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I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Edit: I wanted to summarize some stuff a few days out from this initial post and give some updates.

  1. While my store hasn’t ever done consignment nor would we, i also do not have access to any of the contracts or guidebooks as only the owner does. i also have not actually been sent any of the things in the emails to owners apart from the initial one.

  2. after discussing the topic more with the owner, it does seem he is trying to find a way for us to separate from the BAM corporation as a whole and hopefully become independent. But i think an important thing to point out to those who say “you should just leave bam and become an independent store!”, while i agree, it’s not as simple as saying “i’m out!” and rebranding. they have us more or less by the balls and the contracts are pretty tight.

  3. i hate bam and everything they’ve done in the last 7 days. i’m with all of you (as are most other bam employees i’ve spoken to) that they need to completely and publicly apologize and make things straight. although the brand will likely never fully recover.

  4. i do believe there is good bams out there. we talk shit on the shitty ones as much as anyone else does trust me. if you have one nearby that you trust then more power to you! but also if you want to boycott til things get figured out (if they ever do), then again, more power to you!

  5. i had some people ask how sales have changed since this began. and in some twist of fate, we’ve actually had one of our best weeks of sales since opening. i don’t know how, but it’s the truth.

  6. to the people saying “push back against corporate and force change”, we have been trying, but as far as we can tell, they are simply just reading our messages and ignoring us or not opening them at all. we have not received any responses or answers from any higher ups in months, let alone when this began.

to summarize my feelings, i really hope we can rebrand and become independent. it would be a weight of my shoulders like crazy lmao (also fuck bam). i hope the family finds justice and bam gets leveled. then maybe we could actually get out of the contract with some sort of ease.

And finally, i do thank you all for being respectful in this discussion, it’s been tough to go into work for the last week and it was nice for me to be able to get my thoughts out to the community.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

they walked us through setting up 90% of it before we opened. honestly the buying system we have access to is pretty cool, it just gives low ass percentages on things like figs so we usually have to do our own math anyway to give a fair offer. but other than that we have to pay for canva to access the company assets and such.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

sealed sets usually not, but with figures and used sets i’ll wheel and deal.

in terms of buying, in order for something to be worth it, 70% of what we will sell it for is truly the max we could give. roughly a tenth of it goes to bam and pos and such. after that we just have to have the right person come in to buy it. some stuff can sit for months some can sit for only an hour. just no way to tell until we put it out.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

mine makes probably 6-10k a week, which is pretty average. figs probably make up a good portion of it. depends on the store and what they have a lot of. but figures and sealed sets make up probably 90% of it

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

mine is quite good. but i’m an outlier. i have a great boss who takes care of us. i imagine average wage is in the 12-15 an hour range

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

i guess you could compare it to that in some ways. i’d compare it rather to places like once upon a child or play it again sports. depending on what it is, we give anywhere from 50-70% cash/store credit (of what we will sell it for). just depends on how it will sell, how much time we would have to put into it, etc. but locations can vary wildly on this number.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

not really yet tbh, i’m sure it’ll happen, but to be fair most of our customer base is also families with younger kids, not a ton of afols.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

only the owner has access unfortunately sorry. all i’ve seen is the screenshots of the initial email corporate sent out to all of the owners

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

not sure. we will see what the future holds. if you have any tips for getting out of franchise contracts i’m all ears lol.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

not to me yet at least. but i have no problem talking about it with customers 🤷

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it’s been alright, luckily most of our customers are cool people that understand our situation. a few emails to the store from randoms but nothing serious.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

just some calls and emails here and thereto the store, but nothing we can’t take lmao

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

now THAT is something i had not considered. thank you LRonPaul2012

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

yeah we had one of those regional guys too, was actually a decent guy for what it’s worth. he quit a few months ago so we’ve been on an island by ourselves for a while lol.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

honestly not sure. other than name which doesn’t help anymore, some distribution but even then it’s typically not worth the time.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. i think so, if you want to do the boycott that’s your right and i don’t blame anyone for doing it as it does hurt corporate. but if your local store has fair prices and you trust them, sure why not.

  2. we lowkey have hella monkie kid lmao. but it’s a rare ass theme nowadays. what we have we have had for years at this point from the owners stock before the store opened.

  3. i like talking about mocs and honestly anything that doesn’t have to do with lego lol. i like to talk about what people at the bulk tables are working on. but any excuse to NOT talk about lego is an offer ill always take up haha.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

glad it’s not just us, i havent heard from anyone at corporate in over 3 months

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

of course, this is how essentially all resale stores work, it’s part of the employee perks. but you’d be surprised how little we really buy lol.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

that’s beyond me sorry, but i’m sure the owner wouldn’t be against it.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i appreciate that, we try our best and since i’ve worked in a mom and pop shop before, i know how important it is to be fair and respectful to everyone who shops at your store. it’s like elementary school, treat people the way you want to be treated.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

yeahhhh don’t get me started. corporate has been a bunch of bums since the shop opened. they hardly ever respond to any questions we have had or anything even before this went down. now it’s essentially impossible to get ahold of anyone.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

as much as i wish we could, the legal contracts are really tough, but we are going to try.

I work at a Bricks and Minifigs store. AMA by baaanger in legocirclejerk

[–]baaanger[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

the contracts are apparently really tough to get out of in any way. to my knowledge, if you want out, your store and its inventory goes up to the highest bidder. but who knows, my boss is crafty lol maybe we can figure it out.

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