Toys ‘R’ Us CEO Talks Toys for the Holiday Season

With the busy holiday shopping season about to kick off, Toys ‘R’ Us CEO Dave Brandon discussed retailers’ high expectations for Black Friday and beyond as well as the top toys kids will be asking for with FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.

Brandon discussed the importance of the post-Thanksgiving weekend for retailers.

“It’s critically important for the entire industry, this is when a disproportionate amount of our volume is done, it’s when people are in that shopping mode, we’ll really get an indication over the next seven to ten days what the season is going to be like.”

Brandon also talked about the factors driving the retailer’s decision to open on Thanksgiving Day.

“It’s really driven by two factors, one is what does the customer want, and we’ve seen an enormous amount of traffic late in the day on Thanksgiving Day… so we want to be open to service the customers when they want to buy, so that is an important element, and part of it is driven by competition, if there are more competitors open you certainly don’t want to have your doors closed.”

Brandon brought along and discussed some of the toys expected to be popular this holiday season.

“This is Smart Toy Bear and we have a Smart Toy Monkey too which is very similar and this guy is pretty incredible, he’s got a camera and a scanner in his nose and you can program him with your phone, mom and dad can literally program him to speak interactively with their child, learn their name…” Brandon said.

Brandon also addressed the big benefits expected for Toys ‘R’ Us from the new Star Wars movie.

“With that movie coming out on the eighteenth of December it’s just an unknown for us, we’re all stocked up and ready to go, you can see it ramping up, last night you know they keep peeking out a little bit more of what’s happening in the movie and as we get closer to the movie and the release, we’re going to see more and more action as it relates to toy sales.”