Subject:
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Re: anyone out there?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.us.nc.ral
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Date:
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Thu, 25 Mar 1999 14:19:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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1678 times
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Todd Lehman wrote in message ...
> In lugnet.loc.us.nc.ral, Frank Filz writes:
> > Karim Nassar:
> > > I'm local to the triangle. I grew up in Durham, but I live in
> > > Cary now.
> >
> > So do I. I also just got an e-mail from Mike Walsh who also is
> > in Cary.
>
> Wow, small world! I was just in Cary over the weekend for my niece's
> 1st birthday party. Spent the whole time getting caught up on family,
> didn't go shopping at all. Anything good that I missed? :)
>
> --Todd
Small world - hopefully you were here on Saturday when the weather
was nice. Sunday was kind of nasty ... ;-)
Here is my assessment of the LEGO market in the Cary, NC area
where I also live. If you are familiar with the area, I live off of Lake
Pine in between Cary Parkway and Highway 64.
Cary (aka CARY, known to real locals as the Concentrated Area of
Relocated Yankees) tends to be a bedroom community for people
who work in and around RTP. Median house price is now something
like $180K (high for this area, low for those using Boston, New York,
NJ, Washington D.C., etc. as reference point) and there are tons of
kids. I myself seem to bordeing on being a real local as I have now
been here for 10+ years and it is not often I run into people who have
been here longer than I have.
LEGO deals seem to be few and far between.
Wal-Mart (corner of Kildair Farm Road and Tryon Road)
Decent selection of current sets especially Space Port and Ninja.
No older sets at all and very little (like Res-Q) that was new in 1998.
This Wal-Mart is close to my house so I end up there about once a
week for something or another. Nothing LEGO ever made it into the
clearance aisle as far as I can tell. They have a couple of the large
Time Cruisers sets for regular price. I am surprised these haven't
gone on clearance. They are really shelf worn so obviously they
have been there for a while.
Target (Cross Roads Plaza)
Great selection over Christmas but shelf compression has reduced
the LEGO selection considerably. Nothing outside of the current 1999
product offering at all. Ninjas, Space Port, Town and Duplo are readily
available. One or two Extreme Team sets. During the Christmas
clearance there few deals. I did find a Night Lord's Castle for $35 and
I saw some Rain Dance Ridge sets for $4 but did not buy them. Best
I saw in the clearance aisle was 50% off and there were only a couple
of things and they didn't stick around long.
K-Mart (Maynard Road and Kildaire Farm Road)
I have only been in here a few times, it is one of the stores I just seem
to forget about. Their LEGO selection was never real impressive but
after Christmas they did have a few very large FreeStyle sets (a big
box, 18"x30") that I have only seen at K-Mart. Price was about $40 as
I recall. The rest of the selection was typical although a few sets that
Target and Wal-Mart typically have on sale (Scuba Squad, Mountain
Rescue, etc.) were regular price.
The Toy Chest (Corner of High House Road and Cary Parkway in Preston)
This is a small toy store that I used to go into a lot. Last spring we had
a
flood in our house and had to live in an apartment for a couple of months
while our house was being repaired. The aprtment was right behind the
Toy Chest so I used to walk down there with my kids to kill some time after
dinner. The LEGO selection is okay, mostly sets from 1997 and 1998
although nothing of any real interest. I regret not buying the Red Fury
Model
Team set that I looked at 25 times before I was really out of my Dark Ages
but alas, it is gone. Prices are higher than normal and I have yet to see a
sale.
Toys R Us (Cross Roads Plaza)
Much better selection than Target and for Technic fans, probably the best
store in the Cary area. The only sale I have seen at TRU is on an Insectoid
set that has a halloween mask. I did find a semi-deal on a Big Rig Racers
set for my son, it was $12 ($20 regularly). It looked like a return becuase
they only had one and it had some tape on the box. TRU used to be the only
store with the small Polybags but I have seen them lately at Wal-Mart as
well.
I found the Res-Q jet ski polybag at TRU last summer, hadn't seen that
anywhere
else until I was in a small toy store in Portland last week where I found
one and
bought it.
There are a couple of stores that sell used toys and children's clothing but
I
have yet to find any LEGO in any of them although I don't make a habit of
going
by them very often. The Flea Market at the NC Fairgrounds has also been
void
of LEGO my only purchase being an empty bulk brick bucket for $0.25 to use
as
additional storage.
My overall assessment: I think the Cary area is too afluent to yield any
real finds.
Most of the stores seem to move product pretty regularly to have anything
remain
on the shelves for any length of time. The abundance of kids and the
phenomonal
growth of Cary (when I moved to Cary in 1988 there were less than 40K people
in
Cary, now there are more than 80K) leads me to believe that this trend will
continue.
For deals, us Cary-ites will have to expand our frame of reference to areas
of the
Triangle that one does not frequently travel in/from/to.
Mike - mike_walsh@mentorg.com
http://members.tripod.com/mike_walsh
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: anyone out there?
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| Mike, very nice assesment of the Cary area... I've a couple comments: (...) I managed to get 2 copies of the Flying Ninha Fortress for $69.95 there the other day. They were marked so on the shelf (or at least thats what I thought). I also picked up (...) (26 years ago, 25-Mar-99, to lugnet.loc.us.nc.ral)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: anyone out there?
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| (...) Wow, small world! I was just in Cary over the weekend for my niece's 1st birthday party. Spent the whole time getting caught up on family, didn't go shopping at all. Anything good that I missed? :) --Todd (26 years ago, 24-Mar-99, to lugnet.loc.us.nc.ral)
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