Hasbro To Lay Off Almost 20% of its workforce Amid Continued Slumping Toy Sales

On 12/15/2023 at 12:13 AM, Atlantis said:

Yeah I agree, that "inflation" argument is just an excuse. Well were kids ever buying Legends before COVID....I doubt there were significant numbers. Pretty much the people buying then, were the ones buying before. In the past few decades hasbo and others have targeted adults (because what kid or what kid's mom is gonna pony up $20.00 on the regular for these things), and focused on adults' nostalgia so much so that kids just aren't the primary consumer for them. Even the toy reviewer sites blatantly scream "for adults" as a disclaimer. But hasbo doesn't make toys, they leverage toy/ game based IPs. They got the best IPs around. Marvel, Star Wars, GI Joe.....should be a license to print money. But they don't put any care into what they have. At any rate, the poor distribution, bad decisions and over pricing have gotten to where they can't be ignored any longer.

They clearly don't care. Look at the Power Rangers 30th anniversary, Toywise, nothing. There are even rumours that the line is on hiatus/cancelled.

Yeah I agree, that "inflation" argument is just an excuse. Well were kids ever buying Legends before COVID....I doubt there were significant numbers. Pretty much the people buying then, were the ones buying before. In the past few decades hasbo and others have targeted adults (because what kid or what kid's mom is gonna pony up $20.00 on the regular for these things), and focused on adults' nostalgia so much so that kids just aren't the primary consumer for them. Even the toy reviewer sites blatantly scream "for adults" as a disclaimer. But hasbo doesn't make toys, they leverage toy/ game based IPs. They got the best IPs around. Marvel, Star Wars, GI Joe.....should be a license to print money. But they don't put any care into what they have. At any rate, the poor distribution, bad decisions and over pricing have gotten to where they can't be ignored any longer.

The real problem here isn't so much inflation, or kids not playing with toys (that IS a long term factor but not as much in this particular case), or any of that other stuff: It's the nature of corporate culture. Toys BOOMED early in the COVID years because kids were stuck at home and needed distractions. Now the current shareholders are comparing today's sales not to long-term trends, but to the "boom time" during COVID (which has of course fallen off a ton because...kids aren't cooped up at home still). Basically if the number doesn't go up-up-up then the Shareholders are not happy and the CEO has to do things to make them happy (raise profits) if he wants to keep his or her job.

There's no denying that Marvel Legends and Star Wars are struggling though. Their shelf space continues to shrink (half the Targets in my area don't even have dedicated space for Marvel Legends right now). Both properties are long in the tooth, and raising prices are definitely a long-term concern as a LOT of collectors are either getting out of the game entirely or (as in my case) drastically scaling back on what they're getting. In the past year I've pretty much stopped getting Black Series, cut my Marvel Legends buying to maybe a quarter of what it was (which was "near completist"), and the only line I'm currently trying to be anything approaching completist on is GI Joe Classified.

On 12/11/2023 at 3:30 PM, JayC said:

It is being reported that Hasbro is planning on laying off 1100 employees which accounts for almost 20% of it's workforce amid continued slumping toy sales.We anticipated the first three quarters to be challenging, particularly in toys, where the market is coming off historic, pandemic-driven highs, Cocks said. While we have made some important progress across our organization, the headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into Holiday and are likely to persist into 2024.CEO Chris Cocks announced the layoffs in a memo earlier today to it's employees. Some workers will find out if they are laid off this week while the rest will be laid off over the course of the next 6 months.

1100 people lost their jobs due to "slumping sales"....but this guy was compensated more than $9.4 million despite the company reporting a loss for the year. Imagine how the employees who received this memo feel. Particularly the ones getting it this week. Ugh.

On 12/13/2023 at 1:50 PM, tarot said:

dude I have been working in retail for nearly 20 years. I know more about it then some youtuber.

I mean, he's a verifiable former brand manager at Mattel with a 20+ year career working in Toys. I'm going to guess he's got a handle on something as basic as how contracts with big box stores are structured.

dude I have been working in retail for nearly 20 years. I know more about it then some youtuber.

On 12/13/2023 at 12:44 PM, tarot said:

again no they don't. once a store buys it, it's their product, not Hasbro. it's up to the store to take the loss or not. Hasbro only reimburse then when they are sent back, which is essentially buying back the product they sold to the stores. The reason why waves are going to Ollie and the likes is because they sold their remaining bulk to them at a lesser cost.

Not super interested in going back and forth on this, here you go:

On 12/13/2023 at 6:39 PM, RobertD said:

Sorry, I literally reversed what I meant to say. Manufacturers have to reimburse on sales, not clearance.

again no they don't. once a store buys it, it's their product, not Hasbro. it's up to the store to take the loss or not. Hasbro only reimburse then when they are sent back, which is essentially buying back the product they sold to the stores. The reason why waves are going to Ollie and the likes is because they sold their remaining bulk to them at a lesser cost.

On 12/13/2023 at 12:20 PM, tarot said:

no, they don't have to refund it. The only time they must refund it is if they are sent back to the manufacturers, Ie unsold product or defects. It's up to the stores to handle the loss they make. If they continue selling them at less then they cost of the figure, then that really their own fault and really doesn't effect Hasbro in the long run. They reason Hasbro sales are lower is because they aren't selling more to stores in bulk. Less orders from stores means the less Hasbro sells. If a store buys a huge amount of product from Hasbro, it's up to the store to sell it themselves. All Hasbro does is supply it to them.

Sorry, I literally reversed what I meant to say. Manufacturers have to reimburse on sales, not clearance.

On 12/13/2023 at 5:54 PM, RobertD said:

So, that's true for sales, but when items have to get clearanced out, the manufacturer actually does get stung, having to refund the difference.

no, they don't have to refund it. The only time they must refund it is if they are sent back to the manufacturers, Ie unsold product or defects. It's up to the stores to handle the loss they make. If they continue selling them at less then they cost of the figure, then that really their own fault and really doesn't effect Hasbro in the long run. They reason Hasbro sales are lower is because they aren't selling more to stores in bulk. Less orders from stores means the less Hasbro sells. If a store buys a huge amount of product from Hasbro, it's up to the store to sell it themselves. All Hasbro does is supply it to them.