Toys R Us...R U For Real?

sipmart242 · November 2012

Went to find polys at tru today same o same o.... But Lego isle was full of people despite telling several about better deals still they shrugged and filled their carts with big sets even though target is right across the street. Seems some don't care about saving a"few" extra bucks. O well I will continue to inform everyone I see when I'm there. Just wish I could find some of the polys ie..mirkwood elf elsewhere. :)-

LegoFanTexas · November 2012

sipmart242 said:
But Lego isle was full of people despite telling several about better deals still they shrugged and filled their carts with big sets even though target is right across the street. Seems some don't care about saving a"few" extra bucks.

Keep in mind that this country is full of haves and have nots. Plenty of people are really hurting and have been for years now. Plenty more never were hurt in the first place and are doing just fine.

How the country is doing depends greatly on which catagory you fit into. I continue to sell $1,000+ retired LEGO sets to people with plenty of money, many of whom give them to their kids.

dragonhawk · November 2012

I agree that it seems an accounting or math degree is required to get a decent LEGO deal at TRU. However, they offer pretty good deals on video games and other toys..

sipmart242 said:
.... But Lego isle was full of people despite telling several about better deals still they shrugged and filled their carts with big sets even though target is right across the street. Seems some don't care about saving a"few" extra bucks. ...

TRU sells OTHER toys and they have better selection than Target and Walmart comparatively. So perhaps they save more (in terms of time and effort) by purchasing different toys at 1 place.

Ma1234 · November 2012

Crackseed said:
The only thing I ever pick up from TRU anymore is polybags I can't find anywhere else. They do a double mark-up here in Hawaii. The usual TRU markup and then an additional one due to "shipping" it overseas to the islands.

Pretty grotesque, but oh well - I just choose to support them as little as possible as a result.

Why is "shipping" in quotation marks? It legitiamtely cost more to operate stores and sell items in Hawai'i - significantly more. That cost is going to be passed onto the consumer. Even the LEGO Store in Ala Moana sells goods at above retail.

Swoopy251 · November 2012

To anyone calling around looking for the Mirkwood Elf polybag - Make sure you talk to the store manager. The employees at my local TRU put on an amazing display of incompetence today by consistently putting me on hold and pretending to look until another employee came by to pick up the phone (first time calling got the same person twice in a row, then someone else). They all said they didn't have it in stock. I suspected the employees all just shrugged me off so I called again and got hold of the store manager. Within minutes she was able to tell me, "Oh yeah, we've got bunches. You want me to hold some for you?"

LegoFanTexas · November 2012

^ The difference between a $10/hr employee and a $60,000 a year employee is just night and day...

But I guess you can only expect so much for who they can get to come work for the pay they offer.

I've done both jobs (my first job was in a mall, $3.85/hr!), I quit management and started my own business when I realised I was just never going to get a decent staff for the budget I had to work with for payroll.

I do understand why, everyone wants their stuff super cheap, but then they want great service. Reminds me of the old saying, "you can have good, fast, or cheap... pick two..."

oldtodd33 · November 2012

^ " Cheap work ain't good and good work ain't cheap"

LegoFanTexas · November 2012

oldtodd33 said:
^ " Cheap work ain't good and good work ain't cheap"

That is also a good saying. :)

mrseatle · November 2012

I would have thought that toys made in China would be cheaper to ship to HI than mainland US.... Do they ship 'em to the US first, than halfway back to China?

clowndiscuslego · December 2012

not all toys r us's are the same price wise i have noticed. i have 2 with in 40 miles from me both had TMNT and both had them for different prices

Ma1234 · December 2012

It's true. TRU prices by neighborhood. Higher rent/more upscale areas are have prices even more inflated than lower rent stores and online. I shop at one particular TRU in the LA area (La Cienega) that has prices matching online; whereas another one I sometimes frequent (Atwater Village) is quite a bit more. (And, to note, I don't shop for LEGO at TRU; I do shop for other toys there, as they don't mark-up other toys the way they do LEGO).

Target has the same practice. Wal-Mart and K-Mart tend to be consistent on non-sale pricing.

ColtCrazy · December 2012

I have found good deals at TRU during their BOGO 50% sales. But you have to look and see what the pricing is, what's marker up, and which of the two TRU in my area have the best prices. Some sets around here are not marked up at all, they are at SRP. Others are marked up as much as 30%.

yys4u · December 2012

So is the evil of TRU...

crazycarl · December 2012

Ma1234 said:
(Atwater Village)

Is this the Atwater/Merced area?

Decker · December 2012

crazycarl said:

Ma1234 said:
(Atwater Village)
Is this the Atwater/Merced area?

Its more like the Glendale/Griffith Park area.

MorkMan · December 2012

Costco bases their prices similarly. It depends on the zip-code that the store is in. Prices for items can swing a few dollars (depending on the price).

hassmyster · December 2012

Yea Toys R Us are punks about that. They are really annoying about that and they raise prices on the sets sometimes prior to sales.

clowndiscuslego · December 2012

its not only with legos but as it gets closer to christmas it will be anything hot, monster high dolls, etc

Pitfall69 · December 2012

^hmmmm. It seems most resellers do the same ;)

thelegoguy421 · December 2012

I bought set 4431 at Toy's R Us online and had the set shipped to the store so I could pick it up (since the store had it out of stock). The store gave the set to the wrong person and refused to refund me. It took 3 days and many phone calls to finally get my Lego set. I will never buy from Toy's R Us again.

darkshadow79 · December 2012

vortexdragon said:
So of course Bricktober is happening this month. Toys R Us Canada doesn't have nearly as many sales as in the US, but this week was Kingdoms and City 15-20-25% off so I decided to purchase a few big sets to get the full 25% off. I ordered on Friday to make sure everything was in stock, which it was. I got an email yesterday saying my order was shipped, and another one saying that my Medieval Market Village was removed from the order as it wasn't in stock. Funny because when I ordered it it was in stock. Most online stores I've shopped at normally honour the purchase and ship it later. It sucks because this set isn't available in stores either.

I'm pretty disappointed about it, considering that there are so few good sales in Canada, making it not really worth it to shop there. Has anybody else had a similar issue?

Hi Vortexdragon-

I had the same thing happen to me this past summer. I placed an order for 1 ea of #8109 Technic Flatbed Truck and 1 ea #9397 Logging Truck and both said In Stock, and funny thing is both shipped with separate tracking nos. I got the 9397, but didn't get the 8109, I checked UPS's website and all it said was something if I recall 'Electronic Info Received', so obviously it was a warehouse mistake, they probably put a label on the shipping box, realized they didn't have it, they scanned the shipping label, thus my credit card was charged, doesn't seem like fair practice. I checked the status every couple hours and no movement in the UPS system. I called TRU's # on the website, I told them it was in stock when I checked out and it went through the processing time and was shipped and my credit card was charged for it since it had shipped and they said it hadn't shipped, but I gave them the tracking no and they said it was out of stock, and I said I wanted a refund to my credit card and they said it would take 2-3 weeks to received the credit for an item they didn't even have.

At this point I was pretty mad and let them know it was their error and I wanted my money put back on card right away, like within 24 hours and they said it wasn't their policy, I then asked for a supervisor, who basically gave me the same speech, and I told them I would never order from them online again and I haven't. It took them nearly 2 weeks for the credit to appear for an item I didn't even get or returned because I didn't want it, then that would have been acceptable, this situation was not. Then out of the blue one day I got the 8109 a few weeks later, so they never cancelled the order, WTH?!? Then of course my card was re-charged. Now, at that point how would TRU know if I had enough credit limit, they could have really put the screws to me if I was close to my limit or went over the limit. So, I needless to say, it only took that one time to make me realize that the only way to do things right was to buy in the store, but Technic, except around the holidays, rarely carries much Technic at all except for the smaller younger-age sets, not the large complex ones like I wanted, so really you're kind of between a rock and a hard place, either order online where the Technic selection is large, or use Lego [email protected] which I have since then. I have noticed that TRU tends to markup their items a good deal anyway, except for the largest sets, which mostly stay at MSRP, but during the holidays this year I even noticed that the larger sets were all in stock, well at least a couple weeks ago, that even the larger sets like the 8043 Excavator, 9396 Helicopter, 8110 Unimog and 9397 Logging Truck were running above MSRP. They did have a nice sale, and it included every theme except Technic, and I wonder why?

darkshadow79 · December 2012

tk79 said:
I got some of the new vehicle city sets through them in the last month when they had a BOGO 50%...worked out to be $15 per set before tax (25% off) which was the best discount I could find. One key is catching them when the sets first release before they implement the markups (if they don't mark them up immediately, that is).

That's the thing if you can get them RIGHT when they are released they are MSRP, but wait a couple weeks and up they shoot. 2 examples, the 9395 Technic Tow Truck from last winter, it was $69.99 MSRP initially and I decided to buy a 2nd one, and I noticed it had shot up to $87.99 after Christmas, so I walked right back out and ordered from Lego [email protected] instead. Unfortunately, all the independent toy stores, at least in my area, and it is large metro area of about 600,000+ people, have gone under and TRU is really only the land-based stores that sell Technic, which is my thing. I buy some City sets, but not many. I see there is a new theme, can't recall it off-hand some kind of Space theme, it was a rather large set with lots of white. I never was nuts about Star Wars which killed off Lego's old Space themes from many years ago, I think the last decent space theme was Exploriens, UFO was ok, then there was Insectoids I believe, not too bad, and then a Mars theme that had an interesting base with tubes and such, but since then its basically been Star Wars exclusively. I want those old Space themes to re-appear. Space Police III was a bomb, but there is that new Space-related theme, looked kind of interesting, but I really wasn't into the big crowds and long lines, I'll have to look it up on the official Brickset site and see what the theme is called.

darkshadow79 · December 2012

Ah, the good old Cust Svc people at TRU online...they are oh so helpful, you usually walk away feeling you just got screwed. You try to explain, but it seems about 1 out of 10 actually know their business, and don't ever try late at night, I got so mad one night on my cell phone outside in my garage trying to straighten out a mixed up mess, I ended up hanging up on them. They just couldn't grasp what I was talking about and it was so easy to understand.

I'm really glad I found this website. I usually use Eurobricks.com, but this forum really lets you talk without having topics moved here and there...

darkshadow79 · December 2012

Gee how about updating their website once in a while with what's in stock at stores? 75% of the time they say they have it, then you get there and they don't, or if you order to pickup you get an e-mail saying the product can't be located...or on the flipside their website says a store doesn't have it, you go in and there are a dozen on the shelf...and since I'm a Technic buff, we usually get releases right before Xmas and about end of July each year, but this year they had 4 sets for nearly a month on the store shelves but they still aren't listed on their website. Now maybe they don't have them in their distribution centers, but there are 3 options, so they could at least update their product offering site for that theme, and I'm sure many others, with the new items by now and list them as available for pickup in stores so you can order without having to wade through a million shoppers, though its Christmas Day now, so that's done, but starting tomorrow through New Year's at least they will be equally as busy in the stores with returns/exchanges and such...

darkshadow79 · December 2012

Yellowcastle said:
TRU has been super inflating their prices around Christmas for the last few years so this is not really news to many of us. The onus is simply on the consumer to decide what they're willing to pay for a set. Heck, even Target has been selling sets higher than MSRP recently. I agree that raising prices just prior to Christmas is abhorrent and any markup higher than 10% is ridiculous.

But TRU is the last of a dying breed and we as a consumer are better off with them in the marketplace. There are always deals to be had for the discerning consumer and I for one will continue to funnel a majority of my LEGO funds through them.

A dying breed for sure, TRU is the only place for Lego land-based now it seems except if you are lucky enough to be near a Lego store. All the independents went under because of them, I was friends with a local small toy shop that sold a lot of Lego back in the mid-2000's, and slowly she had to pare down her offerings because everybody was going to TRU instead. Funny thing though, she NEVER marked anything up, it was all Lego MSRP. One day I called to see if she had an item and she said she stopped ordering Lego altogether, and a year so later, they closed their doors as did a few others in my area. Pretty soon, its going to be online or nothing. I have noticed even Amazon.com has not carried much of any Lego themselves, only 3rd party sellers, but they tend to gouge. Case in point, I wanted the newer #4203 Transport w/ Excavator. Amazon never carried it, only marketplace sellers and the cheapest I could find was between $50-55, TRU had it for $50, $10 over MSRP, Lego [email protected] had it. I would imagine before too long it will be online or nothing. And that kind of s--ks because you order online, there is shipping and wait time involved, you can't just down the street anymore to your local toy store and pick the item up, and even big box stores like Target, Walmart, etc don't carry much Lego anymore like they used to, and TRU's markup is ridiculous like you said.

thelegoguy421 · December 2012

TRU prices are unreal. I wanted to buy 9515 Malevolence from there and it cost $145 dollars. Lego stores were selling it for only $120. I finally bought it off of Amazon.com and with a coupon, it cost me only $39.99 (sealed and brand new).

thelegoguy421 · December 2012

Renny said:
I feel for you and I doubt anyone will vouch for their pricing model but having a few people on a forum boycott a massive toy store isn't going to accomplish anything. The store by me is always packed and the Lego aisles around Christmas time are always sold out completely, even with a Walmart and Target around the corner.

We can always try and with social media maybe start something big enough to force TRU to lower their prices.

lulwut · December 2012

Okay, I'm still scratching my head on how I just got $30 back in rewards, that's essentially a free lego set.

Thanos75 · December 2012

I got an email this morning with 6 $5 reward coupons....left me wondering the same thing

kwkw · December 2012

^ from using your TRU credit card 10% back during the last month or so, I got the same :) TRU sometimes doesn't suck lol

Thanos75 · December 2012

I dont have a TRU credit card....but I just figured it was from the rewards program....either way i will gladly accept it

sidersdd · December 2012

It wasn't from the TRU credit card. It was just their 10% back for all Rewards members during the holiday season. It capped out at $30. Of course, in true TRU fashion, you don't get all $30 at once. It's $15 to use the first half of January and $15 to use the 2nd half.

thehockeyboy · December 2012

During the holiday season, rather than doing their normal 4 point per $1 system, the TRU Holiday Rewards was a kickback of a certain % up to $30.

bmwlego · December 2012

I've got thirty to spend as well and have to make two trips to do so.

Side note:I can't find my original post that began this thread a while back. The title is mine and there still but my original comment that started the thread is missing. @huw?

clowndiscuslego · December 2012

i returned a monster high toy for $27.99 on the 18th. i stupidly marked credit when i bought it originally and some legos. because i marked credit it was refunded me credit so i am still waiting, i called the manager yesterday and she said it should be there by friday if not to check in with her again. she said it can take 7- 10 business days or longer thats just BS

Yellowcastle · December 2012

lulwut said:
Okay, I'm still scratching my head on how I just got $30 back in rewards, that's essentially a free lego set.

Have you decided which Star Wars battlepack you're getting? ;o)

bmwlego · December 2012

HA!^ If you decide on a SW BP you might need another reward certificate as well!

Thanos75 · December 2012

Can you stack those Reward coupons with the BOGO50% ?

bmwlego · December 2012

Yes. The rewards are "Rewards Dollars", not coupons.

Printed up my $30 in Rewards bucks and read the info on getting these. Basically, sans TRU Credit Card you need to spend $250 to get $5 back! 1.25% back in rewards nowhere near comes close to making up for their 10-30% markups on LEGO!

From TRU website:
"The Rewards"R"Us program is a points based system, whereby Rewards"R"Us members earn $5 "R"Us Reward Dollars for every 500 points accumulated in qualifying purchases at Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us, in-store or online during select promotion periods. Members receive 2 points per dollar spent on qualifying purchases in-store or online."

Yellowcastle · December 2012

Haha. Now I'm embarrassed I received any.

kwkw · December 2012

lol ...my defense is that I only buy the stuff I can't get anywhere else from TRU i.e Mirkwood Elves, gandalfs, TRU exclusive sets (only when they're actually below real msrp) and ninjago lloyd spinners

zjygkmatt · December 2012

Im pretty sure I saw the new SW Rancor Pit set for $65.00 there. Only $5.00 mark up which isn't much at all.

pumperx · December 2012

Can you use multiple $5 reward dollar in one transaction in store?

JP3804 · December 2012

^ Yes , Just make sure the dates are valid.

My TRU had Big Bentley's bust out on clearance for $69.99. LOL

Good Luck

darkshadow79 · December 2012

thelegoguy421 said:

Renny said:
I feel for you and I doubt anyone will vouch for their pricing model but having a few people on a forum boycott a massive toy store isn't going to accomplish anything. The store by me is always packed and the Lego aisles around Christmas time are always sold out completely, even with a Walmart and Target around the corner.
We can always try and with social media maybe start something big enough to force TRU to lower their prices.

Somehow I doubt that will work...for a few months before Xmas they had the 8043 RC Excavator going for MSRP of $199, then comes Xmas rush, and shelf tags say $219 now, even 3 days after Xmas. You can clearly see where the new tags were stuck over the old ones, first it was MSRP, then saw a tag for $209, then hanging loosely over top of that one was the $219 one...ridiculous...maybe they knew Lego [email protected] was retiring it and it was sold out, so they decided to cash in...

darkshadow79 · December 2012

pumperx said:
Can you use multiple $5 reward dollar in one transaction in store?

Tried that with my Rewards coupons, they would only accept one per purchase, they are stingy...

darkshadow79 · December 2012

clowndiscuslego said:
i returned a monster high toy for $27.99 on the 18th. i stupidly marked credit when i bought it originally and some legos. because i marked credit it was refunded me credit so i am still waiting, i called the manager yesterday and she said it should be there by friday if not to check in with her again. she said it can take 7- 10 business days or longer thats just BS

Been there before, my friend, I always use my debit card or cash, with debit card you can get the cash back instantly, I never have them credit it back to my checking account because the same policy used for credit cards. Learned my lesson once and it took nearly 2 weeks for it to be refunded back to my credit card. I don't understand why it takes so long. Kind of makes you wonder...

pumperx · December 2012

darkshadow79 said:

pumperx said:
Can you use multiple $5 reward dollar in one transaction in store?
Tried that with my Rewards coupons, they would only accept one per purchase, they are stingy...

Thanks for the heads up. It is probably not worth the trip for me then. Have 6 $5 coupon from email. Not sure what to do with it.

thehockeyboy · December 2012

Personally, I have no problem shopping at TRU. Though their employees at the stores around me have absolutely no clue what is going on, they usually offer some great deals from time to time that actually makes it more cheaper than WM or Target.

Simply put: if you don't like TRU, don't complain... just don't shop there. They are a retailer and are free to charge what they like. Who cares if they raise the price on some of their items? It's not like they have a monopoly on an ESSENTIAL and are price gouging people!

I know it is in the human nature to complain, but come on! Even when they do something right (such as give reward vouchers), people complain!

Picopirate · December 2012

@darkshadow79 @pumperx. I used two of the rewards along with a $5 off $25 that my son got for his birthday. All three combined to give me $15 off. The only requirement was that the i had to spend at least $25 after using the rewards in order to use my coupon.

Toys R Us...R U For Real?

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