Toys R Us joins a long list of retailers that have filed for bankruptcy and announced plenty of store closures.
Straddled with $5 billion worth of debt, the toy store declared bankruptcy on Tuesday, which means it is heading to the retail store cemetery. Impacted by intense competition, particularly from Amazon and Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R’ Us couldn’t survive.
Bloomberg quoted one Texas shopper who put it this way:
“We will go to Toys R Us to check out the current toys, and while we are at the store, we will be looking up prices on the phone on Walmart.com and Amazon.”
As the headlines concentrate on the company’s bankruptcy, the real story is the number of retailers that have followed suit.
Over the last 12 months, dozens of retail businesses have filed for bankruptcy protection as they fail to adapt to the changing environment and suffer from the Amazon Effect.
Here is a list of those companies:
– Toys R Us
– J.C. Penney
– RadioShack
– Eastern Outfitters
– Gormans
– Payless ShoeSource
– Aerosoles
And there may be more coming if you take a look at lists compiled by Fitch and Moody’s. The credit rating agencies’ “Retail Concern List” names Sears Holdings, Nine West Holdings, Claire’s Stores, 99 Cents Only Stores and Gymboree (as many as 19 others) as companies that could shut down.
The retail industry has yet to adopt the old adage of adapt or die.
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