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Non-Tech : MAT - Mattel - toysRthem -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (53)	6/28/1998 9:47:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 706

Yes, Duncan, there have been allegations of Toys R' Us trying to force manufacturers to sell only to them. Isn't that illegal? On the other hand, San Francisco is an unusual toy market. While their prices always seemed very low, the competition is department stores like Neiman Marcus and Emporium, and really exclusive toy stores that sell mostly European wooden toys. We now have a Target store in a suburb, but there are no K-Marts or Wal-Marts here. So I suspect that prices I would consider low might seem pretty high compared to these stores. Also, Wal-Mart has been known to price things under actual cost to drive other retailers out of business, and then raise them later. Incidentally, what happened to Barbie? She and her outfits look very cheap and tawdry lately, and I have noticed them selling at places like the Canned Food Store, a warehouse discount store where real bargain hunters and lots of very, very poor people shop. Has she drifted down market or something?