One of the hottest products is Tabeo. This is a Toys 'R'Us designed kids tablet.
Even the kids want a tablet?
Even the kids want it. It's android tablet, wifi, the great the thing most kids use it for is playing apps like 'angry birds' or 'cut the rope'. And parents love it because then they don't have to give their kids an iPad and they can play with this or dolls 'Monster High'. It's one of the hottest lines. Lego is doing fantastic. Across the board, it's gotta be the hottest toy brand in the world right now.
These are not inexpensive toys, even that they're sturdier.
If compared by something like this, does that cut down on what else they're able to buy?
Toys 'R'Us is a holiday store. It's a Christmas store. So we are the place that parents typically come or grandparents choose to buy that big gift.
You mentioned discounting. Is that gonna be really important for this Christmas season?
I do believe this year the consumer wants a great deal. And we are going to give it to them. On Black Friday, we have over 200 doll busters. That's up from 150 last year. Our ad is 4 pages longer, full of more and more and more great deals on products. And we are gonna keep ading all day, all weekend, all season. More and more and more great deals. This year we also introduced price match. You know. Because we know consumers care a lot about price. And so, if by any miracle you should find something less expensive while our competitors will match that price too.
How much of the mix is between brick-and-mortar and online now?
Well it's about 90% in the stores and 10% online. But I have to tell you that I believe in the future, we'll see that 100% of our sales will be internet affected. By that I mean the customer does not distinguish any more between their digital world and their physical world. They relate to a great brand like Toys 'R'Us. They wanna do business with Toys 'R'Us. So they might start on their cellphone, for example, to see we have a product, then go to the store and pick that up.
Where is the consumer in terms of their ability to spend? Is it gonna be a better spending season?
We know the economy is a little tough but we are still very optimistic. We've seen that in good times and bad. The last thing parents got back on is that Christmas present for their child and even in debts or a recession. In 2008 or 2009, we still saw growth in our sales of Toys 'R'Us. So we expect that, when Christmas comes, they are gonna wanna buy that great Christmas present for their child.