Heads up... three week-long Criterion sale at B&N starting July 10 (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

I have only picked up two titles in this current sale: The 39 Steps and Night of the Hunter.

Got those at a local store and didn't see much else I wanted to get at this time. Maybe Malkovich and some of the recent Bergman's down the road.

 

[DavidJ]

There are many I want and I picked up The 39 Steps, but I have so many unwatched discs and the deals are not quite as good as in the past that I haven't been able to pull the trigger on others. I stopped yesterday and looked for a while without buying anything. I imagine I'll break down and purchase another disc or two before the sale is over.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by DavidJ /t/321985/heads-up-three-week-long-criterion-sale-at-b-n-starting-july-10/30#post_3950853
There are many I want and I picked up The 39 Steps, but I have so many unwatched discs and the deals are not quite as good as in the past that I haven't been able to pull the trigger on others. I stopped yesterday and looked for a while without buying anything. I imagine I'll break down and purchase another disc or two before the sale is over.

For many of the same reasons, I agree. I've got a long queue of unwatched titles and the deals are "okay"...but not bargain basement-type deals. All good reasons to be discriminating.

And I need any reason I can come up with to exercise discretion.

 

[Adam_S]

I managed to watch all my blind buy criterion blurays from the last half dozen B&N sales these last six months (excepting the last 1.5 discs of Brakhage), luckily, Criterion's releasing has not been as interesting in 2012 as it was in 2011--largely because they scaled back their catalog releases this year, they released around 36 catalog titles on bluray in 2011, but I think they only have about a dozen on bluray in 2012 so far. Since I'm pretty much always more interested in their catalog than their new releases, I've scaled back this sales, and I think new release blurays outpaced catalog blurays for me this time. I have been able to pick up 12 Angry men, Design for Living, Godzilla, Anatomy of a Murder, 39 Steps and Gold Rush before the sale started (got them at various other 50% off bargains), which also reduced my purchasing. I've managed to use the $8 coupon on all titles with MSRP 44.95 and over, I made three orders during the B2G1 sale, and I've used one 5 off 50 coupon as well. I'm done, now, except for the Gremillon eclipse releasing next week:

Eclipse:
Sabu!
Jean-Pierre Gorin
Pearls of the Czech new wave
Robert Downey Jr

Bluray:
David Lean Directs Noel Coward
Samurai Trilogy
Harold & Maude
Being John Malkovich
Last Temptation of Christ
Summer with Monika
The War Room
The Double Life of Veronique
Leon Morin: Priest
A Night to Remember
Three Outlaw Samurai
Summer Interlude
Letter Never Sent

 

[Claude S]

I got BLUE-WHITE-RED (Three Color Trilogy). THE 39th STEP and THE SAMURAI TRILOGY by Hiroshi Inagaki. So far I had watched the Alfred Hitchock movie and the first two of the three color trilogy. THE 39TH STEP was excellent but the b&w image was a little lacking and not as striking as A NIGHT TO REMBER and the recent BD of CASABLANCA. BLUE and WHITE from the three color trilogy looked and sounded great.
-Claude

 

[DavidJ]

Well, since I posted about not purchasing, I've purchased Anatomy of a Murder, A Night to Remember and Rushmore. I'm a weak, weak man.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

How often does BN typically do this sale? is it Annual or more often?

 

[JoHud]

It's been pretty strictly bi-annual for a few years. A July sale and a November sale.

 

[Adam_S]

it's worth noting that the BN CEO stated earlier this year that he plans on phasing out every media department at all BNs by the end of 2012, so if there is a November 2012 sale, it may be online only, since the stores may stop stocking physical media over the next few months as the media departments are dismantled.

 

[Craig S]

Wow, that's a shame. B&N is pretty much the only place left where you can go browse & buy obscure titles (both movies & music). Yeah, they're pricey, and everything's available on the internet, but there are times doing my theater sound work that I need to pick up something NOW. On top of that, the media staff at my local B&N are good guys that actually know their stuff. I hope they are able to retain their jobs when the department goes.

 

[Charles Smith]

WTF! I hadn't heard this. What lousy news! And what Craig said -- it's still a surprisingly great place to browse and make discoveries. I'm always grabbing a couple of extra things I just happen to see or stumble on at an attractive sale price. It's still a...ahem...real store!

In fact, not that I've been looking for a lot of books lately, but the few times I've browsed them, I've found THAT part of the store to be quite a comedown from what it used to be. Methinks he's phasing out the wrong department.

 

[Adam_S]

Originally Posted by Craig S /t/321985/heads-up-three-week-long-criterion-sale-at-b-n-starting-july-10/30#post_3953214
Wow, that's a shame. B&N is pretty much the only place left where you can go browse & buy obscure titles (both movies & music). Yeah, they're pricey, and everything's available on the internet, but there are times doing my theater sound work that I need to pick up something NOW. On top of that, the media staff at my local B&N are good guys that actually know their stuff. I hope they are able to retain their jobs when the department goes.

This is why everyone will have to get Amazon Prime: particularly as now that Amazon has lost the Sales Tax fight, they plan on accelerating the Same Day Delivery model, which will naturally have a truly staggering crippling effect on retail of all stripes (in the next three years, lots of different kinds of stores will be going out of business due to Amazon, not just Bookstores). The only stores that might be able to compete with Amazon, and survive the upcoming retail massacre amazon is planning, will be the stores on the scale of Wal Marts.

Even chains as large as Best Buy are already dying--like the bookstores did--and by 2016, they will probably be out of business as we know it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Craig S /t/321985/heads-up-three-week-long-criterion-sale-at-b-n-starting-july-10/30#post_3953214
Wow, that's a shame. B&N is pretty much the only place left where you can go browse & buy obscure titles (both movies & music).

Ditto that. I live in a fairly good-sized metropolitan area (Albany, NY). Not a huge market by any means...but certainly not a rural area.

And I have watched the venues at which I am able to browse media on store shelves dwindle to just a few. I am left with Best Buy (with lousy stocking of product), Barnes & Noble (with extremely high prices but excellent product), just one rental shop (Blockbuster--which has severely curtailed the Blu titles put up for sale), Target/Wal-Mart, and two FYE (TransWorld) stores (with a decent mix of new and used titles but spotty pricing).

It is not going to be long when we are left with no place to go when the wife wants to go to a fabric or clothing store...

 

[Charles Smith]

A final HEADS UP for those who need it ---

One of the local B&N stores advised me that TODAY is the last day of the sale -- not tomorrow the 31st, in case you're thinking what I was thinking. Thank heavens I'd planned on running out to pick up a title I wanted today, and called to have it held for me.

I have not confirmed the information, but why take chances. Happy wallet bleeding!

 

[DavidJ]

Thanks. I was just wondering about that.

 

[Citizen87645]

Thanks for the reminder / warning. I wound up picking up Being John Malkovich and Traffic in-store with my BN membership discount (which I'm not sure I will renew). I also made $7 in a trivia contest last night, so I'm including that in the discount.