Posted 13 March 2005 - 08:07 PM
Just a word to the wise of you non wall street journal readers. Sears was bought outright by the investment firm that owns KMart. While the Big K may not be making as much money as Walmart or Target, the company that owns it is worth billions and bought Sears for several billion dollars as well. Remodels will and will not feature every department of both stores, but the core brands will be there ie Martha Stewart and Craftsman. Nerf and other such toys may of may not make the cut, as it remains to see once the execs determine the profitability of the Toy dept. compared to Walmart and Target. I would tend to think its in Kmarts best interest to drop toys in favor of other departments.
Now the TRU wonderful news. TRU has had several offers to outright buy out the company. The firms who want to buy TRU are all real estate developers. We can pretty much kiss TRU as we know it good buy by 2006 if not the end of this year. They will shut down retail operations and the real estate developers will probably rennovate and sell off the porperties, (probably to Target and Walmart in some cases). TRU's HQ is 2 minutes from me in Wayne, NJ, so I get a trickle of information about them once in a while. Walmart and Target are probably going to be the places to go for our toys in the future, otherwise Amazon.com. It is just not possible to sustain a business where 90%+ of your sales are in the forth quarter every year. In recent years, those sales have been deminishing and TRU is all but finished. Target and Walmart can benefit from Toy Departments b/c parents will shop those depts so that their kids will stay quiet long enough for them to shop the rest of the store. Basically, the world of business BLOWS for toys. The market shrinks everyday, and there is very little we can do about it. Video Games and DVD's are the toys of the next generation, and I'm willing to bet my grandkids kids won't even go outside and play on a nice day.
How's that for a Marketing Major's education, Shindig?
I hate you.