, Toys R Us accounted for 15 to 20 percent of U.S. toy sales last year. Now toy companies will have to battle with the big-box stores like Walmart and Target for the much valued and limited shelf space inside their stores and count on Amazon for their sales.
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