Toys 'R' Us makes room for iPods, Eee PCs and cash money

Toys 'R' Us, the primary provisioner of joy and happiness to children in the world, is branching out into iPods and Eee PCs. Though never a stranger to consumer electronics, Toys 'R' Us has traditionally shied away from strict gadgetry -- with a notable exception being Zune sales starting last year. Now the retailer will be offering iPods in a little "iPod boutique," with various shuffles, nanos, touches and related accessories to help you fill those stockings and bolster Geoffrey's bottom line. The Eee PC will be offered in black and white, with low-end 7-inch Linux and XP versions available for $269 and $299, respectively.

[Killian @ Oct 27th 2008 7:06PM]

I guess it works... Eees look like the belong at Toys R Us anyway

[El Taco @ Oct 27th 2008 8:48PM]

Ya, but their moms will buy it thinking "He can do his homework and play games on it", not realizing it has Linux, and if you need to do a powerpoint presentation for school your powerpoint might not be compatible with the Powerpoint they have on the windows computers at school. And there's barely any games for Linux. I'm not saying Linux can't do any of that. OpenOffice does a great job with stuff like that. It's just that most moms don't realize what they can and can't do on an inexpensive computer like the EeePC. I know some kids and parents will be disappointed.

[theYeas @ Oct 27th 2008 8:58PM]

Fool. It's called google docs. Or even open office...

[cheng @ Oct 27th 2008 9:31PM]

you'll be surprised at the problems our presentations/reports at university run into just because we used openoffice. what with computers having the wrong display plug/not getting recognised by the projector and not being able to receive wireless in the particular room, it's good to eliminate one more point of failure, eg when you realise that the formatting is off in the document when you converted it.

[El Taco @ Oct 27th 2008 9:38PM]

@TheYeas

did you even read what I said?

[j.d.ripper @ Oct 28th 2008 10:12AM]

@cheng

The only point of failure you mention related to openoffice is opening a converted document.
If your school uses openoffice and then you can use openoffice. Voila you've eliminated the format conversion problem.

[joshc @ Oct 28th 2008 8:43PM]

they have been selling eeepc's in the uk stores for ages. it was the only place in southampton at one point that had any because they didn't advertise that well.

[Coolent @ Oct 27th 2008 7:10PM]

Wow toys R' Us still exists?

[grull27 @ Oct 27th 2008 7:14PM]

Just because you outgrew childhood doesn't mean everyone else has!

[sk8rpro @ Oct 27th 2008 8:37PM]

True, after all, while I'm in my 20's, "I don't wanna grow up, because I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid!"

[Coolent @ Oct 27th 2008 11:00PM]

What the hell are you talking about? They were in bankruptcy 3 years ago, the were about to shut the company down 3 years ago.

[kjb434 @ Oct 28th 2008 8:55AM]

yeah,

I'm surprised it hasn't died yet. Wal-Mart has more toys at cheaper prices. Why waste time in a Toys-R-Us.

[DiGiC @ Oct 27th 2008 7:13PM]

They've been selling Eee's in UK Toys backwards R Us for quite some time now, and 50% sure they have sold iPods too...

[Reece @ Oct 27th 2008 7:18PM]

They sell iPods too.

I was just in there today, they didn't have the yellow one though.

Nowhere has the yellow one.

Bummer.

[AJ @ Oct 27th 2008 7:22PM]

yeah my toys 'r' us sells every nanos and shuffles. no touches or classics

[rock99rock @ Oct 27th 2008 7:44PM]

I was looking through nano's over a year ago in the r'us.

They actually predicted that it would be a top 20 seller at their chain during CHRISTMAS of '07.

[Mike @ Oct 27th 2008 7:56PM]

Toys R Us have sold iPod Nano since 1g and the first Asus EEE PCs and have the new nanos (no yellow) and Ipod Touch, also every Toys R Us has been the same, as all stores have 1 of 2 different layouts.

[mj @ Oct 27th 2008 7:15PM]

I was going to say that the eee pcs totally fit in. They're really good as PCs for kids.

[Testies, Testies, 1, 2... 3? @ Oct 27th 2008 7:17PM]

Que Fanboy: "Yeah, Toys R Us sells TOYS like the iPod, not real player like the Zune!"

[Seanross @ Oct 27th 2008 7:42PM]

Um.. dude.

"Toys 'R' Us has traditionally shied away from strict gadgetry -- with a notable exception being Zune sales starting last year."

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Oct 27th 2008 7:43PM]

yeah but only if said fanboy was too reading-impaired to see the bit about Zunes being sold there for the past year.

As for the summary's comment about Geoffrey using iPod sales to help bolster their bottom line, probably not. I bet His Steveness gives retailers next to nothing, arguing that it helps draw buyers into the stores or some such excuse.

[cheng @ Oct 27th 2008 9:34PM]

i see they brought back lowest ranked for people with vote down button avatars.

[rita hainsworth @ Oct 27th 2008 7:18PM]

PODS and PEEES are US

[P9TV @ Oct 27th 2008 7:18PM]

In London Toys R Us they have been selling iPods and accessories since 2004, and full computers as well, not just laptops. Its a toy store for the entire family now!

[Raheem @ Oct 27th 2008 7:26PM]

We bought our first Windows PC from Toys R Us in like, 1993.

[glucoseboy @ Oct 27th 2008 7:19PM]

About time, my friends 9-year-old just bought herself an iPod nano after saving her money for months.

[Valicore @ Oct 27th 2008 8:16PM]

Say what? Damn, if I wanted something like an iPod and had to save up for it when I was nine, I would barely be half way there by the time I left for college lol.

[therpham @ Oct 27th 2008 7:19PM]

They already have the iPod section set up at the one near me.

[Baba booey @ Oct 27th 2008 7:23PM]

They had EEE PC's at my local Toys 'R' Us in NJ when I was there a few months ago.
Of course they'd be selling iPods....little kids don't care about quality....just while your at it, throw in some shitty skullcandy headphones.. My Cowon D2 pwns :)

[landru28 @ Oct 27th 2008 8:25PM]

I agree completely. My D2 and Sennheiser CX300 earphones rock!

[noyp @ Oct 27th 2008 10:07PM]

I'm 14. I like my music with detail and little bass. I never understood why people want their music to literally shake them. Oh My God! It's Pedobear!

[Ted @ Oct 27th 2008 7:25PM]

For some of you..a history lesson.... Toys R US was one of the first Commodore 64 retail outlets.... in the US... eons ago... I know I bought one there... ...now they have come full circle.

[Rob @ Oct 27th 2008 7:27PM]

"where did you get your laptop?"

"Toys R Us"

"oh....."

[fred @ Oct 27th 2008 7:43PM]

Are they going to have them on display in or outside the glass display cabinet with all of the cool toys?

[Jubei @ Oct 27th 2008 7:45PM]

Toys 'R' Us hoped to gain massive profits when announcing the sale of Zune "me too" player from MS on their stores. It must be a huge success and TRU must be feeling sorry for Apple's iPod products so they are including them late in the game.

http://pn2thinking.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/01/toys_r_us_zune.jpg

[Rollins @ Oct 27th 2008 8:02PM]

I'll buy the black one.

.

[noyp @ Oct 27th 2008 10:04PM]

WHY do you insist that the Zune is a "me too" product? Is it because it can play music? Because it is rectangular? Because it has a circle on it? Because it has a screen? Microsoft made the Zune to make money! They just wanted to wait a while to see how sales would go for them. Pure and simple.

[Zeus.:God @ Oct 28th 2008 2:27AM]

Jubei, Jubei, Jubei... When will you learn?

[ecco6t9 @ Oct 27th 2008 7:50PM]

However due to understaffing all that will be stolen.
I worked there from 05-08 and last Christmas Season we had about 6 people working total at any given time.

Good luck with that Gerry.

[KillaChaos @ Oct 27th 2008 8:27PM]

Wow, Toys R Us I remember going there and being the happiest kid in the World

/nostalgia

[amcman @ Oct 27th 2008 8:44PM]

That's all nice but... Will Toys R Us Employees continue to steel your credit card numbers?

[thethirdmoose @ Oct 27th 2008 8:48PM]

That's really cheap for the 8G versions!

[thethirdmoose @ Oct 27th 2008 8:50PM]

Too bad the screen is only 480x800...

[noyp @ Oct 27th 2008 10:05PM]

Would you rather have no screen?

[Davin Peterson @ Oct 27th 2008 9:09PM]

Toys r us sells the Creative Zen Stone, which has better sound quality then the iPod Shuffle. Creative invented the iPod interface, which Apple stole. The Zen is a better player than the iPod

[noyp @ Oct 27th 2008 10:01PM]

The 1st gen shuffle had the best sound of any iPod. John Platt, a worker for Microsoft, invented the iPod software. How do you gather that the zen is better than an iPod? I've heard the zen is prone to WSODs.

[Lionbacker @ Oct 27th 2008 10:23PM]

Pretty soon they will have to turn that R forwards, and make a new logo...
First you squish it, skew it, and turn it all around. Squish it, skew it, turn it all around.

[noyp @ Oct 27th 2008 10:43PM]

But that would ruin my entire childhood!

[BigTeebo @ Oct 27th 2008 10:55PM]

I don't know if it's because I'm 32, or it's 2008, but it makes perfect sense for TRU to do the gadget thing. Maybe they can't make profit on just bratz dolls alone.

[Ian @ Oct 28th 2008 12:18AM]

Nobody has said "cash money" for 6 years.


You're showing your age, Paul Miller.