German LEGO Store offers shopping by appointment

A LEGO Store in Germany has reopened for visitors – but you’ll need to book an appointment to get in.

According to Promobricks, the brand retail store in Saarbrücken is offering ‘individual shopping experiences’ to customers in a bid to keep trading amid coronavirus restrictions.

Germany’s government has today relaxed some of those restrictions despite case numbers continuing to rise, with specific rules for individual states. In Saarland, retail stores are allowed to open – but only by appointment.

That means you’ll need to call up the LEGO Store in Saarbrücken before dropping in. The store has hired a dedicated employee to man its phone lines, which are open from 10am to 8pm every day. 

Appointments will last 15 minutes each, and you’ll be able to check exactly what’s available while booking, so you can plan your purchases ahead of time. You’ll also be able to bring one other member of your household with you, should you wish.

Promobricks reports that plenty of past and current gifts-with-purchase are currently available at the Saarbrücken store, including the highly-coveted (but very hard-to-find) Porsche owners’ pack, which you can grab by buying 10295 Porsche 911. The Pick & Build wall, however, will be off-limits.

This is the first example we’ve seen of a LEGO Store taking appointments, but it seems like a practical solution to allow businesses to trade while preventing the spread of COVID-19. So far, those regulations are only in place in Saarland, which means Germany’s other stores ­are still closed to the public (mirroring the current state of UK LEGO Stores).

If this novel practice proves successful, though, we’ll be keen to see whether the German government broadens it to other states, and whether other nations follow suit. At the moment, the earliest non-essential retail in the UK (including LEGO Stores) will re-open is April 12.

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