Like the greedy kid at day care, Wal-Mart wants to play with all the toys — at once — and the other kids are shrinking out of sight. Wal-Mart’s way of describing this phenomenon is as follows: “At Wal-Mart we make dust, our competitor’s eat dust.” This week, another toy retailer bit the dust, as Toys R Us announced Wednesday that it may storm out of the toy field altogether, taking Geoffrey the Giraffe with it. The company, based in Wayne, New Jersey, was at one point the largest toy seller in the country. Now the company says it may sell off its toy business, and keep only Babies R Us, it’s fastest growing limb. Wal-Mart’s grip on the toy business has pushed Geoffrey into a corner. That yellow-faced Mr. Smiley is playing with more toys. The New York Times quotes industry sources as saying that one in every five toys sold in America is bought at a Wal-Mart. On top of that, Target controls almost as much, at 18%. Poor old Geoffrey slid to his knees in third place with 17%. Other toy sellers, like FAO, Kaybee, and Child World, are all just children’s memories now. Two years ago, Toys R Us began closing down unprofitable stores, and laying off workers. Toys R Us currently operates more than 1,460 stores, 683 of which are in the US, and 579 overseas. The company also owns 200 Babies R Us outlets. In a media statement, the company said it had decided to “explore the possible sale of the global toy business as well as to prepare for a possible spin-off of Babies R Us”. The two divisions, it added, were at “fundamentally different phases” in their growth cycles. CEO John Eyler said the “overall strategic plan we are pursuing is intended to enable Babies R Us to continue to prosper as a separate entity while also putting our global toy business on a solid foundation.” The goal was to “create a radically different global toy business” the release said. And they have done that. Only, that global toy business is another company — Wal-Mart.
It gets increasingly difficult for Wal-Mart supporters to claim that the Arkansas retailer is creating new jobs when companies like Toys R Us or Ames, or Montgomery Ward go out of business. All this is merely a game of retail musical chairs. It is certainly not a form of economic development. A chase after market share, perhaps, but “new” jobs — certainly not. For earlier stories on the toy world, search this database by “toys.”