# Lionel Train sale at Menard's why only them?



## BigAl56 (Dec 14, 2011)

Browsing through my Sunday pre-Thanksgiving newspaper sale inserts I opened the weekly Menards 'Christmas catalog' add and discovered a nice sale on Lionel trains and track.

http://www.menards.com/main/flyer.html?&store_code=3254&flyer=flyer&getGoogleKey=true

Menards is the only chain of stores in the Midwest I am aware of to actively sell and promote Lionel train sets during the holidays. Every holiday season Menards features a small but nice line of Lionel trains, track, cars, and buildings. What makes this unusual is not only do they carry Lionel trains and accessories they actually advertise and promote them! I know of no other chain of department stores that does this.

This years line up is a bit larger than past years, They have three good starter sets, and a selection of track, cars, and Woodland scenics 'Menards' buildings. The custom Menards promotional cars have not arrived in the stores yet but they have FasTrack blister packs for 1/2 price.

Every year the Menards stores in my region sell out of almost their entire in-store inventory of trains well in advance of Christmas. I doubt this year will be an exception. I suspect by the time I post this the FasTrack will be sold out. What I cannot figure out is why other stores like Sears, Costco, Home Depot, etc do not feature Lionel or similar trains? Thursday millions of us will open our black-Friday newspaper adds and only a small percentage of the country will be exposed to a sale on Lionel trains at a local store.

Anyway, welcome to toy train season. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

regards, Allan R.


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## Kwikster (Feb 22, 2012)

Quite interesting Allan. Been quite some time since I saw Lionel as part of any big box store's ads. It's now got me thinking on which stores will even carry ANY model trains by large brands, i.e Lionel, Bachman etc, unlike when I was a kid. I still remember one Christmas when my only gift was a Lionel MoPac GP-20 which cost 100 dollars at Sears, still have it.

Carl


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

Great, now I have that jingle stuck in my head: "Save big money at Menards!"


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

It may warm your heart to know that my local K-Mart is selling a Lionel G-scale set.


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