The Rise And Fall Of Toys R Us

The toy story that started nearly a century ago is coming to an end.
这个始于近一个世纪前的玩具故事即将走向终结。

Charles P. Lazarus, the son of a bicycle shop owner, was only 25 when he opened a baby furniture store, Children's Bargain Town in Washington D.C.
查尔斯·P·拉扎勒斯，一位自行车店老板的儿子，年仅25岁时在华盛顿特区开了一家婴儿家具店——“儿童特价城”。

Two years later, he expanded into toys, laying the groundwork for what would become Toys 'R' Us.
两年后，他将业务扩展到玩具领域，为日后的玩具反斗城（Toys 'R' Us）奠定了基础。

Echoing childlike script, Lazarus reversed the R, and the store became a sensation.
拉扎勒斯模仿儿童手写体，将“R”反写，这家店随即引起轰动。

In 1978, it would begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange as a public company.
1978年，它作为一家上市公司在纽约证券交易所开始交易。

It was the go-to toy emporium.
它曾是首选的玩具商城。

Competitors like Kiddie City and Child World went out of business.
像Kiddie City和Child World这样的竞争对手都倒闭了。

In those glory days, there was no reason to do anything other than expand.
在那些辉煌的日子里，除了扩张，别无他选。

Sometimes they ask me how did you ever get to be that big? And I said, well, one day I decided to open the second store.
有时他们问我，你是怎么做到这么大的？我说，嗯，有一天我决定开第二家店。

And after that, it seemed to get easier.
在那之后，事情似乎变得更容易了。

Toys 'R' Us ramped up its store footprint, bringing shelves and shelves of toys to children nationwide.
玩具反斗城迅速扩大其门店版图，将一排排的玩具带给全国各地的孩子们。

But years of being the biggest name in town left it cavalier about managing its store base, pruning stores that weren't making money and putting resources towards those that were.
但是，多年来作为业内巨头的地位使其在管理门店基础方面变得漫不经心，削减不盈利的店铺，并将资源投向那些盈利的店铺。

It was unprepared for what no one saw coming.
它对一个无人预见的未来毫无准备。

The dot-com era and the rise of the big-box store.
那就是互联网时代和大型仓储式商店的崛起。

eToys, the internet toy startup, came seemingly out of nowhere.
互联网玩具初创公司eToys似乎凭空出现。

But it was a powerhouse.
但它实力强大。

In need of a quick internet strategy, Toys 'R' Us signed on to an expensive partnership with Amazon in 2000.
为了快速制定互联网战略，玩具反斗城在2000年与亚马逊签订了一项昂贵的合作协议。

The deal, one of the first of its kind, gave Amazon the exclusive rights to sell Toys 'R' Us products on its website.
这项协议是同类协议中最早的一批，它授予亚马逊在其网站上独家销售玩具反斗城产品的权利。

But the pretty penny Toys 'R' Us paid for the deal had some strings attached.
但玩具反斗城为这笔交易支付的巨款附带了一些条件。

Amazon soon began selling third-party items in direct competition with Toys 'R' Us.
亚马逊很快开始销售第三方商品，与玩具反斗城直接竞争。

Toys paid for exclusivity it didn't get.
玩具反斗城为一项并未得到的独家经营权付了钱。

Toys 'R' Us took Amazon to court to get out of the contract.
玩具反斗城将亚马逊告上法庭，希望解除合同。

But legal tussles set them back financially and left them even farther behind on their e-commerce efforts.
但法律纠纷使其在财务上遭受重创，并让其在电子商务方面的努力更加落后。

Then came the discount chains.
接着，折扣连锁店出现了。

Walmart, Target and Kmart began selling toys, using childish delights as a loss leader to bring shoppers into their stores, undercutting Toys 'R' Us on price.
沃尔玛、塔吉特和凯马特开始销售玩具，利用儿童喜爱的商品作为亏本促销品来吸引顾客进店，在价格上对玩具反斗城进行压制。

Toys 'R' Us stock swooned.
玩具反斗城的股价暴跌。

It was forced to review its strategic options, which, in Wall Street speak, is a for-sale sign.
它被迫重新审视其战略选择，用华尔街的话说，这就是一个“待售”信号。

A troubled retailer in the mid-2000s was no problem for a private equity firm. In fact, it was bait.
在2000年代中期，一家陷入困境的零售商对于私募股权公司来说不是问题。事实上，它是个诱饵。

Financial investors were diving into the industry, buoyed by a combination of low interest rates, recognizable names, and the view that a retailer's steady cash flow would continue forever.
金融投资者正涌入该行业，受到低利率、知名品牌以及零售商稳定现金流将永远持续的看法的鼓舞。

The buyers for Toys 'R' Us were a trio of investors, KKR, Bain and Vornado, which paid 6.6 billion for the store in 2005.
玩具反斗城的买家是由KKR、贝恩资本和Vornado三家投资者组成的财团，他们在2005年以66亿美元收购了这家公司。

The hope was to revive the company and take it public, using those proceeds to finally pay down the debt they'd slashed on it.
他们的希望是重振公司并将其上市，利用所得收益来最终偿还他们强加给公司的债务。

But neither of those goals would come to be.
但这两个目标都未能实现。

Debt payments made further investment impossible, and competitors once again began moving in.
债务偿还使得进一步的投资变得不可能，竞争对手再次开始蚕食市场。

This time on Toys 'R' Us' strong baby business, Babies 'R' Us.
这次是针对玩具反斗城强大的婴儿业务——“宝宝反斗城”。

Newly launched diapers.com drained market share from the company.
新成立的diapers.com从公司手中夺走了市场份额。

Bed Bath & Beyond launched Buy Buy Baby, investing money that Toys 'R' Us didn't have into nicer and more modern stores.
Bed Bath & Beyond 推出了 Buy Buy Baby，投入了玩具反斗城所没有的资金，打造了更漂亮、更现代化的商店。

All the while, the toy industry was contracting.
与此同时，玩具行业正在萎缩。

By the early 2000s, children who always wanted toys were switching to computers, video games and tablets.
到2000年代初，曾经总是想要玩具的孩子们转向了电脑、视频游戏和平板电脑。

From 2012 to 2017, the toy industry declined annually at a rate of 3.1 percent.
从2012年到2017年，玩具行业以每年3.1%的速度下滑。

There was trouble behind the scenes as well.
幕后也出现了问题。

And amid the business's struggles, ultimately, it missed its chance to go public.
在业务挣扎中，它最终错过了上市的机会。

The retailer stayed private and its business dwindled.
这家零售商保持私有化，其业务不断萎缩。

By 2017, it was worried it would not be able to make its debt payments.
到2017年，它担心自己将无法偿还债务。

It hired restructuring advisers who began to craft plans for a pre-packaged bankruptcy for after the holiday season.
它聘请了重组顾问，开始为节后制定预打包的破产计划。

But in September, CNBC caught wind of the effort.
但在9月，CNBC得知了这一努力。

Toys 'R' Us isn't alone in its struggles. In fact, it joins other major retailers Payless and Radio Shack in filing for bankruptcy in 2017.
玩具反斗城并非唯一挣扎的公司。事实上，它和Payless、Radio Shack等其他主要零售商一样，在2017年申请了破产。

Toy makers were stunned.
玩具制造商们惊呆了。

Within a week of the article's publication, nearly 40% of its vendors refused to ship product without cash on delivery, fearful they would otherwise not be paid.
在文章发表后的一周内，近40%的供应商拒绝在没有货到付款的情况下发货，担心他们可能收不到钱。

It was a run on the bank.
这是一场银行挤兑。

The company tumbled into bankruptcy, forced to file without a plan to emerge.
该公司陷入破产，被迫在没有脱困计划的情况下提交申请。

It told the court, its vendors and its shoppers that under bankruptcy protection it could finally make the changes it needed to compete.
它告诉法庭、供应商和顾客，在破产保护下，它最终可以做出竞争所需的改变。

Toys 'R' Us's competitors, smelling blood in the water, slashed their prices, their final attack against the legendary retailer.
玩具反斗城的竞争对手嗅到了血腥味，纷纷降价，对这家传奇零售商发起了最后的攻击。

The crucial holiday season was dismal, and it would not be enough to keep it afloat.
关键的假日季销售惨淡，不足以让公司维持下去。

The weeks that followed included intense negotiations, but the conclusion soon became evident.
接下来的几周进行了紧张的谈判，但结论很快就明朗了。

Toys 'R' Us would need to liquidate, and it would shutter its roughly 800 stores across the U.S.
玩具反斗城将需要进行清算，它将关闭在美国的大约800家门店。

Its liquidation is expected to devastate the toy industry.
它的清算预计将对玩具行业造成毁灭性打击。