Toys ‘R’ Us continues to post losses

With TRU still reeling from the holiday season’s price wars, 2004 hasn’t been kind to the toy retailing giant so far. The company has posted a loss of US$28 million for Q1, slightly worse than the US$26-million loss incurred during the same quarter last year. The chain’s Q1 ’04 video game sales, which were down by 27% compared to Q1 ’03, appear to be largely responsible for the sluggish performance. But silver lining enthusiasts take heart: TRU’s Babies ‘R’ Us same-store sales rose by 4.6% over last year’s Q1 numbers.

Simon & Schuster gets into manga

San Francisco-based manga publisher Viz has appointed publishing giant Simon & Schuster as its U.S. distributor. Starting this month, S&S will apply its warehousing, fulfillment, customer service and accounts receivable know-how to push Viz’s entire catalogue, which includes graphic novels based on Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon and Inuyasha.