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1. Toys “R” Us
Aaron James & Amber Alcaraz
International Marketing
Case Study
April 14th
2008

2. Background
• Founded by Charles Lazarus (1948)
– Sold baby furniture at fathers shop and renamed it children’s
• First baby furniture and children toy supermarket (1952)
• Introducing Toys “R” Us (1957)
• 51 locations (1974)
• $ 1 billion dollars (1983)
– Went over!
• 1st
international store in Singapore

3. Grand Opening of TRU Japan
• Tuesday January 6, 1992
• In Kashihara, Naraken, Japan
• President Bush appeared
• 5,000 people and 2,000 policemen

4. Post TRU Japan
• Large customer traffic
-$15 to $20 million compared to U.S.
store bring in about $10 million in sales
• Helped other local business
• Run on push system

5. Opportunities
• Second Largest Toy Market
• Childhood Spending for children is high
• Japanese ready to pay high prices for toys
• Growing rates in toys

6. Bumps along the way
• Big stores law 1974
• 3 year battle to open 1st
store
• Price over quality
• Changing of local toys
• Mom and pop store close
with community
• Smaller stores
• Local Business demand
size reduction
• Individualism vs.
Collectivism
• High Land Prices
• Import costs
• Location problems
• Training challenges
• Japanese Customs
• Negative perceptions of
warehouse labor

7. Decisions Made
• Store within a store
• More Catalogs
-Big toy catalogue
-Videogame and electronic toys
• Joint venture with McDonalds

8. How do they stand now?
• Shoplifting rare
• Introduced discounts
• Gives choice to consumers

9. Has Japan as a market changed?
-There is a better look at larger stores
-Helped Japanese retailers
-More choices in toy shopping

10. Current Issues?
• Large earthquake in 1995
• Negative growth in 2003
-Opened new stores that helped
increase sales
• Gradually becoming accepted by
community

11. Suggested Actions
• More research needed
-Market analysis
• Better integration into community

12. Lessons Learned
• Transition not always easy
• Doing everything the American way
• Cooperation with Japanese customs
• Smaller warehouse
• Direct communication with toy venders

13. Could this have gone better?