So could this have been preventable? I've heard Toys-R-Us wasn't that bad off; it's just that they had a leverage buyout in like the 90s or 2000s that put them in a lot of debt with the hope their growth rate would continue.
The Toys-R-Us failure didn't really make any sense since people still like to physically see and touch toys before purchasing them (although I guess retailers like Target, Wal-Market, independent toy shops, et. al. have large enough toy sections now to take care of that?)
There's a great 99% Invisible podcast about Sears houses. Before the cookie-cutter boom after WW2, a lot of Americans ordered kit houses from Sears which arrived in rail cars and could be assembled in a few months. Many of these houses still exist, and the people who owned them were completely unaware until amateur historians recognized them, contacted the owners and discovered the Sears seals or part numbers in their basement or attics.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...