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The impact of Toys 'R' Us closures in the metro

Posted at 9:59 PM, Mar 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-15 23:39:29-04

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Toys “R” Us announced on Thursday that stores all across the country will close, including those here in the metro.

The announcement will also impact distribution centers like the one in Lee’s Summit, where around 300 jobs will be lost.

After the report on Thursday, former employee Marie Detlefsen said she could only think about the friends she knew who still worked at the distribution center.

“That hurts. It really does,” she explained. “That really was a lot of people’s futures. A lot of people had been there 20 plus years.”

Detlefsen worked in the receiving department at the Lee’s Summit distribution center starting in September of 2016.

As someone who unloaded trailers and helped fill orders, she said she saw business decline before she left the job last summer.

“We saw a lot of decrease in quantity of items coming in. They just kept shrinking more and more,” she explained. “There were times that we wouldn’t even have work in receiving because we had no trailers or anything coming in.” 

The company said the closure decision came as a result of poor sales and a slow holiday season this past year.

For years, Toys “R” Us was suffering through massive debt and increasing competition from companies like Walmart and Amazon.

Detlefsen told 41 Action News that fellow employees sensed change could be coming as a result of the company’s struggles.

“We started seeing the change in the distribution center,” she explained. “Managers got moved around and office staff would disappear.”

Aside from the job loss, the closure now means the distribution center off Highway 291 will sit empty.

City Councilwoman Diane Forte said leaders would now focus on finding a new tenant.

“There are companies that are looking for stand-alone buildings and even though it’s a distribution center, maybe they can put something in,” she explained. “My best hope is for the families to find jobs and for the city to put someone else in there.”

In total, over 700 Toys “R” Us stores will close and around 33,000 jobs will be impacted across the country.