Outside and inside the massive Times Square shopping mall in Hong Kong is larger-than-life displays of Lego for Christmas and celebrating the anniversary of the company. This brand is massive the world over. I know of newsagents who do excellent business with Lego products. The displays I have just seen make me think it’s time to include the range in at least some of my stores. It certainly fits with the collectible focus we have.
I know I can sell it but the initial buy of I think it was $3000 is more than I can justify. After your first purchase you can buy what ever you want and I think it is carton quantities. I would love to stock it. I used to sell it but bought it from a toy wholesaler. Now you have to buy direct from Leggo.
I think this would be an excellent line for GNS to stock. I can’t justify the initial cost to deal directly with Lego but maybe GNS could. I am sure it would be a welcome & popular line amongst newsagents
Angelo I think lego only deals direct now and does not have agents. It would be wonderful if GNS stocked it. It pays to watch KMart and BigW adds because they often have toys cheaper than I can buy them. Unfortunately I do not have easy access with nearest shop 280k away.
We stock Lego and it does well for us. Carol is correct in thinking Lego will only deal direct. They also need to see photos of your shop and where their product will go.I think the initial order was $2000 and each subsequent one needs to be $500 and in carton quantities. You do have to be wary of which items you stock as cartons can be anywhere from 2 items to 24 items, and not all of it sells equally well.
Are you able compete with the big chains without cutting your margin too much?
Definitely a really strong brand in toys. Personally I associate Lego with quality.
We need to not worry about big chains sometimes as we see some shoppers in newsagencies who do not shop at big chains.
Yes I agree, I was just wondering what type of product this would be in a newsagency:
A product people come to your shop for, because of range and competitive price, or a product which is just an add on to a the basket.
Maybe its just me, but I twould think a customer looking to buy heaps of Lego for the kids would be take prices into account, so I was curious as to whether the margins offered made it viable to be competitive in price.
There are certainly newsagents doing $10K and more a year in Lego sales and making it work well for them.
I sell at RRP. The margins vary and aren’t as good as the 50% we have on the majority of toys, but they give us credibility in the market and as our nearest toy store is 20mins away, we do well out of them most of the time. The exception being Christmas as a huge number of our locals buy online, and you can plan ahead and do this for Christmas. We aim for the toys under $50 range mostly (with a few over this) as this lets us target the birthday pressie buyer, the nannas, kids spending their own money etc.
It works for us, but maybe not for everyone.
I used to stock it though I can’t recall whom I purchased it through though I do recall them advising that Lego were stopping these type of reseller accounts and were dealing direct.
From my experience and as Mark points out, this is a popular cult item that has lasted years. I have two young sons who are right into it and I dread going near a Lego display in Big W or Kmart for the simple fact that I will get it deluxe if I don’t buy some Lego in some way. That “demand” transaltes into a demand in my shop if no one near me stocks it so it is an impulse item in my view. If the parents are after something big or part of a theme like Star Wars, Pirates of the Carribean, Ninjago etc then the ebay is very enticing on price and range.
I’m after the impulse buyer and would like to stock Lego for that person.
Thanks for the replies.
It is products like Lego, with a loyal fan base across multiple generations, that we can use to drive traffic to replace traffic from declining categories. If not Lego for you then what about other categories. This is one reason I am pursuing plush, Beanie Kids, Angry Birds and One Direction in my stores.
We can be competitive with all of these.