Subject:
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Re: hmmmm... What about us?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Thu, 14 Nov 2002 20:55:40 GMT
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> the LEGO company favours the USA/Canada region over the rest of the world.
> [and that they generally ignore Australia.]
> [waiting for LEGO to treat all countries equally.]
Countries vary in many ways, from:
* Russia (largest area) to Vatican City (smallest)
* Monaco (highest population density) to Western Sahara (lowest)
* Luxembourg (highest GDP) to Sierra Leone (lowest)
* Congo (highest inflation) to Nauru (lowest)
* Angola (highest infant mortality) to Sweden (lowest)
* Andorra (longest life expectancy) to Botswana (shortest)
I don't see any good reason why TLC would treat all of these countries equally.
Should there be a Legoland in the Vatican City? Should there be a Lego Shop in
the Western Sahara? Should S@H ship to Sierra Leone or the Congo? Are there
enough children in Angola and Botswana to buy Lego at all?
Like most companies, TLC markets its products where it thinks it can do the
best business. That is linked into a whole host of issues: population size,
demographics, disposable income, transport costs, taxes, import restrictions,
etc.
TLC's preferential treatment of the USA illustrates this point nicely, given
that the company is based in Denmark.
As much as I, citizen and resident of Australia, would like the fullest range
of Lego to be available to me at the cheapest cost, I am old/wise enough to
understand how businesses work and why countries are not treated identically by
them.
As it happens, I think the situation for Australia has improved considerably
w.r.t. Lego in the few short years since I came out of my Dark Age.
The introduction of S@H to Australia just over a year ago has significantly
increased our access to almost the entire breadth of the catalogue. While the
initial express shipping cost was a bit daunting, we solved that problem with
large group orders (in the great Aussie spirit of mateship). Now the shipping
costs for S@H to Australia have been halved with the introduction of regular
shipping a couple of months ago (so Lego did promise to do when S@H was
introduced to Australia). And if you look at the Australian prices on S@H, they
compare very favourably with other countries, indeed cheaper than many European
countries. Look how many of us got the numbered Sante Fe Super Chiefs? If that
set had come out a year earlier before we had S@H, most of us would not have
obtained it. Many countries don't get S@H and many that do are paying a lot
more than us.
In the past few years, we have seen the Internet has spawn Lego.com, LUGnet,
Ebay, Bricklink, and PayPal to make it easier for us to get information, new
sets, old sets, and individual parts from all over the world and made it easy
to pay for them as well.
We saw the Soccer sets introduced in Australia at half the price of the USA.
Thanks to this newsgroup, I've got some deeply discounted prices on many Lego
sets from local retailers (look at Dino Island Research Station and the Alpine
Express at Toyworld this year). And how cheaply did many of us get the Imperial
Flagship and Red Beard Runner at KMart when they were loss-leaders? And unlike
the USA, we are still awash with Big Blue Tubs, stacked horizontally and
vertically at most KMarts! And Myer, KMart and Target have had 15-20% Lego
sales on many occasions this year. Dick Smith is just about giving away Dark
Side Developer kits at the moment.
I've visited the USA many times, and I assure you that their streets were not
paved with Lego. The average TRU in the USA that I have visited has less Lego
on the shelf than ours do in Australia. I have never returned with suitcases
full of Lego from the USA because it was just so cheap over there. Yes, we do
hear about some great discounts at some USA stores at some times, but that
doesn't mean that everyone in the USA gets to take advantage of it. Certainly
my random sampling of stores in the USA has never turned up any amazing
discounts. The Lego I have bought in the USA (pre-S@H) was entirely to obtain
sets that weren't sold in Australia, none of them were jaw-droppingly cheap.
I am tired of hearing how bad it is for Lego in Australia in this newsgroup. I
actually think we have it quite good!
If you want to complain about Lego, why not go to the Danish newsgroup and
complain about the fact that they have to pay 2700 Kroner (AUD 654) for the
Imperial Star Destroyer compared with AUD 500 for us. Even with shipping costs
to Australia, it's cheaper to buy it here than in its homeland!
Kerry
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: hmmmm... What about us?
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| (...) DV, Yes*! And what is more there should be a range of sets available there not available at retail anywhere else in the world** - and not just the silly (or obvious) one's either***. The Popemobile (should that be (tm)?) would not be that far (...) (22 years ago, 14-Nov-02, to lugnet.loc.au)
| | | Re: hmmmm... What about us?
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| Er-HEM!!!!!! GRRRRRRRR!!!!! What is up with you people and shop at home?! In case you hadn't noticed, in many of my earlier posts (and this is the reason I don't have wheels yet), I have clearly stated that I will NOT buy from the S@H service, and (...) (22 years ago, 15-Nov-02, to lugnet.loc.au)
| | | Re: hmmmm... What about us?
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| (...) Great post Kerry. I too think Australia is pretty well served for Lego, although I do wish they had a far more extensive line of bulk parts, but I believe that's a universal complaint. It would be nice to be able to look at it all in one place (...) (22 years ago, 15-Nov-02, to lugnet.loc.au)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: hmmmm... What about us?
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| I think you'll find that Larry spends a lot of time on-line [or else he seems to pick times when someone will post a message he thinks needs comment to go on-line :)] Oh yes, and he's rather sensitive about people demonstrating the fact that the (...) (22 years ago, 14-Nov-02, to lugnet.loc.au)
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