Kim's Video closing in NYC.. (1 Viewer)

30% off all dvd and blu-ray. Sad..J and R closed recently. NY is the media center..but I think it's down to just Best Buy and FYE...anyway lots of R2 imports and WAC/Sony DVD-Rs...

I remember Kim's. That sucks. Manhattan is turning into a giant mainstream shopping mall.

Where was Kim's located?Was that the place across the street from Port Authority where you had to walk downstairs?

I don't think that was a Kim's location, but I might not be remembering correctly. The Kim's in the story is in the Village.

The Kim's of legend were on Bleecker and St. Marks. It's too bad but I switched to Amazon buying too so I guess their demise is on me a little bit.

The Kim's of legend were on Bleecker and St. Marks. It's too bad but I switched to Amazon buying too so I guess their demise is on me a little bit.

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Very sad.

However, I just recently watched a report (might of been on CBS Sunday Morning) as to
how online sales are destroying malls. Malls are being demolished everywhere because
people just don't go to them anymore.

I know I stay well away from mine.

I kind of miss going into NYC and browsing through video stores. It was the big thing to
do when DVD first arrived. We had NYC HTF meets around it. However, it make sense
that these stores can no longer survive in this climate.

Ronald Epstein said:

However, I just recently watched a report (might of been on CBS Sunday Morning) as to
how online sales are destroying malls. Malls are being demolished everywhere because
people just don't go to them anymore.

I know I stay well away from mine.

I kind of miss going into NYC and browsing through video stores. It was the big thing to
do when DVD first arrived. We had NYC HTF meets around it. However, it make sense
that these stores can no longer survive in this climate.

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I was never a big mall shopper. It would be on thing to shop at a dedicated video store, which I did plenty of, but I was never really a mall-goer as a kid. As a teenager I noticed that all the mall stores would be charging full retail price on VHS (and the same with DVD, when that came out a few years later) while a Blockbuster or video store not located in the middle of a mall would at least offer a slight discount.

That's why Amazon and pre-Amazon retail outlets started getting my business. Not because I was avoiding mom-and-pop and indie stores, but because I was avoiding overpriced chain stores. The Sam Goodys and The Walls of the world didn't do their industries any favors by charging $18.98 for single CDs, and even more for single movies.

The Sam Goodys and The Walls of the world didn't do their industries any favors by charging $18.98 for single CDs, and even more for single movies.

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Josh,
Very well said.
You know who I thought was the worst offender? Suncoast. My God, they
were so overpriced.

Ronald Epstein said:

You know who I thought was the worst offender? Suncoast. My God, they
were so overpriced.

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I was blanking on their name, but YES! They were terrible with that! Most of my DVDs and Blu-rays cost less than what'd they want for VHS.

For certain things, it might have been worth the premium, but really only for things I couldn't find anywhere else, or as a pre-transportation teenager where it was the only option. I had a decent number of letterboxed VHS tapes in my collection, and those weren't always so easy to come by, so if I'd see a title I really wanted, really no choice but to suck it up and pay the premium for it.

Ronald Epstein said:

Very sad.

However, I just recently watched a report (might of been on CBS Sunday Morning) as to
how online sales are destroying malls. Malls are being demolished everywhere because
people just don't go to them anymore.

I know I stay well away from mine.

I kind of miss going into NYC and browsing through video stores. It was the big thing to
do when DVD first arrived. We had NYC HTF meets around it. However, it make sense
that these stores can no longer survive in this climate.

Click to expand...

It is scary. Seems the only type of walk in store that will be safe are grocery stores.....and who knows eventually maybe even they will be in danger.

phillyrobt said:

30% off all dvd and blu-ray. Sad..J and R closed recently. NY is the media center..but I think it's down to just Best Buy and FYE...anyway lots of R2 imports and WAC/Sony DVD-Rs...

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This is sad, but it appears the J & R is just closed temporarily for redevelopment? That's always been one of my favorite haunts in the city.This is from their website-

http://www.jr.com/information/contentb.jsp?contentPath=/Content/media/html/information/thankyou.html

30% off all dvd and blu-ray. Sad..J and R closed recently. NY is the media center..but I think it's down to just Best Buy and FYE...anyway lots of R2 imports and WAC/Sony DVD-Rs...
This is sad, but it appears the J & R is just closed temporarily for redevelopment? That's always been one of my favorite haunts in the city.This is from their website-

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Wow. You scared me for a minute.
J&R is the last Electronic/DVD/Blu-ray haven left in NYC.
An entire block dedicated to anything electronic.
Glad it is only being closed for renovation. To see those stores
go out of business would be truly heartbreaking.
Thanks for supplying that webpage, Joel. Would never have
known. I don't get into that area of the city as much as I would like.

Not that it really matters but The Wall/FYE, Sam Goody and Suncoast all charged the MSRP so none of them were any better or worse than the other.

TravisR said:

Not that it really matters but The Wall/FYE, Sam Goody and Suncoast all charged the MSRP so none of them were any better or worse than the other.

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The only thing that (to me) made the Wall at least seem better was the lifetime guarantee they offered on items purchased there - that blue sticker you were supposed to put on your CD case, and they if it ever broke, no questions asked, they were supposed to exchange it for a new one. I normally take care of my stuff so I almost never have CDs that went bad, but a couple times it did come in handy. But I wouldn't be willing to pay $18.98 for that if the same album was available elsewhere for $11.99 without their guarantee.

Ronald Epstein said:

Wow. You scared me for a minute.

J&R is the last Electronic/DVD/Blu-ray haven left in NYC.

An entire block dedicated to anything electronic.

Glad it is only being closed for renovation. To see those stores
go out of business would be truly heartbreaking.

Thanks for supplying that webpage, Joel. Would never have
known. I don't get into that area of the city as much as I would like.

Click to expand...

Well, what's left of J&R since circa last summer has been pretty sad anyhow. They had essentially shrunk down to just the one (south) corner building (where they previously used exclusively for computer/mobile/gaming-related items) w/ nary a thing of significant interest on display -- looks way more depressing than I ever remembered it, and I've been visiting there on-and-off since the early-80's.

And I just got an email today about some clearance blowout sale, so don't expect much of a revival despite the claim about redevelopment, etc. Well, certainly, doesn't sound like J&R will be quite the same again...

Then again, despite their email claim of a clearance blowout sale, looks like same-old-same-old as the "sale" prices still don't compete w/ Amazon's regular prices it seems -- a quick check of the same Sandisk Extreme (Plus) 64GB SD card still costs more in this "sale" than Amazon for instance...

_Man_

FYE has been OK on prices, as mall stores go. And they sell used items at (mostly) reasonable prices.

Mall rents are too high for stores there to compete with online retailers. They'll eventually shrink down to mostly clothing stores and other sorts of things that people don't like to buy online.

It's sad when things change, but shopping is simply no longer the social experience that it used to be.

I remember that store across from Port Authority! Well..the one I knew was a walk-down but more on 8th ave near 46th...rented Japanese Soul Train compilations and other things from them in the 90s. Kim's was where I bought my first all region DVD player..around October 2003 when the first Looney Tunes Golden Collection and the Work of Michel Gondry dvds were released. Probably the worst thing about store closings are less in store signings. I remember Joe Flaherty and Tony Rosato doing an interview for the SCTV at a store near Rockefeller Center (Fye or Sam Goody)

J & R stopped selling cd's, dvd's, bd's , etc. several months before the current closing. They had already cut back on this inventory when they moved everything to one building. Though I dearly hope when (and if) they reopen, they will bring back entertainment software ito the store, I kind of doubt it's going to happen. FYI, they still seem to be selling electronics online--no discs though.

On line shopping irks me. They undercut the price on their items in order to drive local B&Ms out of business and then charge ridiculous P&H fees to make up the difference from their massive undercutting. I've bought stuff where the price of shipping is the same or more than the purchase price of the item. P&H used to just be a means to get the item to you. Now it is a profit centre: where on-line retailers make up the losses they are taking on their no margin retail sales prices.

P&H used to just be a means to get the item to you. Now it is a profit centre: where on-line retailers make up the losses they are taking on their no margin retail sales prices.

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That's true. I remember back in the 70s and 80s, when you paid for
a product through a catalog, shipping costs were exactly the
amount one would expect to get that package mailed.

Sometime, I think, in the late 80s or 90s, the term "handling" was
added to the shipping language. That allowed erroneous charges
to be added to shipping just for the handling process.