New Lego stores opening in 2013

[paul_delahaye]

I'm surprised that there there is no mention of a LEGO Brand Retail Store that will be opening up in Surrey, British Columbia in Guildford Town Centre mall sometime this July,

For a minute I got really excited, thinking a Lego shop was opening in the town where I work........then to realise this was not Guildford in Surrey......UK :-(

Never mind, it was a long time ago Guildford in Surrey UK last had a genuine Lego shop......

Edited April 28, 2013 by paul_delahaye

[Redhead1982]

The most recent news on Vienna's store is that it's opening in September this year according to one of the employess from Munich's store. Great news for some, for me it's another new destionation, that takes a bit less time to travel there.

I came across this link on our local LUG website. It looks like the expansion will take place in Vienna, Austria.

http://www.brickset....rticle/?ID=6286

[scottwb2010]

Lego site says opening on 10 May. Is this the official launch or soft opening, does anyone know?

What is the difference? Are there no offers at the soft opening?

[rubberninja]

Update on some stores opening soon!

Southgate Centre - Edmonton, AB - Grand opening June 14-16

Freehold Raceway Mall - Freehold, NJ - Grand opening June 21-23

The Westchester - White Plains, NY - Grand opening June 28 - 30 - This is being heralded as the opening of the 100th Lego Store! I wonder if they will have any special promotions going on...

[prozac]

What is the difference? Are there no offers at the soft opening?

No. A soft opening is basically just the store opening with no advertisement of it opening. You basically just walk by and see its open. Here in the states anyway when a store opened they do they soft opening and then a few weeks later they do the grand opening with all the events/freebies. Usually the time between the soft opening and grand opening is when they advertise for the grand opening.

[Drachmyre]

Many places in the US do soft openings. The intention of a soft opening is not to sell things per se, but to instead train your staff how to operate. In food service the soft opening is usually not public but can be sometimes. Guests are invited and then the staff does their thing allowing you to troubleshoot. You don't want your grand opening to be a fiasco.

[scottwb2010]

No. A soft opening is basically just the store opening with no advertisement of it opening. You basically just walk by and see its open. Here in the states anyway when a store opened they do they soft opening and then a few weeks later they do the grand opening with all the events/freebies. Usually the time between the soft opening and grand opening is when they advertise for the grand opening.

Many places in the US do soft openings. The intention of a soft opening is not to sell things per se, but to instead train your staff how to operate. In food service the soft opening is usually not public but can be sometimes. Guests are invited and then the staff does their thing allowing you to troubleshoot. You don't want your grand opening to be a fiasco.

Cheers for the explanation guys. Looks like 2 trips in short succession to Glasgow is on the cards. Looking forward to having the first store in Scotland and having an opportunity to use a Pick-a--brick wall to get some much needed parts.

[loafofcheese]

Why can't TLG open a store in Australia, I hear wonders of the mysterious pick a brick wall, and the closest I can get is resellers.

[eldiano]

I went to the San Antonio Texas Opening and they had a lot of events, like Opening day tshirt give aways, R2-D2 help build a huge one event, and what's funny I called during the week and they told me they had been opened for two weeks already and I was tracking their opening day to be this weekend, but when I went to the store yesterday they did tell me it was their grand opening, so I take it these last two weeks were their soft opening, but either way not bad, that store was full out of all the stores in the mall. All the little kids who saw it from a distance where like "mommy look a Lego store" lol

[___]

ey guys, I can only say - when it comes to LEGO stores - with a salty tear in my eye that you do not know how lucky you are for where you live, realy! You got so many LEGO Shops in your countries, heh, for example here we have NO ORIGINAL LEGO SHOP AT ALL (as long as I know), hah - when it comes to this I still feel like in socialism from the past

Edited June 5, 2013 by bublible

[rubberninja]

Freehold opening was good. The place was stocked to the 9's with sets and they had more than the announced 300 mini store promo sets so everyone who wanted one got one. I def saw more AFOLs than children BUT thats not a bad thing or anything, just an observation. I was good to see the adults who are enthusiastic about lego spreading the love to younger generations. Nice store and nice mall!

[timtosino]

Surrey BC, Guilford Town Centre: Grand Opening is confirmed to be the weekend of Sept. 20th- 22nd.

[Paperballpark]

^ I'm glad you said BC. Just to clarify it for others, you mean British Columbia in Canada. Not Guildford, Surrey, UK...

[paul_delahaye]

Bad news on the Southampton, UK store opening in 2013, rumour has it Lego have pulled out on this one. This would have been my local

[paul_delahaye]

Now looks like a Lego store heading to Newcastle in the Metro centre! Fancy a job as Manager?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424329/Portsmouth-FC-dumps-14-antique-chairs-HMS-Warrior-SKIP.html

[Artifex]

I hope we get a Lego Store down here in Brazil someday. I woudn't mind NOT having a Lego store in Brazil if S@H would sell/ship to Brazil.

[Sven Vdm]

First post... and it's a good one: first store ever in the Benelux (Belgium - Netherlands - Luxemburg, that is Europe) in The Wijnegem Shopping Center opens next weekend September 26th!! I'm there.

[antp]

It was so unexpected that there was already a whole (short) thread about it ;)

http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=86540

Edited September 19, 2013 by antp

[Sven Vdm]

It was so unexpected that there was already a whole (short) thread about it ;)

http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=86540

Now I see. My mistake, I was familiar with Eurobricks but till now I wasn't active on the forum.

Excited anyway. See you at the wall

Edited September 20, 2013 by Sven Vdm

[jaysapathy]

First store ever in Utah soft-opens today. Couldn't be more excited. The official grand opening is 2/3/4th of October, so I'll be there all three days. They're giving away an exclusive Lego set as well as an exclusive minifig package. Should be good!

[jonty14]

Hi everyone. I have just heard that there is a Lego Store opening in the Metrocenter in Gateshead this winter. Does anyone know the exact opening time?

Best regards

Jon

[CptPJs]

Brick Fanatics reckoned before Christmas, but when I checked a few days ago there still seemed to be a lot of job adverts for the shop online. So somewhere between now and Christmas it looks!

If I find out more I'll let you know, I'm pretty excited since it's going to be really close to me.

[badbob001]

Just curious, but has any official LEGO stores ever closed?

[paul_delahaye]

Just curious, but has any official LEGO stores ever closed?

In the last 10 years, Yes, certainly, in the UK, originally there were 5 Lego Shops

Milton Keynes, Brighton, Bluewater, Bull Ring in Birmingham and Kingston. They closed the Kingston and Birminham stores. It makes me wonder if these stores are franchises?

I also have a memory from my childhood of a store inside the Friary centre in Guildford Town centre, but I have no way to prove this,

[Kommotion]

If we could get a Canadian Lego Store in the Prairie Provinces - Manitoba or Saskatchewan, anywhere between Alberta and Ontario is just fine - that would be great. Wink wink, nudge nudge, idontwanttodrive13hoursformylego.