Watford store to close in September

Oh my, sorry to hear that :<

They’ll be closing the Kingston store next ;-)

Thats my closest store. Nooooooooooooooooo!

A shame but as the article does say, there are plenty of alternatives in London (given the Overground network connects Watford to Euston).
I feel for the staff.

A shame, the best for the employees and may the new locations are better for them.

Dammit! My local store :'(

Will have to check out the Milton Keynes store.

Funnily enough it had a Disney Store next door to it, which was also closed down. Perhaps the rates are too high?

@Brickchap said:
"Ah typical Lego.

Closes stores in UK, opens no stores in Czechia or many other countries, has like 1 official store for the entirety of Australia and New Zealand (there are Lego Certified Stores but they are run by BricksMegaStore, not The Lego Group.)

Meanwhile in China: You get a store! You get a store! And you! And you! 100,000 stores opening in China this year! 500 000 stores Ah ah ah 600 000 stores Ah ah ah 800 000 beautiful Lego stores!

Also in China: Official Lego sets are copied EXACTLY right down to the smallest detail even before they are officially revealed....big increase in amount of knock-off brands including ones that steal both official Lego designs and fan designs such as failed Ideas projects without permission....Pure coincidence of course...

Lego shouldn't be closing stores it should be opening them, especially in countries or parts of countries that don't have any Lego stores. Oh and maybe Lego should have another look at both the World Map and Ideas Globe and recall that China is not the only country in the world...
"

You say that regarding Australia, but I live in a state that will never get a Lego store nor is anywhere near a certified Lego store. I have noticed though that our retailers no longer seem to get the range (and therefore the discount) since these stores have opened. Although I'm sure they are a lovely shopping experience for the select few who live close by, I'm wondering if the range in the retail (the part that reaches the vast majority) is affected and if so, I personally would prefer no Lego stores and rely on retails who at least offer a discount given the insane prices that Australia is charged for all things Lego.

Gutted… I’ve been going there for years.

I'm still waiting for them to open at least a single store outside the elite neighborhoods in my city.

Yeah, it's always a shame to see a store close...
Thankfully there are generally more stores opening than closing worldwide, so that can only be positive overall!

A sad announcement but personally not surprised that this particular store is closing, Watford has been hit quite a bit by other big name retailers pulling out such as John Lewis and Debenhams, its been hit much more than other areas where LEGO Stores are located. I suspect overall foot traffic was no longer as used to be and has declined more than other stores in the area and the UK.

I feel sorry for all that shop there, or whose closest store was this one.

Do we know which day in September will be the store’s last? If so, which day is it?

@Montyh7 said:
" @Brickchap said:
"Ah typical Lego.

Closes stores in UK, opens no stores in Czechia or many other countries, has like 1 official store for the entirety of Australia and New Zealand (there are Lego Certified Stores but they are run by BricksMegaStore, not The Lego Group.)

Meanwhile in China: You get a store! You get a store! And you! And you! 100,000 stores opening in China this year! 500 000 stores Ah ah ah 600 000 stores Ah ah ah 800 000 beautiful Lego stores!

Also in China: Official Lego sets are copied EXACTLY right down to the smallest detail even before they are officially revealed....big increase in amount of knock-off brands including ones that steal both official Lego designs and fan designs such as failed Ideas projects without permission....Pure coincidence of course...

Lego shouldn't be closing stores it should be opening them, especially in countries or parts of countries that don't have any Lego stores. Oh and maybe Lego should have another look at both the World Map and Ideas Globe and recall that China is not the only country in the world...
"

You say that regarding Australia, but I live in a state that will never get a Lego store nor is anywhere near a certified Lego store. I have noticed though that our retailers no longer seem to get the range (and therefore the discount) since these stores have opened. Although I'm sure they are a lovely shopping experience for the select few who live close by, I'm wondering if the range in the retail (the part that reaches the vast majority) is affected and if so, I personally would prefer no Lego stores and rely on retails who at least offer a discount given the insane prices that Australia is charged for all things Lego. "

I noticed it too that there are an increasing number of larger "Adult" sets that Lego have not sent out to retailers, started with Diagon Alley and The Colosseum and there's about 10 from last calendar year on my wish list that haven't seen the light of day outside of Lego and the LCS's including all the Creator cars :( Yet the Vesper was everywhere with a week of it's release!

I'm guessing from your comment that you are either in NT or Tas as I think all the others have stores now (even the ACT has one). Hopefully one day you will get to see one, the closet to me is about an hour and a half away and as much as I would like to see one just for the experience, I can't think of a good reason to make the trip, especially as I can't drive there!

@Brickchap:
They _are_ opening stores, but it’s just a handful each year, and there’s a whole lotta world. There are US states the size of Western European nations that have no LEGO Stores. Michigan has one, way down in the SE corner, but for many residents it’s closer to drive to the five in the Metro Chicago area two states away. For others, Canada, the second largest nation geographically, is much closer. Without looking, I’m unaware of any outside the US/Canada in the entire Western Hemisphere, or of any in all of Africa.

Anyways, I’m 45 minutes away from the lone Michigan store, and another half hour past that to our lone LEGOLAND Discovery Center, and I don’t have any fear of them closing in the near future. I’ve been told that our local store is top in its region, probably because they draw people in from such a large geographic area due to being the only option. In contrast, the Chicago LEGO Store probably doesn’t see much of a bump in business during Brickworld Chicago because there’s a LEGO Store and LLDC right down the street, and a second LEGO Store a short drive away, while the Chicago store means braving downtown Chicago traffic, paying for parking, and probably higher sales tax. It’s about half a day just to make a “quick” trip.

@adamkehoe73:
It’s not much help for the manager and ASM (unless someone was planning to retire), but the rest of the employees could be absorbed into staff at any nearby stores, and headcount could then be reduced by attrition. On the downside, this could mean reduced hours for employees at these stores until optimal headcount is reached, assuming they’re not currently short-staffed.

@PixelTheDragon:
The mall where our local store is located currently has a Tesla “dealership” on the first floor, and several years ago I remember seeing what looked like a Harley Davidson dealership on the same floor (it’s possible they only sold HD accessories/clothing, but they had a motorcycle parked in the display window).

As for China, I think they’re fourth largest geographically, but they do also lead the world in headcount. India would also be a prime target for expansion if they could get their economy in shape. Much smaller geography, and second largest population probably gives it the highest population density in the world, excluding city-states and very small nations.

Very saddened to hear the closure of the Watford store, my local. But in a way, not surprised either.

The store hasn’t felt as busy as others and always looked a top contender if they were to close stores.

This will leave a massive gap in the lineup of the Watford area, following other closures such as Debenhams, Disney & John Lewis. Smyths is now the last major Lego retailer now.

I guess the upsizing of Leicester Square is a slight compensation, but still a great shame.

so sad. I hate going to Westfield or Leicester square.

@crammus said:
"Dammit! My local store :'(

Will have to check out the Milton Keynes store.

Funnily enough it had a Disney Store next door to it, which was also closed down. Perhaps the rates are too high?"

Nah, Disney's closing lots of stores to move online, more.

@jsutton said:
"They’ll be closing the Kingston store next ;-)"

I didn't even know there was a store in Kingston - when did that happen?

@RUL said:
"Lego Stores in the UK: dozens
Lego Stores in the Czech Republic, where Lego is produced: 0

:("

There are 18, not dozens, not even two dozen. Unless you live in London then most people are at least an hour's drive from any of them. They are not evenly distributed across the country at all.

This is disappointing but given others' comments about the other shops which have closed it is hardly surprising. I've only been to a couple of Lego stores as none are close by, and both underwhelmed me. They didn't have most of the sets I was looking for, they are far more tolerant of damaged boxes given the items on display, they weren't prepared throw in a GWP to compensate for having almost none of the sets I was after, etc. The website is far less hassle and far better stocked. My London office is walking distance of Leicester Square so I do pop in when I'm in that office but it proves to be a let down every time. Perhaps it will improve with the remodelling work but somehow I doubt it.

@CCC said:
"There is also Bluewater not far from London. The London area has it rather good, 5 stores in the M25 region plus MK not far out. Closing Watford is understandable. I'm a bit surprised that there isn't one in the Nottingham or Derby area. It would fill a whole in the spine / mid-east of the country, going down from Newcastle-Leeds-Sheffield-MK-London-Brighton/Soton. Maybe it would be to close to Birmingham, but then Leeds Sheffield and Manchester-Liverpool seem to coexist."

East Midlands is an obvious geographical gap. I was in Nottingham earlier this year and it definitely felt like it should have a store.

I also think that even though Leeds isn't too far away, a York store would do really well. The city centre gets a lot of visitors and tourists.

I don't know anything about Watford's store but if it was situated somewhere that didn't get a lot of footfall, I can see why they'd close, especially with other stores nearby. All the stores I've been to are in shopping destinations and it sounds Watford isn't that any more. Although I can definitely see the appeal of a quiet Lego store - midweek or early Saturday visits are when I try to go to Leeds.

Nnnooooooo! This is my local store - and by local I mean not local at all! But still my nearest and just about driveable! Puts my nearest store at least 2 hours away now (each way). Bad times.

@Doctor_Hugh said:
" @RUL said:
"Lego Stores in the UK: dozens
Lego Stores in the Czech Republic, where Lego is produced: 0

:("

There are 18, not dozens, not even two dozen. Unless you live in London then most people are at least an hour's drive from any of them. They are not evenly distributed across the country at all."

UK: 18 Lego stores
Czechia: Lego factory, huge Lego warehouse but NO store; the nearest one from the capital is 4 hours away in a foreign country!!!!

@Doctor_Hugh said:
"I've only been to a couple of Lego stores as none are close by, and both underwhelmed me. They didn't have most of the sets I was looking for"
What? You can buy stuff in Lego stores? I thought they were just for making YouTube videos of rows of shelves!

A real shame! This is a lovely store, and my local, which makes visiting with my child is a regular weekend treat. Staff always very welcoming. The pick-a-brick wall is one of the better ones I've seen, and I'll miss that too.

Schlepping into London to fight the crowds at Westfield just isn't going to happen. :-(

As sad as the news is at least the staff get a Job opportunity and with it being close to the other London stores hopefully reasonably locally. I don’t know if Birmingham staff had a similar option.

The same thing happened with the Lego Store in the Queens Center Mall...leases will kill you!

I'm sorry Watford is losing its store, but at least there are alternatives reasonably close. There are a lot of people even within the UK that have to travel a lot further.

Here in Ireland we're about to get our first store ever on the island, so are very excited.

Watford was the store that helped to bring me out of my dark ages. I think the first event I went to, was their 1st birthday party (I still have the "limited edition" blister pack of some very random build-a-minifig figures!)
The staff were great - I think it was Laura when I first went, then Alberto in particular, and Mark(?) most recently.
Yes there are other stores near-ish, but for large purchases, Watford was handy with a car. It's not really feasible to drive to Leicester Square, and all 3 other London stores are in the ULEZ.

@Modeltrainman:
They calling it Disney Store+ and just nick you for a monthly charge on all merch you want to borrow?

@MrMouth1117:
Sometimes. Not always. Back when K-Mart was first starting to announced waves of store closings, the Holland, MI location was on the chopping block. Local Management talked to their landlord and let them know that they were profitable enough to stay open if the rent was lower. Half a rent check may not be ideal, but an empty building doesn’t even cover the annual property tax bill. There weren’t any businesses lined up to take over the lease, so they got reduced rent and managed to stay open a bit longer. Eventually a new round of closures took them out, but you can’t keep asking for lower rent until your landlord is writing you checks every month.

@CCC said:
"There is also Bluewater not far from London. The London area has it rather good, 5 stores in the M25 region plus MK not far out. Closing Watford is understandable. I'm a bit surprised that there isn't one in the Nottingham or Derby area. It would fill a whole in the spine / mid-east of the country, going down from Newcastle-Leeds-Sheffield-MK-London-Brighton/Soton. Maybe it would be to close to Birmingham, but then Leeds Sheffield and Manchester-Liverpool seem to coexist."

I’d be very happy for a Nottingham store. The closest stores to here are either Sheffield or Birmingham. Very difficult to justify a trip, though like others I’m pretty used to online shopping by now.

Very sad news. I was there on opening day and I’ve looked after the RLUG Showcase throughout. The staff are great. It’s been great visiting the store as it’s rarely busy, but sadly that was probably its downfall In the eyes of the bean counters in LEGO Retail.
I’ll definitely be there if or closing day. I look forward to seeing others there too.

@BooTheMightyHamster said:
"What a shame! Watford's my local store and the staff there have always been fantastic."

It's my local store too, such a shame.

Also I agree, the staff were brilliant

Gutted - one of my two local stores :-(

Shame, as it's my local. The shopping centre has been dying a slow death over the past 15 years though
London is costly to get into which rules out those ones. Milton Keynes is doable but a bit more of a trek.
Not that I have much need to visit physical stores much

@PurpleDave said:
" @Modeltrainman:
They calling it Disney Store+ and just nick you for a monthly charge on all merch you want to borrow?

@MrMouth1117:
Sometimes. Not always. Back when K-Mart was first starting to announced waves of store closings, the Holland, MI location was on the chopping block. Local Management talked to their landlord and let them know that they were profitable enough to stay open if the rent was lower. Half a rent check may not be ideal, but an empty building doesn’t even cover the annual property tax bill. There weren’t any businesses lined up to take over the lease, so they got reduced rent and managed to stay open a bit longer. Eventually a new round of closures took them out, but you can’t keep asking for lower rent until your landlord is writing you checks every month."

Not YET, Dave. Hopefully never.

@Modeltrainman:
Well, they probably haven’t figured out how to track down an repossess anything you got from them…yet.

Still 5 Lego brand stores within an hour of Boston. (Peabody, Burlington, Natick, Braintree, and Providence)
It's a good place to be.

Rather than spending money on a lengthy journey to visit a store, it’s often easier and more cost effective to use a bot to buy sought-after sets when they’re released, and sell them a few months later at great profit. LEGO are really ahead of the game in this respect - by both controlling the supply and owning the largest secondary marketplace, they’ve helped to create an eco-system that incentivises against in-store purchases and which favours investment over play. Only the best is good enough, for keeping MISB and selling on later. ;-)

Why don't Lego set up a franchise at the empty hallway entrance of the Harry Potter Studio as that is the main reason tourists go to Watford? I guess the soft toy and too much clothing sections of the never ending Harry Potter Studio souvenir shop don't want the competition.

@crammus said:
"Dammit! My local store :'(

Will have to check out the Milton Keynes store.

Funnily enough it had a Disney Store next door to it, which was also closed down. Perhaps the rates are too high?"

Disney just closed ALL stores but Oxford Street I think

@ambr said:
"Why don't Lego set up a franchise at the empty hallway entrance of the Harry Potter Studio as that is the main reason tourists go to Watford? I guess the soft toy and too much clothing sections of the never ending Harry Potter Studio souvenir shop don't want the competition. "

The Harry Potter Studio shop already stocks some of the HP Lego sets, when i've been there i'd have to say they weren't exactly flying off of the shelves (on broomsticks or otherwise) I didn't actually see a single person with a set... seemed far too occupied with all the other stuff you can buy (£1 worth of sweets with HP logo on packet makes them £4 type stuff plus all the collectibles/clothing etc). In late April they still had hundreds of HP CMF packets in bins near the checkouts which shows the clientele are likely more HP fans than Lego fans...

It is very sad about Watford store but would agree once you lose a flagship store such as John Lewis it impacts footfall significantly and makes it less of a 'destination retail' place, and it can snowball from there.. often retail leases have clauses in them about 'anchor tenants' i.e. you can break lease/leave/pay less etc if the main attraction/feature stores go.

@Squidy74H said:
...

I noticed it too that there are an increasing number of larger "Adult" sets that Lego have not sent out to retailers, started with Diagon Alley and The Colosseum and there's about 10 from last calendar year on my wish list that haven't seen the light of day outside of Lego and the LCS's including all the Creator cars :( Yet the Vesper was everywhere with a week of it's release!

I'm guessing from your comment that you are either in NT or Tas as I think all the others have stores now (even the ACT has one). Hopefully one day you will get to see one, the closet to me is about an hour and a half away and as much as I would like to see one just for the experience, I can't think of a good reason to make the trip, especially as I can't drive there!]]

Yes, Tassie ! Although it certainly would be fun to go there, I would much prefer access to the sets I would like to purchase at retail discount. I'm actually after the UCS AT-AT and I'm not sure if they have kept it exclusive or if they have given it to Amazon as an exclusive, which just seems insane to me as everything they stand for seems incongruous to everything for which Lego claims to stand and is absolutely not an Australian store. We definitely would have had the colosseum, the Titanic, Harry Potter et al, if not for the presence of these stores I think. So although sad for Watford and the people there losing their beloved store, it's also sad for us that certified stores landed in Australia.

@Doctor_Hugh said:
" @RUL said:
"Lego Stores in the UK: dozens
Lego Stores in the Czech Republic, where Lego is produced: 0

:("

There are 18, not dozens, not even two dozen. Unless you live in London then most people are at least an hour's drive from any of them. They are not evenly distributed across the country at all."

Hahaha, you win the prize for the most pedantic way of totally missing the point of the post you replied to :D

This is rather a shame - living just near Watford it's been great having a 'local' Lego store! I know I shouldn't really complain - Westfield, MK and the Leicester Square stores aren't really difficult to get to, and Smyths still serves us well in Watford, but it's still a little disappointing. I hope the staff aren't affected too much - being offered a job in another branch is one thing, being able to actually practically take it is quite another - and maybe Toy Galaxy (which originally took over the Disney Store next door but has just moved across to the other side) might start stocking Lego too!

I've got the (slightly random) 'official opening' Minifig set - maybe they'll do an official closing one too - marking the life of a shop in giveaways!

Thanks to the staff and their managers who have served my boys and I since it opened. I appreciate their friendliness and assistance. Last week I spoke to Emma who did the hard work of sorting all the Muppets minifigs. Of that I was grateful.

I'll miss the opportunity to just pop in. To chat. To be swayed by actually seeing a model in the flesh. I wont be travelling to another store to browse.

I'm thankful we had the store as long as we did.

@Blackrat23 said:
"I'll miss the opportunity to just pop in. To chat. To be swayed by actually seeing a model in the flesh. ."
I might just be weird, but I actually DON'T like to see the model built. I even fast forward through Brickset reviews to maintain the mystery. I do the same thing with movie trailers in advance of a must see movie. :o)

@Bricklestick said:
" @CCC said:
"There is also Bluewater not far from London. The London area has it rather good, 5 stores in the M25 region plus MK not far out. Closing Watford is understandable. I'm a bit surprised that there isn't one in the Nottingham or Derby area. It would fill a whole in the spine / mid-east of the country, going down from Newcastle-Leeds-Sheffield-MK-London-Brighton/Soton. Maybe it would be to close to Birmingham, but then Leeds Sheffield and Manchester-Liverpool seem to coexist."

I’d be very happy for a Nottingham store. The closest stores to here are either Sheffield or Birmingham. Very difficult to justify a trip, though like others I’m pretty used to online shopping by now.
"

Me too, I live in Nottingham as well and only get to visit the Lego store when I make the trip to Sheffield Meadowhall (it's only a 35 mile drive I know) and the Birmingham store is 50 miles away and parking is not free down there. I think because we are sandwiched between 2 Lego stores, it is unlikely we'll ever get one.
It's a shame because there aren't a great many places in Nottingham city centre that sell a lot of Lego, we have John Lewis and The Entertainer which sell Lego but nothing else. We do have a Smyths outside the city as well.
I suppose what doesn't help Nottingham's cause is the fact that we have had a shopping centre close down permanently due to intu going bust and the remaining one (Victoria Centre) is not a very attractive shopping centre compared to other cities, it's way smaller than shopping centres which Lego stores tend to pop up in.

@sid3windr said:
" @Doctor_Hugh said:
" @RUL said:
"Lego Stores in the UK: dozens
Lego Stores in the Czech Republic, where Lego is produced: 0

:("

There are 18, not dozens, not even two dozen. Unless you live in London then most people are at least an hour's drive from any of them. They are not evenly distributed across the country at all."

Hahaha, you win the prize for the most pedantic way of totally missing the point of the post you replied to :D"

I'm well aware of the point but I just dislike inaccuracies of that magnitude. Every country in Europe should have at least one Lego store. I was surprised there are 18 in Britain as from where I live it feels more like two, both of which are a trek.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Modeltrainman:
Well, they probably haven’t figured out how to track down an repossess anything you got from them…yet."
Sadly true. Once any company does that...Yikes.

Saddest thing I’ve heard all week. And I work for a mental health service.

Genuinely sad to hear this, this was my first store opening I attended (second being Leicester Square), I remember queing through the shopping mall, to get the exclusive giveaways. Guess that was about 10 years ago if their lease it up.

I liked how easy it was to get to, no stress of driving into East or West London, cheap parking, good other shops in the same town. Always friendly staff, real shame. More and more of these shopping centres are pushing their rents up through the roof, and more and more units are empty. You just have to wonder how long it's going to take for the owners to realise it's better to have some income, than a completely empty shopping mall. (point and case for anyone that knows the fate of The Wellington Centre phase 2 (AKA The Galleries) in Aldershot. I'm seeing several other towns in the south of England heading in the same direction. It starts when the department store leaves, closely followed the charity shops appear.....

I hope all the staff are well looked after.

@Paul_DLH:
Different rules, and I’m not familiar with yours at all, but in the US there are complications that have to be factored in. If leases are rising everywhere locally, chances are property taxes will be right behind. A lot of repairs and upgrades probably got put on hold for two years, and both material (especially lumber) and labor costs have skyrocketed, but landlords are obligated to make repairs that private homeowners may just push off until things settle down again. If businesses didn’t survive the pandemic, and new ones aren’t popping up to fill the vacancies, it really doesn’t take much to push a landlord from being profitable to basically needing a job on the side to subsidize whatever tenants remain. At some point, yes, it does become like a drowning man who is trying to climb bodily on top of the lifeguard who swam out to save him.