Lego...Wal-mart...

[davee123]

I find it irritating that the main toy retailer here in Ireland selling Lego, Smyth's Toys, doesn't stock a complete line-up

In the US at least, it's quite annoying for smaller retail vendors. Because they're not "big bucks", Lego decided to stop offering as wide of an assortment to smaller retailers. So, maybe your local store might WANT to be able to sell the new Star Wars or Castle sets, but they can't yet, because the *big* retailers get first dibs. Similarly, some items like Vikings and trains simply aren't available at all to smaller retailers, no matter how long they wait.

Oh, and small retailers (at least a few years ago, possibly still true) are required to get at least *some* of the full product range. So if you ONLY want to sell Castle sets, well, tough beans, because you also need to sell some of the Bionicle sets too. That sort of thing.

Anyway, Lego essentially decided they weren't making enough money from small retailers, and gave them a smaller selection of options in order to save themselves some money and effort. As I recall hearing from a local shop, this sort of change in the process happened somewhere around '99 or 2000 or so, so it's been like that for a while supposedly.

DaveE

[DanDanLegoman]

G.I. Joe as we know it has all but vanished because of this practice.

You've done it. My extreme distaste for Walmart has now hardened into a dark hatred.

[imperialshadows]

Oddly, the Walmart I visit occasionally tends to stock fairly well. What they don't do is discount. A $49.99 set for $49.87 is not an everyday low price. Then the sets sit until one day they just disappear. No clearance phase at all. I don't know what they do with them, but I guarantee that if there are 10 one day, they don't go on sale, and they're all gone a week later, they didn't sell naturally. It's a mystery to me.

Target has been more reliable for me, but not by much. To be honest, clearances around here are few and far between. Sometimes it's less hassle just to order direct from S@H and let them deliver it.

[davee123]

Then the sets sit until one day they just disappear. No clearance phase at all. I don't know what they do with them, but I guarantee that if there are 10 one day, they don't go on sale, and they're all gone a week later, they didn't sell naturally. It's a mystery to me.

I discovered via the grapevine that Target does discounting on a regular basis, and as such, Ebayers often raid shelves on the morning that they go on sale. So, effectively, the Ebay sellers have learned that Target does them (say) every Tuesday, and so they go in Tuesday morning as early as possible, check for stuff that's newly on sale, and buy all they can. I dunno if Wal*Mart does the same thing, and you just haven't been lucky enough to hit "that magical time", but it's a thought.

Otherwise, I'd guess that Wal*Mart just ships them to a different location where they ARE selling. But that's just a guess.

DaveE

[DerBum]

I for one support Walmart. I, at one point, personally experienced the great support they offer their employees in certain areas (although I am no longer employed by them), so I am a little biased.

On the economic side of things Walmart isnt the problem with many of these toys lines... the manufacturer and stores like Toys R Us have a huge part in it. Yes Walmart is always trying to drive down prices, but that shouldnt have to kill a toy line. If it is a good product people will buy it other places at the higher cost.

As far as Toys R Us not being able to compete with Wally. Toys R Us used to have a lot of other stores to compete against, besides Walmart (and Target)... heck there was KMart, Sears, Service Merchandise (in certain areas), and other department stores and smaller businesses. Where Toys R Us always excelled was in offering a better selection of products in general and of given lines in particular. Truth is my local Toys R Us has a pitiful selection of everything but toddler age toys. Frankly, when I was a child Toys R Us carried pretty much every set Lego had out at a given time. The stores were laid out more like wharehouses with toys stacked floor to ceiling and kids really did get a sense of awe and wonder when they went there. Nowadays, Toys R Us is like every other toy store, sure it is a little bigger, but ours has about 1/3 of the product they used to carry (if that) and there isnt much variety (not to mention the problem of having things in stock). My local Walmart, however, has every one of the Castle line (except the Skeleton Attack Ship set) and has them for a bit cheaper than Toys R Us.

Toys R Us is dying because they let go of their roots as a toy superstore. Trying to keep overhead down caused them to give up on carrying a lot of items which are now sold at specialty shops for more money. Toy trains and slot cars are a good example of a product that Toys R Us let go of completely. Walmart doesnt have the option of carrying as many toys as Toys R Us does, that is where TRU should be beating Wally, with more products and better selection, even at a slightly higher cost.

It is a sad thing, but I am not sure that TRU will be around for my kids when they get older, simply because they are allowing themselves to be beat. It may all be worthless anyway as children migrate away from traditional toys and towards computers and other technology to fill their spare time. Who knows... maybe someday there wont be any toy stores around. Thats my two cents.

[arc]

I work at Walmart, you know.

Seriously you guys have no good reason to hate Walmart, it's just a company like any other company. If it can beat other retailers, why shouldn't it?

I won't get into all the details because these guys argue the point so much better than I can. This link contains strong language and adult situations, NSFW. I normally don't link to things like this, but the marginally offensive elements in it are used artistically to argue a point and they show the bad things Walmart has done in context, not blown out of proportion.

It even features the goof who made the half truth filled anti Walmart movie for a quick buck.

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v343737c6dfyCb8?confirmed=1

I buy my Lego at Walmart, I get a discount!

[Paradosis]

Our local Walmart almost never puts Lego--or any other toy--on clearance. For some reason, though, about a week ago they did put up some shelving in the middle of a main aisle, and have been putting marked-down toys on it. Unfortunately, thus far the only lego has been a couple Bionicle sets and a Duplo bucket. I will add to what others have said though: when when my wife and I were employed by Walmart, we felt that we were treated very well.

[arc]

I'm just a grad student who works hourly at Walmart because it's the best job I could find that would accommodate my schedule, but there's a couple of things I'll try to address:

#1. Yes, sometimes general merchandise inventory is pulled and sent to another Walmart. There's no consistent basis for this I'm aware of though, keep in mind that each Walmart will have its own way of doing things.

#2. Walmart has very sophisticated techniques and mechanisms for computing what to sell in its stores. Things that don't sell get less shelf space, things that do sell get more.

Their logistics and inventory control are amazing. Walmart has always been the best in terms of technology in retail (largest private satellite network in the United States) and acting on information. The company has its own distribution centers that send out everything. This system is so sophisticated, Walmart has figured out they can sell extra strawberry flavored Pop Tarts in certain areas of the USA when a hurricane is expected, and will ship out extra strawberry poptarts to those stores when the weather conditions look like a hurricane. It's so sophisticated that 24 hours from the time I make a sell, the corporate HQ knows what I personally sold and how many, and all that data is studied and analyzed.

That's how shelf space is decided, by what thing Americans are buying by the bushel that week. It's worth remarking however that Lego products take up roughly half on aisle in my store's toy department, exactly as much space as the Lego ripoffs. That's pretty good for such a specialized product. The stuff sells, a fact I see evidenced by the constant restocking. The only 2007 castle sets my store doesn't stock are the King's Castle Siege and the skeleton ship (but I think that's a Lego direct exclusive or something anyway).

#3. FWIW, you can go to walmart.com and have whatever set you can find on the website delivered to your local store free, where you can pick it up at your leisure.

[bkwrm79]

While I love Walmart for many things (higher quality and lower prices than I used to get from Canadian retailers, who are now improving thanks to the competition), the Lego selection is quite lacking locally.

Arc, thanks for the tip on ordering delivery from the website.

More importantly, the local Walmart charges the usual 30% Canadian markup.

Now I understand some retailers are gouged by suppliers and pass that along to consumers. I'd buy that from pretty much everyone except Walmart.

Walmart can MAKE Lego charge the same price to Walmart Canada as Walmart US. If they aren't doing so now that the dollars are at par, that means they are benefiting as well, and I just won't (and can't) pay 30% above the US price, BEFORE the higher taxes.

I hope there aren't too many hassles at the border (coming back into Canada).

I'm not too happy about Lego's pricing policies either, as far as the US/Canada pre-tax discrepancy. To be fair, a lot of other companies haven't adjusted either.

Brickzone, as I understand things, pretty much everything costs more in most of Europe than it does in the US. Is the difference in Lego pricing greater than the general difference in prices?

[Asterios]

While I love Walmart for many things (higher quality and lower prices than I used to get from Canadian retailers, who are now improving thanks to the competition), the Lego selection is quite lacking locally.

Arc, thanks for the tip on ordering delivery from the website.

More importantly, the local Walmart charges the usual 30% Canadian markup.

Now I understand some retailers are gouged by suppliers and pass that along to consumers. I'd buy that from pretty much everyone except Walmart.

Walmart can MAKE Lego charge the same price to Walmart Canada as Walmart US. If they aren't doing so now that the dollars are at par, that means they are benefiting as well, and I just won't (and can't) pay 30% above the US price, BEFORE the higher taxes.

I hope there aren't too many hassles at the border (coming back into Canada).

I'm not too happy about Lego's pricing policies either, as far as the US/Canada pre-tax discrepancy. To be fair, a lot of other companies haven't adjusted either.

Brickzone, as I understand things, pretty much everything costs more in most of Europe than it does in the US. Is the difference in Lego pricing greater than the general difference in prices?

well before you go blaming WalMart and LEGO about the price increase you better start blaming your own government first,the reason prices in the USA are cheaper then Canada is simple,We don't charge import fees,Canada and most of the world do,and these fees avg. about 30% of the products cost,this is also inherenat of why the US $ value is cheaper then the Euro and such.


As far as WalMart goes,my local WalMarts have a wide selection of LEGO and clearance sets out regularly,Target is the same too.

TRU the only clearances i see there are rare and few,sorry to say the only thing destroying TRU is TRU itself,have you been inside a TRU lately?how much of that store actually sells Toys?how much is their cost of LEGO over even the LEGO Company sites prices,let me give you a run down of my local TRU 28% of the store is nothing but Baby Stuff from Diapers to Cribs,seriously who is going to buy their Diapers at TRU when the local food store sells them cheaper?and seriously when you think Cribs or Rockers do you think TRU?
23% of the store is Bikes,sorry but alot of their Bike inventory here is dusty from not being moved,4% is taken up by a big jungle gym
22% is the Electronics dept. seriously i don't think i've ever bought anything in that dept.

and whats left is made up of Toys and games from infant to toddler with prices higher then any other store around and TRU wonders why they are not doing so well?maybe its because they are trying to be walmart but without the low prices?

when TRU decides to go out of business all i'll have to say is good riddance.

[ottoatm]

I'm not sure why, but in the areas near my hometown, Wal-Mart is something of a wasteland in terms of LEGO - I actually have even stopped looking - it's all either MB or some sort of tinker toys - there is usually only one or two LEGO sets, and a bunch of those big Bioncle action figures.

I haven't been to Target in awhile, but they were much better - I remember going in there to buy a light once, and leaving with bags full of LEGO

As for my experience in Asia, I think LEGO should do a lot more work to break into some of the markets here - I understand there is a cost issue, but other than a few mom-and-pop shops, LEGO is only at huge (think Macy's) stores and Toys R' Us, which are often few in number (Hong Kong seems to be better than Taiwan though).

As this is the case, all my buying for the past two years has happened online.

[HeartOfDarkness]

Hmm. In the Wal-Mart nearest me, it dwindled to Bionicle and out-of-date stuff for a few months, then stuffed an entire rack with all the Castle, star Wars, Aqua Raider, and Exo-Force sets that a guy could want, as well as a few Creator and Spongebob sets. In other words, no problems here.

[Brickzone]

Brickzone, as I understand things, pretty much everything costs more in most of Europe than it does in the US. Is the difference in Lego pricing greater than the general difference in prices?

Perhaps not - but it's Lego I really care about I suppose if I was interested in a Playstation 3 I'd be cheesed off that it's $399 in the US and $650 (i.e. €450) here in Ireland for the same model.

Asterios: your comment about import fees aren't relevant to Europe - the European Union (including Denmark) is a single economic trade area. Also sales taxes don't account for the difference in price either, despite them being higher.

As regards Lego in shops here in Ireland, the main retailer has the newer City sets here now, and even has the Advent Calendar (a first!) I bought the Tan Creator house too which was in stock (well, I picked up the last one) and €5 cheaper than S@H too. No Castle whatsoever though - even though Argos only has exclusives on three sets.

[Asterios]

Asterios: your comment about import fees aren't relevant to Europe - the European Union (including Denmark) is a single economic trade area. Also sales taxes don't account for the difference in price either, despite them being higher.

well with Europe you have what is known as VAT which is just plain ugly all around.

[kelderic]

I have always supported Wal-mart. However, in the last few year, the Lego isle, which used to be very large, has dwindled to a couple shelves in the very back of the store. It is the same problem that you guys have reported. However, I randomly went back there a few days ago, and it was completely gone. Looking around, I found a whole new isle, reight at the front of the Toy Dept, completely filled with Legos. I don't know, maybe it's a new manager, or something, but whatever the reason, I pretty happy right now.

Kelderic