Toys "R" Us Paid Amazon $50 Million a Year. It Was a Trap.

In 2000, America's biggest toy store paid a money-losing online bookshop $50 million a year to be the only toy seller on its website. The bookshop was Amazon. Eighteen years later, every Toys "R" Us store in America was closed and 33,000 people had lost their jobs. This is the real story of how Toys "R" Us invented the giant toy store, how Walmart, Amazon and a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout brought it down, and why the backwards R refuses to stay dead. ⏱ Chapters 00:00 The $50 million deal 01:12 The baby furniture store 03:22 The first near-death 04:29 The king of Christmas 07:01 The Amazon trap 10:03 The debt 12:36 The last Christmas 14:26 Who really killed Toys "R" Us? 15:51 The toy store that won't stay dead 17:50 The lesson 💬 Who really killed Toys "R" Us: Amazon, Walmart, or the debt? #ToysRUs #BusinessHistory #RiseAndFall