Oh I miss these type sales here in the US.

And they've shut many of their stores which means either (a) paying for delivery or (b) travelling to somewhere which has an outlet. Either option adds to the final cost and reduces the savings.

@CCC said:
" @yellowcastle said:
"Oh I miss these type sales here in the US."

They aren't particularly good. This is 25% off at best, and many of these sets are the ones that are regularly 20% off at general retailers anyway."
Indeed, some of the deals aren’t that impressive. The Creator Medieval Dragon is £41 each in this sale. I’m pretty sure that Argos has previously had it for sale for £38 with no requirement that you buy two sets.

@Belboz said:
"And they've shut many of their stores which means either (a) paying for delivery or (b) travelling to somewhere which has an outlet. Either option adds to the final cost and reduces the savings. "

Problem is with them being owned by Sainsbury's now, to reduce costs they moved most of them into whatever local Sainsbury's there was that could fit them. We had 3 different Argos' outlets in my town, now they've only got a single counter in the town centre Sainsbury's store.

We get literally NO deals on Icons and a very rare few on Ideas. For other themes, maybe 20% Off as sets get older. So TRU BOGO50% offers were historically the best we could hope for along with Black Friday scratchers.

Here in Portugal he have many stores with those discounts many times per year (Fnac, Toy r us, etc) 50% on the second lego. But that means only 25% total discount...

@GrizBe said:
" @Belboz said:
"And they've shut many of their stores which means either (a) paying for delivery or (b) travelling to somewhere which has an outlet. Either option adds to the final cost and reduces the savings. "

Problem is with them being owned by Sainsbury's now, to reduce costs they moved most of them into whatever local Sainsbury's there was that could fit them. We had 3 different Argos' outlets in my town, now they've only got a single counter in the town centre Sainsbury's store. "

This is what annoys me the most with mergers and acquisitions. Two company, A and B are doing their things and everything is fine - both making profits and doing reasonably well. Then company A buys company B. They cut costs everywhere up to a point where consumers do not feel like shopping at company B anymore. Then company A closes the company B division because it is not profitable enough - as to before the merger, company B was doing just fine. I realize there are case where an acquisition takes place because a company is going under - not sure if this was the case for Argos - I left the UK 12 years ago and haven't followed their path since.

@ShinyBidoof said:
" @GrizBe said:
" @Belboz said:
"And they've shut many of their stores which means either (a) paying for delivery or (b) travelling to somewhere which has an outlet. Either option adds to the final cost and reduces the savings. "

Problem is with them being owned by Sainsbury's now, to reduce costs they moved most of them into whatever local Sainsbury's there was that could fit them. We had 3 different Argos' outlets in my town, now they've only got a single counter in the town centre Sainsbury's store. "

I can't help thinking having three outlets in one town might go some way to explaining why they have ended up in their current position.

Given the number of well-known UK shops that have disappeared in recent years - including many who sold Lego - I still find it remarkable that Argos are still going.
"

In the face of Amazon largely hoovering up the department store market, no less