KB Toys was founded in 1922 as Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy store. switched to toys in 1946. peaked at 1324 locations in 1999. ceased operations in 2009.
Yeah, it’s another example of financial shenanigans…
In April 2002, through dividend recapitalization, Bain Capital received an $85 million payment from KB Toys, which financed the payment through $66 million in bank loans. Glazer received $18 million, while $16 million was divided among other executives.
Fun fact, I used to work for a cleaning company that, for a time, contracted to clean their corporate HQ. They still, in like 2005-ish, filed mostly everything on paper. Their datacenter room was half computer racks, half giant printers that would run nonstop printing reports. There was a giant row of empty server cages in there; a guy who worked there told me it was what used to be “toys.com”. They had sold it off. Their business would be dead in 4 years.
That seems so crazy that they were still printing everything in 2005, but it was still very much a paper driven world then. It’s weird how easily we forget what life was like.
the world has changed. toys simply aren’t competing with tablets and consoles, once kids are like 7 years old. malls kept raising their rents, and online stores of course aren’t helping.
KB Toys was founded in 1922 as Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy store. switched to toys in 1946. peaked at 1324 locations in 1999. ceased operations in 2009.
That is a massively short time from peak to totally gone.
Yeah, it’s another example of financial shenanigans…
In April 2002, through dividend recapitalization, Bain Capital received an $85 million payment from KB Toys, which financed the payment through $66 million in bank loans. Glazer received $18 million, while $16 million was divided among other executives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KB_Toys
Bain Capital <- Well there’s your problem.
The world has changed a great deal since 1999, mostly because of the Internet and tech companies like Amazon.
Fun fact, I used to work for a cleaning company that, for a time, contracted to clean their corporate HQ. They still, in like 2005-ish, filed mostly everything on paper. Their datacenter room was half computer racks, half giant printers that would run nonstop printing reports. There was a giant row of empty server cages in there; a guy who worked there told me it was what used to be “toys.com”. They had sold it off. Their business would be dead in 4 years.
That seems so crazy that they were still printing everything in 2005, but it was still very much a paper driven world then. It’s weird how easily we forget what life was like.
the world has changed. toys simply aren’t competing with tablets and consoles, once kids are like 7 years old. malls kept raising their rents, and online stores of course aren’t helping.
Maybe. But actual toys are still being made and bought and sold.
Toy stores were still with us, if not setting record profits, until venture capitalist assholes got to them:
https://lemmy.world/comment/10481087
The Internet giveth, and it also taketh away.