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I probably shouldn’t be answering a troll post, but I post infrequency
enough anyway. I find it hard to believe I’m siding with Larry again.
Having worked for Lego in what seems like a long ago life, I can understand
your frustrations about the time it takes for Lego to move on a project.
Lego is easily one of the slowest moving companies I’ve ever been associated
with. Not really out of character for a manufacturing company however.
If you thought that this whole thing was going to turn on this year or even
next, you’re early. I’m betting that there is no one inside of Lego who
wants this to move forward faster than those within Lego Direct.
Lego is a big company, and the idea of direct bulk sales is a radical change
of direction for them. When I worked there six years ago, they told us that
they would NEVER sell bulk bricks direct. Not only was the Lego
infrastructure not set up to make this happen in inventory or manufacturing,
but the channel sales philosophy was directly counter to a bulk sales
mentality. There was resistance to the imagination centers going in
Minneapolis from some of the major retailers like Target, Walmart and Toys R
Us. Lego had to promise to keep prices at the LIC higher than the retail
suggested price and to never have product sales.
These are some of the internal obstacles that the employees of Lego Direct
have to solve. Then while they compete with that all day, they deal with
claims of “non-responsiveness” and “inactivity”. If you want to advance the
cause of direct ordering of bulk bricks, the best way you can do it is with
your economic strength. When you’ve tapped your economic strength, find
others with more. If Lego can’t demonstrate that they can meet their sales
objectives, no amount of whining will ever bring back the limited ability
you have now.
You can call it butt kissing all you like, to be honest with you, I think
bulk sales is a bad idea for Lego. I doubt that bulk ordering has had a
dramatic impact on Lego sales, because I doubt that many people who use it
have dramatically increased their budget for Lego. More probably they have
just shifted their buying from the local discount store having a sale to
Lego Direct. Frankly, they are better served having you buy from Target and
keeping the advertising that Target does for them.
-John
(real email is jkelly3@yahoo.com, the skypoint address is a refuge for spam.)
In lugnet.lego.direct, Tim Courtney writes:
> "richard marchetti" <blueofnoon@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:G86DAE.3uH@lugnet.com...
> > In lugnet.general, Greg Majewski writes:
> > > I really don't care any more.
> >
> > For starters, the whole thing was too short and WAY too polite. C'mon, spew
> > some venom, Man!
>
> Spewing venom will not get anyone anywhere. The only thing it will serve to do
> is create emnity between the two groups here - the AFOLs and LEGO Direct, and
> cause both sides to be frustrated even more with each other. If you feel that
> way, great, keep it to yourself because I for one (and a lot of others) don't
> want to see LUGNET member stirred up to the point they can't be constructive -
> and I'm sure it frustrates Brad, Jake, Tomas, etc on the other end to the point
> they don't want to post.
>
> Quoted from http://news.lugnet.com/lego/direct/?n=1733 by Tomas Clark:
>
> - Reading Lugnet newsgroups. There are several of us who read
> lugnet.dear-lego and lugnet.lego.direct daily. I frequently do so at home,
> so that I can get other work done in the office. So yes, we're listening --
> we're just figuring out how we can answer these questions. If I knew all the
> answers off the top of my head, believe me, I'd post. And when we do know
> the answers, we do post. This is especially true of specific questions. Jake
> responded</A> to the Microsoft deal "controversy,"
>
> From someone with a bit more familiariry with the LEGO Direct employees who post
> here than the average LUGNET member - they're genuinely decent people who are
> doing their best to do their jobs and do want to see us satisfied. Some stuff
> can't be talked about, some stuff they're genuinely working on. And as Tomas
> said, they do read both dear-lego and lego.direct groups daily.
>
> > I am of two minds on the issue of whether I care or not. On the one hand,
> > TLC continues to make pathetically stupid choices about their product line
> > -- so to that extent, I don't care if everything just goes "boom" in their
> > corporate face.
>
> Always a good attitude to hold. Yup. Sugar with that?
>
> Lighten up man - don't make it worse for all of us by frustrating the guys at
> the office. They're real people too you know - and I imagine they get pretty
> frustrated when they get slammed by (uninformed) people like you. Sure, I could
> have this attitude if I wanted, because heck, I'm in the same boat when it comes
> to getting parts. Or, I could try to do/say positivie stuff to change that (and
> we all could).
>
> -Tim
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Direct Sales Venom
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| "John Kelly" <jkelly69@skypoint.com> wrote in message news:G86t1J.26y@lugnet.com... (...) have (...) and (...) Except they used to do bulk bricks via the retail channel (i.e. brick packs, etc) If they didnt do they direct, where would I now buy (...) (23 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.general, lugnet.lego.direct)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: The Quality Downfall
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| "richard marchetti" <blueofnoon@aol.com> wrote in message news:G86DAE.3uH@lugnet.com... (...) Spewing venom will not get anyone anywhere. The only thing it will serve to do is create emnity between the two groups here - the AFOLs and LEGO Direct, (...) (23 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.general, lugnet.lego.direct)
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