I've been wondering something for a while now. What the heck is going on with Luciana?
Usually, when a GOTY is about to retire, they get an announcement and items sell out. But for Luciana, there's been no announcement, many items are on backorder and Luciana even got a few play packs for the gift bundles.
It looks like Luciana won't be going anywhere in 2020, which doesn't make sense. AG could barely manage 3 modern characters and store space with Gabriela, Tenney and Z. I don't get why'd they want to do the same thing with Luciana, Blaire and Joss.
But I figured out a reason why AG might be doing Luciana's retirement the way they've been. First of all, I'm pretty sure she's going, because some items (big and small) have sold out, Luciana is sold out at some stores and they're displaying Luciana's outfits without the doll at some store locations according to Instagram photos I've seen. (When I go to AG next time on either Friday or Saturday, I'll be sure to take some final photos of Luciana's section. I might go to Atlanta on Friday to participate in an American Girl Trivia event, so keep your fingers crossed that Dad lets me!) But why have they been retiring her in such an unorthodox way?
Well, putting items on backorder actually makes the most sense for AG. Even though they might label something as 'sold out', they'll always have a few hundred or thousand dolls lingering around that they can't sell. For example, Gabriela 'sold out' in November 2018, yet she was at Costco for the 2019 Holiday season. So instead of marking things prematurely as sold out, AG is selling their last bits as they come in so they don't have to put in the effort to sell the dolls at secondhand locations like Costco or the Benefit Sale or the Mattel Toy Store.
But if they want to keep Luciana around (which I wouldn't complain about, she's my favorite GOTY and is pretty much their only main line Latina now that Josefina has hit the cube, but then again there's no Asian character dolls so AG doesn't really care in that department), I think she'd be online-only, since items are leaving stores faster than online and the bigger 'wow' items like the Mars Habitat and Maker Station are already gone. Or, maybe she'd join Josefina in the cube.
What do you think about the Luciana situation?
P.S: If you celebrate, merry Christmas eve!