
Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer - bookofjoe
https://www.ft.com/content/d2b7554e-ce18-11e9-99a4-b5ded7a7fe3f
======
jncraton
IMO LEGO thrives thanks to their relentless focus on product quality. The
phrase "det bedste ir ikke for godt" (roughly "only the best is good enough")
has a long history in the company. The fact that they have been able to thrive
like this in a market with many competitors cloning their product is a a
testament to their product quality and related brand strength.

If you've used and compared the various brands in this space, you'll be
familiar with the quality variations. LEGO has put immense engineering effort
into having the best plastic and tightest tolerances in the industry, and I
can really feel the difference when building.

Here's one example comparing some of the clone brands to LEGO's own products:

[https://uploads.brickset.com/docs/clonebrands_v1.7.pdf](https://uploads.brickset.com/docs/clonebrands_v1.7.pdf)

Other brands do continue to improve, and there are many companies out there
that make very nice building toys, but LEGO has done a nice job making sure
that everything they ship is of good quality.

~~~
ebg13
> _IMO LEGO thrives thanks to their relentless focus on product quality._

I'm sure that doesn't hurt, but these days LEGO thrives because of their
relentless promotional brand tie-ins. It's not just LEGO anymore. It's LEGO
Star Wars, LEGO Batman, LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Disney's Frozen, LEGO Toy
Story 4, and so on.

~~~
jncraton
You aren't wrong, but the two are tightly related. LEGO's competitors are also
selling many licensed products, but LEGO's position as the best quality brand
in the market has allowed them to secure contracts for the most popular IP
(Star Wars, Marvel, Minecraft, etc). Their competitors are left with less
popular or less family-friendly IP such as Halo or Star Trek.

Its also worth noting that some of LEGO's competitors don't worry too much
about IP laws. You can buy a clone brand X-wing for 50% of the cost of the
genuine set, but the quality is significantly lower in my experience.

~~~
TylerE
Part of that is that LEGO has a policy against making any models including
guns.

~~~
Larrikin
I read this, believed it, and repeated it to a friend in a Lego store. My
friend then pointed out that there are tons of models with guns and many other
weapons. I think the actual policy is that their original nonlicensed models
don't feature modern day guns or military vehicles, but they are totally fine
making models with guns and weapons of war so long as they are from the
fantasy world or they are not modern.

~~~
dbcurtis
pfft. Built any “City” theme sets lately? All the police minifigs pack pretty
realistic-looking semi-autos.

~~~
arrrg
I don’t think that’s true at all. I looked at every police set Lego is selling
currently and not a single one of them included even a suggestion of a gun.

Typical police equipment are handcuffs, megaphones, walkie-talkies, traffic
paddles and coffee cups. The criminals might carry gold, banknotes, dynamite
or crowbars and other tools.

The most gun-like thing in current sets is the huge net shooter (larger than a
minifig and not portable at all) that really isn’t very gun-like at all.

Not even the minifig prints include suggestions of guns.

~~~
tomatocracy
At the other end of the spectrum, you have Playmobil's police sets which
include sub machine guns, rifles with sniper-scopes and attack dogs eg [0]

0\. [https://www.amazon.com/PLAYMOBIL%C2%AE-6872-Police-
Command-C...](https://www.amazon.com/PLAYMOBIL%C2%AE-6872-Police-Command-
Center/dp/B01608LOHS)

------
Animats
_" Lego has become the world’s largest toymaker by sales..."_

Had no idea they'd grown that much. Mattel used to be on top. Apparently Lego
passed them around 2014.

The movie tie-ins seem to have done it. Even though Barbie had her screen
moments in one of the Toy Story movies.

~~~
9nGQluzmnq3M
Lego is also widely (and IMHO not incorrectly) viewed as "educational" in a
way that virtually all the branded crap sold by Mattel & co is not. And who
buys most toys? Parents, not kids themselves.

~~~
tr3ndyBEAR
Sad that legos were/are traditionally thought of as boy toys and a generation
of women grew up without them. It's basically what happened with computers
too. Many of the most important early computer pioneers were women

~~~
nf8nnfufuu
That's just bullshit, a narrative feminists peddled by posting selective
pictures and ads of LEGO sets.

They even complain about modern "girl's Lego", instead of being happy that it
brings girls to using Lego.

It also doesn't make sense to complain about a Lego car as enforcing gender
stereotypes. Don't they want girls to build cars? It is so illogical. They
claim girls are not interested in engineering (cars), because of Lego not
catering to girls, and at the same time claim Lego cars don't appeal to girls.

As if company bosses would shun earning billions by refusing to market to
girls, just to enforce gender stereotypes. Companies want to make money.
That's it. The new "themed" sets apparently sell better than the "random box
of colored bricks" from the past.

~~~
bluetomcat
> The new "themed" sets apparently sell better than the "random box of colored
> bricks" from the past.

In the 1990s, almost no sets were "random boxes of colored bricks" and they
were all themed, but the themes weren't the commercialized junk they are
today. You had Castle, Pirates and Space without any references to movie
characters and the structures were rather harmonic without too many special or
overly-sized parts. The minifigs had serious faces and were not cartoonish. A
child would be able to invent its own story and get creative with those
themes, rather than using the toy to play when it's not watching the movie.

~~~
nf8nnfufuu
Apparently the "commercialized junk" sells better, though. Lego was close to
going bankrupt in the 90ies.

Apart from the price, I personally can't really complain about the modern Lego
sets, either. They are nice puzzles, and my kids like to play with them. After
a while they fall apart, and new things can be built.

I don't think Lego wants to pay for expensive Hollywood brands. They always
try to establish their own brands, too, like Ninjago, Lego Movie, Nexo
Knights. Often it seems the Hollywood stuff simply sells better.

~~~
bluetomcat
Lego was actually flourishing in the early 90s particularly with Castle and
Pirates. Each year brought new sub-themes and factions, and newer sets
coexisted nicely with older ones. It started to go downhill with the advent of
PC and PlayStation gaming in the late 90s. Kids suddenly had their attention
elsewhere. Lego then changed the formula to launching short-lived flashy
themes with spiced-up minifigs and unusual parts, and the old spirit of calm
playfulness was largely gone.

~~~
nf8nnfufuu
I forgot to post the link:
[https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/innovation-
almos...](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/innovation-almost-
bankrupted-lego-until-it-rebuilt-with-a-better-blueprint/)

Sales slump in 1993 - I don't think that agrees with your thesis. Maybe they
put out so much stuff out of desperation, to find something that sticks.

------
martin_a
Lego is becoming more and more of a scumbag company.

First hit this year was that they sued a small Lego shop in Frankfurt called
"Held der Steine". His logo was a standing brick, but it could have been any
brick, no Lego logo was seen or whatnot. They sued him for infringement of
their trademarks anyway. That gave quite a huge media wave, I think the video
of "Held der Steine" on YouTube where he lays out what happened has seven
figure views.

The next big hit happened yesterday when bailiffs walked in another small shop
that is selling brick construction sets. Lego found that some of the figures
from some chinese vendors look somewhat like their mini figures and obtained a
restraining order for that shop. Bailiffs took some sets with them, the
business owner was quite shaken when stating on YouTube what happened and that
they will check which sets they can still sell and which not and that Lego
threatened him with something like half a million Euro fine if he would
violate the restraining orders. His company is called "Bluebrixx".

Besides this behaviour Lego is getting more and more expensive, while the
quality of the models and the part count go down. Just look at some of the
regular Star Wars models for example. The "bang for the buck" is pretty bad on
those.

~~~
CannisterFlux
Not only the model quality, but the Lego bricks themselves are pretty
disappointing too.

If you drop a normal brick on a hard floor the brick is likely to shatter.
More models have special parts with narrow waist sections that easily snap.
The c-shaped grips that hold poles either warp or snap and become useless.

More and more sets come with stickers rather than printing the pattern onto
the bricks like they used to do. Stickers are really lame. They never go on
right and peel off at the corners easily, but if you pull them off they'll
definitely leave goop behind.

My kids and I still enjoy Lego despite this, but we haven't bought a new set
for a long time.

~~~
mytailorisrich
> _If you drop a normal brick on a hard floor the brick is likely to shatter._

Are they really like that nowadays?

When I was a child they were near indestructible.

~~~
CannisterFlux
Yeah, they are not nearly as good. I've had pieces snap just from having them
in a box, rooting through to find other pieces, they must have snagged. And
dropping regular pieces on a tiled floor from table height, had the side
break! Maybe I was unlucky, but that would've been unheard of back in the 80s.

~~~
bonzini
Uh, are you sure those were Legos? I have tens of thousands of loose pieces
and exactly one has been damaged in use (a clip that broke after being walked
on).

------
lnsru
LEGO is doing very well and spending a lot:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/legoland-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/legoland-
operator-merlin-to-be-acquired-in-6-1-billion-buyout)

As a parent I don’t see many competition for LEGO: Duplo for toddlers, LEGO
for kids, Mindstorms to teach kids programming, Technic for older kids. No
soldering needed and can be used in relatively small apartments. And quality
is a big topic here - LEGO uses molding equipment with pressure sensors, so
they all bricks are the same. Cheap knockoffs frustrate kids, because every
brick is different and sometimes one can’t join them at all. And you can build
anything you want with couple sets since LEGO provides all the instructions
online!

------
gojomo
There's also a chain of _unofficial_ Lego-only stores, with new and used
items, called "Bricks and Minifigs":

[https://bricksandminifigs.com/](https://bricksandminifigs.com/)

Noticed their Concord, CA (east Bay area) store from the highway a while back,
and while I haven't been inside yet, was surprised to see they've got 20+
locations in the US and Canada.

~~~
RandallBrown
Had no idea that was a chain. Saw one open up a few years ago in the somewhat
small town of Monroe WA. It's far enough outside of Seattle that I wouldn't
expect it to be thriving, but it's apparently still there.

The store was really cool.

------
erk__
They recently also bought back of the Legoland parks, which they have not
owned since 2005 where they had to sell it because they were not doing so well
doing that time.

[https://nypost.com/2019/06/28/lego-strikes-deal-to-buy-
back-...](https://nypost.com/2019/06/28/lego-strikes-deal-to-buy-back-
legoland-other-theme-parks/)

------
keithnz
Here in NZ we are about to get our very first Lego shop

[https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2019/07/lego-store-
comi...](https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2019/07/lego-store-coming-to-
new-zealand.html)

which luckily for me, is a 5 minute walk away from my work! Earlier this year
my son (8) and I really enjoyed watching the Australian Lego Masters TV
competition. [https://www.thebrickman.com/lego-masters-
australia/](https://www.thebrickman.com/lego-masters-australia/)

~~~
northwest65
That ability for adults and children to share in the fun has got to be part of
their success; that and customers that potentially never grow out of the
product.

~~~
nickwegner
I really look forward to taking my son and two daughters to our local store.
All three kids are really different but they always find something that
interests them. I love helping them put the sets together too.

------
duxup
In my experience the actual Lego stores ... are terrible price wise.
Everything is solidly MSRP, I've yet to see a good sale from them.

Sales online and local retail shops are far better pricing wise.

Although I've visited the local Lego store, I don't really need to visit to
get a good feel for a given product, and the prices mean I don't buy anything.

~~~
bhouston
This means though it is great for their margin. There is no distributor cut
and usually no discounting. Thus they have likely identified that they make
the most profit from their own stores rather than from other distributors
(WalMart, ToysRUs) and thus they should increase flow in their own stores.

Also less competing products, distractions.

I think Lego stores are not for the price sensitive Lego buyer but for those
buying for someone else. These are less informed buyers.

------
neonate
[http://archive.is/sbaSP](http://archive.is/sbaSP)

------
nstart
This is unrelated to the stores but related to Lego and the topic of knockoffs
and product range. One market I've been seeing a niche level growth in is nano
blocks. Lots of knock offs but nothing compares with the quality of the
original nano block stuff. Has anyone else tried these out? I'd love for Lego
to merge them in and create sets related to all the IP they seem to be
building around these days. A nano block star wars ship set would be amazing.

Bringing me around to the reason I mentioned this. It's nice to see Lego
spread further. It feels like it's been a while since I saw them introduce a
new line of toys though (like the mindstorm range). Would love if miniature
blocks could become a thing.

------
jdkee
Toys 'R Us used to sell Legos at a roughly 10% markup over MSRP. I always
wondered how they got away with this.

And I am glad Toys 'R Us are gone.

~~~
krustyburger
Toys R Us charged higher prices because they were offering a shopping
destination, something closer to Disneyland than Walmart. Their customers knew
their prices were higher but shopped there for the experience. They didn’t
last forever, but they did last much longer than their competitors like KB and
Playco that had lower prices but a more ordinary shopping experience.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
_something closer to Disneyland than Walmart_

You must have had a different Toys R Us to the UK then because they were
dismal places over here.

------
xixixao
Lego is a really cool company. One fun fact: At least the "techy" parts don't
have assigned desks. They're also investing in cool new tech, like compostable
lego (of course, no easy feat given the requirements on durability). It's also
extremely test/research driven. (source: a friend who works there)

~~~
chrisseaton
> At least the "techy" parts don't have assigned desks.

Can’t tell if you think that’s a good thing or you’re being sarcastic?

~~~
RandallBrown
I personally loved the office I worked in with no assigned desks. We didn't
even do work on personal computers. (We had pair programming stations)

To each their own of course. Not everyone has to like working at every
company. I've never been unhappier than when I was in my own personal office.

~~~
torgian
Pair programming stations? That actually sounds really cool if you’re in the
right frame of mind

~~~
RandallBrown
Yup, we did all pair programming, all the time. Even mostly did test driven
development. It was pretty awesome.

The room was set up like a computer lab, with a few rows of computers. Each
was an iMac with an equal sized Apple Cinema Display that was mirrored, along
with 2 keyboards and 2 mice.

The machines were reimaged occasionally to make sure everything was always the
same and up to date. You never had to worry about setting up an environment or
anything.

We all had personal laptops, but almost never used them.

------
tim333
Ah maybe the family business should have stuck with it's brick toy product. We
had real mini bricks and cement
[https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:Brickplay...](https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:Brickplayer)

------
ivanhoe
Most of the toy manufactures/retailers target only kids, while Lego sells also
to a significant number of adults... they positioned themselves almost
perfectly...

------
rdtwo
Any of you LEGO fans have any tips for building up a lego collection for my
kid on the cheap or at least cheaper?

~~~
em-bee
get lego by the kilo on ebay or similar places. look for deals.

and (some will disagree with that) buy clone-brands that are cheaper. the
quality of the clone brands is catching up. the only downside with clone-
brands is that the often actually clone lego designed sets instead of
designing their own which is not really ethical. but many brands also have
their own sets.

~~~
rapfaria
Can anyone expand on this? Perhaps some alternative to ebay that sells by the
kilo

~~~
em-bee
lego by the kilo is effectively only had second hand, so any places where
second hand stuff is sold.

local flea-markets for example, thrift stores, craigs list, other auctioning
sites...

on craigs list and newspaper classifieds you could even ask. some people keep
their old lego, waiting for an opportunity to give/sell it to someone who
deserves/needs it instead of selling it to someone looking to make a profit.

it takes some searching, patience and good luck.

------
valiant-comma
Behind a paywall, however in case it’s helpful to anyone else, you should be
able to Google the title of the article and access it from there. This often
works for other publications, as well (e.g., WSJ).

~~~
ChrisGranger
That's exactly what the 'web' link under every article title here does.

------
Hernanpm
I practice scrum with legos.

------
jedberg
I predict they’ll close 1/2 of those in five years time. There will eventually
be a recession and I don’t think they’ll be able to support that many stores.

~~~
OriginalPenguin
I don't know how many stores they currently have worldwide, but 160 new stores
across the entire world is nothing.

That's less than one new store per country on average.

To put it in perspective there are 37,000 McDonald's and 11,766 Wal-Marts in
the world. Even Levi's has 750 of their own stores worldwide.

~~~
jedberg
They have 180 in the world and about 80 are in the United States. 160 more
almost doubles their worldwide footprint.

~~~
tellarin
China is becoming one of LEGO’s biggest markets, but their store presence here
is still minimal. According to the article, 140 of the new stores will be in
China.

I’m sure there’s plenty room for growth in a couple other markets as well.

