The most famous toy store in the U.S. will be closing on July 15 (USA Today). They can’t justify the rent on Fifth Avenue now that everything in New York is gold-plated. I’m wondering if this also shows the dominance of electronic games. A $1500 stuffed giraffe is great but do kids value it as much as $100 of apps?
What do readers think? Is there is a long-term downward trend for non-electronic physical toys?
[Separately I wonder what New York is going to look like going forward. Any part of the city exposed to the market economy seems to trend toward high-end stuff that is not useful for day-to-day living. Yet the government is passionate about “affordable housing” and the lucky few (55 out of 88,000 in this example) end up with an apartment worth perhaps $5 million that they can occupy for life, but not sell. So they can’t take the $5 million and move to the Midwest (or Mexico?) and enjoy being rich. Instead they will stay in Manhattan, have a job at Starbucks, and have to order everything from Amazon because the local retailers sell only furs and diamonds.]
What’s the downside to ordering from Amazon? Do you need to squeeze the Charmin before you buy it? More than the one time to make your brand selection, I mean?
It’s not limited to the high end of the market. Toys R Us is struggling. I suspect Target/Wal-mart in retail and Amazon online have done more to gut toy retailers than anything else. I don’t think toys themselves are going out, if the prodigious amount of clutter my toddler has accumulated in gifts is any indication.
Re: NYC, some of it is being driven up by russian and chinese buyers who are not very price sensitive. Local real estate agents say that there is a lot of demand in the higher tiers of the market and that these are all cash deals.
Good recent article showing a wide mix of often shady foreigners cashing in for NYC real estate:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/nyregion/stream-of-foreign-wealth-flows-to-time-warner-condos.html
re NYC real estate – the National Assoc. of Realtors was able to convince Congress to give them an exemption from the “anti money laundering” provisions that apply to other financial transactions involving foreign money. That is why they are all-cash deals – it is a way of parking money (maybe shady, maybe not) from overseas. I understand that you create an LLC, which owns the property – then, you can sell the LLC to the new buyer in the future, which transfers ownership of the property without having to disclose anything.