By: Max Garland, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 15, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
Toys R Us is planning to close all 735 of its U.S. stores, including its four West Virginia locations, the iconic toy retailer announced Thursday.
The company has stores in Charleston’s Southridge Centre, Vienna, Bridgeport and Barboursville. The Charleston and Vienna locations also house Babies R Us stores.
Dates are still being determined for when going-out-of-business sales and store closings will occur, a company spokeswoman said.
The shuttering of its U.S. division would spell the end for some 30,000 employees nationwide.
“This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years,” CEO Dave Brandon said in a statement.
There is still a chance some U.S. stores could be salvaged, as Toys R Us said it is “engaged in discussions” with buyers for a deal packaging its Canadian operations with its 200 top-performing U.S. stores.
Retailers, especially large-scale ones like Toys R Us, have been hampered in recent years as consumer shopping habits change and online shopping continues to gain popularity.
Competition from Walmart, Target and Amazon, along with a lack of effort in improving its in-store experience, played a part in Toys R Us deciding to liquidate its business, said David Dawley, the director of the Robbins Center for Global Business and Strategy at West Virginia University.
Toys R Us has also shouldered more than $5 billion in debt, and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September in an attempt to reorganize and survive. It was unable to find a buyer or restructure its existing debt in order to keep the business operating, Bloomberg reported Friday.
“I am very disappointed with the result, but we no longer have the financial support to continue the Company’s U.S. operations,” Brandon said.
With Toys R Us stores encompassing tens of thousands of square feet each, landowners may find it easier to turn those buildings into spaces containing multiple stores with varied uses, Dawley said.
“Retailers have to stay on their toes,” he said. “It’s a message that they continuously have to improve and give us a reason to shop there.”
The Wayne, New Jersey-based company announced in January it would be shuttering 180 locations, although no West Virginia locations were included in that round of closings.
Gift cards for both Toys R Us and Babies R Us “will continue to be honored for the next 30 days, as will valid coupons,” the spokeswoman said. Returns will not be accepted once liquidation sales begin, she added.
Echoing Dawley, Jerry Strick, owner of the Charleston-based Kid Country Toys, said Toys R Us has faced increased competition from other retailers in recent years, which cut into its already thin margins. Toys R Us is just the latest in a line of large-scale toy retailers to fall this millennium, he added.
Strick said he doesn’t expect Kid Country Toys to see a large bump in traffic as a result of Toys R Us stores closing, with most of those customers likely shifting to big-box stores or shopping online.
“If we had other stores sp read out around the state, it might make a difference for us,” he said of Toys R Us closing. “We’re just a small business, but we’ve been in business for years, and we’ve outlasted all the major national [toy] chains.”
Reach Max Garland at max.garland@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @MaxGarlandTypes on Twitter.
