Lego Store Review: Arundel Mills, MD
A series of reviews of Lego store Pick-A-Brick walls.
7000 Arundel Mills Cir
Hanover, MD 21076
July 1st 2016, around 3pm
Number of Bins: 88
Number of miscellaneous bins: 0
Number of empty bins: 1
Number of colors available (not including misc. bin): 22
Number of different shape parts (not including misc. bin): 47
I will mention that my results are a “snapshot” of one visit, and may not represent how the store is at other times. Yes, I managed to visit two different Lego stores on the same day.
July 1st is the first day of the quarter. Unlike the Tysons Corner Store they did not have the new “Pick-a-Model” in the display spot yet. They did not have the old (butterfly) model on display either. The display spaces were empty. While technically this does not affect variety, the model display uses what once was bin space. I would rather see it used to the fullest. The parts to the “Pick-a-Model” were in place and this store does have the current “fan favorites” bins (sand green 1x1 brick, sand green 1x2 plate, a modified plate ball joint, and a modified plate socket joint).
As I was counting what was in the bins I noticed that one of the bins was empty, totally empty. This bothers me. Scoring based on variety, one of the things I don’t like to see is two different bins with identical parts, but that is built into my scoring. The store only gets points for each unique shape or color. A duplicate bin gets no points (and I did notice some duplicate bins at this store as well). An empty bin feels worse to me. It is unused potential, so I have decided that having an empty bin gives them a penalty of -5 points in my scoring method. Also while having multiple misc. bins does not give more than one +5 bonus, if a store had multiple empty bins the will get a -5 penalty for each. I will also point out that this store did not have any misc. bins.
My partner checked the build-a-minifig display, and she told me that most of those bins were low, and she could only find 3 hair pieces. Not only 3 types of hair, only 3 pieces of hair in the whole display. When she mentioned this to a store employee, he did not offer to check the back for more.
The total Variety Score is:
22 + 47 - 5 = 64
Current scores
Tysons Corner (110 bins) Variety Score 86; July 1st 2016, Friday, about noon
Arundel Mills (88 bins) Variety Score 64; July 1st 2016, Friday, about 3pm
Potomac Mills (64 bins) Variety Score 62; May 21st 2016, Saturday, about 2pm
I do feel that the Potomac Mills store is doing a better job of stocking their Pick-A-Brick wall than Arundel Mills, but this is one of those cases where even a poorly managed wall can get a slightly better score because it is bigger.
7000 Arundel Mills Cir
Hanover, MD 21076
July 1st 2016, around 3pm
Number of Bins: 88
Number of miscellaneous bins: 0
Number of empty bins: 1
Number of colors available (not including misc. bin): 22
Number of different shape parts (not including misc. bin): 47
I will mention that my results are a “snapshot” of one visit, and may not represent how the store is at other times. Yes, I managed to visit two different Lego stores on the same day.
July 1st is the first day of the quarter. Unlike the Tysons Corner Store they did not have the new “Pick-a-Model” in the display spot yet. They did not have the old (butterfly) model on display either. The display spaces were empty. While technically this does not affect variety, the model display uses what once was bin space. I would rather see it used to the fullest. The parts to the “Pick-a-Model” were in place and this store does have the current “fan favorites” bins (sand green 1x1 brick, sand green 1x2 plate, a modified plate ball joint, and a modified plate socket joint).
As I was counting what was in the bins I noticed that one of the bins was empty, totally empty. This bothers me. Scoring based on variety, one of the things I don’t like to see is two different bins with identical parts, but that is built into my scoring. The store only gets points for each unique shape or color. A duplicate bin gets no points (and I did notice some duplicate bins at this store as well). An empty bin feels worse to me. It is unused potential, so I have decided that having an empty bin gives them a penalty of -5 points in my scoring method. Also while having multiple misc. bins does not give more than one +5 bonus, if a store had multiple empty bins the will get a -5 penalty for each. I will also point out that this store did not have any misc. bins.
My partner checked the build-a-minifig display, and she told me that most of those bins were low, and she could only find 3 hair pieces. Not only 3 types of hair, only 3 pieces of hair in the whole display. When she mentioned this to a store employee, he did not offer to check the back for more.
The total Variety Score is:
22 + 47 - 5 = 64
Current scores
Tysons Corner (110 bins) Variety Score 86; July 1st 2016, Friday, about noon
Arundel Mills (88 bins) Variety Score 64; July 1st 2016, Friday, about 3pm
Potomac Mills (64 bins) Variety Score 62; May 21st 2016, Saturday, about 2pm
I do feel that the Potomac Mills store is doing a better job of stocking their Pick-A-Brick wall than Arundel Mills, but this is one of those cases where even a poorly managed wall can get a slightly better score because it is bigger.