Target might have found a way to prevent LEGO box tampering in stores

American retailer Target appears to be testing a way to prevent LEGO box tampering in stores, protecting sets from prying hands.

It's an occurrence that happens disappointingly often; a shopper will buy a set in a store, seemingly unopened or tampered with, take it home, open it up, only to find it's been filled with bags of rocks that match the same weight. The rattling of the pebbles mimics the sound of LEGO bricks and keeping the weight the same doesn't alert any of retailers' in-house checks. Other times, someone might only take minifigures or replace the bags with other LEGO pieces that don't match the set.

There are literally dozens of examples on reddit, and the issue of messing with LEGO sets while they're still on shelves came to a particular height with the release of the blind cardboard boxes for 71039 Marvel Series 2.

Now, however, pnwlego on Instagram has shared a snap of a Target just outside of Portland, where the LEGO aisle is no longer stacked with boxes, but rather small cards with pictures and details of various sets.

Judging from the signs on the left, you can buzz for an employee to fetch you the set now, scan the QR code under the set and can pick up the set in-store on the same day, or there's an option to have it shipped to your home. Underneath the cards, there are some LEGO sets physically present on shelves. It's unclear whether the store in question is in the process of creating a LEGO aisle without any actual sets or if the QR code system will only be for sought-after or expensive sets. After all, the sets still on shelves appear to be LEGO Minecraft and Super Mario, while more popular and pricey themes like LEGO Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter now have QR codes.

Reactions in the comments have been mixed, with one person writing: "I suppose it’s this or putting it behind glass which Walmart now does. Or not having it altogether. Still a bummer."

"This just makes it feel like online shopping," added another. "The best thing I knew when I was a kid was to run into the lego aisle and see all the cool sets on the shelves. I don’t think this captures the same magic as having real sets on the shelves."

A third summed it up simply by commenting: "Civilization took a hit today."

However you feel about the new system, if it's a way to ensure that shoppers get the right set in as-new quality when they shop in a store, perhaps no longer having traditional LEGO aisles is a sacrifice we'll need to make. For now, it's certainly not a widespread process, with many commenters saying that their local Targets don't have a similar set-up yet.

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