THE TOYS ‘R’ GONE
Elves find empty shelves at Walmart &Target
The disappearance of Toys ‘R’ Us has left a big, empty hole in the US toy industry — and retailers are already falling behind in a scramble to fill it.
Toy supplies at Walmart, Target and Amazon are looking spotty six months after the nation’s biggest toy chain closed its doors for good — and just days into the kickoff of the crucial holiday shopping season, sources told The Post.
At a New York-area Walmart, basic staples including Mattel’s Hot Wheels cars and Jurassic World action figures had gone completely missing on row after row of empty pegs, according to photos taken over Thanksgiving weekend by Jim Silver, president of TTPM, a toy-review Web site.
Likewise, according to manufacturer MGA Entertainment, at least two of this year’s top-selling toys have already sold out at most outlets before December — despite their stratospheric price tags: the $180 Poopsie Unicorn, which expels glittery slime “poop,” and the $300 Viro Vega electric scooter.
“We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock,” Amazon’s site said of the Viro Vega as of Thursday.
“No retailer will be able to fill the Toys ‘R’ Us void,” MGA Chief Executive Isaac Larian told The Post, adding that fresh supplies of its two hit products won’t hit shelves until next year.
The big problem, according to industry insiders, is that Walmart, Target and Amazon lack both the aisle space and the appetite for risk that would be needed to fill US demand for toys this year.
“When they were placing their orders, they wanted to fill the void left by Toys ‘R’ Us, but they also wanted to make sure they weren’t over ordering,” said Adrienne Appell, a spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association. “Many of them didn’t anticipate that items would go as quickly as they have already.”
TTPM’s Silver had an even more stark analysis in a LinkedIn post last week, say- ing Target and Walmart have neither “the inventory or the logistics to handle the Toys ‘R’ Us volume despite their public statements.”
Walmart didn’t respond to requests for comment. Target, meanwhile, said it expects to catch up with demand, and played down worries about shelves that went bare over Black Friday weekend.
“Going into the season, we increased our inventory in toys by double digits overall,” said a spokesman for Target.
Nevertheless, experts predict shortages will continue.
“You’ve replaced the Toys ‘R’ Us market with retailers that don’t want to have as much shelf space in January,” said Sean McGowan, a toy expert and managing director of consulting firm Liolios.
Worried about looming tariffs on Chinese goods, they also shifted the burden to the toy makers, asking them to hold onto large inventories that weren’t paid for, sources said.
This year, for example, 60 percent of the holiday toys from Basic Fun, which makes Lite Brite and K’nex construction toys, are being stored in its domestic warehouses while the remainder were bought directly from Basic Fun’s factories in China.
Ayear ago, those ratios were reversed, said Chief Executive Jay Foreman.