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What Happened to Toys R Us?

A few weeks ago, Toys R Us™, the largest toy store retailer in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. To start, here are the implications of the news:

 

  • Toys R Us employs nearly 64,000 employees in 1,600 stores worldwide.
  • It comes just a few months before the big holiday season.
  • The company went private in 2005 and has $5 billion in long-term debt, $1.7 billion of which is due in 2019.

 

To make sense of this type of news from the business world, I often try to make connections to the education world, of which I know a lot more. In this case, the connection was as clear as day for me. Toys R Us did not innovate and, as a result, got eaten up by the competition. Period.

 

I have two young sons at home and have been in the baby and toy marketspace for the last five years, between needing both Babies R Us™ and Toys R Us™ products. Notice I did not say that I had been inside the stores over the past five years – I’ve been in there marketspace. I have purchased the majority of items I would need from these types of stores online and had them delivered to my front porch, all within 24 hours. The few times I have been inside the stores when my wife and I were in a pinch, I noticed they look the exact same as I remember them as a child. Different sections for different products, “boy” aisles and “girl” aisles, cashier stations up front, etc. I can only ascertain that a lack of innovation and formidable, online competition has led to this harsh reality for Toys R Us.

 

On the contrary, consider what restaurants such as Starbucks, Panera Bread, McDonald’s, and Domino’s have done to innovate. In fact, Domino’s has an entire advertising campaign dedicated to this concept. In addition to space upgrades from within these stores, I can now order my food and coffee from my phone and have it waiting for me when I arrive to get it – a great benefit with two young kids who don’t always have the patience to “wait” for their food. If I don’t have the opportunity to pre order on my phone, I can also, like the airline industry, take care of all my needs from touch screens inside the restaurants. These industries are changing to meet the needs of their current customers. These businesses have adapted. Toys R Us, in my opinion, did not.

 

Let’s pretend for a moment that Toys R Us™ jumped on the STEM, SMART Lab, and Makerspace bandwagon. What if they had slime stations in their stores, for example, where kids could have played and created? What if they had circuitry stations, where kids got to think critically and problem solve, and also learn the important concept that when you “F-A-I-L,” it is actually a First Attempt In Learning? What if they had other interactive areas where kids played and engaged with really fun and awesome new toys that could’ve subsequently acted as market research stations for kids to give feedback on the products? Nonetheless, the stores remained the same and appeared to have missed an opportunity to draw customers into their stores. Add to this reality that online shopping is often times cheaper and always more convenient, Toys R Us not innovating allowed the industry to pass them by rather quickly.

 

The Connection to Schools

One of the more fun parts of my job as principal is to support teachers’ desire to be innovative – which is, as George Couros says, the ability to do something differently, and better. We all know teaching needs to change to meet the demands of the 2017 learner. Daniel Pink sums up this concept perfectly by suggesting that “We need to prepare kids for their future, not our past.” And, the simple fact that teachers are no longer the only source of information warrants serious change. We’ve known this for years.  

 

The staff at Walden has taken tremendous leaps toward innovating their learning environments and I couldn’t be prouder to be the principal with such outstanding educators. Over the past three years alone, we have:

 

  • new furniture in all our learning spaces, every aspect of which had student learning in mind (white board table tops, collaborative work spaces on wheels for flexibility within the classroom, comfortable seating options, etc).
  • all K-2 students with 1:1 iPads and all 3-5 students with 1:1 chromebooks, all of which allows for increased levels of engagement and an individualized approach to meeting the needs of each child.
  • iPad Pros in every staff member’s hands, which can be airplayed (displayed) on high lumens projectors and whiteboards, so the “front of the classroom” ceases to exist.
  • a top of the line SMART Lab and an incredible makerspace in our library where we get to explicitly teach our students, as young as 5 years old, how to work collaboratively, how to communicate, how to be creative, think critically, and problem solve.
  • teachers who feel comfortable taking risks and understanding the importance of preparing our kids for their future.
  • students who are ready and willing to accept our culture of high expectations, take risks, and even teach us a thing or two!

The Consequences

As a result of filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Toys R Us says they will be restructuring their stores, not closing them. However, the consequence of not innovating could be serious – most significant is the potential loss of jobs for 64,000 employees. Consider what happened to Blockbuster when Netflix came along. Nonetheless, this leads me to think about the consequences for schools not innovating, and makes the case that it is more important than ever to commit ourselves to thinking and rethinking (and rethinking again) of the best ways to meet the needs of our current students. To name a few, it’s possible that students will be ill-prepared to meet the demands of college and/or their demanding careers, students will continue to “play school” but won’t have an original thought of their own, when running into the tiniest of setbacks, the students won’t have the strategies to problem solve. One could argue that these are far more dire than the consequences of Toys R Us struggling to keep sales up.  John Dewey said in 1915, “If we teach today’s students like we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” Anyone in a position to lead the learning process for children – I beg you – please continue to do things differently and better, innovate, for our children’s sake and the sake of all our future!

Published inOur ClassroomsOur StudentsSchool Community

10 Comments

  1. Amy Karasick

    Great post. Your analogy is spot on, I never thought about it like that. If I can do something online these days it makes a busy life easier. When my boys were young I remember the first holiday season I bought everything online, what a revelation! But this comes with a human price….makes me think. Thank you.

    • scaschwa

      Thanks, Amy! We are so far ahead in this regard…I’m proud to serve with you (from across Deerfield Rd – ha).

  2. Mike Lubelfeld

    Brilliant reflections from a brilliant and accomplished leader. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Scott, and more importantly, thank you for leading on behalf of so many students and staff.

    • scaschwa

      Thank you, Mike! Much appreciated!

  3. Sheryl Dorfman

    Enjoyed reading your article immensely! I feel that Walden School provides each student at every level—creative and motivational environments! Education has changed for the better and Walden appears to be at the forefront! Thrilled my grandsons are at Walden!

    • scaschwa

      Thank you, Sheryl, for your kind words! I couldn’t agree more with you that education has changed for the better and that Walden is at the forefront – it’s an amazing place to learn and grow!

  4. Brian Bullis

    Nailed it! Great reflection and parallel to education, Dr. Schwartz!

    • scaschwa

      Much appreciated, Brian!

  5. Judy

    Fantastic perspective. Proud to be a parent at Walden and a part of DPS109!

    • scaschwa

      Thanks, Judy!

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