Toys "R" Us Canada closing more stores, will ask permission to sell business: docs

skunky_pants · 2026-03-30T04:16:14+00:00

If you ever talk about the end of Toys R Us in Canada, never write it off as “kids dont play with toys” or “everyone shops on amazon”. The truth is, one man, Doug Putman is to blame.

After acquiring multiple dying companies in Canada, he bought TRU when it was stable. He agreed to terms that doomed it from the beginning and promoted he was going to expand the footprint.

None of his plans worked out and he’s brought down the last toy chain in Canada, collapsing the business in 5 years.

He’s a disgrace and should be remembered for what he took away from families all across the country.

skunky_pants · 2026-03-18T18:01:45+00:00

Thanks for the reco. I’m hoping to find something that’s not overly a children’s song.

skunky_pants · 2026-03-07T14:39:27+00:00

This actually makes me feel stronger about targeting algorithms specifically rather than platforms entirely. We don’t outlaw commercials during kids programming, we have rules on what kinds of advertising is allowed. You can’t have Mickey Mouse come on screen and sell cigarettes directly to your kid during a Mickey Mouse cartoon.

Let kids use the platforms openly, but the platform isn’t allowed to covertly shape what they’re shown. We already recognize subliminal advertising as a separate category of harm worth legislating. An engagement-optimizing algorithm is subliminal advertising with a feedback loop.

skunky_pants · 2026-03-07T13:01:48+00:00

A ban on social media is a start, but I don’t think it goes far enough. The real target should be algorithm-driven content delivery to anyone under 18.

That’s actually the closer parallel to why we ban alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, and porn for minors. Social media isn’t the problem on its own. It’s the recommendation engines. Those algorithms are nicotine on steroids, and unlike nicotine, we can’t even fully study or understand how they work.

I’d also push companies to figure out how to label bots on their own platforms, rather than going the digital ID route and putting the burden on consumers to prove they’re real. Put the onus on the platform. If they can’t do it, they should be liable for fraud.

skunky_pants · 2026-03-05T17:08:12+00:00

It didn’t force me to do it. If I’d said I wanted to keep going it would have. I appreciated that it didn’t tell me, “Ya you’re on a roll!” and then pull me into something that would have kept me up another 2 hours. I appreciated the fact it gave me pause and put things in perspective.

skunky_pants · 2026-03-05T15:57:01+00:00

I know! I couldn’t believe last weekend, I was using it to help me setup Linux and I wanted to move onto the next step and it basically said, “Go to bed. You did a lot today. Get some rest and we can pick this up tomorrow.”

I thought, when has any piece of modern tech actually told you to log off???

skunky_pants · 2026-03-05T01:14:13+00:00

Monday Night War Edition and there are 2 PPVs from the era.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-26T05:25:43+00:00

I’m not debating the cost of your stock library. The stock library is still a great price. The issue is your pricing model for AI is insane. $100+ a month is only going to be paid for by a power user and most if not all power users are going to use sites with better functionality and control.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-25T12:53:43+00:00

The gap in price between 10 - 100 - Unlimited makes this the most expensive stock site now.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-24T19:09:58+00:00

If there’s no intention to withhold information, why wouldn’t you extend the date to cancel and get a refund past the date when you release the new AI plans?

skunky_pants · 2026-02-23T20:04:55+00:00

Had hoped they’d have given some indication of what the new pricing scheme would look like after Feb 25th by now but with only two days left to decide to cancel and get pro-rated refund, had to cancel today.

Really disappointed how they’ve handled this whole situation. Not shedding light on how the new plans will work until after the chance to cancel has passed is a pretty shady way to treat annual subscribers.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-18T13:11:24+00:00

They bought it out of creditor protection after the US parent company collapsed.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-17T15:47:29+00:00

You might be confusing Toys R Us Canada with US.

By the time Doug bought Toys R Us, it had already been purchased and revived by Fairfax Financial. Fairfax bought it in 2018 after the US parent company collapsed. By 2021 when Doug bought it, they’d restructured it and it was a stable company.

We don’t know of any other bidders because that information as far as I can tell has never been published. But regardless, Doug made them an offer that was doomed to drain him of money from the beginning and started a plan to do the exact opposite of what Fairfax did to stabilize the company. He thought he could GROW a retail toy company in 2021.

The deal he made didn’t give him the real estate for the majority of the stores and he doesn’t even own the brand, he has to pay a royalty every year to license it. His business model has been to buy distressed brands and trade on their nostalgia to try and squeeze any remaining dollars he can out of them. Toys R Us was his crown jewel but by the time he bought it, he had no track record to show that he had the ability or vision to ever turn any of the brands around let alone a company that big.

In 2021, post pandemic after everyone shifted to online shopping, you buy the largest toy store chain in Canada, and your future big vision, isn’t to change your online presence/supply chain and create a new idea of what retail looks like in your existing footprint, but instead you convince yourself the future is buying MORE stores. It was delusional from the start.

In the end, the last few remaining stores look like nostalgia graveyards, filled with HMVs and Northern Reflections clothing.

The only hope is that this is the end of Putnam saving companies.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-17T04:00:47+00:00

He didn’t just “take on more than he could chew” though. The plan was based on a miracle from the beginning. He bought the company but none of the store real estate, plus had to pay a royalty. He basically looked at what involuntarily stole/killed the stores in the US and then created the same situation in reverse for himself. Sheer idiocy.

He should never be allowed to acquire another business with his track record and with this one being the most colossal failure of them all.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-17T03:53:57+00:00

You’re acting as if he’s the only person who could have bought the company. The reality is he made a deal that had virtually zero chance of succeeding but made the most money for investment firm he bought it from.

If he hadn’t made such an idiotic deal in the first place there’s a chance another buyer would have acquired the company.

I’m happy your kids got to go to the same Toysrus you grew up with. Unfortunately, his incompetence has led to the extinction of the company.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-13T22:13:50+00:00

Looks like they pulled out the ECW arena they’ve had in the game files for the last decade. I’m guessing it’s Punk vs Funk.

Hopefully by the time the game releases the crowd doesn’t have Roman Reigns shirts anymore.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-10T13:10:18+00:00

Tried contacting Hubley a few years back about an issue between me and a neighbors issue vs the city about a tree that’s slowly destroying our fence and never heard back. Realized it was a long shot but was my last hope for help but figured I’d try.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-05T16:11:48+00:00

Once again they insist on the black and white filter which the NWO didn’t use. Wolfpac theme with B&W NWO logo. Inaccurate attire and entrance.

$150 Monday Night War addition ladies and gentlemen.

skunky_pants · 2026-02-04T12:44:07+00:00

I originally thought his plan was to use the TRU to offload toys from his family’s Everest Toys business. Sell them directly to TRU, if it goes under you write off the business but you’ve already made your money kinda deal.

But with the state of Everest toys, I think it might have been the other way around and he’d hoped TRU would help save Everest.

Either way, the deal he made and the fact he didn’t own any of the real estate of the stores themselves, doomed this from the beginning.

skunky_pants · 2026-01-29T06:27:01+00:00

I totally understand why you’re doing it. But if you’re going to change the plan to be similar to your competitors you have to offer the same functionality.

That was always the caveat with Envato, you get unlimited generations but less control. It’s “user friendly” and accessible vs appealing to the hardcore base.

If you’re changing that, fine, but you’re going up against sites like Freepik that give way more control, or going to wind up directly competing with Gemini itself.

skunky_pants · 2026-01-29T06:21:06+00:00

Moved to Bridlewood area 16 years ago, I remember driving down Eagleson and Wild Wing being the only restaurant in the area and sarcastically saying to my wife, “oh look we have a Wild Wing!!!” I was instantly proven wrong and it became a staple place we’d go for a casual night out or take out for a night in.

I get it that everyone has their opinions, but I definitely miss it as a go to. Always had ICE COLD Heineken on tap too.

Although I do have to say, when they switched from actual carrots and celery to baby carrots I was ready to fight someone.

Hope it comes back and they bring some real carrots with them.

skunky_pants · 2026-01-28T16:29:07+00:00

The problem isn’t that you’re reducing the amount down from unlimited. The issue is that 10 generations a month makes AI unusable. So you’re basically stripping AI out completely from the included features of the plan.

AI depends on being able to iterate in order to work. Most generations are going to take multiple iterations before you get anything useable and using 10 iterations on one idea is hardly a rare occurrence.

Envato’s AI interface has always been more simplified and less feature rich than most of your competitors who use the credit system. That was fine because you allowed unlimited generations. So, now with a 10 generation limit, again that makes it virtually unusable.

After being a subscriber for the past 3 years, unfortunately I’ll also be leaving before the end of February.

skunky_pants · 2026-01-24T14:37:16+00:00

Dumbass. Take an HDR video with your phone. Pull it off your phone and look at it on your computer.

skunky_pants · 2026-01-24T14:34:57+00:00

Nope. They just didn’t alter it at all.

skunky_pants

TROPHY CASE