Feb 8, 2020 - Economy

The great American toy slump

Erica Pandey

A pile of plush toys — Photo: Axel Heimken/picture alliance/Getty Images

Americans are buying fewer toys in the post-Toys "R" Us era.

The big picture: As we've reported, the demise of the toy giant kicked off a war among U.S. retail titans Amazon, Target and Walmart to vacuum up its toy sales. But the end of Toys "R" Us dealt the multibillion-dollar American toy market a blow that it still hasn't recovered from.

Target and Walmart both added floor space for toys. And Target partnered with Disney to sell exclusive products in its stores.
Amazon attempted to dominate the online sale of toys. Its products topped 95% of online search results for toys in 2019, according to the research firm Gartner L2.

But all that wasn't enough to revive the toy market.

Toy sales fell 4% between 2018 and 2019, according to research from the NPD Group, cited by Retail Dive.
American retailers also sold fewer toys during the 2019 holiday season. That might be partially explained by the fact that last year's peak holiday shopping season — the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas — was unusually short, per NPD.

The bottom line: The American toy industry is likely to eventually bounce back, but it's a testament to the ubiquitousness of Toys "R" Us that it has temporarily dragged down the entire market.

Go deeper: The Toys "R" Us blame game

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The great American toy slump

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