It wasn't Amazon's fault; Toy stores had been declining well before it, with companies like KB toys going defunct in 2009. In general what was happening was that it was much harder for retail speciality stores and small chains to compete with Wal-mart and other megastores, and the market seemed to collapse.

A tremendous amount of retail just died in the 2000s, with only a few survivors. Either folding, or being bought out and merging with other companies that folded.

That’s a lot like saying it was the patient’s underlying cancer that ultimately killed her, not the pillow held over her face by an overly ambitious family member eyeing the lucrative estate she would leave behind.

Amazon accelerated what you describe in every quantifiable way and it was undoubtedly baked into the overall strategy. Yes, the situation was already terminal thanks to the Internet and poor online shopping execution by the incumbents, including Walmart, but overlooking Amazon’s involvement (going so far as to call it not their fault) and pointing at Walmart as the disease itself is a tiny bit of revisionism.

Am I the only one old enough to remember discussions in older forums like these about how brilliant Bezos was to identify and exploit such a now-obvious opportunity? It was obvious then to the point of being damned near Amazon’s entire thesis.

I'm curious, why did all the "old guard" absolutely refuse online? Blockbuster, KB, Toysrus - these were all before my time, but did they just think oh no, we don't ever have to bother with this, people will always come in the store?

Toy R Us went bankrupt in large part due to executives selling itself to a private capitol firm that saddled it with so much debt that even with its stores maintaining decent operating profits the company as a whole could not maintain the debt payments.

Amazon certainly didn't help their bottom line, but it wasn't the nail in the coffin either.

Walmart delivers groceries to my door and lets me tip the driver in the app, have they similarly limited employment opportunities or do they expand them?

I’m not sure at this point, both are horrible corporations I’ve resisted as long as I can can, yet both regularly siphon money from my checking account.