Amazon may take over abandoned Toys R Us stores

Friday, March 23, 2018 - 08:47 by Simon Crisp

The failure of Toys R Us could be a big win for e-commerce giant, Amazon, as it is allegedly looking into the idea of snapping up hundreds of retail sites currently occupied by the embattled brand.

The Telegraph reports that this takeover would not see Toys R Us saved from extinction as an outlet, but would instead allow Amazon to make a major impact on the world of bricks and mortar retail.

The company has yet to confirm or deny the rumours, but if true, it could signal the end of its existence as an online-only operator.

Of course, there are already a handful of real world book stores operated by Amazon in the US and it snapped up the chain Whole Foods last year, giving it a significant footprint in an instant.

In the UK, most consumers know Amazon as the largest site to offer safe shopping online. It is unclear whether British stores used by Toys R Us would be impacted in this deal, but it seems unlikely for the time being.

This week also saw Amazon rise above Google parent firm, Alphabet, to become the second most valuable business in the world. Only Apple is worth more at the moment, while the data scandal impacting Facebook has resulted in quite a bit of reshuffling at the top.

Strong sales growth, solid revenue streams and new product innovations have helped Amazon to remain buoyant at a time when the retail market is not at its most stable. As people move to safe shopping online, its decision to make bricks and mortar investment may seem strange, but it is clearly bent on total dominance of this sector, which cannot be achieved through the operation of e-commerce sites on their own.