Lego V.I.P. special invite card

[that guy]

I just confirmed with my local store about any final details for tomorrow morning and they said the only thing that they are doing special (versus going online tomorrow) is that we get the scratch cards early (as we already knew). They also said that we are drawing from the same base of cards that everyone next week is so there is no special "pool" of cards for the VIP's. In my stores case there are around 600 some odd cards (I think all the stores get about the same amount for BF if I remember right from last year but I could be wrong) and there are only supposedly about 6 of the 50% cards (approx 1% of all cards sent to stores are 50% they said). They told me NO open boxes, NO special pricing, NO special products, NO other items. I was told that it was largely a feel good event to make some people feel special and give a 'stress free' shopping experience without fighting the crowds next week. While I feel confident that my relationship with the store would have them telling me the truth, I have to admit I hope they're just giving me lip service and something really cool rears its head at 9am. Time will tell I guess but thought I'd share what I heard.

[dathomir]

Does anybody know if these offers will be available to other shop@home sites?

I'm in Ireland but can't see anything on the site yet...

[that guy]

Had I not gotten a 50% it would've just been ho-hum or worse especially given 25% or better offers out there at a multitude of stores right now and I can get all those deals while still wearing my pajamas. As expected and as I was told, no open box, no bulk bags, nothing unique. Pretty much spent the whole $5k pre-discount amount (although it spent way too fast) and walked away happy but it was the only 50% pulled out of everyone and I'm very grateful to have gotten it (thank you Lego). I did see quite a few 20% tickets though which some other people reported as pretty rare at their locations. Also, our store was strict about ONE PAB box no matter how much you spent which was a serious bummer. Store Management was great, the customers were all civil, and it was pleasant despite the lackluster savings. Store opened at 9am exactly, formal line was created, full list check-off with I.D. needed, and I was thrilled (as stupid as it sounds) for the silly little lanyard that we all wore around like lemmings. I like the idea, I still felt special despite the overall lackluster spending that was occurring besides myself, and only have a couple suggestions if anyone of consequence is listening.

Give us 2 hours to shop instead of the 1 hour, SERIOUSLY.

Set a single discount amount (maybe 30-40%) so that people can actually plan out what they want to spend and it would ensure that more money is spent during the 'event hours' and it actually makes people want to attend rather than just buy online (just imagine the free shipping they spent that could've been saved by people picking up items in store instead).

Allow VIP's to get a PAB for EVERY $75 spent (we're gonna come back and spend money those days anyway). I know from experience that it's fairly standard for front line workers to throw in extra PAB's during normal hours but for some reason I felt like we were held to stricter standards because there weren't very many of us and managers did most of the ringing for the event.

Create a VIP only holiday set of some kind, maybe a third vignette for the holiday sets or something (I realize this is extreme but hey, had to throw it out there)

I'm sure there are other things but for a first event of this kind for them I felt this did ok. I'm not holding out hope that I'll get invited again but you never know if or how they'll change their selection criteria.

[Mister Ed]

Wow. I'm not sure I could find $5000 of LEGO that I wanted to buy, and I thought I liked LEGO quite a lot.

[pharmjod]

Wow. I'm not sure I could find $5000 of LEGO that I wanted to buy, and I thought I liked LEGO quite a lot.

It's actually pretty easy if you plan to resell someday down the road. At least it would be for me Heck, with 50% off, you wouldn't even have to wait really long to make a quick small profit.

[Mister Ed]

Ah, that makes sense.

I never think of reselling LEGO. Or anything, actually. That's not to say I've never resold anything. I just never have that in mind when I buy anything.

[JCool]

Our store was very relaxed as there weren't that many people there. Still, it was hard to get done in an hour. I also didn't realize that the discount was a surprise when you checked out (i.e. you didn't know how much it was ahead of time). Had it been a set 30% or a tiered discount of some sort I would have been inclined to spend a LOT more. But knowing that (realistically) I'd only be getting a 10% discount it wasn't quite worth it.

Our store did hand out extra PAB Holiday boxes though for every additional $75 spent which was nice.

So overall it was a neat event and I agree that it was cool (if a bit silly) getting to wear a VIP "special access" lanyard

[solo606]

Also, our store was strict about ONE PAB box no matter how much you spent which was a serious bummer. Store Management was great, the customers were all civil, and it was pleasant despite the lackluster savings. Store opened at 9am exactly, formal line was created, full list check-off with I.D. needed, and I was thrilled (as stupid as it sounds) for the silly little lanyard that we all wore around like lemmings. I like the idea, I still felt special despite the overall lackluster spending that was occurring besides myself, and only have a couple suggestions if anyone of consequence is listening.


Allow VIP's to get a PAB for EVERY $75 spent (we're gonna come back and spend money those days anyway). I know from experience that it's fairly standard for front line workers to throw in extra PAB's during normal hours but for some reason I felt like we were held to stricter standards because there weren't very many of us and managers did most of the ringing for the event.

Hmm, it was different at our store.
At our store everyone that had the VIP ticket received a free Holiday PAB box just for showing up that we were allowed to fill up today. We were also given 1 free Holiday PAB box for every $75 we spent. No 50% offs at our store but a couple 20% off.

[that guy]

I realize this thread is all but dead, but now that the Black Friday ordeal is over I only have one thing to say. Thanks a freaking lot Lego for inviting me to a special event where I was supposed to get the "BF Deals early", and in fact got screwed by spending most of my money expecting that nothing new would pop up Friday that I didn't see on Saturday morning. And what do I find?? Every other yokel who didn't get invited actually got a better deal than anyone who did get invited. That's an F'd up message to send to those people who are supposed to be your best customers. What a crock of garbage that they went through all the effort only have half their guest lists actually show up (clearly the smarter ones), and now I find that I was a sucker for being one of those that did. Sure I had a chance to get a 50% (and consequently pulled one and spent a chunk of change), but so did all the other people who showed on on BF PLUS they got the killer deals to boot and most stores were stacking the savings. I hope they get their act together next year and create a truly unique event where there's actually a reason for people to show up besides a fancy lanyard.

[Gooker1]

I hope they get their act together next year and create a truly unique event where there's actually a reason for people to show up besides a fancy lanyard.

That was a fancy lanyard???

Yes, i do fill jipped for not having a true black friday set of deals like everyone else got. Hopefully they'll work on that for next year.

[Mister Ed]

Perhaps that was their plan all along, though. Single out the people most likely to buy a lot of stuff, and lure them into the store to buy when they won't be getting special deals. Save the special deals for the folks that aren't as likely to buy without them.

(To be clear, I am not quite cynical enough to actually believe that this was LEGO's intention with the VIP event. But it sounds like it ended up being the result...)

[that guy]

Yeah I'd quote our favorite Mon Cala Admiral but I think we've heard enough of that phrase lately.