Most of you have probably heard that K-Mart is not doing well financially. In fact, they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy back in January. What you may not have heard is that they released the list of stores that will be closed on March 8th. If your local store is on that list, don’t expect them to get any new product. If your local store is not on that list, there still isn’t any guarantee that they will receive any new product for a while, since they probably have certain purchasing restrictions due to the bankruptcy.

My local store is not on the list, but they haven’t received any new LEGO® product since last year. I could have gotten a rain-check, but I wanted to snag the last two models that were missing from my collection as soon as I could, so I went searching. The local Wal-Mart wouldn’t honor the ad since it lists a percentage rebate, not a final price. I drove 30 miles to another K-Mart store (which is on the list) but they had even less stock than the one right in town. After driving back home, I stopped at the local Meijer. I asked at the help desk and they said it was up to the Department Head. (This was the best lead I’d had all week) I scoured the entire toy section, and finally found someone working in that area. She called her boss, and they agreed to honor the ad as long as I could present an actual copy. Success at last! Fortunately I’d been leaving a copy in the car for the last couple days, so all I had to do was run back outside and bring it in. The result of this was that I was able to buy a MANAS set at full price, and get a MUAKA & KANE-RA set for $34.99 plus tax. I would have liked to have found a few other sets at K-Mart, but I got the two sets that I most wanted from Meijer, so I wasn’t going to be greedy. So, now I can finally build the MANA-KO and KUMA-NUI combiners, and have a complete 2001 collection, not counting certain Euros and the solid gold HAU. Yet.