Media Play going out of business chainwide -- 20% off all DVDs (1 Viewer)

If you have a Media Play in your area, you probably already know about this, but they are shutting down nationwide. They've been scrapping stores here and there since the late 1990's and they're finally pulling the plug completely. Right now, all DVDs are 20% off (which makes some of them a good deal, and others still outrageously priced -- e.g. saw the Harry Potter box set there for $55; after 20% off, it would have been $44. Went over to CVS and got all three for $10 each). They had some other interesting deals as well. 10% off all video games and electronics. 20% off all books and CDs. 30% off all apparel and "home decor". 40% off all "paper" products (notebooks, etc). YMMV. Prices are sure to go down more before they fully close sometime in mid/late January. Of course, no returns, etc. Looks like my sister will have to spend her $30 Media Play gift card I got her for Christmas fairly quickly.

Mark

Yeah, 20% off full list price is still higher than most other retailers.

And just goes to show why they are going out of business. Got quite a few around me, I might check one out.

Does "home decor" include storage racks, or is it more along the lines of movie posters?

Can't say I'm surprised by their closing, prices were always much higher than BB or CC around here.

First off, when you posted that I had in my original post that home decor was 40% off. It's actually 30% off. My mistake. And from what I could tell, home decor mainly refers to their Christmas decorations. All storage stuff is 20% off.

Mark

The MediaPlays near me all closed several years ago. Same kinda deal...many of their prices were MSRP...and then they'd have weirdly low prices on other stuff. Couldn't ever figure it out.

One of the worst things about Media Play is that they didn't like to honor their own deals, and the employees were always clueless (if you ever found an employee that had been working there longer than a month, they'd be the veteran). For almost all sales, it was up to the cashier to know about it and manually adjust the price of the sale items (makes things like the Black Friday "$3 off all DVDs" sale very aggravating). I can't count the number of times I had to point out the sale to the cashier. Sale prices would be posted in the store that were not reflected at the register (then you'd be treated like a maniac for saying it was supposed to be on sale). Also, they tried to stock too much stuff. I mean, really, who buys t-shirts at Media Play? Terrible store, but it was literally 2 minutes away from my house, so the convenience/lack of gas needed to get there was sometimes worth it. Also, video games (most of which are the same price across all B&M stores) were usually well stocked.

I can't say I didn't expect Media Play to go out of business, but I will be kind of sorry to see it go.

Mark

One thing Media did have were full size movie poster frames. I've bought quite a few of those $20 black ones.

They were certainly good for some of the more obscure things. Sister loved their anime/manga selection. Bro liked their posters. Grandmother liked the fact that they still sold VHS tapes. All that combined is about 10% of their store, though...

-Mark-

I went in there on Black Friday, hoping they would have a sale of some kind. I was gonna pick some stuff up, but it was $3 regular priced DVD's. Everything I was gonna get was already on "sale". I ended up leaving with nothing.

The only MP near me know is about a half hour away. I'm gonna have to see if it's worth it to drive out there on Friday and browse what they have left.

"Looks like my sister will have to spend her $30 Media Play gift card I got her for Christmas fairly quickly."

I hope they will still honor it. Recently my son had been given a $50 gift card for a crafts store. We went to go use the card and they told us they did not have to honor the card since they were announcing bankruptcy and they were going out of business. We were told we could call their headquarters and receive a "settlement" when all other debts were paid off. We didn't even bother. It was a total loss and a big disapointment for my son.

The Cincinnati Mills location is still honoring gift cards and Replay (?) certificates. Items purchased before the closings were announced can be returned through 12/16, according to the cashier.

I found few deals. Used DVDs are 20% off, and some of the $9.99 used titles are marked 3/$25, so the final cost would be 3/$20 if you find three that you want, which isn't terrible.

All TV on DVD sets are still too high...there was a used copy of the complete Monty Python's Flying Circus for $119.99 before discount. The Everybody Loves Raymond sets are marked at $41.99, and the 20% discount brings them down to about a dollar less than most places sell them for. The selection is still quite good, though.

They said they won't be getting any new stock, but the new releases for 12/13 (e.g. the new Airplane! edition) are on the shelves. There is also a good selection of Criterion releases in the tiny "Foreign" section, but they are close to full MSRP. The new edition of The Wages Of Fear is $36.99 before discount, and the $29.59 final price is still over three bucks higher than DDD's regular price.

Holiday decorations are 30% off. Paper products (like gift wrap), budget CD's, and karaoke CD's are 40% off. Media storage and TV stands, as Mark said, are 20% off. Electronics are 10% off. No chance of getting an XBOX 360 at any location, I am told.

The only thing I cashed in on were Hi8 metal particle camcorder tapes. I needed a couple for tonight, and the $9.99 before 20% off wasn't a great price, but I didn't want to stop anywhere else. They rang up at $1.50, however, so I went back and purchased the remaining packs on the shelf. I didn't try my luck at any other type of blank media, but it's something to keep in mind.

From what I saw, there will be few DVD deals until the discount hits 40%. Employees didn't expect additional discounts before Christmas. I may check the store near my house for more blank tapes, but I'm holding off on any software purchases for now.

Yea, if you guys need any posters or poster frames this is the place to go. I picked up a Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas poster for 6.99, a Star Wars 3-D lenticular poster for $5.99, and a poster frame for $11.90 - those are estimated prices but I do know that the posters were 40% off. They had all of their media racks all put together or were putting them together so I can imagine they will be priced to sell.

The only other note would be that when I picked up Blood & Gold by Anne Rice it rang up at $0.00 - as usual YMMV.

Good luck and happy hunting.

I went by my local Media Play this afternoon. It was packed with people but hardly anyone was buying anything. Everyone had that same look on their face as if to say "Isn't anything here a good deal?". The prices are so high to begin with, that even with the 20% off, they are just starting to approach other retailers' price points. An example - Miami Vice Season 2:

Target - $34.99
Best Buy - $39.99
Media Play - $49.99 (minus 20% = $39.99).

Once they add another 10 or 20 percent, things will get interesting.

The greatest offender I saw was The Naked Gun set for $50.99 before discount, $40.79 after. Deep Discount DVD has it for $15.95.

I did go to a second store for more camcorder tapes. They rang up at $1.50 again, and the packs at this store even came with a $2 mail-in rebate. I hope Maxell honors it.

That's the deal of 2005! Way to go, David!

Yea, I went to ours to try to pick up the start wars epIII dvd for 20% off. (I'm probably the last person who wants this and dosnt have it yet) I of course walked out the door empty handed after I saw that the cost was $27.99 before the discount. Unbeleivalbe! It reminded me of the Seinfeld bit about the $15 Tuna Sandwich in the airport!

They are across the parking lot from Circuit City, and about a block away from Best Buy, Target and Walmart.
I remember about 8 years ago this was the only place to buy cds, but as soon as these other guys started opening up, the Media Play parking lot became a ghost town.

Yeah, see, over here in Columbus, OH, the Media Play used to be an anchor store for a local, small-scale mall. Virtually the rest of the mall shut down except for the other anchor store (CompUSA), which is not really good for DVDs either. So I can travel 2 minutes on one local road to get to Media Play, or 25 minutes on the freeway to get to Best Buy. It was always a convenient little stop for me, and even if I paid a couple dollars more for something, it would be worth it for me (especially with their Replay program and almost constant triple point opportunities, making it a 33% return on everything). I will be sad to see it go.

Mark

"Sale prices would be posted in the store that were not reflected at the register (then you'd be treated like a maniac for saying it was supposed to be on sale)."

When I bought Ed Wood, it rang up @ full price even though a display a few feet away had a lower price. I understand mistakes happen, but when I tried to get them to correct it, I had to move to another counter, talk to a manager & fill out a stupid piece of paper. It took about 15 minutes to get my $2.00 back.