Dave, you've been in the CEO job at Toys " R" Us for a year now, so what's at the top of your to- do list now? Well, one of the things that's really important for us is that we're in the process of transitioning from a legacy digital platform to we're building our own. And that transition will take place during the first quarter of next year. And that's a big project because In today's world our webstore is going to be the biggest store in our chain. We have some really big profitable stores, but the webstore is right now a 1. 4 billion dollar enterprise for us, and it's going to get nothing but larger .>> Everybody talks in the retail business about bricks as versus clicks; you have something like 2, 000 stores all around... Of the world. Are you gonna keep them? Or are you gonna take a bold step and just go strictly online? No. It's really interesting. We've found, because we have closed down some stores over the last few years, and we find a direct correlation when we close down a store, a physical bricks and mortar store, we see a negative A trend established very quickly and our digital customers, the two work hand in glove. The customer likes the safety net of having a store down the road that they can go interact with, take things back, try things out, they may want to order online, but they really feel that local store is a safety net, and if it's not there. Not only do you lose the brand presence as being part of the community, but you really lose some of the confidence that you get by being able to provide that customer with either channel. So what is your vision for Toys R Us? This iconic company. What do you want people to say about your company two years from now? We want to be a great speciality retail. Company. We want our aspiration, we talk about relentlessly striving to be the best toy and baby retailer in the world. We want to be that specialty retailer where you can come in the door, touch it, feel it, try it out, get the reaction of your son or your daughter, and make that purchase based on a more considerate judgement than you're going to be able to make if you're just looking at a computer screen. Just about every big company CEO I talk to these days are doing things so that they will be lean, agile, fast moving company, like a startup. Is this the same kinda conversation that's going on inside Toys'R'Us. And if so, what are you doing about that? Yeah, you bet, because the consumer is behaving differently. And we've got all these bricks and mortar stores. So for instance, one of the ways we take that and turn it into an advantage is, we ship from store. Because now we can ship a lot quicker and a lot cheaper from the back room of a store in your community than shipping it from some central fulfillment. In some cases, the physical layout of the stores are gonna change. [ UNKNOWN ] because the front door becomes the traditional retail selling space area but the back door becomes just as importance because you're shipping your online orders out the back of that store. Those are all dynamics that are changing as the consumer changes and we have to change with it. And you have to deal with a giant competitor like Amazon where it's so fast and easy and cheap To buy things online, whether it's toys or electronics. We're up against some of the most formidable well financed, well resourced corporations in the world, with Walmart, and Target on the bricks and mortar side, and then certainly Amazon. But that puts pressure on us to be who we are. Our end to take advantage of the things that we can do that they can't do. But it must be so frustrating to compete against a company like Amazon that is constantly coming up with some new tech innovation, and it is like the go to source for so many people. Sure. And Amazon is gonna be a formidable player, and they're gonna build lots of distribution centers, and they're building their transportation capability. And they've got amazing algorithms, and they can change prices 88 times a day. But they've been doing that for a number of years now, and we're still a $ 12 billion company. And we're still expanding around the world, and we've still got very loyal customers. So we don't live in fear, of those guys. We know who we are and what we're good at and that's what were gonna stick to. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Toys ‘R’ Us Isn’t Afraid of Amazon