ToysRUs UK & US bankruptcy & closure

[griffin]

Looks like the US ToysRUs situation took a turn for the worst, going from a rather safe position of bankruptcy protection, to having the lenders now pushing the business to liquidate all stores and assets just to get back what they are owed, because they can't find new lenders or purchasers.

The optimistic option was to close 20% of their stores and find new creditors to keep the debt active and paid off.... but on Monday (US time), there will be a bankruptcy hearing held, that could see the decision made by ToysRUs to completely dissolve their business.
If that happens, that would likely be the end of ToysRUs exclusives, even in other countries, as the US organises them, and then makes them available to ToysRUs entities in other countries.
And it sounds like ToysRUs in quite a few countries are struggling or on the verge of collapse, with the Canadian branch also in bankruptcy since last year, the UK branch closing quite a few stores, the European branch looking for a buyer, and apparently the Asian branch is already in the process of being bought out.

With ToysRUs in Australia actually in the process of expanding at the moment, we may end up being the last branch of that brand in the world.

[DELTAprime]

As much as it would suck for customers I'm thinking more about the employees. That's going to be a lot of people having to look for a new job with little warning. Retail in America is dying rapidly unfortunately.

If it wasn't for their loan providers I think TRU would be in a much better state.

At least for us here in Australia most of retail is doing well with malls all over the country renovating to add more stores. Sure we get the headlines all the time of Jerry Harvey saying how online is killing him, but with more stores opening fairly regularly I think for the time being retail is doing well here.

[1AZRAEL1]

I feel for the workers more than customers. It's crap.

Hopefully I get my Grotusque

[GoktimusPrime]

Soon to be known as Toys Were Us.

[Trent]

As much as it would suck for customers I'm thinking more about the employees. That's going to be a lot of people having to look for a new job with little warning. Retail in America is dying rapidly unfortunately.

If it wasn't for their loan providers I think TRU would be in a much better state.

At least for us here in Australia most of retail is doing well with malls all over the country renovating to add more stores. Sure we get the headlines all the time of Jerry Harvey saying how online is killing him, but with more stores opening fairly regularly I think for the time being retail is doing well here.

Retail here would want to be doing well after scrapping penalty rates.

[griffin]

Okay, this post is getting us off-topic, but they didn't "scrap" penalty rates... we still have penalty rates for weekends and after-hours on weekdays.

The Sunday rate was brought into line with Saturday, because we aren't a majority Christian country anymore (less than 11% attend church on a regular or irregular basis now)... and the higher rate was for businesses to pay employees more for missing their obligation to attend church services (when these higher Sunday rates were first brought in). Just like how businesses and retailers were not allowed to operate on Sundays... those archaic laws were drawn up by rather non-secular governments last century, and as trading hours on Sundays have been slowly relaxed to be close or equal to Saturday in various cities around the country, it was only a matter of time that the pay rates would reflect that change as well.

So there is no longer a logical reason why one day of the weekend is more important than the other, to have it paid more than the other.
After all, is it fair to have people doing a particular job on Saturday earn less than people doing the exact same job on Sunday.

Base rates need to be higher, not the penalty rates, or else you get a large chunk of society desperately dependant on the higher paid, odd-hour work just to be able to afford to raise a family that they now have to miss seeing most of the time working those shifts.

Higher Base rates and lower costs of living... should be the focus of politicians, not fighting over penalty rates (which are only a percentage of the base rate anyway, so if it doesn't go up, the penalty rate doesn't go up either).

[Trent]

Okay, this post is getting us off-topic, but they didn't "scrap" penalty rates... we still have penalty rates for weekends and after-hours on weekdays.

The Sunday rate was brought into line with Saturday, because we aren't a majority Christian country anymore (less than 11% attend church on a regular or irregular basis now)... and the higher rate was for businesses to pay employees more for missing their obligation to attend church services (when these higher Sunday rates were first brought in). Just like how businesses and retailers were not allowed to operate on Sundays... those archaic laws were drawn up by rather non-secular governments last century, and as trading hours on Sundays have been slowly relaxed to be close or equal to Saturday in various cities around the country, it was only a matter of time that the pay rates would reflect that change as well.

So there is no longer a logical reason why one day of the weekend is more important than the other, to have it paid more than the other.
After all, is it fair to have people doing a particular job on Saturday earn less than people doing the exact same job on Sunday.

Base rates need to be higher, not the penalty rates, or else you get a large chunk of society desperately dependant on the higher paid, odd-hour work just to be able to afford to raise a family that they now have to miss seeing most of the time working those shifts.

Higher Base rates and lower costs of living... should be the focus of politicians, not fighting over penalty rates (which are only a percentage of the base rate anyway, so if it doesn't go up, the penalty rate doesn't go up either).

Having family members directly impacted by this change, I could debate with you at length about how your Christian arguement is moot. But as you said, wrong topic.

[DELTAprime]

TRU ain't dead yet... The hearing is postponed. Plus an update on TRU Canada.
https://www.seibertron.com/transform...-canada/40873/

[DELTAprime]

And that's it folks, TRU in both the US and UK are closing down completely.

https://www.seibertron.com/transform...-stores/40888/

https://www.seibertron.com/transform...-the-uk/40886/

[Thurmus]

And most likely Australia as well.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/busin...57a5427cc81a20