Subject:
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Re: Lego assortiment in small stores
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Sun, 17 Mar 2002 06:54:30 GMT
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Reply-To:
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jrclark@nospam.=StopSpam=aol.com
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Viewed:
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1977 times
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TWS Garrison wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Mar 2002, John Barnes wrote:
>
> > As far as I remember, this exact question was asked of Brad Justus at the
> > recent BricksWest event. His response indicated that the company was
> > unwilling to allow retailers to "cherry pick" the Lego product line, and
> > thus it was not possible to allow one retailer to just sell trains.
>
>
> . . .which goes to show that TLC is (willfully or not) ignorant. Reality
> check: last week I went to the two local K-marts to buy Lego. They had
> Mission Deep Sea and Bohrok. One a had a few boxes of 2001 stuff; the
> other (the smaller) had a better selection of 2001 sets, including Star
> Wars. Now, the usual retail 2002 assortment of Racers, Star Wars, Harry
> Potter, and Soccer is available in Lafayette (at Target, TRU, Wal-Mart,
> Meijer. . .); it's simply that K-mart has apparently "cherry picked" what
> sets to sell, at least here.
Except that you just said that they had product from multiple lines,
which is what Brad said that the company requires.
Additionally, the KMart distribution center probably orders (a large
portion of) the entire product line, then cherry picks what it sends to
each store. If product has not moved from 2001, they may be hesitant to
send 2002, since there's no room for it on the shelves without
discounting existing stock.
> Moreover, at Target the only non-2002 set available is the Railway
> Express. Since the current retail product line presumably includes most
> 2001 sets (LOM, 2001 Star Wars[1], etc.), Target can also exercise its own
> discretion about what parts of the product line to carry.
I don't think you'll find any suppliers anywhere that REQUIRE their
customers to order last year's stock. If Target wants to only stock 2002
product (the train set is an obvious exception, since there's no 2002
train set in the retail line), I'm sure TLC is fine with that.
> There are many things TLC could require of its retailers that could help
> sell product[2]; refusing to let small retailers sell what they want to
> sell while winking at the practices of larger retailers is not one of
> them.
Selling more product is not a worthwile goal unless it can be done
profitably. To sell to small retailers requires a lot more staff, and
the more flexibility LEGO offers, the more time it takes the staffers to
fill the orders.
Also, when Brad talks about the company requiring stores to order the
entire product line, it's likely that he means there are minimum
requirements. You must order from at least x different lines, and you
must order at least x different sets from each of those lines. The
retailer still has some choices, but they couldn't just order Alpha Team
only.
Lastly, don't forget that the trains (other than the Railway Express)
are not part of the retail line. They are only available (so far)
through Shop at Home/Lego Direct. So ordering only trains is not even an
option, even if the retailers could just order one product line.
<snip>
>
> [1] According to fbtb.net, only 1999 and 2000 SW are discontinued.
>
> [2] For example, they could ask Wal-Mart to do something about the seeming
> incapacity of their layout people to put two Lego products on the shelves
> without inserting a MegaBloks, Intelliblox, or K'nex set between them. . .
I'm sure they've asked, but that's about all they can do. To try to take
responsibility for training WM's staff would be crazy. Imagine: "Hello,
is this the manager of Walmart #451? This is the LEGO Company. We just
got a report that your employees aren't stocking our product correctly.
<click> Hello? Hello?" Apple tried this when it gave CompUSA an
exclusive contract to sell their product. In exchange for the contract
CompUSA was going to give Apple computers special treatment in the
store, and have employees that were knowlegebable about them. Think that
happened?
Don't forget that LEGO, as friendly as its public face is, is still a
giant supercompany. That means beauracracy, internal politics, and slow
changes. They've come a long way in the past four years. I give them a
lot of credit. But I don't expect miracles. That's not reality.
Rick C.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Lego assortiment in small stores
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| <snip> (...) It was myu understanding that LEGo has it's own sales force people that go to the Tors R Us, Targets, etc.. and straight up and put out the LEGO products. Sure they don't go every day to stratight up at the end of the night but it is (...) (23 years ago, 19-Mar-02, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.dear-lego)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Lego assortiment in small stores
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| (...) . . .which goes to show that TLC is (willfully or not) ignorant. Reality check: last week I went to the two local K-marts to buy Lego. They had Mission Deep Sea and Bohrok. One a had a few boxes of 2001 stuff; the other (the smaller) had a (...) (23 years ago, 16-Mar-02, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.dear-lego)
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