5 things you've learned about Toy's R Us in the last few days...

W

William Smith

CAGiversary!
1. The employees are actually for the most part very nice. Not knowledgeable, but nice. MUCH nicer than your usual EB rat.

2. They all seem to have the same games... PoP, SSX3, etc. etc... Why is that...?

3. Their DC selection should be put out of MY misery. Fishing? Sports? That's it?!

4. The games are usually wildly out of order.

5. For me I didn't realize, compared to all the other stores I have around me, how freakin far apart TRU's are!!

If you can't come up with 5 how about....3? 1?
 
1. They use the same plastic cases they did for N64.
2. They have barely PS1 and PS2 games.
3. The store is always deserted.
4. They hire alot of old people.
5. The employees are really nice and helpful.
 
[quote name='Limpbizkit182521']1. They use the same plastic cases they did for N64.
2. They have barely PS1 and PS2 games.
3. The store is always deserted.
4. They hire alot of old people.
5. The employees are really nice and helpful.[/quote]


Mine has alot of Ps2 games, store is crowded, alot of young people, and the employees knew nothing.
 
I went TRU hunting with a fellow CAG the other day; and before he arrived, I asked the department clerk if he knew anything about the 50% off clearance. "No, I haven't heard anything about that. Just whatever is on that table or in the bins." (Clearance areas that have been there forever.) So my fellow CAG arrives and tests it out by buying Deus Ex.. *Cha-ching* "Wow. That's a good deal, isn't it?" Sure enough, 50% off. I told the clerk, "So I guess you do have the 50% off clearance going on." He shrugged his shoulders and literally said, "I don't know anything." :rofl:
 
What have we learned?

You mean besides the obvious that TRU is over priced. Hold there prices for months after other stores have dropped them. Walmart and K-Mart are putting them out of business. There sales people know squat. There stores are really dirty.

That's what TRU has taught me.

Lesson over.
 
Their DC selection should be put out of MY misery. Fishing? Sports? That's it?!
Click to expand...

Chances are your TRU, like most TRU's, cleared out the good stuff a long time ago. Considering the Dreamcast's run ended in 2001, most stores don't have any DC selection.

For me I didn't realize, compared to all the other stores I have around me, how freakin far apart TRU's are!!
Click to expand...

They're pretty far apart here as well. Same thing with Best Buy. :lol:
 
They take shitty care of their games. When I got Bloody Roar 3 awhile ago, there was a huge slice on the spine (cutting even the box art). Now, when i just got Deus ex, the entire top of the plastic has a slice in it. They seem to be very careless with box cutters :(
 
[quote name='Maxwell31']There stores are really dirty. [/quote]

You should see what the warehouses are like. Holy shit. Or what most boxes look like. I wouldn't recommend getting anything from a TRU that comes from the warehouse, since most likely it's been dropped 5-6 times already. (I used to work unloading trucks for TRU)
 
1. have old games in stock for release prices
2. extremely dirty
3. merchandise never seems to leave shelves.
4. they never hire anyone.
5. when I go I am one of 2 people in the store
6. from nov to jan you can not walk around in the store. so many people.
 
[quote name='William Smith']1. The employees are actually for the most part very nice. Not knowledgeable, but nice. MUCH nicer than your usual EB rat. [/quote]
I went to two Toys R Us's. I was treated like shit at both places. At the first place, after asking if they had a few games, I was simply told no on all counts without even checking. That in itself is fine, no big deal. But then I tried to pay with my credit card. He asked for something with my signature on it to prove I was the cardholder? What is that? I only bought $10 in DC games because they barely had anything else.

At the second Toys R Us, I was asked to show ID because I was buying M rated games. Show ID? Am I buying beer and cigarettes? I'm 21, I have a few grey hairs, and I didn't shave that day, so I'm fairly certain any reasonable person could tell I was over 17 YEARS OLD. Hell, she probably just wanted to not let me buy anything so she could go buy them herself (I only had 4 games, one copy of each). I went home and called up a friend to go pick them up for me, went to the same person, she didn't ask her for any ID. If there wasn't a long line when I was there I would have asked for the manager, that was bullshit and a complete waste of my time.

[quote name='William Smith']3. Their DC selection should be put out of MY misery. Fishing? Sports? That's it?! [/quote]
I picked up Death Crimson OX and Typing of the Dead at the 1st Toys R Us. The second had only sports games, except for one copy of Illbleed.

[quote name='William Smith']4. The games are usually wildly out of order. [/quote]
Everything on the shelves was fairly neat and organized. Except for the Dreamcast games, which were in one of those vertical metal grate bins, it was like an excavation looking for stuff in there.

[quote name='William Smith']5. For me I didn't realize, compared to all the other stores I have around me, how freakin far apart TRU's are!! [/quote]
One was at the train station near me, the other was at the train station a few stops down. There are about 5 more in driving range.


Toys R Us can kiss my ass, and I hope they go bankrupt and die.
(Not until the sale is over though.)
 
[quote name='William Smith']1. The employees are actually for the most part very nice. Not knowledgeable, but nice. MUCH nicer than your usual EB rat.[/quote]

One girl on the 14th was nice enough to even pass me the FULL official list of games from her price sheet when she first started helping me and my sis look. For a moment I was holding the Holy Grail, but unfortunately, we rounded a corner and there was her manager, so she quietly had to knick it back out of my hands (and I was in the middle of asking a question about it anyway, so she was probably worried she was going to get into trouble). Still, very kind of her to try. Another guy at a more local EB helped suggest some other titles, like RPG Maker 2 before it showed up on the lists here.

[quote name='William Smith']2. They all seem to have the same games... PoP, SSX3, etc. etc... Why is that...?[/quote]

The worst part is the bargain display. Apparently Toys 'R' Us got nearly every single copy of Mad Maestro ever produced. (I say "nearly" because I'd picked up a copy at Target months beforehand, brand new, for $3.24. So at least a few must've gone awry.)

[quote name='William Smith']3. Their DC selection should be put out of MY misery. Fishing? Sports? That's it?![/quote]

And about fifty copies of the same three N64 games. Wrestling, RE2, and one other. And an uncountable number of Chef's Luv Shack for the DC.
 
1. Agree with OP.| Employees are nice | and clueless.
2. Stores are Empty . If I get lost in a plush toys section, noone ever gonna find me .
3. Some of them have a stockroom behind glass that looks like a prison cell. You give him receipt, he stamps it and locks the window....Can I get my game? you damn ass.
4. Ugly girls and guys that look like ugly girls.
5. I found a mate for me in a DoggY section.

But Good, goog, good noone bothers you.
 
I guess for those that answered (ie: Read the post. It wasn't "comment on the 5 things William Smith learned about TRU...") there does seem to be a fairly wide range of experiences...

and yeah I forgot about the old people... God I hope I don't end up like them!!

Also, about my selection comment. I'm not saying that I'm surprised that the stores carry the same items I'm surprised that out of all the stores around here (So. CAL), reflecting on the 50% off list here at CAG, they are all OUT of the same games, and all have the same games in stock.

No Simp H&R, No Wario World, No Midnight Club 2, NO Nightfire, etc. and yet they all have 10 PoPs, Deus, 13 XIII's, etc...
 
I learned that the new girl (new in terms as I've never seen her there before) in the R Zone is really nice and helpfull. She even joined CAG because when I went in there, apparently a guy right before me was from this site and he told her about it the sale, but refused to show her his list he got from here, so when I brought my games up as he was walking out she asked if I was from the same website. I said probably, if it was cheepassgamer. I went in the next day to grab a few more games and she said she joined up to get the list and hoped that the site doesn't spam her. I assured her it was a really well run site and she would recieve no spam. That's all I learned. Sorry it's not 5 things. Oh yeah, she was even nice enough to look up in their inventory to see if they had any REZ, which they didn't, but it was nice she took the time to help, unlike CC employees I run into when I ask them to even price check a game, they huff and puff and get all annoyed.
 
I learned that TRU is not what I once thought it was. Very run down looking and uninviting.

The guy working there was cool when I went up to the register but I was walking around for about 20 minutes before being acknowleged... While he was playing at the demo units with one of his friends that was just hanging around.

The place was a mess and unorganized and the guy could have been cleaning up the place, which only had me and one other guy looking around.

They sell old magazines. Usually a place that sells any type of magazines will throw out the old ones as soon as the next month comes in. Not here. I saw a magazine that had Soul Calibur 2 as the cover article.

For the biggest name in toy sales, toy only sales at least, it was fairly dead. Actually really dead. There were more employees than customers and they only had one register open on the floor and the one in the R Zone.

Also, alot of the games weren't priced or not priced in a way that I could see it. Seriously, if it wasn't for the totally whore out of the games then there would be no reason to go there. But they were hiring and I turned in an app.
 
As soon as i walked in there game section i knew why they were going out of buisness.

Sears in my opinion will be the next company to go out of buisness.
 
[quote name='dafoomie'][quote name='William Smith']1. The employees are actually for the most part very nice. Not knowledgeable, but nice. MUCH nicer than your usual EB rat. [/quote]
I went to two Toys R Us's. I was treated like shit at both places. At the first place, after asking if they had a few games, I was simply told no on all counts without even checking. That in itself is fine, no big deal. But then I tried to pay with my credit card. He asked for something with my signature on it to prove I was the cardholder? What is that? I only bought $10 in DC games because they barely had anything else.[/quote]

I wouldn't let that bug you too bad. They're just trying to prevent a thief from using your card. Most stores don't even blink an eye if a female uses a card with a male name, or vice versa. Personally I'm pretty bad at signing my name consistently and every once in a long while a clerk will challenge my signature. But mostly they don't even look at the back of the card.
 
[quote name='Kulock'][quote name='William Smith']1. The employees are actually for the most part very nice. Not knowledgeable, but nice. MUCH nicer than your usual EB rat.[/quote]

One girl on the 14th was nice enough to even pass me the FULL official list of games from her price sheet when she first started helping me and my sis look. For a moment I was holding the Holy Grail, but unfortunately, we rounded a corner and there was her manager, so she quietly had to knick it back out of my hands (and I was in the middle of asking a question about it anyway, so she was probably worried she was going to get into trouble). Still, very kind of her to try. Another guy at a more local EB helped suggest some other titles, like RPG Maker 2 before it showed up on the lists here.


[quote name='William Smith']3. Their DC selection should be put out of MY misery. Fishing? Sports? That's it?![/quote]

And about fifty copies of the same three N64 games. Wrestling, RE2, and one other. And an uncountable number of Chef's Luv Shack for the DC.[/quote]

yeah the dude passed me his markdown list that included the pennied out guides. He didnt even ring me up for the pennied out guides bc i bought morrowind goty for fiifteen and he said that he has to throw out the old guides anyways to make room for the new ones.
 
I wouldn't let that bug you too bad. They're just trying to prevent a thief from using your card. Most stores don't even blink an eye if a female uses a card with a male name, or vice versa. Personally I'm pretty bad at signing my name consistently and every once in a long while a clerk will challenge my signature. But mostly they don't even look at the back of the card.
Click to expand...

That doesn't really bug me too much, but my signature is on the back of the card, and he asked me to produce something else with my signature on it. I really wasn't pissed off at the 1st store as much as the 2nd.
 
The TRU I went to today was unbelievably messy. It was like a tornado went through the game department, with boxes thrown about everywhere, even on the floor. They also had display boxes on the shelves for games that weren't even in stock. Damn them for getting my hopes up with their Gulty Gear X2 and Crimson Skies display boxes! :evil:
 
[quote name='William Smith']I guess for those that answered (ie: Read the post. It wasn't "comment on the 5 things William Smith learned about TRU...") there does seem to be a fairly wide range of experiences...

and yeah I forgot about the old people... God I hope I don't end up like them!!

Also, about my selection comment. I'm not saying that I'm surprised that the stores carry the same items I'm surprised that out of all the stores around here (So. CAL), reflecting on the 50% off list here at CAG, they are all OUT of the same games, and all have the same games in stock.

No Simp H&R, No Wario World, No Midnight Club 2, NO Nightfire, etc. and yet they all have 10 PoPs, Deus, 13 XIII's, etc...[/quote]

Again, your surprise makes no sense. These titles are on clearance for their failure to sell. Is it any surprise that within a single region the pattern of those failures is fairly similar? A lot of the coolest items, like obsolete PS2 bundles for $75 just aren't going to turn up in a store in this region. The region just moves too much merchandise compared to the Podunks to have an item like around long enough for such a drastic discount.

Actually though, if you exercise a little information mapping you'll different items in different stores. For instance, most of the TRU locations in my path were in fairly affluent suburban areas. Their stock tended to be pretty identical. The one very useful exception was the TRU at Sherman Way and Woodley in Van Nuys. This is a fairly crappy section of the valley and the one of the oldest TRUs in all of Southern California. I found a bunch of items in that store I didn't find elsewhere. I knew from experience it was the least well run with very shoddy inventory management. It has a little hole in the wall dealing in used games and pirate GBA carts right next door. I made a point of going to that store because I was sure they'd have lots of older stuff the other stores had gotten rid of long ago. This turned out to be correct and I added another five games to my library for less than $10 each.
 
[quote name='emceelokey']I learned that TRU is not what I once thought it was. Very run down looking and uninviting.

The guy working there was cool when I went up to the register but I was walking around for about 20 minutes before being acknowleged... While he was playing at the demo units with one of his friends that was just hanging around.

The place was a mess and unorganized and the guy could have been cleaning up the place, which only had me and one other guy looking around.

They sell old magazines. Usually a place that sells any type of magazines will throw out the old ones as soon as the next month comes in. Not here. I saw a magazine that had Soul Calibur 2 as the cover article.

For the biggest name in toy sales, toy only sales at least, it was fairly dead. Actually really dead. There were more employees than customers and they only had one register open on the floor and the one in the R Zone.

Also, alot of the games weren't priced or not priced in a way that I could see it. Seriously, if it wasn't for the totally whore out of the games then there would be no reason to go there. But they were hiring and I turned in an app.[/quote]

Which TRU? THe one on Maryland Parkway is usually in good shape but the one out in the sticks (towards Henderson?) is on the skids.

Pretty much all TRU stores have old magazines. A newstand needs to offer the latest in a wide variety, so their ability to offer back issues is limited. But a specialty store can keep a backlog of magazines covering their specific subject. You'll find the same thing in lots of specialty stores where old reviews and articles are useful to the customers. Go into a store that sells model train and RC toy stuff and you'll find year old issues of magazines specializing in those interests for sale. This has been reduced a fair bit by the web making most older print matrial available for free on demand or at least on demand for a fee but there is still agreater value placed on printed material.
 
[quote name='johnnyoski'][quote name='Maxwell31']Walmart and K-Mart are putting them out of business.[/quote]

OK, this is an accurate statement about Walmart.....but K-Mart???? Have you been to one lately??
Are we talking about the same K-Mart with these great video game deals?
http://www.kmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=982258&cp=979567.784878.982764[/quote]

Failures can drag down others who are merely on thin ice. I've gotten about 20 games for under $10 from K-Mart this year. That is money and interest removed from potentially profitable purchases at TRU. So long as K-Mart holds on to life and keeps dribbling out those clearnace items for CAGs it puts a dent in any hope for TRU to regain lost ground.

It's better for regional economics for failing businesses to pull the plug rather than dragging it out. It's sort of the difference between someone who just keels over dead from a heart attack VS. a plague bearer who takes weeks to die while infecting all who come near and still consuming food and resources in the process.
 
1. It's only worth buying anything there when they have ridiculous sales going on.
2. Never shop at a toy store when they're holding a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.
3. Their computer system sucks. All the games they had green-tagged at my local store still rung up at full price, which led to...
4. Confused employees. They had no idea about the sale, even though they had a big sign for it outside their store advertising it.
5. The managers suck. Or at least the one I encountered. When my game didn't ring up at half-off, she was called over to authorize a price change. She then checked the green sticker on the game, obviously believing that I had put it there. Then she grumbled about losing money and authorized the discount anyway.
 
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