Mattel is laying off more than 2,200 workers after Toys 'R' Us went bankrupt

[TomCADem]

Source: CNN

After a disastrous spring, Mattel said it would cut nearly a quarter of its staff and sell some of its factories.

Mattel blamed the Toys "R" Us bankruptcy for the bulk of its problems. When the toy store mega-chain stopped buying new toys, Mattel lost its most important conduit to customers.

Sales fell 11% between April and June. Revenue would have been close to flat, though still down, if Toys "R" Us hadn't gone bankrupt, Mattel said.

Bright spots were few: Barbie sales grew 12%, and Hot Wheels sales were up 21%. Enchantimals and "Jurassic World" toys sold well too. That's about it.

Read more: https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/25/news/companies/mattel-layoffs/index.html

[liberal N proud]

1. There will be no toys for the boys and girls

trump is the grinch too

[TomCADem]

2. Harley-Davidson puts tariff loss at $150 million as sales slump

Its not just toys for the little boys that are suffering. Toys for the older crowd are also taking a hit.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/07/24/harley-davidson-motorcycles-earnings/824866002/

MILWAUKEE – Swept up in President Donald Trump's trade war, Harley-Davidson said Tuesday it faces up to $100 million in European Union tariff costs in 2019.

That's in addition to about $50 million this year as the company calculates the damages from recently imposed tariffs.

The European Union imposed the levies in retaliation to Trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. The company said recently that it would shift some production out of the U.S. to avoid the tariffs, a prospect that drew a concerned tweet from Trump.

"We are doing everything we can as a company to absorb the costs," Chief Financial Officer John Olin said during a conference call with analysts. "But we can't eat the whole $45 million to $55 million," so the company has lowered its motorcycle-segment profit margin this year to reflect the tariffs.

[Initech]

4. No, Mitt Romney and his Bain Capital cohorts are the Grinch.

Trump is the evil Santa.

[laserhaas]

31. Trump is protecting Romney in order to protect Sachs

And that led to Toys R Us implosion.

Link to tweet

.

[iluvtennis]

3. Where are parents buying toys nowadays. Toys R Us always had the biggest selection. Unless you

know what you want to buy, buying it online is not the same thing as going to the toy store to check stuff out. These type of changes to our culture really hurt me as an "old schooler".

[Initech]

5. Toys are kind of passe now.

Cell phones and portable game systems have pretty much replaced dolls and action figures. Pretty sad.

[iluvtennis]

7. Yep, very sad.

[christx30]

8. I can't get my kids to play with toys.

They get bored after 3 minutes and want me to go back to their tablets or their Nintendo DS. I can’t even get them to watch a movie with me. What 10 year old doesn’t love The Dark Crystal?

[iluvtennis]

9. I used to limit time my 10 year olds spent on Nintendo to 2 hrs /day. Forced them to play

board games. And guess what, they actually like the board games. And we looped in their friends when they came to hang out. Got some old school stuff play methods into their purview.

[pstokely]

15. Have they played the Tetris or Street Fighter board games?

[iluvtennis]

21. Thanks for that you tube video. I'm gonna try the Super Mari Bros one or Tetris. Mine are

16 year olds now/. I know one daughter will be all in, not sure about the other

[YOHABLO]

6. Where do you think? Answer: Walmart

[iluvtennis]

10. I shop Walmart and no issue with it...but, they still don't have the selection of toys that Toys R

Us did.

[RhodeIslandOne]

14. Target too

Kmart even though it’s dying....

[woodsprite]

26. Maybe our Target will have a better selection this year,

but the past few years, the games/toys section was abysmal. Our local Kmart had much more. Not holding out much hope for that. I figure it will go under at any time. When you walk in during the day, there is almost nobody at checkout (staff or customers), and only every other row of ceiling lights are turned on.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. What happens is

(outside of kids seeing the commercials) - all you need are a few of the kids' friends (or cousins, etc) that have the toy to play with (and the parent sees it when shuttling kids to "play dates" ). Plus many daycares/after school services get "donations" of these toys which is where the kids/parents see/handle them too, after which the parent will go on and buy it online.

Note that even when Toys 'R Us was still around, many people didn't live near one so they ordered direct from Toys 'R Us's online store (been there done that and free ship!). Really, not much different from doing "mail order". So Amazon and Walmart (online) certainly can pick up that slack. And here in Philly, there are only a few Walmarts in the city, so people really don't have much choice but to order online.

I, like many on DU, come from the era of combing page by page through the annual Sears Christmas Catalog and hoping for that trip to Kiddy City!

[iluvtennis]

22. I remember looking at those catalogs with my grandma - miss that. Agree on the learning about toys

/games from other kids and daycare.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. One of my young nephews loves the board game "Trouble"

(as do I... ) And he had been introduced to it at his pre-K school too (I then got him one for home).

[metalbot]

16. I vastly prefer to purchase online

I get that there's a tactile sense that you get from holding a toy, but the selection that you get from Amazon dwarfs anything Toys R Us could offer.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

23. Toys aren't for kids

A lot of toys seemed aimed at adult collectors rather than kids now. My young nephew is more interested in tablet time than physical toys.

[crazycatlady]

25. My niece turns 6 in September

And I honestly don't know what to get her. I liked browsing Toys R Us to see what I thought she'd like.

She likes arts and crafts. I'm thinking of going to Michael's/AC Moore and seeing what kid's craft kits they have.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

28. WalMart

WalMart is a big part of why TRU went under.

[kimbutgar]

11. Toy r us and KB Toys destroyed by vulture capitalists

The major customer distribution chain for Mattel.

Ironically both companies ended during repuke administrations.

[brush]

12. Precursor of a recession. Always happens in repug admins.

[obamanut2012]

29. This -- it has nothing to do with kids not playing with toys

Toys R Us started expensive, and never updated their stores, which didn't help, either.

[Bengus81]

17. How many of them like Carrier workers VOTED for Trump??

Why in the HELL would anyone at a Union shop like Carrier vote for that lying POS?? Yet there's the vid of the crying woman who NOW wishes she hadn't voted for Trump after getting laid off.

And no....I don't care anymore about these Trump voters losing a job.

[Cold War Spook]

18. We had toys to play with back in the 40s and 50s.

Baseball bats, baseballs, baseball mitts, hockey skates, hockey sticks, hockey pucks, footballs, basketballs, trees, grass (not that kind) and bicycles.

[inwiththenew]

19. Does Mattel actually make stuff here or are these all overseas factories?

I didn't see it in the article.

[NCjack]

20. Sniff, sniff, sniff ... I smell romney. nt

[SummerSnow]

27. This is winning?

[Puzzledtraveller]

30. Toys R Us was going down long before Trump

blame Big box and Amazon, particularly Amazon.

[laserhaas]

32. Everybody is getting it all wrong. Romney ripped off Mattel

via Goldman Sachs & Thomas Lee Partners, via the MNAT merger of Bain's "Learning Company" with Mattel.

Then Mitt ripped off Kay Bee & eToys via Paul Traub and MNAT

Getting $5 billion in racketeering profits led to ownership of Toys R Us.

To assure Toys R Us could go down without a fuss, Romney had a very public - private dinner - with Donald the Great.

Trump nominated Romney'sbuddy - Jay Clayton - to head the SEC

And Trump nominated Romney's MNAT law firm partner- Colm Connolly - to be a Delaware Dist Court Judge

Link to tweet

.

[dembotoz]

33. well someone must have been buying stuff at toys r us

too many thing the kids wanted that i could not afford....