[Autobot_Goldbug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rwsharpjr

I think the smart move wold be to reopen KB Toys to move all of their closeout/clearance merchandise.
Then they'd add more locations for people to hit, and all of the profit would still be theirs.

What closeout/clearance merchandise??? TRU hardly ever has that! I think mine still has Indy figures.

Looks like TRU is taking over KB's former locations for temporary stores.
Toys 'R' Us Pop Up in Malls this Holiday Season - BusinessWeek

Here is a better article by the WSJ.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125297780307210651.html

Quote:

In an effort to take sales from rivals, Toys "R" Us Inc. is setting up 350 temporary stores and toy boutiques that will stay open during the holiday season, in many cases taking over shuttered retail space in shopping malls.

Chief Executive Gerald R. Storch said Toys "R" Us wants to "seize the day" and increase holiday market share, even as toy sales remain mired in a recessionary slump. The move also underscores the race with competitors like Sears Holdings Corp. that want to capture the spending that last year went to the now-defunct KB Toys chain. KB Toys operated in many of the malls where Toys "R" Us plans its temporary sites.

Sears has added permanent 1,500-square-foot toy departments to 20 of its Sears stores nationwide, carrying both big and specialty brands. "This is to give parents a place to shop for toys in the mall since the closing of KB left a void," said Sears spokesman Tom Aiello.

Toys "R" Us said 80 of the stores will be free-standing mall outlets open roughly from October through mid-January. The remainder will be toy shops within its own Babies "R" Us stores, which would also disappear in January. The move greatly increases the profile of the toy retailer, which has 847 year-round stores in the U.S. The company declined to say how much the "pop-up" effort will cost.

Temporary stores -- or "pop-ups" as they are sometimes called -- aren't a new concept. They are perhaps most common in October, when Halloween costume shops spring up in available retail spaces. Retailers also often use them for marketing purposes, in place of traditional advertising, to launch products or test new concepts. In 2004, J.C. Penney Co. promoted a new home furnishings brand with a 2,500-square-foot pop-up store in Manhattan.

Creating pop-ups on a large scale in the current economic environment runs the risk of adding costs that might not be recouped. Toys "R" Us said it is keeping the faith, though.

"The current economic disruption provides an opportunity," said Mr. Storch, the Toys "R" Us chief. "The people who made their fortunes during the Great Depression were those that moved when everyone was pulling back."

Mr. Storch called the Holiday Express concept "opportunistic" and "in keeping" with the company's recent string of acquisitions. Earlier this year it purchased a number of troubled concerns, including FAO Schwarz Inc., eToys and Baby Universe. Last month it acquired the KB Toys brand name -- which it doesn't plan to use for its pop-ups.

The company is neck-and-neck with Target Corp. for the No. 2 spot in U.S. toy sales behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Toys "R" Us, based in Wayne, N.J., said its Toys "R" Us Holiday Express pop-ups "will feature some of the hotter selling toys on the market and they will be small enough -- 4,000 square feet in malls and 2,500 square feet at Babies "R" Us -- for shoppers to easily find what they're looking for.

Analysts said the Toys "R" Us plan is in part a blocking move to keep competing retailers from stealing millions of dollars in toys sales now up for grabs as a result of recent bankruptcies. KB, which operated stores almost exclusively in malls, went out of business earlier this year.

Sears has the potential to gain much of the toy business left behind because it operates in many of the mall locales where KB did. But the high number of pop-up stores from Toys "R" Us will mean tough competition.

"Now it looks like Toys 'R' Us is going to eat Sears's lunch big time," said Lutz Muller, analyst for Kloster Trading Corp, a toy industry consulting firm based in Williston, Vt.

Mr. Storch said Toys "R" Us will hire an additional 1,000 employees to staff the 80 mall outlets. The company said it didn't know how many it would hire to staff its temporary stores at its Babies "R" Us unit.

Other retailers are adopting a more conservative approach to the coming holiday season by controlling their inventory and planning aggressive discounts.

A recent survey by CIT Group Inc. of small and medium-sized companies found that about two thirds of responding retailers foresee stocking less inventory and offering greater discounts than they did in 2008's holiday season. About the same proportion said they will hold clearance and other sales prior to New Year's Day.

The toy business had been considered something of a recession-proof sector at Christmas, with parents expected to forgo purchases for themselves, but not deny their children. That thinking proved faulty last year, when toy sales for the holiday season fell 5%.

At Toys "R" Us, sales for the nine-week holiday selling period last year declined 3.4%, but at stores open more than a year, sales edged up 1.9% in December.

In its bankruptcy filing KB blamed dismal sales last holiday season for its troubles. But Toys "R" Us will be offering a better selection of toys, reckons Sean McGowan, an analyst for Needham & Co. "KB...sold a lot of old merchandise at prices that weren't terribly competitive," Mr. McGowan said.