Does LEGO charge different stores different prices?

[Mister Ed]

I know we don't have an official LEGO person in here, but maybe somebody else has some insight. I recently noticed that Fred Meyer, who in the past has NEVER charged above MSRP for LEGO (and has frequent sales), has started charging $2 over MSRP on the LEGO Games line. When I complained to them, they told me LEGO had recently raised the cost of them. I find this hard to believe, given than MSRP hasn't gone up, and Target and Wal-Mart haven't raised THEIR prices (in fact Target has LOWERED the prices on a couple of the games, and they aren't even calling the price cuts temporary). Is it possible that LEGO would raise costs for one retailer, but not others? Or is it more likely that Fred Meyer is being less than truthful? Or, I guess the third possibility is, LEGO raised prices to retailers without raising MSRP, and Target and Wal-Mart just decided to eat the difference (or in Target's case, eat the difference AND lower the price on top of THAT)?

[bigospedros]

This thread will be pure conjecture since this is probably information that won't make the public domain ... but, any of the reasons you state could be true, but as may things like respective buying power of each store. I'd imagine Target and Walmart have one of the biggest buying powers around, since they have loads of stores, all over the country and therefore can bargain a better deal than other stores.

At the end of the day, a store will charge whatever price they think they can get for an item. It's up to the consumer to either agree with that price and purchase or vote with their feet. If you don't like the price, don't buy it from them.

[Mister Ed]

Well, that's what I intend, however, I don't like being lied to, so I was kind of wondering if there was any way to discern if that was the case here. If so, it might turn me off of buying other items there, besides just the ones with the marked up prices.

[that guy]

As I reported on another thread, what I CAN confirm is that EE basically had their price raised $.62 from Lego on S3 over S2 per pack. That is a HUGE increase on a distributor level let alone the implications for retail. On an item that has historically sold for $1.99 that's an unheard of increase on a mid-stream series of toy no matter what brand or theme it is. In fact I can tell you that it equaled about a 40% increase for them over what they were paying. As for Fred Meyer, I can only assume that Lego is either A)pissed that they put them out early since their customer service can't even provide information about them and doesn't know that anyone has them, B) pissed that someone at Lego flipped the switch early for them to get them, or C) only now communicated the price increase which triggered someone at Fred's buying offices to jack the price up quickly (obviously not realizing that they have all been scooped faster than an orphan in Angelina's path). Only time will tell what happens when these finally hit Lego stores or other retailers and until then, as someone has said it's pure conjecture...and in the end the retailers can do whatever they like with them and since most mass-market retailers regard toys as lost-leaders anyways they are more likely to mess with the pricing to squeeze every dollar they can out of them. Just my two cents.

[Mister Ed]

That might explain the price hike on the minifigs, but Italking about the LEGO Games line. Fred Meyer has upped the prices on THOSE, and is telling me that LEGO upped THEIR prices, despite the fact that no other retailers have raised prices on these (well TRU has higher prices, but they ALWAYS have) and Target even has lowered prices on some of them.

[that guy]

That might explain the price hike on the minifigs, but Italking about the LEGO Games line. Fred Meyer has upped the prices on THOSE, and is telling me that LEGO upped THEIR prices, despite the fact that no other retailers have raised prices on these (well TRU has higher prices, but they ALWAYS have) and Target even has lowered prices on some of them.

oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeah my bad, I missed the "games line" part of that....sorry.

My theory is that they are doing their standard Black Friday gimmick of Buy one Get one FREE on all board games (which has usually included the Lego board games) so maybe they're doing a quick jack up to minimize their losses??????

[Brickweiser]

I don't believe LEGO charges different prices, but they do offer deals to different stores. That was a matter of dispute when Walmart stopped selling LEGO three of four (?) years ago. Walmart wanted the same deals that Toys R Us got from LEGO and LEGo refused. Think Walmart sucked it up eventually or LEGO and Walmart struck a settlement of some kind.

[Mister Ed]

Wait, Toys R Us gets special deals on LEGO and STILL jacks up all the prices? Wow, that makes them look even worse than they already did in my eyes.

[Brickweiser]

Wait, Toys R Us gets special deals on LEGO and STILL jacks up all the prices? Wow, that makes them look even worse than they already did in my eyes.

I don't think TRU gets special deals on the products themselves, but perhaps the "special deal" constitutes a cheaper price on bulk shipping or dibbs on an exclusive item, or both. Walmart didn't have exclusives till after they restocked LEGO on their shelves, so that is quite possibility the "special deal" or perk.

EDIT: Just reviewed my earlier post. No contradictions.