Title: Toy stores that went out of business - The Silicon Underground
Headings: Toy stores that went out of business
Toy stores that went out of business
Kay Bee
Toys R Us
Radio Shack
Lionel Kiddie City / Lionel Playworld
Children’s Palace / Child World
All Wound Up
FAO Schwarz
Warner Bros Studio Store
Zany Brainy
Noodle Kidoodle
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Content: In 2017, it still had $5 billion in liabilities. The leveraged buyout, which was designed to allow a fading chain the flexibility it needed to update its business model without having to worry about quarterly returns, ended up slowly killing the company. The strategy didn’t have to fail. Dell Corporation, the computer maker, took itself private in 2013 for exactly the same reason. Within three years, it was making a $67 billion acquisition and in 2018 it made itself a public company again. But Toys R Us made few significant changes as a private company. The organization and layout was chaotic, the prices were higher than discount stores, the customer service was poor, and it didn’t provide a destination-type experience that classic toy stores of the past had. Toys R Us didn’t necessarily have to become one of many toy stores that went out of business, but since Bain Capital and its partners stood to make money regardless of Toys R Us’ ultimate fate, it lacked the motivation that other companies that used the strategy successfully, such as Dell, had. Radio Shack
Radio Shack wasn’t strictly a toy store, but toys were a profitable sideline for the company for decades. Its high-profile bankruptcy in 2015 was a long time coming.