Goodbye Toys R Us & Maplin (both in administration)

[whhistle]

I mean, what is happening to the world?!

But then again, I've said this for ages. The high street needs to hurry up and either evolve or die off.
In 50-60 years, I predict they will be very different as we, the consumer prefer to buy online and get it delivered.

Feel bad for the poor market folk.

 

[baz962]

I mean, what is happening to the world?!

But then again, I've said this for ages. The high street needs to hurry up and either evolve or die off.
In 50-60 years, I predict they will be very different as we, the consumer prefer to buy online and get it delivered.

Feel bad for the poor market folk.

Will it truly die out, some people dont like online shopping, and plenty of people love a stroll round a shopping centre. If it did all go online, maybe human interaction will suffer too, we might never have to leave the house.

 

[northwichcat]

The high street needs to hurry up and either evolve or die off.

Do you mean like how Argos is changing? Obviously in the past having everything stacked up in boxes out the back/upstairs was cheaper than acquiring enough shop floor space to have everything out on display, but with the likes of Amazon it has made things more difficult for Argos. However, teaming with eBay to allow you to collect your eBay purchases from Argos stores and having Argos collection desks for online orders in some Sainsburys stores maybe enough to prevent them going the same way as Index.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I mean, what is happening to the world?!

But then again, I've said this for ages. The high street needs to hurry up and either evolve or die off.
In 50-60 years, I predict they will be very different as we, the consumer prefer to buy online and get it delivered.

Yes, this.

Toys R Us was a box shifter, just shelves of toys in boxes, with threatening signs about leaving your bags in the car (what if you walked?) and that they have the right to search you on exit. A rotten place. Far better to buy from Argos or Amazon, but they could have done so much more to make the store attractive.

Maplin is a bit niche, most of the things they sell can come from Amazon and they tend not to have *that* much expertise. Like the similar Tandy that came before them they probably realistically weren't going to last.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Will it truly die out, some people dont like online shopping, and plenty of people love a stroll round a shopping centre. If it did all go online, maybe human interaction will suffer too, we might never have to leave the house.

It might actually be that the *high street* itself could make a comeback, with storefronts where you can try key products and get advice, but then it's ordered to be delivered to you at home once you've picked, possibly with a small premium for the service (why do people happily pay for a financial adviser but not in store advice?)

The strip malls will probably die, but that's no great loss, and they've only been around 20-30 years.

 

[DarloRich]

I mean, what is happening to the world?!

But then again, I've said this for ages. The high street needs to hurry up and either evolve or die off.
In 50-60 years, I predict they will be very different as we, the consumer prefer to buy online and get it delivered.

Feel bad for the poor market folk.

I pity the poor folk working hard at Maplin and Toys R Us that are now out of work and wondering how they will provide for their families.

BTW - Markets are doing well.

Yes, this.

Toys R Us was a box shifter, just shelves of toys in boxes, with threatening signs about leaving your bags in the car (what if you walked?) and that they have the right to search you on exit. A rotten place. Far better to buy from Argos or Amazon, but they could have done so much more to make the store attractive.

Maplin is a bit niche, most of the things they sell can come from Amazon and they tend not to have *that* much expertise. Like the similar Tandy that came before them they probably realistically weren't going to last.

And yet Toys R Us was very exciting if you are a child. All those boxes of toys and options! Less so if you are an adult

 

[tbtc]

I don't think you can blame all of Toys r Us's problems on online competition. There seem to be more places to buy toys in an average city now than there used to. The Entertainer and Smyths have good sized shops, full of bright exciting things, tailored to the kids market - in comparison to the sterile warehouse that Toys r Us offers- it feels like it's still stuck in the '90s.

Plus there are decent toy selections in large supermarkets, there are Lego shops in most large metropolitan areas (though not Birmingham IIRC), even shops like Waterstones sell some toys nowadays - buying physical toys in a physical shop is still happening - it's just that Toys r Us got lazy, tried to keep offering the bleak aircraft-hanger sized places in retail parks that were sufficient twenty years ago.

Some shops can be boring - I don't go to B&Q for charisma - I'm happy to accept dull aisles of practical things - I accept that a simplistic minimalism can even be a selling point at somewhere like Lidl (i.e. you design the place to look deliberately "budget")... but toy shops should be exciting places of discovery - and most toy shops still are - they know that you are buying into more than just a physical product - they can be a "destination" shop - it's just that Toys r Us remained offering a functional warehouse instead of somewhere that you'd *want* to go.

Toys r Us reminds me a bit of JJB - which was a sports shop but it wasn't the cheapest sports shop (Sports Direct), it didn't have the largest range (Decathalon), it didn't provide specialist help (e.g. Up And Running), it didn't aim for the premium shopper (e.g. Blacks) and it didn't really cater to the trendier end of the market (JD). It was just a middle of the road shop - and so wasn't going to be anyone's first choice.

Maplin, on the other hand... I'm sorry to see it go, but I could never work out what it's main purpose was. Not a DIY place (e.g. Screwfix), not a "big box" place (e.g. Currys), not selling anything particularly expensive (e.g. PC World), half a foot in the "gadgets and boys toys" market (that other places did better - e.g. most malls have something better). They sold a lot of things that Poundland flogged cheaper (batteries, phone chargers), they were good for the kind of "projects for school kids that would get them interested in building a rudimentary robot" but it never seemed like much of a business model.

I liked Maplin, in the way that I like Richer Sounds (passionate staff who talk to you like a human being) but at least I can spend a couple of hundred pounds in Richer Sounds (on a telly or a sound system) which is where they make their money. With Maplin, it felt like a useful place for little things that never added up to somewhere that would make enough money to survive in the long term.

(but the easy answer will be to blame Amazon etc, so that's what the headlines will focus on)

 

[baz962]

It might actually be that the *high street* itself could make a comeback, with storefronts where you can try key products and get advice, but then it's ordered to be delivered to you at home once you've picked, possibly with a small premium for the service (why do people happily pay for a financial adviser but not in store advice?)

The strip malls will probably die, but that's no great loss, and they've only been around 20-30 years.

Yes possibly, i love a stroll around centre mk, although i have not been for a bit. I start with arl next month , and just yesterday was saying to myself i cannot wait to go to oxford street or similar, using my free travel to get the wife something nice for christmas. Personally i only like to pay for holidays, car hire etc online. As my young son lives in the usa, i do use amazon to send him a present, and either funky pidgeon or moonpig for his cards, but thats because i can rarely deliver Personally.

 

[Bletchleyite]

And yet Toys R Us was very exciting if you are a child. All those boxes of toys and options! Less so if you are an adult

Very poor compared with the hands-on play options at the likes of the Lego store though!

 

[DarloRich]

Very poor compared with the hands-on play options at the likes of the Lego store though!

No - but they don't sell many non lego products. Not all kids like lego.

Smtyhes have captured a decent part of the market previously owned by Toys R Us.

 

[Bletchleyite]

No - but they don't sell many non lego products. Not all kids like lego.

Smtyhes have captured a decent part of the market previously owned by Toys R Us.

Them and the Entertainer. Largely by making their stores more attractive to kids.

 

[Lucan]

The high street needs to hurry up and either evolve or die off.

But evolve in what way? Shutting your shops and going mail-order is a way that some companies (not Maplin though?) are evolving.

Otherwise I hate shopping unless it is in an area that is pedestrianised and you can park at reasonable price close by. Caldicot is a good but small example - pedestrianised high street with car parks in the areas behind the shops on both sides connected through by passageways. I have also never understood why the pavements in front of the shops cannot be covered (don't need the whole street covered) by over-hanging upper storeys.

Maplin ... I could never work out what it's main purpose was.

It started as an elecronics hobby supplier, and I have used it as such for eg resistors and connectors. However their in-store stock is very limited and far more expensive than mail order places like CPC. However I guess it is hard to make much profit from selling, say, a 1K resistor for which no-one will expect to pay more than a few pence. Also, some customers come in to buy the resistor but while there they expect the counter staff to design a control circuit for a self-driving car or some such for them; I've overheard it while waiting in the queue. Hence Maplins' broadening into selling toys and gadgets in boxes, much easier and more profitable.

 

[StoneRoad]

IIRC Maplins more or less started out as mail-order / online. Have been useful for "components" but the one local to me needed a kick up the pants as the staff were woefully ignorant in dealing with customers. (As in talking about last night's TV in front of ignored customers waiting to pay)
ToysRUs had sort of the right idea 20 years ago, but IMO failed to move with the times - and big sheds are no longer the place to sell branded toys to kids (or parents).

 

[Kite159]

That will be another empty retail unit in Andover.

Feel sorry for the staff though at the potential of losing their jobs, but the companies didn't move with the changing times.

 

[Busaholic]

Toys Were Us.... I took a loathing to the store on first visit (Plymouth being the store in question) and on two subsequent ones, in which I was just the reluctant chauffeur, had no reason to revise my opinion. Then, about seven years ago, my wife's niece was sent to work at their UK HQ by her agency, and was there long enough to be offered a permanent position, but she refused because (a) she disliked the firm's practices and (b) she could see enough from the data she was processing that it was living on borrowed time and would eventually collapse. The U.S. parent went into their version of administration years ago (their regulators are, like most Western countries, much less laissez-faire about big business practices/ protecting employment and pension rights than the U.K.) Sorry for the workers, but not the firm.

 

[Antman]

I've never been impressed with Toys R Us on my occasional visits, found The Entertainer (I think that's what it's called?) much better and I've found Maplins rather expensive.

I hope the staff soon find alternative employment but I won't shed any tears for either of them quite honestly.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Between 18 and 14 or so years ago I worked for Dixons/Currys (same company, I worked in stores of both brands depending on whether it was university term or not) and as DSG cut back on stocking a multitude of smaller items such as bulbs/obscure battery types/adaptors I would with increasing frequency find myself suggesting that customers try Maplin's for that cable or accessory we didn't have. Comments from customers also suggested that Maplin's were often better value for things like blank media, printer cartridges and the like.

That was a long time ago though: everything needed at least 2 cables and Amazon was just an up and coming online bookshop.

As for "Toys Were Us" (Toys Erew Us, surely?) I don't think I enjoyed a visit since the age of 7. Admittedly I wasn't representative of 8-year-olds then any more than I'm representative of parents now, but when I think of the stores now I think of joyless warehouses of boxes stacked 2 storeys high with a few Hornby and Scalextric models in a locked glass case, and the minimum number of disinterested staff with sleeve tattoos (male) and/or Croydon facelifts (female). It became (or perhaps always was) where toys go to die.

 

[robbeech]

Maplin was an odd one to us in the Entertainment industry. We pride ourselves on reliability and redundancy but there are the odd times when you do have a problem with a piece of equipment on a show in the middle of a tour, or in 99% of cases where you arrive at an event and the goal posts have changed since you did the site visit and put in the quote. Whilst Maplin provided lots of things at, relatively speaking really high prices compared to what we would expect to pay from our trade suppliers, and noticeably higher than the general public can buy online they had the advantage to us of being there. It will maybe surprise some, and not surprise others when i point out that there have been full scale Arena shows in the UK that would have been cancelled if there wasn't a Maplin down the road open at 1930. When the fan has been hit, if someone offered you a £0.003 (yes, .3p) resistor that you could have in 15 minutes but you had to buy a box of 10,000 assorted ones for £50, you'd bite their hand off if it got the gig going.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I don't think you can blame all of Toys r Us's problems on online competition. There seem to be more places to buy toys in an average city now than there used to. The Entertainer and Smyths have good sized shops, full of bright exciting things, tailored to the kids market - in comparison to the sterile warehouse that Toys r Us offers- it feels like it's still stuck in the '90s.

Maybe. On the other hand, I can think of a few independent, friendly, toyshops that I used to love going to up until 10 or so years ago but which have gone out of business over the last 10 years - and I can't offhand think of a good reason in those cases, for that other than online competition.

Toys r Us reminds me a bit of JJB - which was a sports shop but it wasn't the cheapest sports shop (Sports Direct), it didn't have the largest range (Decathalon), it didn't provide specialist help (e.g. Up And Running), it didn't aim for the premium shopper (e.g. Blacks) and it didn't really cater to the trendier end of the market (JD). It was just a middle of the road shop - and so wasn't going to be anyone's first choice.

I think you are correct there that to succeed, you need to have one thing that you do better than anyone else.

Maplin, on the other hand... I'm sorry to see it go, but I could never work out what it's main purpose was. Not a DIY place (e.g. Screwfix), not a "big box" place (e.g. Currys), not selling anything particularly expensive (e.g. PC World), half a foot in the "gadgets and boys toys" market (that other places did better - e.g. most malls have something better). They sold a lot of things that Poundland flogged cheaper (batteries, phone chargers), they were good for the kind of "projects for school kids that would get them interested in building a rudimentary robot" but it never seemed like much of a business model.

At the risk of bringing up online competition again: I used to use Maplin on occasions when I needed some part that was slightly more specialised than you'd get in Currys or Dixons (when Dixons existed). But I think the problem is, the people who buy those kinds of specialist electronic parts are exactly the kind of people most likely to be Internet-savvy and comfortable figuring out what they want themselves and buying it on Amazon. So the only thing left for Maplins is, people who need whatever it is *right now*, and people who need some personal advice first (and who are honest enough not to take the free advice and then disappear and look online). Neither market is particularly large.

 

[birchesgreen]

I mean, what is happening to the world?!

But then again, I've said this for ages. The high street needs to hurry up and either evolve or die off.
In 50-60 years, I predict they will be very different as we, the consumer prefer to buy online and get it delivered.

50-60 years? More like 5-6 or less

 

[Bletchleyite]

As for "Toys Were Us" (Toys Erew Us, surely?)

We used to call them "Toys Backwards R Us", and my parents often criticised them for suggesting to children that poor spelling and grammar were acceptable.

 

[BestWestern]

Them and the Entertainer. Largely by making their stores more attractive to kids.

And also, I'd suggest, by being located in town centres and shopping areas, where there is passing trade. Works both ways, you can't really go to those smaller central stores for the 'big ticket' stuff, but they clearly have a far greater exposure than a TrU wherehouse on a retail park that you can only reach in a car. A rare example of moving into the highstreets boosting success, perhaps?

 

[goblinuser]

Maplin did stock some niche parts that are hard to source on Amazon. However, they were very expensive for many items compared to Amazon.

In the case of Toys R Us, you can blame the combination of media and tech for taking away their market. Kids simply aren't going to be as interested in the tons of mass produced plastic Chinese junk that was so popular back in the 90s. From an environmental view, Toys R Us going is probably a step forward away from a particularly harmful type of consumerism.

 

[overthewater]

I had the displeasure of using Toy R us before xmas, all I can say, Im not surprised. There was one till open with 10 people waiting to be served and the customers at the front and some sort of problem after 5mins some other staff walked by including what looked to be a supervisor and I ask what the deal is with the check outs, and he reply was that all we have today... Lazy git.... That did not got down rather well.. after more complaints someone else appeared to help deal with 15 people. Simple rules keep the flow going.

Maplins was crap and overpriced... and you could get anything cheaper anywhere else.

 

[Busaholic]

I liked Maplins for being named after an obscure sandbank in the Thames estuary that briefly in about 1964 got to be mentioned in the papers as being a likely site for 'London's next airport' (see, Boris Johnson never had an original idea in his life). Actually, I never had any dealings but if they equated to Richer Sounds, as someone alluded to earlier, then I'd have approved.

 

[Ianno87]

Toys R Us's "problem" was that it was a cheap shopping experience, but without the cheap prices to match.

It was a big, exciting toy hypermarket when they opened in the 80s/90s, but that novelty wore off when smaller toy shops were wiped out and you *had* to shop at Toys R Us (or online)

Surly staff (by no means all staff of course - especially the one who helped me fit a car seat two days before my son was born), and the amount of security/one way in and out treating anyone entering the store as a potential shoplifter until proven otherwise. And woe betide having to return something...

 

[johntea]

Argos is gradually vanishing from the 'high street' as it were, a lot of them now being shoved into Sainsbury stores - which makes sense from a rent point of view until you get places like Harrogate where without a car good luck getting to the Sainsburys and back easily!

Online has caught the high street by surprise over the years and they've struggled to catch up ever since. Who would have thought you could now order online and have same day delivery? (Obviously only in the more key areas of the UK at the moment). You can get cashback online too via the likes of Quidco and TopCashBack.

There will always be a place for retail stores but not in the high street sense, more in the shopping centre and out of town retail park sense.

 

[Antman]

Toys R Us's "problem" was that it was a cheap shopping experience, but without the cheap prices to match.

It was a big, exciting toy hypermarket when they opened in the 80s/90s, but that novelty wore off when smaller toy shops were wiped out and you *had* to shop at Toys R Us (or online)

Surly staff (by no means all staff of course - especially the one who helped me fit a car seat two days before my son was born), and the amount of security/one way in and out treating anyone entering the store as a potential shoplifter until proven otherwise. And woe betide having to return something...

That's what got me, being treated like a potential shoplifter. My daughter who was about 9 at the time had a small back pack and we were told quite abruptly that we couldn't bring it in, we left and never returned.

 

[richw]

Toys r us I found in recent times uncompetitively priced. Their Plymouth store is a warehouse type, so like many others we took the kids to browse and pick what they wanted before buying from other places and online.

 

[whhistle]

But evolve in what way? Shutting your shops and going mail-order is a way that some companies (not Maplin though?) are evolving.

I'm half following Amazon's idea of a shop where you simply walk in, get what you want and leave.
Some sort of technology tracks you and charges your account with said item.

There is a convenience with high street shops though - they're there. With online, you're waiting for X days before the item arrives - sometimes even next day can be too late.

Evolving will probably mean dying. Shopping centres will survive longer as there's a greater concentration of shops together. Places like Boots will survive longer than Waterstones I would have thought. But as more and more new companies spring up online and half the stuff in Boots you can get direct from suppliers anyway, it's also at risk.

Yes, the people who work at these shops will loose their jobs but that's what we as society are deciding - price will usually ALWAYS win.

From an environmental view, Toys R Us going is probably a step forward away from a particularly harmful type of consumerism.

An interesting point of view.
I didn't really think about that. Perhaps the big push on less plastics at the moment would have been the real nail in the coffin.