February 26, 2019 | By: Michael Stone, Chairman & Co-founder, Beanstalk
It looks like Toys "R" Us is rising from the dead already, as many speculated would happen. Rebranding as Tru Kids Brands, the investors who currently own TRU are weighing the possibility of opening freestanding stores and smaller shops within larger stores, with the goal of relaunching the brand by the holiday season of 2019.
Read MoreJanuary 31, 2019 | By: Michael Stone, Chairman and Co-founder of Beanstalk
FAO Schwarz, the iconic toy retailer, closed its last store, the New York City Fifth Avenue flagship, in 2015. Dead and gone? Not quite. The buyer of the FAO intellectual property (purchased in 2016), ThreeSixtyGroup, opened a new flagship in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza on Nov. 16, 2018 to much fanfare. Will this brand revival succeed?
Read MoreNovember 12, 2018 | By: Michael Stone, Co-founder and Chairman, Beanstalk
FAO Schwarz is re-opening in mid-November. It sure is interesting observing the toy category these days. Toy sales are robust (although slightly down from last year), an iconic retailer liquidated, retail brands are rising from the dead, new retail formats are being tested, online and offline sales are blurring, and there’s disruption everywhere in the category. It’s been a while since I had so much fun with toys!
Read MoreJuly 31, 2018 | By: Michael Stone, Co-founder and Chairman, Beanstalk
William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” We think that we are living in a unique age of retail change and, surely, we are witnessing great and accelerating change in how, where and when we buy goods. But sometimes, a strategy that we thought was old and tired, actually becomes new again.
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