We’re sorry to see KB Toys go… 460 stores closing after they sell as much as they can for Christmas. Second time for them in 4 years, this time it’s final. Ouch!
At any rate, we thought that our readers would be interested in the following information: It’s from the list of the top forty unsecured creditors filed with the court.
#1 with $27 Million + is Li & Fung Toy Island Manuf. in Hong Kong. Consolidators and shippers. This company would source all kinds of toys from China, bring them into the ports and then distribute them to the stores. More of a service industry than anything else, they would be responsible for very generic types of dolls.
#2 with only $1.3 Million is Mattel.
#3 Energizer battery $728 thousand
and down from there. In no particular order, Lego, Crayola, Hasbro-Milton Bradley etc.
They blamed the sudden downturn in the economy.
My Opinion? They had a poor business model. Selling toys is about selling play and fun. Successful neighborhood toy stores are an adventure and a pleasure to visit and explore. Not KB, - at least in my neck of the woods - (nor for that matter Toys R Us or Walmart or KMart either.) Their stores were never a pleasant place to visit, you just went in because you were looking for a particular toy and hoped they had it… they probably weren’t even your first stop in the Mall, they were probably a while I’m there I’ll check and see if they have… type of place. Plus, pardon my language but that 27 Million dollars worth of stuff on the shelves? IMHO, most of it was cr*p.
So put a bunch of cr*p in a store that was no fun to explore, never seemed to be part of the neighborhood, or care about your kids, like your friendly local specialty Toy or Doll shops… of course they failed. I just wonder that it took them so long. By the way… Toys R Us may survive online, but they’re next. Mark my words. Who was KB’s management as they emerged out bankruptcy four years ago?.. folks who came from Toys R Us!