Rainbow Loom..going, going, gone!

Rainbow Loom display at Michaels, West Broadway, Vancouver, BC

Rainbow Loom display at Michaels, West Broadway, Vancouver, BC (Detail)

The Rainbow Loom has had a good run, but the party is over. Toy marketers often think, mistakenly, that their product will defy the fundamental laws of the product life cycle. To everything there is a season, and the Rainbow Loom has more than had its season. It is now sliding down the decline curves of both sales and profits.

Source: http://www.comindwork.com/weekly/2013-09-09/productivity/product-life-cycle-sales-vs-profit

A few weeks ago I saw a similar sale display at Indigo, but this is the first time I've seen Rainbow Loom products on sale at Michael's. In fact, the Rainbow Loom has been such a steady profit source that it is one of the few products excluded from the ubiquitous 40% off coupons that Michael's prints on the front covers of it weekly flyers.

The question for Michael's, and its shareholders, is what will fill the sales hole that the Rainbow Loom will leave behind. And if I knew the answer to that question I'd have retired long ago.