LEGO Shop@Home May 3rd / 4th Promotion

[zithy]

Also, just because LS@H lists something as sold out, it doesn't always mean it's retired.

Green Grocer was sold out, but then a day or two later it was listed as on back order. When you enter the set number in the search box and no set comes up, that pretty much confirms when it's retired.

[sidersdd]

Well congrats Canucks, maybe life isn't so sucky up there after all.

More good news for Canucks - you're finally getting a Lego Store. From the Lego Store website:
http://stores.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx

The first LEGO Store in Canada is opening this Summer at Chinook Centre in Calgary!
Check back soon for more details.

[ThinkingImpaired]

Damnn it's like Canadians won the lottery this month!

[ricefields]

Damnn it's like Canadians won the lottery this month!

Just Albertans or those who can travel to calgary easily, this does not help the rest of canadians!

hmm, wonder how they came up with calgary through their marketing analysis? Of the 4 largest markets...

vancouver - sorry, bellevue close enough at 2 hours away
montreal - sorry, massachusetts is close enough and has 3 lego stores 4 hours away
toronto - sorry, lots of lego stores 8-10 hours away in chicago, boston, philadelphia, new jersey, new york

calgary - bellevue and minnesota are closest but more than 12 hours away. Lots of money in alberta (oil/gas), big time spenders on lego, number one retail sales per capita in canada, new boom of upscale retail and corresponding consumers in calgary.

I personally think Toronto should have the first (of course I am biased) lego store. 8-10 hours is just to far, and ontario probably has a bigger market, although very competitive (competition from sales at walmart, zellers, etc). if a second store comes to canada, I am hoping it will be in the toronto area but I am just glad that they are finally invading canada!

[RogueJedi007]

I know I am biased being in Calgary, but myself and the rest of the local LUG members are very very excited for this upcoming store. I am glad that Toronto didn't get it, sorry to say, but it just shows that Toronto isn't the be all and end all in Canada. GTA people can cross easily into the US in NY or somewhere to get to a Target store or like you said somewhere like Chicago. We figure in Calgary, the nearest Target store is 6 hours away in Great Falls, Montana.

And yes, we have one of the most successful Lego retailers in North America here in Calgary.

FYI - Bellevue is probably more like 14 hours away from Calgary, and Minnesota even farther.

[Daz Hoo]

Not to diminuish the importance of Calgary as a market (the city does have a florishing economy thanks to its oil-dollars), but I think that sales taxes imposed by numerous provinces played a big part in the decision to open the first LEGO Store in Alberta.

I don't know about the other provinces, but over here in Quebec, if an online store also has a physical place of business in Quebec, that company has to charge the provincial sale tax to all its sales in Quebec, whether they are made in the store or online and shipped to Quebec addresses. That means that LEGO Shop At Home would have to charge the PST to all sales billed to Quebecers, and that would probably mean re-programming LEGO's Shop At Home billing system. Alberta having no provincial sale tax, LEGO doesn't have to change squat to their billing system.

Hence why I think Calgary was choosen over Toronto, Vancouver or Montréal.

[Inzane]

And yes, we have one of the most successful Lego retailers in North America here in Calgary.

You do? Who would that be?

(I'm in Edmonton)

[RogueJedi007]

And yes, we have one of the most successful Lego retailers in North America here in Calgary.

You do? Who would that be?

(I'm in Edmonton)

It's actually one of the TRU stores in the city.

[RogueJedi007]

Not to diminuish the importance of Calgary as a market (the city does have a florishing economy thanks to its oil-dollars), but I think that sales taxes imposed by numerous provinces played a big part in the decision to open the first LEGO Store in Alberta.

I don't know about the other provinces, but over here in Quebec, if an online store also has a physical place of business in Quebec, that company has to charge the provincial sale tax to all its sales in Quebec, whether they are made in the store or online and shipped to Quebec addresses. That means that LEGO Shop At Home would have to charge the PST to all sales billed to Quebecers, and that would probably mean re-programming LEGO's Shop At Home billing system. Alberta having no provincial sale tax, LEGO doesn't have to change squat to their billing system.

Hence why I think Calgary was choosen over Toronto, Vancouver or Montréal.

I don't think they would have to change the Shop at Home system as it already does that. When I order from them, I do not pay any PST, it is probably already setup to do that, charge the correct amount of PST/HST by province.

Also note that the economy in Alberta is not as good as it has been in the past. The economic recession has done its damage here as well. It is true that the oil and gas business have been successful, but construction was also a big part of the economy. Since the recession, the construction is all but gone, and the oil and gas companies are still struggling with the price of oil, since it was so cheap not too long ago, as well as the low price of natural gas. Between all that, last year the City of Calgary saw its first decrease in population in many many years due to people losing jobs and moving back to wherever they came from. Many people in Calgary lost jobs and there are still weekly layoffs happening in the city. And yes I know all that is happening in other places as well, but don't think that Alberta is immune to any of that.

[Daz Hoo]

When I order from them, I do not pay any PST

Nor do I (and we have a 7.5% PST here ).

Hence why I think that, even though you see a line for the PST, the system is probably not programmed to calculate, display and add the correct amount of PST to the order total.

[Gumby]

Over here in Vancouver, we don't pay 7% PST on S@H orders either. If LEGO was to open a physical store here, that would likely change. Wait - we're getting the HST imposed on us starting on July 1st so my point is meaningless.

[ricefields]

let me clarify this

only ontario pays gst and pst when ordering from shop@home

everybody else just pays gst, except atlantic provinces who pay hst

that will all change in july when ontario and BC become hst provinces and joins the atlantic provinces, though no net change to lego taxes for us since ontario hst = gst+ ontario pst and probably the same in BC. However, BC gets ding because now they have to pay hst on lego from shop@home.

I don't know the exact reason why ontario has to pay the pst but it comes down to one of these 2 factors

1.canadian lego headquarters is located in richmond hill, ON, and/or
2. lego crosses the border into canada through a broker business thats in ON (this is a wild guess, so likely #1 is the reason)

[Blacknight]

Funny we're talking about GST and PST because on top of the sweet price I paid for the dropship, falcon and Home One sets during the recent sale, Lego for the first time didn't charge me GST. It appeared on the order checkout screen but on my MC and the final invoice I only got dinged PST. I wonder if the switch to the HST is confusing them? Whatever the case, for me the best Canadian Lego deal in a century turned into the best Canadian Lego deal in a Millennium!

On another note, as I've said before on this forum, we already have a Lego Store in Canada and it's within driving distance of my house, in the St. Jacob's outlet mall in Waterloo Ontario. It's been here for over ten years at least. It used to be the best place in the city to buy Lego in terms of getting in new sets and slightly reduced at that. Nowdays though it can't compete with the Walmarts and TRU in the area in terms of inventory or sales. It does still gets in the odd exclusive from S@H that they're having trouble selling. It also has a small pick a brick. Not sure if they have any discount card program though. Don't they still have a Lego run store in Ontario Place too or is that gone (haven't been there in years)?

[robskot]

Damnn it's like Canadians won the lottery this month!

calgary - bellevue and minnesota are closest but more than 12 hours away. Lots of money in alberta (oil/gas), big time spenders on lego, number one retail sales per capita in canada, new boom of upscale retail and corresponding consumers in calgary.

I totally agree with this...there is way more $$$ than brains in this town...but one other part to the story, that I am purely guessing at, is that Chinook Centre in Calgary is adding ton of space to the mall and I am willing to bet they made some pretty sweet deals on leases to attract new/big names to the mall...since the expansion of Market Mall and the opening of Crossiron Mills, Chinook is trying to play catchup...

[Inzane]

A sort-of happy ending for me. I ended up finally breaking down and buying a 10179 falcon set off Ebay a couple weeks ago. I was able to get the set + shipping, for a bit under $500 CDN. Not nearly as good as that $170 deal some people were luckily enough to catch. But much better than the $679.99 CDN + shipping that it was normally priced at.

I bought from a fellow Canadian. I wonder if he/she just flipped one that they had recently bought for $170.

Anyway I got the set, whew. And I paid just a tad under what I considered to be the maximum reasonable price to pay for the set. So I guess I can't complain.



BTW, I noticed this comment a few pages back:

I think one of the differences this time is that this was a formal Star Wars anniversary sale announced through email ahead of time,

So I have to ask. What email? Emailed to who? I never received any email notice from TLG, and I've been in their customer database for years.

[ricefields]

I never received an email either so that's why I attempt to check fbtb on a daily basis. Hate to lose out on these promotions and website pricing errors! Some members got the email and thanks to them for posting the promotion details. However the pricing error discovery was just a random occurrence that anyone could have missed if you already decided that the sale/promotion was not worth checking out. I was definitely not interested at 25% off only but decided to check it at 12 midnight anyways.

Did anyone in canada not recieve the free stickers that was part of the original promotion?

[that guy]

Has anyone seen an announcement that they've awarded the "Bronze Bobas" yet?

[winbrant]

I never received an email either so that's why I attempt to check fbtb on a daily basis. Hate to lose out on these promotions and website pricing errors! Some members got the email and thanks to them for posting the promotion details. However the pricing error discovery was just a random occurrence that anyone could have missed if you already decided that the sale/promotion was not worth checking out. I was definitely not interested at 25% off only but decided to check it at 12 midnight anyways.

Did anyone in canada not recieve the free stickers that was part of the original promotion?

I did not receive these either. I e-mailed Customer Service and the response said they are being sent from Billund and should receive in 3-4 weeks....this was 3 weeks ago now. No excuses made for why they weren't part of the regular shipment.

[winbrant]

Did anyone in canada not recieve the free stickers that was part of the original promotion?

I did not receive these either. I e-mailed Customer Service and the response said they are being sent from Billund and should receive in 3-4 weeks....this was 3 weeks ago now. No excuses made for why they weren't part of the regular shipment.

Spoke too soon..they just arrived last night!. Bit bigger than I thought they were going to be and packed with cardboard to ensure they didn't get folded. About a 5" x 10" sheet folded in half like a booklet (no stickers were in the fold zone) with a printed white Mandalorian on the cover. Not to bad and better than what I expected.

[schlectus]

This might be a stupid post, but I figured I'd better put it up just in case somebody else is as oblivious as I am. I didn't expect to get VIP points with the Falcon purchase that day (I thought I had read that somewhere)...but after checking my VIP account, I noticed that it said there were orders that were completed, but were possibly still pending points. On a whim, I called up LEGO customer service and asked about it, and she said she wasn't sure why I wasn't awarded the points and that she would credit my account. And blammo...375 points added. Worth a look to everyone that bought something that day...