New LEGO stores opening in 2014

emilewski

For the USA, opening in 2014:

Westfarms, West Hartford, CT
Danbury Fair, Danbury, CT
Staten Island Mall, Staten Island, NY
Fashion Show, Las Vegas, NV

It looks like one opening in Carrefour Laval in Laval, Quebec, Canada

Dates yet to be announced.

margot

Westfarms and Danbury Fair mall, woot!! I might have to go visit family in Connecticut!

Russell844

Vegas road trip baby!

SirKevbags

^ Where do I sign up!?

BTHodgeman

Vegas - great! :)

FenrisAkashi

Finally! About time on Vegas.

thornie

Jeez, finally the Staten Island Mall gets one! No more having to journey into Queens to pay RRP.

Cntryislandboy

That's great new stores are opening, shows company and demand is growing. The closest Lego store to me is 3.5 hours away, but that's ok I"m moving soon and then there will be a store only 2.5 hours away. But maybe I will get lucky and they will open one up where I am moving to in a couple years, after all it is a fairly large tourist town.

Wil348

No news for Europe? I was hoping that one would open in Bordeaux in France, since I'm not terribly far away from there. Or maybe in Poitou-Charantes, since I'm in that area. I'd love to have a LEGO store near me again like when I lived in Cardiff...

jadeirene

Oooh, Vegas store. Now, how do I explain to my parents that they need to babysit for the weekend because I want to go to a LEGO store opening in Las Vegas?

ACWWGal2011

come on, why can't we get a Louisiana one :'(

Kanohi

STATEN FREAKING ISLAND!

Haha sorry but this is just fantastic news for us stuck on the island. Like @thornie said, traveling the Queens from SI is not fun - hours on the train, ferry, then subway. And the $15 toll on the Verrazano Bridge kinda kills any excitement if you're trying to drive in.

Jersey's got a bunch close by but, again, tolls are ridiculous around here.

--Gary

This just made my Christmas :)

RikTheVeggie

Does anyone know when the Las Vegas store opens? I'm off there on vacation at the end of February and saw the Opening Soon announcement in the store calendar for Feb so am hopeful..

andyscouse

Will be making the 2hr drive to Danbury CT on April 5 .... :)

And West Hartford - wow, that's just 1hr away! Huzzah!

Russell844

@RikTheVeggie, the Las Vegas store grand opening is April 25-27. My airline tickets and hotel reservations are already booked. :)

FoxyA19

margot said:

Westfarms and Danbury Fair mall, woot!! I might have to go visit family in Connecticut!

"Family"

legogregors

Is there a date for west Hartford yet?

RikTheVeggie

@Russell844‌ thanks. Just got back actually, according to stores.lego.com it's already open (Grand Openings are usually a few weeks after the store's been open) but it was still closed when we went. A shame, my SO was really hoping to get #10243 at a good price!

brclark82

@Russell844‌ where did you find that info, I have been checking on the dates for the Vegas store since I heard they were getting one and I haven't been able to find anything.

Russell844

@brclark82‌ it is printed on the back of the April store calendar.

margot

FoxyA19 said:

margot said:

Westfarms and Danbury Fair mall, woot!! I might have to go visit family in Connecticut!

"Family"

@FoxyA19, I'm not sure what you are trying to say?

FoxyA19

Finding an excuse to go buy LEGO! Don't cry, it's a joke, are you familiar with these?

BazookaJoeX9

Why don't they put one in Pittsburgh? Makes no sense. The closest store is Columbus :-(

pharmjod

FoxyA19 said:

Finding an excuse to go buy LEGO! Don't cry, it's a joke, are you familiar with these?

She is actually from Connecticut and has family there, hence the ?? about the "Joke".

DadsAFOL

@Russell844 I think the soft opening is the week of 3/24. The Mission Viejo store manager is going out there to train employees.

Russell844

Probably. I never heard the date of the soft opening, just the grand opening listed in the calendar. The store manager from Valley Fair store is transferring there to be the manager.

emilewski

Danbury store opens April 4-6. West Hartford store in May, but no exact date yet.

http://articles.courant.com/2014-03-05/business/hc-lego-west-farms-0306-20140305_1_westfarms-mall-kevin-keenan-enfield-business-park

bmwlego

It is a shame that LEGO doesn't ask for fan volunteers for these events anymore as I enjoyed taking part in these from that vantage point.

jadedanc

They don't? I know I helped when Lynnwood, WA opened. It was a blast!

emilewski

No, they do not anymore. When TLG initiated the ban on discounts on exclusives, that included the discounts fan volunteers received for helping with new store openings. Individuals complained vocally that why should they donate their time and help TLG if they are not going to be able to use discounts in return on exclusives. TLG said "fine" and just did away with fan volunteers.

I think that is really too bad, as I and many others of my LUG would love to help out just for the pleasure of building, with no desire for compensation in terms of discounts. Oh well.

streeker

Kind of old news but there are two stores now open in France:

Clermont Ferrand

Disneyland Paris. Prices are higher - similar to Rockeller Center in NYC.

Wil348

streeker said:

Kind of old news but there are two stores now open in France:

Clermont Ferrand

Disneyland Paris. Prices are higher - similar to Rockeller Center in NYC.

There's also one opening in Bordeaux next year, and it's set to be a flagship one.

ajm390

Will Lego ever open a store in East Anglia. Nearest to me in Norfolk are the London stores about 2.5 hours drive!!

richl

Anyone have any idea what happened to the LEGO store that was meant to be opening at 200 Fifth Avenue in NYC? The lease was signed in December 2012 and was been reported as a early 2014 opening but haven't heard anything about it.

timt

I wonder how these store openings are going to go in the future without volunteers. I've been to two openings and one anniversary so far and they've only had maybe 2 or 3 employees associated with the build event with up to a dozen volunteers. Maybe they won't even do Master Builder events any more which I feel sorry for the kids.

cody6268

It seems as though they only put Lego Stores in places where there's a lot of tourism.

ACWWGal2011

Will Lego ever open a store in East Anglia. Nearest to me in Norfolk are the London stores about 2.5 hours drive!!

better then me. the closest is an average of a 6 hour drive from us.

LostInTranslation

cody6268 said:

It seems as though they only put Lego Stores in places where there's a lot of tourism.

Yeah, like, um, Watford ;-S

Brewer51

Watford is an absolute hotbed for tourists...





Trying to find cheap parking and a cheap way into London.

binaryeye

cody6268 said:

It seems as though they only put Lego Stores in places where there's a lot of tourism.

In the US, it seems they put them in relatively upscale areas near major cities.

1265

^^
Never thought about it, but that's a fact.

BuriedinBricks

The Milwaukee area store is in what's probably one of the nicest malls in the state and close to the richer suburban areas of the city.

I had not heard about the no more AFOL volunteers decree. That really stinks. I had a ton of fun working the grand opening for our store and probably would have done it without a discount on exclusives. Even building the ribbon models was an awesome experience.

Xefan

A lot of companies are afraid to use volunteers because of this idiocy way back in 2000:

http://www.salon.com/2000/09/21/ultima_volunteers/

Long story short, some person volunteered to help other players in an online game, got given free access to the game and $500 a month and decided this wasn't good enough and that she actually deserved a full salary even though she was just volunteering (hint: you're a volunteer, don't like the terms? stop volunteering).

As usual it's a case of one person ruining it for everyone. Ever since companies have been afraid of using volunteers through fear of losing a lawsuit and having to pay salary and possibly even compensation. If they're going to pay salary anyway they might as well bring their own trained staff in for an extra day of paid work that week.

I can understand why TLG would do away with the volunteer program if people start expecting some kind of benefit for volunteering as that alters the relationship - if they're giving you something in return it's not really volunteering but paid work. They're then open to another potential liability stemming from that change in relationship - if it's paid work then they have an obligation to compensate to at least the level of the minimum wage.

Likely Lego hasn't stopped volunteers out of spite for requesting refunds, but because that triggered an evaluation of risk by the legal department and they realised they were potentially opening themselves up to a degree of liability.

luckie_reubs

We were in New Orleans last week, and I was surprised that there wasn't a store there. There's only one in Alabama (in Birmingham), and there's not one close to us in Florida, either. So the closest one to us is about 5 hours away, and I doubt there will ever be one any closer.

margot

luckie_reubs said:

We were in New Orleans last week, and I was surprised that there wasn't a store there.

We all know that's because no one buys Lego in New Orleans except @Thanos75. :-)

Thanos75

I'm actually ok with there not being a LEGO store in Louisiana. Its nice when I get to order from [email protected] with no sales tax. I'm sure LEGO does their homework before opening a new store. New Orleans is a big tourist city but the visitors are not really the demographics that LEGO is looking for. Unless they start selling LEGO beads or drink holders. Baton Rouge would make a much better place to open a store in my opinion.

emilewski

TLG us not doing volunteers anymore but there is nothing stopping the stores from hiring part-time temporary help when needed. That decision would be made at the store level.

luckie_reubs

Thanos75 said:

I'm actually ok with there not being a LEGO store in Louisiana. Its nice when I get to order from [email protected] with no sales tax. I'm sure LEGO does their homework before opening a new store. New Orleans is a big tourist city but the visitors are not really the demographics that LEGO is looking for. Unless they start selling LEGO beads or drink holders. Baton Rouge would make a much better place to open a store in my opinion.

I know what you mean, but for some reason I could've sworn there was one up around Metarie (sp?) where the Apple Store was. It kills me that Birmingham (way of the way for us) is the closest one, but then there are two in Atlanta which makes it just inconvenient enough to not go to them when we visit family in other parts of Georgia. I know better deals can be had shopping elsewhere, but there's something nice about actually being in the store.

Bluefairy_56

Does anyone know of any Lego Stores in Adelaide in South Australia?

It's 3hrs away, but it's a big city, so I figure there is bound to be at least one.

andyscouse

bmwlego said:

It is a shame that LEGO doesn't ask for fan volunteers for these events anymore as I enjoyed taking part in these from that vantage point.

Are you going to the Danbury event? I plan on being there probably 9:45am or so ...

Basta

Bluefairy_56 said:

Does anyone know of any Lego Stores in Adelaide in South Australia?

It's 3hrs away, but it's a big city, so I figure there is bound to be at least one.

No store in Adelaide, you have a bit of distance to travel to your nearest store.

As it is in Malaysia, at LEGOLAND.

Interestingly the first Lego store was in Australia at Birkenhead point in Sydney, opened in 1984 & closed in the early 90's. Not that I can remember but apparently I went there as a young kid.

http://www.toltoys.com/2011/05/the-first-lego-store-birkenhead-point-sydney-lego-centre/