Barbie and Ken, back when they mattered.

Poor Barbie. She’s really struggling.

The buxom Mattel doll used to be the Queen of All Kids Toys. But in the past few decades she has had to endure glares and accusations from moms who wanted more than just awesome clothes and well-tanned men for their daughters. A lawmaker tried to get her outlawed.

More recently, she lost in a competition with a bunch of overly made up, tween-aged Bratz. And then the fact no once reigning beauty ever wants to recon with: turning the big 5-0. Late last year, she was accused of enabling bad, bad people.

Now this, Barbra Millicent Robert’s latest indignity: the only store devoted exclusively to her — opened amid the wanton spending of excessive incomes in foreign-brands thirsty Shanghai — is slated to be closed.

Mattel, Inc., opened the 36,000 square-foot space two years ago in an area of downtown Shanghai that’s filled with luxury brand retailers. There was lots of pink neon light, a make-up department, a spa and a fancy bar. The opening of the store coincided with Barbie’s half-century birthday and included the unveiling of a Chinese Barbie. There was a $10,000 Vera Wang wedding gown.

And yet — no customers. Or at least, not enough to justify its size. On Monday, the pink neons were extinguished, the glass doors locked. Barbies all over the six-story failure no doubt tearing at their synthetic hair in agony.

But if we learned anything from Toy Story 3, it’s that Barbie’s no quitter. Neither are the people who handle her.

In classic corporate head-in-the-sand-speak, here’s what a spokeswoman for Barbie in China, Linda Du, wrote to reporters in an e-mail about the store’s closing [from the Los Angeles Times]:

The Shanghai Barbie store “has successfully accomplished its mission to promote the overall Barbie brand over the last two years …”  “In 2011, Mattel will roll out a new Barbie brand strategy in China designed to take the brand across the country reaching more consumers.”

Retail strategist in Asia, Paul French, was a little more blunt: he said the store was too big and the level of interest among Chinese women too little. Mattel wrongly assumed they would flock to a childrens brand like the Japanese have to Hello Kitty.

Oh, Barbie. Is it just time to hang up your heels?

Photo: JoeMabel via wikicommons

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