Collectors aren't TRU's backbone. Babies are. the Baby business is way more profitable than toys. So are video games.

For myself, I usually don't go to TRU at Christmastime because I don't have children to buy for. The local store doesn't stock "new" stuff all that often so I only visit maybe 1-2 times a month, and most of my trips are just to have a look, without planning to buy anything (even if I find something I want). I also dislike their markup on Lego, which limits my purchases on that except during sales.
(I also think some of the hard-to-find toy stock at the comic shop in the mall across the street comes from TRU, since someone from there could go over anytime they want. But it's part of a chain so maybe not.)

wrong. you are talking about babies r us then. people buy toys for kids not babies, not that much atleast, maybe some learning toys. video games and toys/Collectibles are about the same in terms of profitability.

Ours does too, except during Christmas time. They expand the toy section and just have tons of oldish, but still kinda recent toys... it is like going to Kaybee almost. Plus, you really don't know what toys will show up there, so that is kinda fun I guess.

GTA 5 grossed one billion dollars in sales revenue within three days of launch. I have yet to see a toy (or scarcely anything else, for that matter) move those types of numbers. Hey, I like toys too...however, the facts make a liar of your theory as it regards the toys vs vidya' games argument.

The global Toy industry is a billion-dollar industry, like i said. video games and Toys are the same in profitability, they even interchange like: video game figures & toys that get changed to video games etc................

The sales metrics are easily found online. Projected global sales for the toy industry stands at roughly $87bn in revenue, whereas the gaming industry is forecasted out at $108bn for 2017. Those figures are not interchangeable and represent a significant difference...in fact, that's a twenty percent increase in favor of the gaming industry. To add perspective to the numbers: if your employer told you that they were going decrease your salary by 20%, would you remark that it was all good because the change in rate-of-pay was nominal (or "interchangeable") comparative to what you previously enjoyed?

Every "Your order has been delayed" and "Your order will be cancelled if not shipped by..." email I got for Arcee had me feeling the same way!

The store in North Charleston SC suffers from NO INSTOCKitis as well. And zoning and merchandising is not priority one at this location. It's a shame too, because the people at the store are great and it is in a good location. If they close this one there will be a lot of 2 hour car trips to Columbia and Myrtle Beach.

That's probably why there's a Babies R Us section in just about every Toys R Us store now, because baby toys and items like furniture, clothes, and diapers bring in more revenue than the rest of the store's sales combined.

This is true of places like Target as well, infants all around are just a huge money maker.

They used to have like clearance bins... things that were 99.99 dollars would be 15.99... i remember buying the WWF Titan Tron... when WWF wasn't WWE... now they hardly have clearance bins cause everything looks like in need of Clearance... there's never new stuff because old stuff never get sold...and its a problem with the old stuff cause the toy manufacturers who make them make toys that are pretty hard to sell... prime example... Iron Man 3 action figures and TFA figures... there used to be the Power of the Jedi line where collector or child would buy.. now with the 6inch black series... the 3 3/4 black series.. the build a weapon series.. the single card series... the 6 inch non black series (no accessories?)... the bust series... the figure 2 pack series... How on Earth is TRU suppose to sell all that junk? Toy Manufacturers should take back all their junk toys...

This argument might hold weight if Toys R Us didn't already cater to collectors more than virtually any other store(s) out there EXCEPT possibly Barnes and Noble and Books-a-Million, and those don't often carry particularly good quantities of mainstream lines outside of Funko Pops. And you know what all three stores/companies have in common? They're struggling to compete with Amazon.

Going "all-in" on collectors has never saved a big-box business. Besides, I'm kind of curious as to what you think "catering to collectors" would mean in this context? Always having that one thing you're looking for in stock? Never gonna happen, especially if you live in a competitive neighborhood for scalpers/collectors. And if you overproduce/over-order items to the point that they're always on shelves, they're no longer hot items...they're pegwarmers, and now they're as much part of the problem as those Constable Zuvio figures.