Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:47 am
Any clues on the other impulse sets?
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banks foreclose on mortgaged properties. tru is not a bank and won't be foreclosing on anything.Asterios wrote: and there is the possibility TRU will be foreclosing within a year or two if not sooner, so right now what TRU is doing is trying to get as much money as they can before their gone, or try to stave off foreclosing.
I think TRU is charging more to make up for lost sales to Wal-Mart and Target. Target and Wal-Mart sell more and can get by with lower prices. Kay-Bee Toys was higher than all three and still went under, so higher prices may be due to financial difficulty on TRU's part as well.natelite wrote:banks foreclose on mortgaged properties. tru is not a bank and won't be foreclosing on anything.Asterios wrote: and there is the possibility TRU will be foreclosing within a year or two if not sooner, so right now what TRU is doing is trying to get as much money as they can before their gone, or try to stave off foreclosing.
companies declare bankruptcy. if you pretend to be smart about finance at least learn to use the words correctly.
charging more when you are in a cash crunch is the surest way to a bankruptcy. tru is charging more because it can, not because it's short of cash. by your reasoning, a company that has lots of money would be giving out lego for free. sorry...altruistic company is an oxymoron.
That is odd. Perhaps TRU has had a lot of demand of this product, while other stores have not had the same strong demand of the same product?puddleglum wrote:All impulse sets are marked up several dollars at all the TRU's I've been to. OTOH all impulse sets except pirates are on sale in LEGO Stores.
it's quite likely that TRU is willing to sell fewer impulse sets but earn more per set. $6 vs $3.50, it's easy to see that they only needed to sell half as many as the rest to earn the same return.ottoatm wrote:That is odd. Perhaps TRU has had a lot of demand of this product, while other stores have not had the same strong demand of the same product?puddleglum wrote:All impulse sets are marked up several dollars at all the TRU's I've been to. OTOH all impulse sets except pirates are on sale in LEGO Stores.
It's possible, but I will admit that it seems unlikely.
There is another possibility to consider. Unless the trend changes, the impulse sets aren't normally available in other stores (except LEGO stores). They seem to be available around Christmas (then they get a huge price cut like they are right now) and around Easter (likewise, they will be cut in price right after Easter). So, TRU may be banking on the sets not being available anyplace else in the near future. It isn't a great plan as anyone near a LEGO store or who just goes online to LEGO.com can get them cheaper, but given that TRU does in fact seem to sell their LEGO products there are apparently enough people who don't do those things to make it worthwhile. They may just be playing the long game. Start the prices high and no one complains instead of just raising them when they are the only game in town and drawing complaints. The only people complaining now are people who do price comparisons. I don't believe people who do that frequently shop at TRU to begin with.natelite wrote: it's quite likely that TRU is willing to sell fewer impulse sets but earn more per set. $6 vs $3.50, it's easy to see that they only needed to sell half as many as the rest to earn the same return.
since the impulse sets are cheap enough, a $3 increase shouldn't really dampen demand too much...except for savvy lego buyers like us. most mom and pops won't quibble over $2-3 extra...