With demise of places like Tower Records where are collectors buying their dvd's? (1 Viewer)

[Sean A]

The J&R outlet in Macy's is really small, and only carries like the Top 10 titles. The store downtown by City Hall is the place to go. Like I was saying, they'll have a periodic label sale, and that's a chance to pick up some older titles especially dirt cheap. A few months back, there was a Paramount sale where I grabbed "Hud" and "Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" for $6.00 each. There was some junk, but a lot of worthwhile titles too (like "Rosemary's baby" and "Romeo and Juliet"). So keep an eye out to see if they're having a sale (they almost always have some label on sale)

 

[RobertGr]

Hey Sean


Thanks on J & R info, sales sound great, I will head donw there for sure! I would love to hit it just right for a Paramount sale and grab THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, I have the Pioneer Laser I just watched it and totally loved the film so grabbing the dvd and a great price would be a thumbs up!

 

[Bonnie*F]

We had Chimney's for VHS rental and if it was available on VHS, they could order it for individual sale. But it seemed like Syracuse was a virtual wasteland where specialized/collectable DVD's were concerned. But then I really didn't get into DVD's for viewing much less purchase until Y2K. It seemed like we just had a WalMart and a KMart. Then we got MediaPlay. Prices weren't so great but the selection was oh, so much better. There would be membership sales and discount certificates. I don't recall the exact order but it seemed around the time central New York got a Barnes & Noble and Best Buy, MediaPlay's stock got more mainstream. And then there was a Borders' and Circuit City open and MediaPlay closed. Fry's hoped to take over the dregs of MediaPlay customers but most had already moved on to the big corporations and on-line purchases.

Now, I most of my DVD shopping on-line with occasional trips to Target, Borders and even BestBuy.

As for who I use - DeepDiscount gets most of my orders. Followed by Amazon - great place for Russian fairy tale DVD's. Occasionally DVDEmpire, DVDBoxOffice(Canada) and HamiltonBook.com. The A&E Store as well as Discovery.com for documentaries although I can go to the Discovery store in the Mall.

I love to browse. I used to go into MP with $50 to spend and see what I could get. Not intending to get alot but to find something I didn't know was available. That's how I found out about the Shirley Temple Collections. I was browsing - one must browse all sections! - and there was vol.1 in the children's section. I grabbed it as a gift for my mother and she was thrilled. And when another volume comes out, I get it for her - mother's day, birthday, xmas, whatever. It's taken care of.

For the collectors: if I was interested in Asian films, I would go down to a 'tiny' store in the Little Vietnam section of the city. Yes, they're in - I'm assuming - Vietnamese but I'll bet they have English subtitles or alternative soundtrack.


When that happened to me about 18 months ago - only limited copies - I ordered it online from the BB website and arranged for in-store pick-up. They had to hold it for - I think it was - 3 days for me to pick my order up. And they send you a reminder every day. It might be an option for you, Robert.

On the other hand, that also reminds me of the used car salesman. "Buy it now because I have another buyer really interested in this one and they could snap it right out from under you." Don't try that on me. If I'm going to buy, I'm going to buy. You push and all that's going to happen is you lose the sale.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

A big front page story on our local newspaper (Richmond, VA - Circuit City headquarters) - says that they are firing 3400 salespeople and replacing them with cheaper labor and considering closing their Canadian stores.

Eric

 

[Ronn.W]

Yikes! You must have had a super-magical Tower compared to the ones I've been to. Three different cities, three different stores, all had the same rule of selling at FULL MSRP on DVDs. DVDs you could find at other B&M's around town for $19.99 or less were going for $24.99-$27.99. They had a nice selection, yes, but for anything beyond browsing, I never found them useful. DVDs that were in bargain bins at other stores, still MSRP at Tower. I for one, don't miss them at all.

What I do miss, is Tower Books. They had a great magazine selection, and while they weren't as large as a B&N or Borders, they did often have a much better (or at least eclectic) selection.

 

[Eric Peterson]

That's what I've been thinking throughout this entire thread. I've been to a couple of Tower stores in the Chicago area, and they were always WAAAYY overpriced compared to BB or any of the big box stores. The one closest to me has been closed at least 3 years, but their selection wasn't much to get excited over either. They must be better in the big city.

 

[RobertGr]

Hi Bonnie

I tried that once on Best Buy website, whenever I check their site the pick up in-store feature says "coming soon" Thanks when I visit the store next time I wil ask if the feature is available. This thread show our concerns about these stores not being to smart with theri merchandise and now with the announcment by Circuit City shows we ae right. The case of my calling 6 of their stores in my area and asking if they had THE ALICE FAYE BOX in stock as a current at the time I called flyer had it pictured and priced at $39.99! Not one of the clerks on the phone knew anything about it many transferred me many times before even asking what I wanted, some clerks just picked up the phone and put it down hanging up on me before even speaking with me. This is a prime example of why they are going down the toilet quickly. If they provided us with service, knowledge and dvd in stock they advertise maybe they would be doing a bit better in fact let's say maybe they would be doing A LOT BETTER!

 

[RobertGr]

Hi Ronn

The Tower here in Carle Place had great prices. One of the last things I bought there before they announce the auction was in August 2006. I was pricing HAZEL season 1 I priced it at BB and Borders, Walmart all near Tower they wanted $22.99 - 24.99. I stopped at Tower and got it for $19.99.

The same thing happend before with Season 1 of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY BB wanted $23.99 for it I got it for $19.99 when it was released!


TOWER in NY closed because the chain headquarted in CA put it up for sale the firm that bought it wnated not to keep it open but to sell off everything and make a profit in killing the chain. Sadly the parent company of FYE wanted to keep it open if they would have won the bidding war to buy the firm.

 

[Roy Batty]

As a New Yorker resident for 3 years now, I can also attest that TOWER RECORDS prices were usually considerably higher than those at BEST BUY and CIRCUIT CITY.

Do you know that the owners of the TOWER RECORDS site on Broadway are the Vornado realty group?

Same people who intend to tear down the landmark Pennsylvania Hotel and build a luxury skyscraper on its place.

I would guess the closing down of TOWER RECORDS store had more to do with Manhattan's gentrification and the ever-increasing lease rates than with the actual decline in sales.

 

[RobertGr]

How many Best Buys are located in Manhattan? In the Carle Place area when Tower was open their new release prices were better than BB. I was surprised recenlty when I priced the ALICE FAYE set CIRCUIT CITY had the best price at $39.99 as advertised in their flyer compared to BB whicha ONE in stock at $44.99 after tax that would be close to 49.00 so I ordered the item from DDD.

 

[RobertGr]

How many Best Buys are located in Manhattan? In the Carle Place area when Tower was open their new release prices were better than BB. I was surprised recenlty when I priced the ALICE FAYE set CIRCUIT CITY had the best price at $39.99 as advertised in their flyer compared to BB which ONE in stock at $44.99 after tax that would be close to 49.00 so I ordered the item from DDD.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

I meant to mention that along with the Circuit City newspaper article was a quote

"...consumers don't expect the same degree of service -- or competence -- from in-store salespeople as they did years ago. Many shoppers now arrive at stores having already researched on the Web the technical specifications of goods they want to buy."

So there you go.

Oh, and yes, I never bought a DVD from Tower Records because ours was also more expensive than BB or CC - mainly retail which I am sure they sold very few, if any DVDs.

Eric

 

[TravisR]

Same thing with the Tower in my area. It was cool when they had laserdiscs (and they had a really good selection compared to any other place that I ever saw) but once DVD came out, they might have had a decent selection but you had to pay MSRP.

 

[RobertGr]

That quote applies more to appliances and tv and electronics. On dvd's it does not apply in the case of CIRCUIT CITY. Their biggest problem is putting dvd titles in their weekly flyers every Sunday than not having stock in the store. I can tell you every Better Business Bureau in every state would be all over them for that if people complain to them and who knows they might have complaints for such actions already.

And I do not what Tower Records you a talking about butr in Carle Place front and center they had huge sales every week. Another example was when HANNIBAL came out, sure it not be a GREAT film but when it was released on dvd it did great numbers.

AT the time it came out they were selling it for $19.99 a full ten dollars cheaper off of list and $3.00 less than BB.

The TOWER in my area sold huge numbers of dvd's and had a much better selection than BB. Maybe the market was bigger in our area than yours. For a while they had a WIZ right next store also selling dvd's. It was amazing you could walk into the WIZ walk next store and get a better price in TOWER.

I guess we are comparing apples and oranges. When the poster mention TOWER in NYC the rents are much higher there than in Long Island so maybe their price point was higher than where they had the one by my house.

 

[TravisR]

Even stores that charge MSRP (Suncoast, FYE, Sam Goody) have the current week's new releases on sale. If you're buying something more than five days old, Tower's price was almost certainly going to be the MSRP.

 

[Sean A]

Robert - Up until a few weeks ago, J&R had a wall of Paramount titles being sold for cheap. "Greatest Show" was there , going for I think $6.00.
Around a month ago, they took that display down to put up a wall of Oscar Winning best pictures on DVD.

Keep an eye of the Deep Discount website: late last year they had a Paramount sale where you bought 1, and got one free: I bought "Marathon Man" and 'The Parallax View" (I guess I was in the mood for some 70s style paranoia) for a total of ...$6.03 ! And no tax or s/h either

 

[Sean A]

As a former Tower denizen ( I used to work down the street from the Lincoln Center store), who would browse in there at least twice a week, I can say that Tower had great prices if you bought it the FIRST week of release. So if there was something you wanted, you would need to grab it immediately when it came out. Usually after the first week, they would raise the cost up to the list price. And they would have periodic sales, either by studio, or by genre or style (all westerns, or all foreign films on sale, something like that). That was also a time to pounce

 

[RobertGr]

Sean

You know you are totally correct on TOWER you needed to get to the store when a title was released for the sale prices then they would stick it in the bins and sell at regular prices. Everytime I bought a disc there I got it at better prices than BB, it must have been the week of release for the sale prices. If you are in J & R and see the GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH again at a great price pick me up a copy I will get your address from Chris if you do get it eventually!

 

[RobertGr]

Travis

Your post is totally correct, FYE surprises every so often with a great TV DVD sale - buy one get one free and they were recently selling HOGAN'S HEROES season one for 22.99!



Me thinks the death Knell has sounded for CIRCUIT CITY. They are laying off their higher priced employees and hiring new ones and a much lower rate. For sure they won't no what is what regarding dvd's.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

The above quote does seem to lean towards electronics but don't be fooled. It can be applied to all departments because people also do online price shopping for DVDs as well. I know I do. I will check dvdpricesearch.com google, deepdiscount, half.com ebay, and Amazon.com (including their used section) to see where I can get the best deals before buying. That is why I hate to buy at B&M stores any longer knowing I can get the same thing much cheaper online. I don't mind waiting a week to get my purchase knowing I saved money and have the disc in my posession afterwards to watch whenever I want.

Things sure have changed since I was a kid. Men wore suits and hats, women dressed up including gloves to go shopping. That was a tradition during those days. Women would dress up to shop and make a day of it. Stores had tea rooms to eat at or lunch counters, the city bus was a different animal then, and anchor stores lined the main strip in downtown and had character... not sterile mall stores. Those were the days when you got one-on-one personalized service and the salespeople "knew" what they were talking about as that was their passion, not simply a job.

Eric