LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

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il padrino
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Re: LEGO Store Wauwatosa, WI Grand Opening This Weekend

Post by il padrino » Sat May 12, 2012 11:46 am

It was a madhouse. They said they had 300 lego store sets and were limiting it to one per family and not per purchase. By the time I got in line it was snaked all around the mall. They estimated they had about 250 left and were counting off families in line so you could get an idea if you had a chance to get one. We were around the 245th family. We waited for about 1.5 hours and were no where near getting into the store and so we eventually left.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by melsig » Sat May 12, 2012 11:47 am

Same here. We got there about 7:30 and ended up being around 15th in line. People didn't really start to line up until after 8:30am, but by opening the line was really quite long. As soon as they opened the doors, I dragged my protesting child over to the set we wanted and to the checkout as quickly as possible. We got out by about 10:20am, but as janckson said, the checkout line by that time wound like a snake around the entire store. I have to thank my husband who hates waiting in line for anything and was a good sport about it all - after goggling at the crowds he even admitted he was glad I'd dragged us all out there so early.

My son had a good time helping out with the Spongebob build. My heart sank when we received instructions to head back up to the store for the certificate, but they had a table set outside the door, and we didn't have to wait at all for that.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by Luciant » Sat May 12, 2012 12:57 pm

Anyone have a Lego Store kit they are willing to trade / sell?
I have mixed feelings about new releases: I can't wait to see and get the new sets... but I can't figure out where I'm gonna put them or store them.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by iccarus » Sat May 12, 2012 5:20 pm

melsig wrote: My son had a good time helping out with the Spongebob build. My heart sank when we received instructions to head back up to the store for the certificate, but they had a table set outside the door, and we didn't have to wait at all for that.
I had the joy of telling many people that bit of info today and seeing the horrified look on the faces of parents. We learned quickly to start pointing to where the table was set up and clearly stating it's located OUTSIDE the store. :lol:

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Re: LEGO Store Wauwatosa, WI Grand Opening This Weekend

Post by atmail35 » Sat May 12, 2012 5:36 pm

il padrino wrote:It was a madhouse. They said they had 300 lego store sets and were limiting it to one per family and not per purchase. By the time I got in line it was snaked all around the mall. They estimated they had about 250 left and were counting off families in line so you could get an idea if you had a chance to get one. We were around the 245th family. We waited for about 1.5 hours and were no where near getting into the store and so we eventually left.
I think it is a good thing that they are limiting it to one per family if the lines are that long. I'm getting very scared for the grand opening here. The only saving grace is that MA has 3 stores so maybe people won't bother to go/don't know about it (aside from us crazy folks on this board :lol: ). I'm not sure how publicized it is here. I would never normally go to this store as it is almost an hour away. I feel like I have to TRY and get this set though!

ETA: I just looked on Ebay, BINs for the set are set at $200-300....insanity! People aren't buying them at that price are they? :crazy:

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by iccarus » Sat May 12, 2012 5:46 pm

Yes, one sold for $300 and one for $275. All BIN listings under $100 are selling and two at auction (including one that was opened and built) went for about $150.

It is worth noting on the 300/275 sales, they ship worldwide. Most other listings seem to only be shipping in the US.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by meyerc13 » Sat May 12, 2012 7:55 pm

I was at the store this morning as well. I had hoped to meet some of you guys, but wasn't going to risk my place in line so I only met the people in my immediate portion of the line. One was the manager of the Gamestop store, the other was a guy from Green Bay.

I got there about 7:30am, and I was the second person in the second set of barriers (the first barrier was a short line right in front of the store, the second was an S-shaped queue, that's where I was). When the store opened at 10am, we were allowed in immediately. Everyone proceeded in an orderly fashion. I had stopped in last night so I knew what I wanted and where it was. I grabbed it and got in line asap so that I could get out of the store and give someone else a chance to get in.

One of the mom's from my son's class at school drove down from Appleton as well. She got to the mall at 10am when the store opened, and by then the line was all the way down to the South end of the mall by Barnes and Noble. She had to wait in line until 1pm when she finally got into the LEGO store. They still had sets at that point.

I saw the employee counting off families, but that seemed like a risky way to do it because she was telling people they should have no problem getting a set. I kept thinking that someone would definitely have a legitimate complaint if she told them that and was wrong because someone held a spot for someone in line or something like that. I know if a store employee told me I'd get a set, and I waited for 3 hours only to find out that I wouldn't, I would not be very happy. They really need to give out tickets or something.

As I said, I did my waiting in line before the mall opened, only 2.5 hours for me. I think I could have come an hour later (8:30ish) and still not have had much of a wait to get into the store. Anyone who came around 8:30 or 9:00 was destined for a long wait.

I heard that the person at the front of the line got there around 5am. The mall doors don't even open until 6am for mall walkers, so I'm not sure how she got in. I believe they gave the first few people in line T-shirts left over from yesterday (also interesting because I shopped there last night and didn't get a shirt).

I guess the moral of the story is 5 hours before store open is probably too much, save your time and get some sleep. 2 hours seems to be about right. Only hard core fans are going to show up 2 hours early... the casual fans think getting there 30-60 minutes early should be enough, but I guess that's only if you want to spend your whole day standing in line.

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Re: LEGO Store Wauwatosa, WI Grand Opening This Weekend

Post by dr_spock » Sat May 12, 2012 10:11 pm

iccarus wrote:I'll be volunteering Saturday from 9:30-2:30 on (I believe) the Spongebob build. So excited!
How was the volunteering? Any goodies?

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by brickarmor » Sun May 13, 2012 7:50 am

[quote="meyerc13"
[/quote]

Thanks for that detailed info! Eases my mind a little bit, though I'm sure I won't be getting any sleep the Friday night before opening anyway, so I might as well go super early! I still think the uncharacteristic chaos of the Vancouver opening had a lot to do with it also being May the Fourth...

I like the idea about issuing tickets, maybe we can pass that along to TLG.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by melsig » Sun May 13, 2012 8:29 am

iccarus wrote:
melsig wrote: My son had a good time helping out with the Spongebob build. My heart sank when we received instructions to head back up to the store for the certificate, but they had a table set outside the door, and we didn't have to wait at all for that.
I had the joy of telling many people that bit of info today and seeing the horrified look on the faces of parents. We learned quickly to start pointing to where the table was set up and clearly stating it's located OUTSIDE the store. :lol:
Yes, "horrified' is more like it!

After seeing how much the set has been going for on eBay, I was reluctant to even open ours, but my son - who has no such compunctions - insisted we build it this morning. It really is a cute little set. I wish the doors opened, though.

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Re: LEGO Store Wauwatosa, WI Grand Opening This Weekend

Post by iccarus » Sun May 13, 2012 9:40 am

dr_spock wrote:How was the volunteering? Any goodies?
A guarantee of getting a store set without waiting in line (with purchase of course) and a discount. I managed to pick up a UCS R2 and the two big Avengers sets, so I left very happy.

I also got to hang out and assist master builder Dan all day. That was easily my favorite part.

I wrote up a recap of the day on my blog - http://buriedinbricks.blogspot.com/2012 ... ening.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Volunteering for a grand opening is a great experience, although it is also very tiring. Some of the less glamorous work is breaking up and resorting all the bricks from contributions that are a little off. Also, the kids build far faster than they are actually needed, so a few do have to be cycled back through the system. Dan said the goal is not to build the model as fast as you can, but to make sure you finish exactly when you're supposed to.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by brickarmor » Sun May 13, 2012 10:39 am

How does one go about volunteering? Can anybody explain or provide a link? Did it seem fully staffed to you, Iccarus? Does it seem more like "we could use a few more hands here" or "sorry folks, we're all full up with volunteers"?

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by tensor » Sun May 13, 2012 4:54 pm

A couple data points

My son and I were #3 and #4 in line, and we got there at 6:30 Saturday. As a result of this, we also each got one of the few remaining shirts from Friday, which I thought was nice.

At 8:30 there were at most 50 people.

The mall normally opens the doors at 7am, but they were open, dunno why, but no complaints here cause it was sprinkling at that point.

They were saying 1 per family, but that's not written anywhere, which caused a bit of a problem, including a big one with us. They appeared to have made that rule up on the spot which was a very bad idea for two reasons: a) it wasn't communicated beforehand and b) that's really damn hard to police (see below).

The person behind me in line (#5) decided it was kosher to have her 3 children and husband show up at 9:45 and GET IN LINE WITH HER. Nobody complained either. I can see why too, because anyone who saw it wasn't affected by it (i.e. anyone close enough to see it was still definitely going to get a store.) I also watched them as the dad gave them all $40 and they split up into the store. Once the "first 70" were let into the store it was a madhouse and all bets were off. I'm sure that one family got 5 store sets. I'm sure they weren't the only ones to do this.

All of this could have been prevented by wristbands as mentioned earlier.

Looking back overall, it was fun and my 7 year old enjoyed the adventure - we drove all that previous night to get there :)

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by iccarus » Sun May 13, 2012 5:10 pm

brickarmor wrote:How does one go about volunteering? Can anybody explain or provide a link? Did it seem fully staffed to you, Iccarus? Does it seem more like "we could use a few more hands here" or "sorry folks, we're all full up with volunteers"?
I volunteered through our LUG. There were members of another LUG as well. Some other volunteers were friends of the manager and store employees.

Honestly, I would just contact the manager of a store after it has its soft opening. They will likely need volunteers at all points through the weekend. I don't think they can ever have too much help at these.
Last edited by iccarus on Sun May 13, 2012 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by tensor » Sun May 13, 2012 5:19 pm

Another point of interest, the retail value of the set is apparently $14.99 because that was rung up, then another line for -14.99 was added.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by Legobrandon » Sun May 13, 2012 5:53 pm

It is $17.99 in Canada. I certainly wouldn't mind paying that price for a set like this.
Image

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by atmail35 » Sun May 13, 2012 6:44 pm

tensor wrote:A couple data points

They were saying 1 per family, but that's not written anywhere, which caused a bit of a problem, including a big one with us. They appeared to have made that rule up on the spot which was a very bad idea for two reasons: a) it wasn't communicated beforehand and b) that's really damn hard to police (see below).

The person behind me in line (#5) decided it was kosher to have her 3 children and husband show up at 9:45 and GET IN LINE WITH HER. Nobody complained either. I can see why too, because anyone who saw it wasn't affected by it (i.e. anyone close enough to see it was still definitely going to get a store.) I also watched them as the dad gave them all $40 and they split up into the store. Once the "first 70" were let into the store it was a madhouse and all bets were off. I'm sure that one family got 5 store sets. I'm sure they weren't the only ones to do this.

All of this could have been prevented by wristbands as mentioned earlier.

Looking back overall, it was fun and my 7 year old enjoyed the adventure - we drove all that previous night to get there :)
That was not cool that it wasn't posted as one per family, and you are right there is no way to really monitor it, I figured if it gives more people a chance to get the set then it would be a good thing, but maybe not.

Not cool on the family who jumped in line at the last minute...the wristbands would prevent that.

At the monthly mini model build they hand out those cards until they are all gone. And if you aren't there, you don't get one. For example, if my neighbor's kid was going to join us, but comes later, I cannot get one at 4PM for them, if they are not there. However if they get there at 4:45 and they are still available, they would get one. They should do something similar here.

They really should consider doing the wristbands.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by meyerc13 » Mon May 14, 2012 9:55 am

The one per family rule was a joke, and the staff knew it. The manager was basically telling the crowd in line that there was no way they could limit it to one per family if they all paid cash, as long as they didn't try to use the same VIP card for everyone. He specifically said don't ask to have your purchase divided into 5 tickets to get 5 sets, because they wouldn't let you. He also said don't try to use the same credit card or VIP card, but outside of that they had no way to know who was part of a family and who wasn't.

Honestly I think it's not a fair rule. I saw one girl, around 8-10 years old, buying a couple of Friends sets. If she waited in line for 2+ hours like I did, why shouldn't she get a set? It should be one per customer, not one per family.

Since these had an MSRP, and they had a bar code taped to their POS terminal to give the discount, the logical way to do this would be to have numbered coupons, 1-300. Hand each person who joins the end of the line a coupon. Problem solved. It would also prevent people from benefiting by cutting in line... if you want a set, get there early. The store had staff and volunteers working the line (and counting the number of people in line), so this would be soooo easy to implement. (P.S. - LEGO, if you like my idea and want to reward me, I'll happily take any LEGO you'd like to share.) :-D

I agree with others, there had to be more than 300 available. The first 50 people or so were in the store right at 10am, and it was continuous turnover from then through 3pm when they ran out... so that had to be more than 300 sets. How long does it take to do each transaction at the register? They had 3 registers going, and I can't think it took more than 2-3 minutes. That's 60-90 per hour, for 5 hours... Maybe it was only 300, but I wouldn't doubt they added a bit of a buffer after the complaints last weekend.

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by egadzook » Tue May 15, 2012 12:04 am

legohunter wrote: Thank you so much for your update. I just got the store set from the hand of a Fedex guy. It was very fast. An email was sent yesterday morning, and I received the package this morning. I never thought they could make the thing right as good as this. What a core value of a business! This was the best customer service I've ever experienced. I think one day they could write a book to teach people what is customer service.

Unfortunately, the box set was crushed because it was kept in a soft bubble package. :mad: I had showed the lego box to the Fedex delivery guy, and he said "because it was not in the box". Well, were he supposed to take a good care of the package, even it was in soft package. Anyway, I will never let Fedex to delivery my package.

Btw, egadzook, is there any particular CMF (except series 1) you are still looking for? PM and let me know your address, I'd like to drop you one to thank for your info.
No need to send me a CMF, I'm just glad my update helped :)

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Re: LEGO Store Grand Opening Celebrations (TN, NY, BC, WI)

Post by solo606 » Tue May 15, 2012 5:17 pm

I was also a volunteer for the event at Mayfair mall, assisting with the Master Build all day.
It was super busy all day with people lined up very early, we heard 5:30am. The Finish Line opened at 5am also that morning for a special Air Jordan shoe release so the mall was open for that.
Throughout most of the morning we heard the wait in line just to get in the store was 1-2 hours.
When we finished the Master build for the day at 6:00pm we headed to the store and there was still a line to get in although not very long. Luckily we were able to go right in since we were volunteering all day and had our Lego smocks on. The store was pretty picked over at 6pm and the next day at closing most shelves were empty. Looks like there will be plenty of room for LOTR sets now. Our Lug was also lucky enough to get to build all the Lego sets that are on display at the Lego store in Mayfair mall, we invited another Lug based in Wisconsin to assist and that is where I first met iccarus. That was a fun experience.

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