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In lugnet.dear-lego, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> In lugnet.dear-lego, Richard Marchetti writes:
> > In lugnet.dear-lego, Susan Hoover writes:
> > > How is there any favoritism on the part of S@H? Anyone can call S@H
> > > herself at 7 am on Monday if she really wants to know what the specials
> > > are before Tom posts them to LUGNET. It probably takes more time to
> > > update the site than it does to sell out of some of the specials,
> > > anyway. :-/
> >
> > I might have let that one get pretty vague. I was trying to suggest an
> > internet model of business that serves an international customer base
> > equally. I just didn't spell it out.
Richard raises an interesting point, one which I hope the advent of LEGO
Direct will adequately address. I've been geeting the irrits reading this
particular debate (why hasn't it moved to .off-topic.debate yet?) with you
guys complaining about/defending a bunch of services which I have no access
to. I'm not argry at you guys (lets not start the name calling again, please),
but at TLC. Currently it would serve me no purpose whatsoever to log into
lego.com to check up on the latest S@H specials, other than to make me swear
and curse, knowing that I would have to go to great lengths (and call in a few
favours) to get my hands on them, by which time they're more than likely gone.
> Within the limitations of the business model (that is, people who choose to
> live in high tariff/high cost of doing business countries have to,
> unfortunately, suffer the consequences of their government's attempt to hide
> from reality) I think that's an admirable goal and one I fully support.
I think (and I'm no business major) that these limitations are largely being
dealt with with the advent of e-commerce and e-trading. It's not perfect, but
businesses are going to have to smarten themselves up in a few years time if
they want to remain competitive, and TLC is no exception. How long has the
statement "Currently, it is not possible to order on-line from this catalogue"
been plastered on their site?
You're right about your tariff comment. Australia has pathetically high import
tariffs on goods which aren't even produced locally, so which market are they
protecting? I can't think of ANY Australian toy company (even our stuffed
Koala Bears are made in China), so why whack a heafty tariff on toys?
> There's no reason for arbitrarily (1) discriminating against people just
> because of where they live. To do so is to potentially underserve a market.
That's true, but TLC are doing it right now, and apart from this promised LEGO
Direct, nothing indicates this situation will change. If anything, it's
getting worse in Australia.
> 1 - but apparent discriminationt may not actually be arbitrary, that is,
> market research may suggest that the take rate for a particular product or
> line in a country may be low. For example, Germany has a high per capita brick
> consumption and high TLC market penetration. Uganda, I am guessing, is much
> lower. So Uganda may not get all lines, or may not get them translated into
> native languages. That's just economic reality for now.
I'd be interested in knowing how much market research TLC do (other than the
pathetic surveys they have on their website). Australia is very poorly served
by TLC. Their current policy statement (most powerful brand by 2005 and all
that) will NOT be realised in Australia if current trends continue, I
guarantee it! LEGO is expensive and poorly represented on the shelves of toy
and department stores. When I'm at toy stores looking at LEGO to most frequent
comment I hear from other people looking is "Gee, I didn't realise it was so
expensive", not "Wow, that's great, I'll buy it for little Johnny".
I'm not here to debate the right or wrong issue of this "insider trader"
incident as it's being referred to, because I'm not sure I wouldn't do the
same thing if I was in Larry's or Tom's shoes (a bargain's a bargain wherever
you find it, if you've got the cash), but I will debate the fairness of equal
market access. Fairness is probably the wrong word, as I think that TLC are
selling themselves short with their current distribution policies. I'm just
one "international" customer who is champing at the bit to get similar
services that are offered in the US. I'd bet there are thousands of others out
there like me.
Just ranting out loud.
Pete Callaway (hey Todd, how about creating lugnet.off-topic.rant? ;-)
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Message has 2 Replies:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Lego Direct (was Re: Georgia LEGO Outlet is Cool!)
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| (...) Within the limitations of the business model (that is, people who choose to live in high tariff/high cost of doing business countries have to, unfortunately, suffer the consequences of their government's attempt to hide from reality) I think (...) (25 years ago, 28-Mar-00, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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