Over the past nine years, we have
looked at quite a number of serious and not-so-serious goings-on in this world.
We wrote about Sears, Montgomery
Ward, Ford Motor Company, The Home Depot, and a host of other businesses that
have spat upon its customers, with a smile.
In case you were wondering, that fake grin they issue doesn’t hold any
sway with me.
I went to those stores and, in
good faith, bought merchandise that wound-up being defective, faulty,
mis-sized, or otherwise unfit for consumption.
Add to that list of
self-important, now-extinct merchants, businesses that simply refuse to deal
with those pesky, unwashed among the masses: wannabe customers.
You see, if you don’t like my
company and money, you may sell your junk to someone else. I, however, have something called pride. You will not treat me like garbage and get my
business; it’s one or the other, but not both.
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| We're smarter than you R! |
So we have finally arrived at the
gist of this commentary, Toys-R-Us.
It was recently announced that
Toys-R-Us is going out-of-business, not because they are selling too much. Rather, they are not selling enough.
In a trip down memory lane, our
WABAC machine arrived at October 1994.
It was there that, just as today, a series of shootings led to Toys-R-Us
banning the sale of toy guns. I know
this because I found a New York Times article from October 1994, whose headline
read: Shootings Lead Chain to Ban Toy Guns.
That chain was Toys-R-Us.
It seems as though some serious
hand-wringing was going on among police, politicians, and readers of The New
York Times, alike. Public pressure was
mounting, and the obvious solution was to target toy guns.
Much like the National Rifle
Association and “assault rifles” are today’s scapegoat targets, toy guns were
moved to the front of American activism by the “Do Something” crowd.
And Toys-R-Us was glad to help.
I grew up with the neighborhood
kids playing with realistic toy weapons of war.
I had a Thompson submachine gun made of plastic, with which I dispatched
our same-age enemies during our regular battles of our idea of war.
Other kids had varying rifles and
plastic handguns which accepted “caps.”
Those caps made the BANG, a supply which was usually exhausted after the
first day on-the-job. Thereafter, we
would simply yell “BANG!”
We all had fun and found this
exercise in out-flanking the opposing side, and winning though outsmarting our
buddies, gratifying.
Immediately thereafter, we would
call a truce and down some celebratory lemonade or chocolate milk. In any case, we all remained friends after
each and every skirmish. And until this
day, none of my friends, or I, killed anyone, shot up a school, or even
committed any crime, period.
But Toys-R-Us, the toy
store-turned social activist, wanted to do something.
What they did back in 1994 was to
alienate two generations of Americans who innocently wanted to play “Army,”
cowboys and Indians, and cops and robbers.
Toys-R-Us estranged loyal customers and prevented others from buying
what they wanted, all in the name of making America
Today’s headlines cry about their
30,000 employees, who will soon be jobless, and the massive void in the toy
market, itself.
Unfortunately, the 1994 Toys-R-Us
executives should have thought about ignoring the wants and desires of its
customers instead of telling them what they want and what they need.
This is a good warning to those
businesses not doing back flips for the attention of marching and protesting
high schoolers who are currently making unrealistic demands.
Toys-R-Us, Rest in Peace.
