They had a fair amount, and that TV show too, the toy maker thing. It was supposedly a way to fight Walmart and Amazon with these exclusives, but they were saddled with other things, debt, to the point that wasn’t really going to help.
If they can fill the shelves with toys for Christmas shopping, they will at least make a profit in the short term. I guess.
Anyone else work for the Giraffe? I worked for Toys R Us in HS and into college.
The Electronics booth and “Big Ticket” items.
I wonder if they could do like some of these Halloween shops and fireworks stands do, and just rent a spot for a month every year.
The rebrand is “Geoffrey’s Toy Box”
It’s the “store within a store” concept.
I wonder if they’ll have FAO Schwartz branded stuff. A store within a store within a store.
Now we can go grocery shopping at Kroger/Fred Meyers and play with the toys we’ll be buying on Amazon.
Do people really want “Geoffrey’s” branded toys that much? I’ve never heard of the brand. It would be the first thing I would get rid of. (Though I have only been in a Toys 'R Us a handful of times.)
I don’t think they mean Geoffrey branded toys.
for in-store pop-ups, called Geoffrey’s Toy Box
They were private brands that are somewhat recognizable:
They will sell toys from Toys R Us’ former private labels, like Animal Zone, Imaginarium, Journey Girls, Edu Science, You & Me, and Just Like Home.
I think Imaginarium is one i recognize the most.
I guess if you really need to buy a toy while you’re in the supermarket…
Hey guys did you know his name is pronounced gee-awwwf-ree?
Fred Meyer is not just a grocery store. It’s more like Wal-mart and Target, aka Kroger’s has had a big box business side more than traditional grocery stores for some time now.
Anyway, the last couple times I went into a TRU, I went straight to the LEGO section. I don’t care about these other brands.
Four years later, it looks like BB&B is in the endgame now.
We went into a BB&B in December for the first time in years, and I was struck by how much it seemed like a K-Mart in there. Products tumbled in bins, messy shelves, and the stuff offered was a lot of “As Seen on TV” and other low-quality garbage.
Yeah, a company in their position will have trouble getting vendors to extend them credit, so they’ll have to pay up front for their inventory, and they don’t have any cash, so it’s a likely death spiral.
A brief history
Of course some Gamestop fuckery is/was involved
The situation worsened when activist investor and GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen sold his 9.8% stake in the company earlier this month. Now, analysts are saying the company may be in its “end days.”
And I forgot the CFO took the fall
Then, in September 2022, the company’s CFO Gustavo Arnal was discovered dead after a fall from a New York City building. The CFO had been the subject of a lawsuit around insider trading.
ISWYDT
Next up: Rite Aid
The Philadelphia-based retailer has over 2,100 locations, and the ones which are not closed will either be sold or taken over by creditors. It’s speculated that as many as 500 stores could be closed.
Yeesh.
The company’s 2023 first quarter results were bleak. For Q1, Rite Aid reported a net loss of $306.7 million (vs. $110.2 million in losses in Q1 2022), adjusted net loss of $40.1 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $91.7 million.
Revenues came in at $5.65 billion, which was about $350 million less year-over-year. At the time, Rite Aid blamed the poor results on the reduction in the company’s Prescription Drug Plan membership and the loss of commercial clients at pharmacy services provider Elixir. The retailer is facing a predicted net loss of up to $680 million during fiscal year 2023.