Toys R Us continues to survive in Canada, as it was spun off from its US parent some time ago. One of the main reasons the US version of Toys R Us died is that it was a target of the same "vulture capitalism" techniques that Bain Capital used to buy out Sealy Mattress, with pretty much the same effect. If you'll recall, that is basically that a company is purchased... its new owners then pay themselves a "special dividend" to immediately pay back the money they used to buy the company. The company goes into debt obtaining the money to pay this special dividend. And their profits for the foreseeable future are all spent paying off this debt. In the case of Sealy, that led to cost-cutting measures intended to increase the profit margin from revenue (leading to the "no-flip" mattress, an "innovation" that contributed to the erosion of the brand's reputation.) Saddling their newly-purchased company with debt might not sound like a great business move if you're under the assumption that the long-term goal was to build upon Sealy. But paying themselves back for their purchase on their very first day as owners was a great move if you consider that their main goal was just their own personal financial gain. Sealy became a shadow of its former self, but was sold off to a competitor for a lot less money than Bain bought it for. But Bain didn't lose money, that second sale was all profit. They'd already recouped their initial expenditure on the first day. Everything after that was all profit. They made lots of money on "management fees" and the eventual sale, even though their asset was a shadow of what it was when they first bought it.
Sears went a similar route, except that instead of "special dividends", its current management group have sold off assets (like the land from closed stores, and the Craftsman tools line) to do stock buy-backs to puff up the share price. They also redirected money that used to be spent on capital improvements into stock buy-backs. That's why your local Sears had rotting carpets, decomposing ceiling tiles, and a broken air-conditioner before it closed down. Why stock buy-backs? What was so great about those? Well, the management group are all big shareholders, so obviously having a high stock price benefits them.
Brick and mortar retailers might not doing great, but I think the death of Toys R Us and the ongoing demise of Sears are examples of companies whose ruin is being accelerated by their own management more than by broader market trends.
-k
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