Despite attempts to save the business, the business will be closing, has gone into administration and all of Toys R Us 100 stores in the UK will close, 26 will cease trading as of this week. Staff at head office and in some outlets have already been made redundant. But some branches will remain open selling stock at significant discounts for the time being. Could that offer a stock opportunity for marketplace merchants?
The administrators Moorfields Advisory say that they have not managed to sell the UK business in its entirety, or in part, despite significant interest. But all the efforts have come to nought:
We spoke to 121 people, of which about half were only interested in the stock and some were interested in the fixtures and fittings. Some expressed interest in the whole business or part of it, but the last interested party left the process yesterday.
– Simon Thomas, Moorfields Advisory
It seems that the failure of the company to adopt online selling earlier is key to their demise. But such a problem could offer an opportunity. One online source we read on Facebook said: “Still time for some liquidation bargains if you live near a Toys r Us, an extra 30% off stock from the warehouse clearance phase. Go get some profit!”
The Toys ‘R’ Us stores already closed, or will close on Friday, are Aberdeen, Basingstoke, Belfast, Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Brislington, Cambridge, Cardiff, Derry City, Doncaster, East Kilbride, Exeter, Hayes, Kirkcaldy, Leicester, Livingston, Old Kent Road, Plymouth, Scunthorpe, Shrewsbury, Tamworth, Tunbridge Wells, Watford and York.
But that does mean that plenty of others are still open and discounting heavily. And specialists in the field, with a keen knowledge of online selling prices for the types of goods that Toys R Us sell, could find a decent and ready supply of stock for resale.
Is this an opportunity you might explore? Or is such a stock procurement strategy not profitable the long run? Or perhaps you’re biding your time waiting for deeper discounts?
3 Responses
What? No. I don’t think there’s much “opportunity” there.
Have you been in a Toys R Us recently?
there’s no secret to why they closed, its blatantly obvious to anyone who walks in, spits their coffee over the floor when they see the prices, and goes next door to Smyths where the same stuff is half the price.
(or Argos, or eBay or Amazon. Anywhere is cheaper than Toys R Us.)
offering me 30% off something thats 100% over the going rate? I’ll pass thanks.
I recently went into my local branch which is closing down and its windows display message about some massive discounts bla bla. But I only found out that the maximum discount was… 10%!! There’s actually very little being discounted and mostl stuff is discounted at 5% so it’s utter waste of your time to go in their shop looking to make a deal. Perhaps wait until the unsold stock goes on auction.
The same could be said for Maplins, I visited one of their shops and found everything to be expensive compared to online and hardly discounted considering they are meant to be closing down.