A Prime Example Of Rad Parenting

And yet, you don't see yourself as being a hypocrite for demanding the same thing to a totally different type or product?

We could go at each other about the differences between dolls and video games until we are blue in the face, and still get nowhere.

But the point is, she acted on her feelings and complaints, and Toys R Us listened to her and the almost 10k people who agree with her and voiced their opinions.

I'm sorry that you can't get your toys from Toys R Us anymore, I'm sure that will completely destroy your life and everyone's lives around you, but personally, I think you should grow a pair and either take action or shut the *** up about it.

I'm sorry that you think that way. I'm sure that anyone who doesn't automatically agree with you, in your opinion, is a "backwards-thinking idiot." That's the only argument people like you have, the type of people who are absolute in their thinking and *** you if you think otherwise.

You've met most residents of Florida? Texas? Cmon, I make Mississippi jokes as much as the next carpetbagging Northerner but I don't *really* think everyone down there is banging their kin and burning crosses on a weekly basis. Put down the Honey Boo Boo man...

Again, shes entitled to do nothing other than voice her complaints about BB to TRU. If you want to take up crusade against all naughty toys then your sword/shield awaits and may the God of political correctness be with you.

I can't believe you're still on the "if you don't like X, you can't like Y." Among several intrinsic differences, the last time I checked, a copy of GTA XVIII didn't do a lot of damage without a console to play it on...

Anyone can like or dislike anything without justification. This was never a matter of "logic" or "reason." She didn't offer statistics to be considered, cite studies that supported her claim, or ask for experts opinion on the matter.

She didn't like it and enough people agreed that TRU felt inclined to oblige.

And your opinion that it's stupid is equally compelling, or feeble, as it doesn't offer anything either!

I'm pretty conflicted on this subject, honestly. I value the power of the people to influence the market by expressing their dis/approval with commerce. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about people influencing the market through public shaming and sensationalizing. Sure, Breaking Bad characters aren't role models, but it is a pretty powerful commentary on sacrifice and motivations. I can't say I wouldn't want my kids exposed to it as I don't believe that sheltering kids from the real world is productive, but I also don't believe that I am an arbiter of what others should teach their kids.

Bottom line is that TRU is in business to make money, and a good chunk of their mission and business revolves around providing "toys" for kids AND their parents. Toys aren't some appliance to occupy your kids so you can spend all day on Facebook, they are a tool to engage your kids imagination and curiosity. If a product doesn't fill that niche for you, don't buy it, but you don't have the right to deny those tools to others. These figures weren't sold right next to G.I.Joe and Barbie, they were in a collectors section and targeted at adults.

TL;DR - Make your opinion known with your dollars, don't impose your views on the company of their other customers.

To be honest, I think Toys R Us were going to pull them from the shelves anyway, as I honestly don't see a big market for "adult-themed dolls" outside your general porn shop. And obviously Toys R Us aren't going to sell items from those type of stores.

These toys are only sold in select locations where there is an adult-themed section, and not exactly expansive in those stores either (1 row at most, maybe even only a half of a row, who knows?). The point being, they aren't what they sell. So these types of toys aren't big money-makers to begin with.

They may have been planning on discontinuing those toys, it just coincided with this petition.

The counter-petition going on, I highly doubt that even 10% of the signers would actually shop for those items in Toys R Us anyway.

It's a small market and probably an attempt to diversify on part of TRU. If it's going to create this much grief though, it's probably best to just claw it back or relegate those purchases to an online section on their website.

Adult themed dolls? I didn't know TRU sold inflatable partners...

TRU does a lot of their business online, which is more and more common for brick and mortar stores. Their adult targeted products are much more commonly sold through their online store. I can see pulling them from the shelves, but not discontinuing them, there's virtually no overhead cost for offering them online, as they only need to be purchased on an order basis, and can even be sold as a market sale and drop shipped. Even if they sold only a couple dozen a year, there is basically no cost involved in offering them that way. So, the idea that they could have been ready to pull them either way is flawed, there would be literally no reason outside of this public spectacle for them to discontinue them online.

It's the fruitcakes like this woman that shop at TRU, not the freedom loving petition signers, TRU made a business decision, plain and simple.


Search for "breaking bad" at TRU online store. As you can see, they've pulled them completely from their online store as well. As an aside, I think it's hilarious that they pulled those figures but continue to sell the Big Lebowski.

Right, they got rid of the problem as PR/Business stunt not because they actually care about this ladies problem with drug dealer toys.

I wouldn't be surprise if you can buy your Heisenberg toys on the TRU site months after this fades out.

I honestly hope so, my cousin just bought a set of them on Ebay for 40 bucks a piece like a moron. If I were in the business of exploiting dumbasses, I'd buy a bunch of something borderline controversial, make a big deal about how it's bad and the store should be ashamed, wait for them to pull the product and draw attention to the product, then sell them on Ebay once there is a bunch of interest.

I want to point out that you took my cousin and my assessment of them doing something stupid and assumed that my cousin is female... My cousin is a man, a nearly 40 year old man with 5 kids.

Also, I wasn't aware they had pulled them from their online store until he questioned it and I went looking for it. Your disdain for everyone is pretty obvious and is really starting to get on my nerves.

What does this have to do with freedom loving? The signatures on the opposing side didn't even start to soar until pnikman linked his twitter followers to the petition.

Toys R Us is free to do whatever they want in this instance... They dod not have to bow to pressure and take the product off the shelves buth physical and virtual ones... People are free to speak their minds and this store was free to make the decision to sell or not sell this product... The mother was free to make the petition just as the others were free to make an opposing petition...

The only ones that are opposing freedoms are the ones you refer to as "freedom loving petition signers" as they want to limit the freedoms of the people that maed and signed the opposing petition.

What would FFXIAH be without a handful of perpetual malcontents?

They got rid of it because it's a PR nightmare that was garnering national attention. The story was picked up by national media outlets and being televised and reported nationwide.

I very much doubt that they will seel the toys online months later when the controversy dies down.

I guess I should have been more clear in the sarcasm intended. It was meant to be facetious.

should grocery stores sell condoms?

It's common business practices for a retail store (i.e. Toys R Us) to purchase a large number of products (i.e. these Breaking Bad toys) from the manufacturer (i.e. Mattel) and claim ownership of said products and store them (i.e. warehouse) until a need to display and/or ship them arises.

Most contracts also include a buy-back of unused/obsolete inventory for said products, which I'm pretty sure Toys R Us and Mattel have.

While warehousing costs can be minimal, keeping those toys for extended periods of time isn't cheap. It's called opportunity cost and I'm sure if you had any sort of post-secondary education, you would have known that. Heck, you would have known about this business practice. Which obviously you don't, but that's a different argument.

Either way, Toys R Us responded and took care of the issue to keep it's image from being tarnished further. If people really gripe about the other products that is intended for older customers, then they will just scrap the entire section and only sell products geared for those under 17 years old.

It might be fairly profitable for you the first time if you could find something that would work and then get enough attention for that. You might run into trouble when your name starts continually coming up as a crusader for whatever then someone finds out you're using it to buy stuff up low and sell high lol..

People regularly buy stuff out and resell at higher prices though... concerts being one of the main events that I see that happen.

A boring website.

Take them off the shelves, and you will have people saying that grocery chains have their "war on women" going on.

I'm not talking about warehousing or inventory costs, the manufacturer or a middle man will stock the items, all TRU (in this instance) does is negotiate a per unit price and foot the cost of marketing and facilitating the sales. Someone buys the item from TRU, TRU forwards the order to the actual retailer, the retailer ships the item in a TRU box, TRU keeps a slice of the profit. That's a more and more common means of e-commerce than people realize. Most retail sites don't even acknowledge that they never technically stock the product unless there is a backorder or for warranty/return policies. The idea of warehousing and buyback contracts is pretty outdated for e-commerce, there is little to no reason to stock an item as you don't need to display it in a store, and the customer doesn't care who is stocking and shipping the item, so long as the price is right and it gets there quick.

I wasn't referring to either petition specifically, I was referring to people who think they have the right to determine what's right for others. People signing both petitions are doing the same thing from different angles. A true "freedom lover" would express their opinion by buying or not buying the product and letting the store figure out what people want based on sales.

How about you demanding that Toys R Us put that product back on the shelf? Isn't that like you are imposing your viewpoints without letting Toys R Us decide what it can or will not sell?

Toys R Us decided to take it off the shelf, not any one person. They were following a suggestion from a woman in Florida who pointed out how inappropriate that product is in their stores.

Now you are demanding that they put the product back on their shelves or they will lose your already minimal business there, if any.

Can you now see how similar you are on the one you are bitching about?

Again... there is no slippery slope here... Stuff like this happens all the time and some is reported locally or not at all... Walgreens is currently deciding on whether they will continue to sell cigarettes at their stores due to the heat they've taken because they run a pharmacy/health clinic as well as sell products that are supposed to help you quit smoking but you get to the register and there they are...

People have been vocing concerns about a lot of products at a lot of stores for many different reasons...

If you think you've made a point by telling someone that they sell condoms at a store then you'd be wrong...

She did not force anyone to do anything. She did not take anyone's freedoms away from them. She did not create a slippery slope.

The individuals and the masses opinions don't matter lol... in the end it's a business decision made by the business.

How a very simplistic and incorrect viewpoint of both online and offline commerce there is.

There are contracts involved with selling products either online or in physical locations, both of which involves negotiations and set terms agreed on by both sides. Toys R Us takes possession of the products and stores it either in warehouses or on shelves for the consumer, either physical or online, to purchase. Once the purchase is made by Toys R Us, they own the product until it is either sold or repurchased by the manufacturer. If what you say is true, then there wouldn't be any merchandise inventory, or warehousing costs, as it is stated on their 10-K. They would never have ownership of the product and would not have any of those assets or expenses on their books.

If you have no or limited physical presence, that may be true, depending on the size of the business. However, you fail to realize that Toys R Us has physical presence in most, if not all, of the US.

Seriously, you need to stop pretending you know business practices, it's embarrassing.

If you claim that she is demanding that toy to be removed, then you also must conclude that you yourself are demanding that the toy to be put back on the shelf. That's your entire argument.

She did not demand that Toys R Us to remove that product, she provided them a petition and Toys R Us decided to act on it. Your demands to put it back on the shelf is essentially the same thing she did, except you aren't acting by petition but demanding that they put it back on the shelf.

If this is bothering you too much, then don't ever shop at Toys R Us ever again. Simple as that.