New Brand Store in Sheffield, UK

cheshirecat

Often who you work for is more important than what you're paid - I would always take a good company and slightly less money. They're more likely to progress you and well, hell its probably just a nicer environment. My brother works for McLaren F1 and the pay is significantly less than the role/hours should be at almost any equivalent job - but he wouldn't leave for twice the money.

ChanMcL

^Nice, I'm a Mclaren fan too ;)

bluemoose

^^ Very true, but often individuals in management roles can make even the best company, in every other way, unbearable to work for.

LostInTranslation

According to stores.lego.com, Sheffield is opening 27/7, Manchester 20/7, ie tomorrow!

Cam_n_Stu

bluemoose said:

^^ Very true, but often individuals in management roles can make even the best company, in every other way, unbearable to work for.

Oh, that is *so* true!

Sheffield is a little too far for me to trek too, although for the Brand Store model I might have to try and combine a trip in with something else.

ChanMcL

http://stores.lego.com/en-us/Manchester/LandingPage.aspx

Here is the link incase anyone wants to know

bricksan

I will nip into Meadowhall after work to see if it is open or not :)

andhe

LostInTranslation said:

According to stores.lego.com, Sheffield is opening 27/7, Manchester 20/7, ie tomorrow!

Wow! Guess this is the 'soft' opening then. Came slightly out of nowhere, I walked past the Manchester boardings only a week or so ago.

mcvitie

I'll be there on friday after work to treat myself. Do I get the modular Fire Brigade of VW Camper? I can't decide!

cheshirecat

Popped into the Manchester store this morning, staff were extremely friendly, but at 9:15 on a Monday it was obviously very quiet. Anyhow, they said it had been really busy over the weekend and was doing well (nice to hear) but they were obviously still getting to grips with the till. I was handed the card machine before they'd entered the price so could have paid anything I wanted for the pick a brick cup I bought. I was good and told them of their mistake, had I been buying something bigger I might have been tempted by the dark side... lego for a few pence. Nice.

TyoSolo

^^ I'd save your money for the Grand Opening - you're going to need £25 x 3 days to get all the exclusives.

mcvitie

Oh ye good thinkin batman. I dont think i can resist a quick nosey before the grand opening though

TyoSolo

I'll be going through this weekend - I need a taste of LEGO heaven!

bricksan

I have been today, plenty of choice but not impressed with PaB wall but other then that it is a cool store, I just did a write up here http://brickfanatics.co.uk/a-visit-to-the-sheffield-lego-store/ and photos are on my flickr stream if you want to use any @huw ? http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/

TyoSolo

I went in today - as always, the mall is Meadowhell on Saturdays. The shop was very busy, but that never stopped the staff from being very polite and helpful.

I treated my Daughter to the Farm Duplo set, as she seemed to enjoy playing with it in store, and I got myself my first large PaB cup. Fortunately, they had LOTs of 1x1 round trans blue and trans clear, which I'm after, so I'm quids in there compared to BL.

I got talking to the guy at the till (who wasn't at all bothered that I'd overfilled my cup), who mentioned the grand opening. I asked him if he knew what the promo items would be. He said he wasn't sure, but there was likely to be a minifig pack, a T-Shirt and something else, and that the "something" else would be something quite special.

I'll be there each of the three days - but I may just give the T-shirt a miss, if that ends up being confirmed.

Also, they had the legs, body and hat for the CMF Magician, but I couldn't find the correct head or a wand, which is a shame, because for £3.50 for 3, I would have snatched them up if they had been. They also had the body, legs and hat for the MMV blacksmith, but again, no head to match.

AJRoper

When is the grand opening?

bricksan

AJRoper said:

When is the grand opening?

August 31st, and 1st and 2nd September

TyoSolo

^ 31st Aug to 2nd Sept - A different freebie each day with every £25 spend.

Venunder

I thought I had missed this. :)

Now I will have to try to save some money for the Opening Weekend. :)

AJRoper

TyoSolo said:

^ 31st Aug to 2nd Sept - A different freebie each day with every £25 spend.

Thank you!

LostInTranslation

The landing page for Sheffield at stores.Lego.com be says that the freebies for the first 300 purchases over £25 will be child's t-shirt on Friday, Lego store model on Sat and minifigs on Sunday.

TyoSolo

So I guess i'll be seeing some of you guys at opening time on the Sat and Sun then?

TheBrickLadd

I'll be there sat and sun. Just need to decide what to buy!

bricksan

Gutted the minifigures was the ones I wanted by I can't get as I am running the Great Yorkshire 10k that day :(

LostInTranslation

@bricksan I wouldn't be too gutted until we see what they actually are. The Stratford grand opening figures were nothing special - a builder, a baker and something else I can't remember. Not special to me, anyway. The person who bought them off me on eBay clearly thought they were ;-)

bricksan

The only reason I was interested in those more was they would have probably gone well in my City project but we will have to weight and see. ;)

fitzyfitz

Hmmm...either the Sheffield opening has a 'Manchester' t-shirt or somebody's fallen foul of the old copy/paste error :o)

Venunder

I would like to go but I'm not sure I will have time or money.

SilentMode

I'm hoping to be at both this grand opening and the one in Manchester... but I should probably book the train tickets and accommodation right now.

TyoSolo

According to Brick Fanatics (thanks @bricksan), Sheffield will also be having an AFOL shopping day on the same weekend as the Grand Openening.

It will be on the 1st Sept from 8am-9am

ChanMcL

Anyone know where the lego store in Meadowhall?

ChanMcL

Also, since it is AFOL day too, it is opening at 8? Is it possible to get the AFOL discount as well as the exclusive gift on the day?

TyoSolo

^It should be openeing at 8, whether we will get the discount AND exclusive is unknown at the moment. It's right next door to the Disney store.

ChanMcL

^hope we do. If not, I don't think I will be going to Sheffield, its nearly 2 and abit hours drive for me.

TheBrickLadd

I have planned this opening with a trip to the in-laws. Planned very well. Still need to finish deciding what I will buy! :D

TyoSolo

Haunted House and/or MMV on Saturday and Castle Chess Set on Sunday for me.

ChanMcL

^i'd like to have the Castle Chess Set, but no one will play chess with me in the house, too bad!

atkinsar

Has anyone got any insight into how it's gonna work on Saturday morning? Ideally they will give out the store set with a £25 purchase during the AFOL hour between 8 and 9, but you can well imagine they won't do that as it's a bit unfair on those queuing outside maybe.

At the end of the hour are they gonna make us leave the store and join the end of the queue, or will they let us stay in the store when the doors open?

Legoboy

^ I have a feeling, every 'adult' will claim to be an AFOL next week. The queue outside will be kids I suspect. I can't see the store staff surfing anybody out.

Will be an interesting morning, that's for sure.

SirKevbags

I think it must be the latter. I would love to think whatever plans they had then they will be revised after today. The que outside was no problem because there was room to stand. Once inside it went to shite though. Wasn't enough space for the volume of people.

Maybe limit the amount of people inside? Letting people enter in smaller groups. It wasn't like people were browsing today. It was pick the set you had already decided on and then attempt to move towards the till.

pd66

I expected them to one give out vouchers to those waiting outside for the freebie to avoid the huge rush to the pre-selected set and then the tills and/or two limit the number of people in the store to allow some unpressured browsing.

Neither happened so my son made a beeline for the monster fighters for his pre-pick and I settled for the chess set on way to q. We got served at 3 and 5 minutes past nine respectively but by then the q was out the door of people waiting to pay.

Maybe they can give the Sheffield staff some feedback and they can adjust as needed?

Anyone know whether the AFOL event is at Manchester as well next weekend?

TyoSolo

^Yes... from the looks of it it's nationwide. I think someone mentioned one running in Germany too.

atkinsar

Right, so it's gonna be an early start then, we'll be queuing from 7 at this rate! Do you think a VIP card will be required to get in between 8 and 9, I have one, but my wife doesn't.

Legoboy

Timings for the different UK locations next week:-

Bluewater, Stratford, Liverpool, Brighton, Manchester, Sheffield 8am – 9am

Milton Keynes, Cardiff 8.30am – 9.30am

Westfield 9am – 10am

SirKevbags

I can't appear anyone being asked for AFOL proof.

Legoboy

I haven't even got a card. One of my thick knitted jumpers, belly and beard ought to be enough.

TyoSolo

I'm making it easy for you all to spot me - had a T-Shirt knocked up with my avatar on it, front and back, especially for the occasion. The wife was going to come too so we could get 2 shops, but with a 3 week old and a 20mth old, it'd have been far too early, so I'll be alone! :-(

SirKevbags

^^ You need to make the effort and get there then :-P

TheBrickLadd

@atkinsar. Wow do you really think you will need to get there that early? Will there be 250 AFOL lego waiting for the promo?

Legoboy

kevbags said:

^^ You need to make the effort and get there then :-P

I'm sending 'my people'. :-P