New lego discount strategy

[Bricksnaps]

I was in my Lego store today and they offered me the Pirates chess set at 50% off retail because I had spent more than $50 (there was a sign on the counter)

I took the deal- $30 for the Pirates set as it is a no brainier at thAt price as there are great pieces for mocing.

Anyway the store said they are one of 10 test stores to test this strategy.

Has anyone else seen this? What are your thoughts?

The chance to get a brand new set at 50% off retail is great IMO.

I am trying to work out why they are doing it- of course to move an item that is a slow mover, also maybe to stretch the customer to spend a few more dollars they would not normally have done.

I will be buying more that's for certain.

Anyone else?

[Graham Gidman]

I was at a store back in August and didn't see the sign, and I'm pretty sure I spend over $50. What store was this?

[Peppermint_M]

Not come across it here in the UK (I would love a price like that!), it might be a US retail strategy test.

Kudos on that "steal" there.

[Dannylonglegs]

Wow... I am extremely jealous! I just bought the thing myself and from what I heard the store was almost sold out, so I don't know why they'd be giving the darn thing away so cheaply.

Great job on the steal though!

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[HawkLord]

Not a bad way to up-sell. I wonder if the Pirate set wasn't doing well at that store.

With all the new Lego coming out next year, it would make sense to clear space.

[Bricksnaps]

Yeah I am going back tomorrow to see if the same deal is on. It is a great up sell.

It was a store in the south, again, they said they were one of only 10 stores in the US to be selected to trial this strategy. I will report back more when I know it :)

[Tezclatipoca]

Is this only a US store deal ?

Because in Europe I did not saw that (since I went to the LEGO store of Copenhagen there is several months ago now), and did not saw any commercial about it.

If there is a European project like this it could be interesting knowing where; wich stores are concerned. (as I'm not putting too much hopes in the french stores...)

And of course, if it is interesting, they could generalize the deal in all LEGO stores ! It could be great !

[dr_spock]

My local grocery store has similiar sales technique. It is one way to move slow selling goods or make room for incoming new products or minimize "shrink" on products coming up to expiration date. The store still gets its margin from the non discounted products to help offset the discounted one because you have to buy other things. Also it may not be so good for resellers to get a dozen copies of that set this way.

Edited October 7, 2015 by dr_spock

[Rhodes81]

Every retail company tries things like this whenever they have a new product or promotion along those lines. For instance, fast-food restaurants test new menu items in certain markets sometimes over a year before deciding if they will make it available in other markets.These test markets are chosen very strategically, Generally, a company will put their new product in the market where they expect it to perform the worst, and then if it does well enough to survive in the worst market, they know they can roll it out in the others. They will also test in some other markets, but it is the worst market that they are most interested to see.

The purpose of this particular promotion is likely to move out a product that they will no longer have shelf space for. Since this is a test, that doesn't mean it is necessarily the pirates chess set in particular that they need to move, but rather that they simply identified a set which they had an excess supply of and wanted to see how drastically its sales would increase.