[US] Lego Store

Mynatt

Ok, I searched for this discussion and I am a bit surprised that is doesn't already exist so feel free to move it to where it needs to go if it already exists. Did not see a discussion for lego store events/sales.

So I thought I would go ahead and share this survey response that I sent to Lego from one of those receipts:

I was there something of six years ago when the store opened and for the next two years, I continued to go to that store quite often. As time went on I got to know some of the staff there and one member, in particular, was an employee by the name of ______. Through a common interest in the Lego fan community, we were able to talk about various Brickfairs and brick conventions and through this was able to get to know each other. It was always great having the chance to talk about all things Lego related. 

Now with that being said, it has been quite some time since I returned to this store. I would pop in every once and awhile to see what was going on or to grab some kind of deal or promotion but it was quite rare for me to return to the store. 

A few weeks ago I stopped back in to pick up some CMF and while standing around, ______ approached me and struck up a conversation. At first, I will admit I had no idea who he was but eventually conversations from six years back I began to remember who he was.

I usually don't talk about lego to anyone and haven't attended a brick convention in years but when we started talking it was really cool to talk to someone in person once more about the plastic toy. I had completely forgotten about it all but the fact that ______ was able to remember me over the past six years sticks out to me as something truly great. The community is something amazing and I am still to this day quite surprised that I ran into him and he recognized me. Through this, I know that I will have to stop by the Lego Store much more often as the sense of community that you can get from that place is something else that I can't say most other stores can match with.


I left out the name here just for the sake of privacy. Thought I would make this post to say for anyone who is on the edge of stopping into a store, I would say to absolutely make the trip to one.

madforLEGO

Also, those surveys DO matter to the store and its employees. So when you have a pleasurable experience at the store, be sure to fill out the survey!!

Astrobricks

^^ I'm glad you had a great experience there. I've found it's a fun place to visit every now and then, but I think the Lego stores get little attention here in the shopping forum because they don't tend to have great deals on anything. They have their 20% off a few sets, and sometimes 50% off a small set like the birthday one, or an out-of-season seasonal, but nothing to get very excited about compared to the discounts available elsewhere. The best reason to go AFAIC is just to see the full lineup in one place.

madforLEGO

I typically do not buy LEGO sets at the store unless it is double points, there are sets on sale there that are not on the site (or have a better discount, which occasionally occurs), CMFs (so I can find the ones I want instead of trusting [email protected] to randomly send me the ones I want), or the 20% loyalty coupon that came out about a month ago. I typically stay away from buying sets otherwise as the tax in county the store is in is obnoxious compared to the county I'm in. Actually, for me, the best thing about the LEGO store near me is PaB and Build a minifigure.

Pick a brick, even if it does not have a ton of awesome parts anymore, still has some unique parts from time to time, or parts that I think I could use in a design for a building. Plus lately I have been picking up more of the types of parts I tend to forget about when thinking about building something (1x1 eyelet plates, 2xX brick, and even 2xX or 4xX plates) .

Build a minifigure recently is the bigger draw for me as they keep getting hard to find accessories that were only in CMF packs (and therefore costly if you go to sites like BL for them) into their bins and most stores will let you fill up the blister packs of 15 of any part, and you do not just have to build a figure with an accessory (which is normally 5 parts).

kwkw

@madforLEGO wait there was a 20% loyalty coupon for the Lego store??

madforLEGO

kwkw said:

@madforLEGO wait there was a 20% loyalty coupon for the Lego store??

Yes, but it was not as good as you are thinking... It was for one item and with a LOT of 'fine' print (basically forbidding any exclusive from being bought with the coupon)

davetheoxygenman

madforLEGO said:

kwkw said:

@madforLEGO wait there was a 20% loyalty coupon for the Lego store??

Yes, but it was not as good as you are thinking... It was for one item and with a LOT of 'fine' print (basically forbidding any exclusive from being bought with the coupon)

@kwkw I guess some of us are not as loyal as we are supposed to be.  Or perhaps maybe they know we are not going anywhere...

PJ76uk

Hi, anyone visited the Orlando Lego Store recently and knows what polybags they're currently stocking? Hoping they might have 30452 Iron Man and Dum-E polybag if anyone can confirm?

Jenni

@PJ76uk I haven't been to that store in years but in general the US LEGO stores don't carry polybags. 30452 was sold in Walmart. If you're going to LEGOland I think the stores there often sell polybags, the LDCs do at least.

SumoLego

It is pretty unusual for the LEGO Retail Store to have polybags.  On the flip side - the stores at LEGOLand seem to be replete with all sorts of polys.

M1J0E

Thanks for sharing the surveys do matter!  I always fill them out with an ‘everything is awesome’ as it usually is at our lego store. I just didn’t realize that might actually matter. 

CCC

SumoLego said:

It is pretty unusual for the LEGO Retail Store to have polybags.  On the flip side - the stores at LEGOLand seem to be replete with all sorts of polys.

Also polybags are fairly common at the Discovery Centers.

Astrobricks

thehoarder said:

by the way the Danbury store has some great deals going on now! including sales on tlm2 sets

I believe the TLM2 sale items are pretty much the same across the stores and at [email protected] At least that seems true for my local LEGO store.

madforLEGO

The LEGO store near me had the usual PaB selection, plus a bunch of notables at the PaB wall, namely:

dark green sea grass/ seaweed

1x4 gold railings

8x8 light tan plates

Large darker green Foliage leaves

Small 1x1 with three leaves foliage

2x2 dark red tile

Yellow doors with dk gray frames

1x2 dark red profile (masonry) brick (while supplies last on the dark red masonry brick and the tile of course).

madforLEGO

Sorry, forgot to mention that it is the Schaumburg store that I went to.

madejp86

madforLEGO said:

Sorry, forgot to mention that it is the Schaumburg store that I went to.

Woodfield or Streets?

madforLEGO

Sorry, should have mentioned that, but really there is only one LEGO store in Schaumburg, in Woodfield mall.
The one in 'Streets' is a LEGOLAND discovery Center. 

madforLEGO

Another group of notable 'new' parts at the PaB wall at the LEGO store (not LDC)

1x2 teal brick

1x1 round gold plate

1x1 white flower

1x1 lime/bright green flower

2x2 gray round tile

2x2 dk red tile

1x2x5 trans clear brick

flame part

560Heliport

Yesterday at Mall of America store (Bloomington, Minnesota): 2x4 flat tile in teal/bright bluish green.

BeauBricks

Kansas city lego store had some key chains for $1.24 or 2.50-ish. Don't know what the regular price is, but I found it cheap.

madforLEGO

Just got back from the LEGO store in Woodfield mall in Schaumburg IL. Some notables of what they had:

-CMF 19 (though looks a bit picked through)

-No new BaM parts yet (October)

-The Spiderman museum break in pack is there

-Mini #40220 London Bus sets are in stock (other side of where the CMFs are at)

-a pile of Star Destroyers (which are useful as a table for the PaB wall)

-There was also some unscheduled build event at 3pm, but I was not going to stay for that)

-Some more new parts at the PaB :

( though I think the decorative gold 1x1 brick with decoration is out of stock -I think I got the last half cup of those, sorry)

-Teal 2x4 tile

-Teal 1/4 round tile

-Yellow 1x4x6 Door and Dark Bley 1x4x6 frame

-1x4x3 white window frame and 'glass'

-White spider webbing

-Red large rock gem piece

-1x1 trans clear round brick (hard to spot but it is there)

-1x2 dark blue plate

There are some other parts on their PaB 'sample board', like a few other 1x2 plate colors, and still have those flower pieces from before as well, but I think the teal pieces are new I think as they just opened one of the boxes for me.

bmwlego

Thanks for sharing @madforLEGO

Nice new PaB parts. Love the idea of the PaB Sample Board. This should be done in all stores.

madforLEGO

Yeah, it makes it easier for the staff to not have to go back to the back room to show what they have, instead all of the new parts they have available are on a 32x32 base plate (at least for the most part, some times the recently delivered parts may not be on there, but the staff typically will mention them).

Tkatt

I think a PaB sample board is an excellent idea, especially if they could post a photo (somewhere on the local shops webpage) of that board when it is updated. 
I hate driving, parking, walking through the mall with my empty cups to refill, and then leaving without buying anything because the wall didn't have anything good that day.
I also don't like calling the store to have an employee tell me everything they have.

bmwlego

Couldn't agree more ^.

This practice of the sample board or PaB Menu as another store has called it should be standard LBR practice. I went to a store on a trip through a different state and the employee asked me what I was looking for. 
I told him I didn't know because it depended on what they had in stock. 
Employee handed me PaB menu of what they had on the wall and another menu for what was in the back. 
I went from filling maybe 2 cups to 14! I took pictures of both menus, shared them with friends from the LUG and this store sold an additional 12 cups of elements. They turned their back room into money by letting me know what was back there. 

It makes sense not only for their customer/fan base but also for their bottom line as well. Why this isn't done by LBR is completely puzzling.

mdtvandy

Anyone know if the LEGO Store will be doing an event for Triple Force Friday next week?

560Heliport

I asked at the Mall of America store (Bloomington, Minnesota) last week. The employee didn't know any details: "Probably double VIP points, probably a GWP...".

Pyrobug

I got this in the mail today.Double VIP as well, of course. All that's on the inside is information about the UCS ISD. I wish they would tell us ahead of time what sets will be on sale.

bpk2300

So my new local LEGO store’s grand opening will be occurring next weekend during the Star Wars Triple Force promos. Here’s to hoping the SW promos and grand opening promos stack!

KungFuKenny

Posted this in the SW thread and then saw the discussion here about TFF promotions... looks like there will be an in-store promo of a micro-brickheadz style Luke through the different movies

miamibear

I'm still not able to complete a purchase on Lego.com. I spent an hour today preparing a Bricks and Pieces order and after I entered my card info, I received this message popup "Sorry! We're unable to authorise your payment at this time. Please contact customer service."

I called customer service and he said to clear my cookies, I did that and it still doesn't work. I'm using a Mac, I tried Safari and Firefox. I even dug out my old PC and tried Firefox and that didn't work either.

Sorry if this isn't the correct place to ask but does anyone have any suggestions?

Can you order Bricks and Pieces through the phone?

Thanks

Russell844

@miamibear Check to see if you have an old promo code in the promo code box. If there is delete it and try again. A friend told me about it and it worked for my order.

madforLEGO

@miamibear Yes you can order BnP through the CS phone number, but I think they have a limit of 20-30 part types (unless that has changed), and depends how busy they are.

However, they can also tell you if there is an issue with getting a part (perhaps that may also be contributing to your issues as well if your BnP order has a part in it that is no longer available to purchase when you tried to check out). I believe I got a similar issue when I tried to submit an order when a quantity I wanted was no longer available due to sell out. It is rare, but it happens. Especially if you had an existing order in your cart already, but even while you are building a new order (as I have seen the availability of a part go from X to nothing while building an order once)

To check your part order online: In your cart, go to edit the order and make sure that for each part the amount you wanted to get (in the drop down) is not the 'maximum' amount available in the drop down (unless of course you selected LEGO's max allotment in the part quantity, like 200 I think).

For example, if you wanted 40 of a part, and you check the drop down and 40 is the max you can get now, the part may be no longer available at the time you checked out, which will likely be one of the causes for the site to report payment could not be authorized.

KungFuKenny

Looks like the Juice Bar is back on Halloween if anyone missed it... 

mustang69

I didnt see anything on the Oct store calendar about double VIP points. Hopefully it will happen some time during the month as that is usually when I get the Winter Village set.

Switchfoot55

@mustang69, I believe with the changes this year, x2 VIP events aren't really highlighted on the calendars any more (as illustrated by the fact that double points for Triple Force Friday were announced by email, but are not on the calendar).

I'm holding out for mid-October when the x2 event usually happens for my WV set. 

jmeninno

Just curious, has anyone brought their kids into the store in Star Wars costume?  I thought there might have been a little something for the younger Star Wars fans, as a giveaway...thanks!

eddiew

jmeninno said:

Just curious, has anyone brought their kids into the store in Star Wars costume?  I thought there might have been a little something for the younger Star Wars fans, as a giveaway...thanks!

I brought in my son, the Porg, while I did the Luke minibuild. He got the Admiral Yularen polybag ( #5002947 ). I'm sure the bonus varied from store to store, based on inventory on hand.

Pyrobug

^That's what they had at my store as well.

mustang69

Saw on Reddit earlier that there is a report from The Brick Fan that double VIP points will be active from the 14th to the 27th of this month. Looks like I'll be getting the winter village set next week, along with some CMFs. Hopefully there is also a freebie promotion going on at the same time.

bpk2300

The LEGO Store in Disney Springs has these neat Minifig Factory booths, now. Will be checking it out in a couple weeks when I go.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh53YQeZGlA

Switchfoot55

@mustang69, I saw that earlier today too. Glad I waited to pull the trigger on the Gingerbread House. Between Triple Force Friday and this x2 event, I should have a nice stockpile of vouchers to use moving forward.

panchox1

Very cool. I'll be at Disneyland CA next month. Too bad this is only in FL.

madforLEGO

LEGO store in Schaumburg IL (Woodfield mall) had some interesting PaB parts:

1x2 Nougat tile

1x2 dark gray tile

1/4 dark red round tile

8x8 tan plate

madejp86

madforLEGO said:

LEGO store in Schaumburg IL (Woodfield mall) had some interesting PaB parts:

1x2 Nougat tile

1x2 dark gray tile

1/4 dark red round tile

8x8 tan plate

I check that store weekly so I am happy to see others are to so maybe I wont have to go so often!

madforLEGO

I go about 2 times a month, especially around the beginning of a new quarter when they get the new BaM parts, but I really need to reduce that as it does get pricey. I try to limit myself to one PaB large cup, but lately they have been getting some really nice parts in stock.

madforLEGO

Against my better judgement (or at least my wallet's judgement) I went to the local store (Schaumburg IL. LEGO store in Woodfield mall), as I thought I had more 1x2 dk bley tile, but I did not so I wanted to get more before they ran out.

The also had large bone pieces in (presumably for Halloween) and, not pictured apparently, minifigure 'flat' brooms in brown (https://brickset.com/parts/4211157/mini-broom)

I did get a photo of their part board as well:

bmwlego

PaB Part Boards...maybe each store will do this? Wish they would. 

LarryC39

I thought there was a discrete PaB thread, but I guess there's only one for the BaM Bar.  Somerset Troy MI had some interesting pieces on the PaB wall this week.  One piece of an up slope for rollercoasters (red) and the car bodies to go on the tracks.  Nothing to mate the track to, which made it kind of an odd duck to expect to sell in volume.

None of the bones or french bread or brooms :(  and the yellow fence piece was months ago.

Infinityman

@LarryC39 I'm thinking of driving over there from Lansing tomorrow... was hoping to get the Halloween-themed parts in the Build a Minifigure bar. Did you happen to see if the Troy store had them?