Subject:
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Re: Smart and Dumb
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.shopping
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Date:
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Sun, 25 Apr 2004 12:42:53 GMT
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Viewed:
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613 times
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In lugnet.market.shopping, John Heins wrote:
> Was at one of the Lego stores today - Palisades Mall in NY. Still had some techinc beams but far too many "ordinary" colors and pieces in pick a brick. Why spoil the concept with stuff that everyone has tons of???? Pick a brick should be for the odd colors, sizes and "unusual" elements - NOT standard color bricks and plates. I mean how often can the inventory turn over on 2x2 blue bricks? But then that may result from the following.....
I visited the Paramus Park store yesterday with a group of fellow
WAMALUGers...although we all came home with nice hauls, the general consensus
was that PaB was not quite what we expected (as in, a greater selection of a
wider variety of brick), and not quite all it was cracked up to be.
> I was surprised at BOXES of Legos stacked behind the register marked "Eggs" Now the store had a promo "build it yourself and take it home" (for a price) promotion before Easter when you could build an Egg and I think a chick or something. The staff had one of the "Egg" boxes open and were playing with the parts - rather common blue and yellow with some purple.
>
> It turns out that all of these had JUST arrived - far after the Easter
> promotion. I got the feeling that the contents were destined for the wall bins
> - though being rather mundane pieces, I expect they'll sit for a while. Of
> course, they'd have to be sorted (by hand) before they could be put in the bins.
> It seems that there's no real plan on what to do with them. I asked what a box
> would cost and was quoted an approximation of the "Pick a bin" $12.95 rate -
> rather expensive actually for fairly common pieces. So, even a decent concept
> ends up a mess bercause the product didn't arrive on time. No wonder they're
> losing money.
I'd visited the Potomac Mills Outlet store last weekend, and there were 3
Easter-themed 'sets'(I use this term loosely, because really what you got were 3
bags of bricks, sort of like what the 'grab bags' you describe below are) and 3
instruction sheets. The 3 models are an egg, with the aforementioned blue,
yellow and purple (it's also hinged, which I thought was nice), a free-standing
chick (I tried building it to specs, but discovered its top-heavines made it
impossible to stand on its own; offsetting one of the legs (2 1x1 red bricks
stacked on top of a red 2x2 corner plate) by one stud seemed to correct that).
The last model was a chick emerging from an eggshell....each 'set' was priced at
$2.49. I had asked Gayle (sp?) at Paramus Park if she had any of these sets; she
said that she did, but because it was after the holiday they were being put away
for next Easter, presumably, although she did produce one of the egg sets.
Potomac Mills only had a small stash of the sets behind the register. If nothing
else, the instruction sheets may give inspiration to proliferate on the concept,
especially the egg, which could use some diversification in color.
>
> On the other hand, the mixed parts bags were of distinct interest this trip.
> Lots of old light gray plates in bags - packed quite densely (actually stacked -
> offset by one row - making them easy to separate). These were - relatively
> speaking - a bargain. It seems that returns or damaged packaging get pieced out
> into parts bags (generally randomly). So, Lego is actually doing what so many
> others are doing with sets. However it seems that there isn't a real procedure
> to all this - it depends on the employee. Some bags are densely packed and (as
> in these cases) with similar elements. Others are pure random grab bags,
> loosely packed at horrid per piece prices.
Gayle actually brought out a whole bag of mixed old dark and light grey 2x4's
for us; if you call ahead, she'll usually work with you.....
I've found that the grab bags may produce as much as half of any given set, if
you're lucky...but you're left to your own defenses to get the other half. But
it looks like the grab bags aren't even produced by TLC itself....it appears
that employees in the store open damaged boxes and pack the grab bags
themselves.
BTW - quality on the Knights bus is off. Distinct shades of purple are evident
> between different size pieces.
There's currently an offering at S@H...buy Harry and the Marauder's Map and get
a free MINI Knight's Bus....I got one of these, and there don't appear to be
quality problems with the purple in it.
Play On!
M
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Smart and Dumb
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| Was at one of the Lego stores today - Palisades Mall in NY. Still had some techinc beams but far too many "ordinary" colors and pieces in pick a brick. Why spoil the concept with stuff that everyone has tons of???? Pick a brick should be for the odd (...) (21 years ago, 25-Apr-04, to lugnet.market.shopping)
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