Star Wars (Hasbro) Hit with more somber news...

[Lee in MI]

Hasbro Inc is cutting about 170 jobs as the second-largest U.S. toy company tries to recover from sluggish sales during the holiday season.Most of the jobs are in the United States and Canada, company spokesman Wayne Charness said, including “about 55″ in Rhode Island where it is based.”These moves were made to address both the under-performance in the U.S. and Canada segment, and the need for different skill sets in the company’s workforce to be better aligned with a quickly evolving business,” Charness said.All employees affected will get “competitive” severance packages, including outplacement services, he said.

Wonder how this will affect their Star Wars offerings or their SDCC showing?

 

[budafett]

Sweet Recovery...

 

[Lee in MI]

Well. We technically still gained jobs over this loss...there will always be job losses. But let's keep the political crap out of this...

Idk about other areas but in my area, SWs figs remained almost completely untouched over the holiday season whereas ALL the other stuff was dessamated! Even Mattels crappy Green Lantern figures sold well and much better than SWs.

 

[budafett]

Well. We technically still gained jobs over this loss...there will always be job losses. But let's keep the political crap out of this...

Idk about other areas but in my area, SWs figs remained almost completely untouched over the holiday season whereas ALL the other stuff was dessamated! Even Mattels crappy Green Lantern figures sold well and much better than SWs.

Sorry I'm a economic/marketing duel major and the data isn't getting any better.

Star Wars figures sold pretty well here in Rochester, NY

 

[Shropt]

Yeah. Seems like Star Wars figures are selling great. You see a lot less on clearance these days. The Marvel figures have been selling well too as well as the new My Little Pony merch. So what isn't selling?

The way they describe the lay-offs though seems like more of a restructuring than lay-offs. Notice the "and the need for different skill sets in the company’s workforce" line. That gives them the freedom to lay-off employees without the need to offer them the new positions.

 

[lerath666]

Sweet Recovery...

HAH, we had 8 years of terrible economic decisions. we've since had 4 years of stalemate and mediocre economic decisions by our leadership.
It's NOT going to get better any time soon, REGARDLESS of who is in charge, the economy is THAT BAD right now.

TLDR : It's going to be YEARS before it gets better, and current levels of corporate greed are going to make it go even slower.

 

[DarthNeil]

Please do not turn this thread into a political discussion/debate/name-calling session... Admin have already expressed what wil happen to those types of threads.

Thanks.

 

[Coheteboy]

One has to wonder if the vast amount of old product flooding the shelves has finally hit its toll with consumers. That and the insane prices!

Nobody wants to return to the stores and see nothing but product they bought years ago. For almost twice the cost.

 

[Lee in MI]

Yeah...I love a sensible political debate (HA! Thats an oxymoron these days!) but I just wanted to get a feel of what you guys were experiencing with Hasbro's product in your areas.

I agree that the Marvel stuff is doing well but their evergreen line, SWs, had majorly slow sales in SE Michigan and it seemed like the second half of 2011 Hasbro was discounting the crap out the line at all B&M retailers. And that still didn't move most of the old figures. Hasbro probably took back most (since they have a buy back program) old figures and issued credits. I also have a buddy in the Great North that experienced the same thing.

Some of the layoffs are probably them pushing out the old timers but not all of em...maybe not most of em. That reference might refer to the designers...I hope Mark is still there!

 

[Macross-Junkie]

Well I know here in Fayetteville N.C., most of the retailers have tons of back stock of old Star Wars figures, and surprisingly haven't reduced it yet (even after the horrible X-Mas season). As for the Marvel Universe line, it pretty much sells out in this town. If you see Marvel figures, you better buy them while you can, because chances are they'll all be gone when you come back in a day or two. In fact, the only thing that's in the Marvel Universe line from the holiday season that seems like their a shelf warmer is the Guardians Of The Galaxy box set, and the super huge Sentinel figure...

 

[Darth Rage]

Sorry I'm a economic/marketing duel major and the data isn't getting any better.

Star Wars figures sold pretty well here in Rochester, NY

Really well on Long Island too. Local TRU had a huge setup for EpI 3d promotion and the shelves got decimated....fast

 

[Wor-Gar]

As it was by the mid 80's, Star Wars just isn't cool anymore.

That's what my 7 year old nephew says anyway.

Not that this has a great impact on poor toy sales in general. But the computer is going younger and younger.

 

[Lee in MI]

The new stuff flew off the shelves here too but as mentioned in the press release, they are recovering from dismal holiday sales...the new stuff is going to be snapped up by the diehards but get the same case in 2-3 times and the stuff hangs on the pegs like rotten meat! Even with the new vintage stuff, the Quilan Vos was easy to pick up which hasnt been that easy in the past. As a matter of fact, even though the EP1 stuff sold well, it was all pretty easy to find.

 

[DarthNeil]

Please keep the politics out of this thread or it'll be closed. Thanks.

 

[mfoga]

170 employees may sound bad but its looks to be 3% of the employees.

 

[Invictus Sol]

I'm selling off all my Hasbro 3.75" Star Wars figures so I can focus exclusively on the 1:6 SSC stuff, anyway, so I'm not so concerned about that line as I am about MU. (One of the people let go was Senior Product Designer David Vonner, who was really committed to the line.) I've no desire to ever move over to the larger Marvel characters, so hope this isn't bad news for the 1:18 line.

 

[obi_dave_kenobi]

Please keep the politics out of this thread or it'll be closed. Thanks.

ah man! my post got deleted! come on it was a direct quote from Anakin and Padme's intellectual and romantic discussion on politics of the galactic senate.

This thread reminded me of the scene so I posted.

oh well..... so anyone wanna talk religion?


and i'm kidding of course!

 

[teemu]

Why even have this thread??? If you can't be honest here then this topic shouldn't be discussed at all because this particular subject involves economics and political talk whether you like it or not.

 

[Invictus Sol]

Why even have this thread??? If you can't be honest here then this topic shouldn't be discussed at all because this particular subject involves economics and political talk whether you like it or not.

Couldn't the conversation just be kept specifically to Hasbro's situation? Personally, I already know all I need to about the general economic situation. I'm interested in the specifics of why Hasbro let those people go, especially vis-a-vis David Vonner. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff internal to Hasbro that would be really interesting on its own, without getting into a wider political economy discussion.

 

[Shropt]

Couldn't the conversation just be kept specifically to Hasbro's situation? Personally, I already know all I need to about the general economic situation. I'm interested in the specifics of why Hasbro let those people go, especially vis-a-vis David Vonner. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff internal to Hasbro that would be really interesting on its own, without getting into a wider political economy discussion.

Exactly. Let's keep the discussion to Hasbro and their toys. No need to try to steer the discussion to the "bigger picture".