“NW toy giant files for bankruptcy”
After yesterday’s “toy blowout” ad from 1984 I started asking myself: Which toy distributor was having financial problems in 1984? Well, thanks to the Google newspaper archives it was easy enough to track down the source of the discounted toys: this Eugene-Register Guard newspaper article published on January 5, 1984, tells us that Northern Specialty Sales Inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
According to the article, the company “suffered from four main problems” which are outlined as:
- A large customer filed for bankruptcy in 1982;
- A second large customer decided to shift from working with the distributor to buying direct from manufacturers;
- Christmas 1982 sales were described as “the worst in years”;
- Consumer electronics (I’m betting mostly video games) sales order unfulfilled. The Adam computer even gets a mention.
It all adds up to a sad picture that, as we saw yesterday, didn’t end well for the distributor. $10 million in unsold inventory after Christmas in 1982 probably meant that the toy stores who took advantage of the opportunity probably had some sweet first year G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe toys available for sale.
