Who else has an FYE store near them? (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

FYE (For Your Entertainment dba TransWorld Entertainment) is one of the few places near me that still sells media: DVDs, Blu-rays, UHD and CDs (and vinyl). I live near Albany, NY (where TransWorld is HQd).

But I don't know for how much longer.

I have two FYE stores near me...each in a big local mall. The two malls aren't far from each other but have been in competition for decades and attract different clienteles. One attracts the younger set (Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, NY) and the other (Colonie Center in Colonie, NY) tends to see an older clientele.

Both stores have downsized in recent years. The Crossgates location just moved into a different storefront in its mall...cutting its footage by half or more. Both stores had also recently merged their DVD and Blu inventory together. I HATE THAT (and have actively complained at both sites).

I just got the opportunity to visit the Crossgates store after their move. So depressing. The store is already a small portion of its former self but, clearly, a larger percentage has been devoted to selling t-shirts, knick-knacks, headphones, t-shirts, cheap electronics (there's a Best Buy nearby) and even more t-shirts. How many of those Crosley USB turntables can one store sell? And the shelving of the media is the worst: front-facing-out and jam-packed so that you cannot easily browse it. And I'm 5' 11" tall and couldn't even see what was in the top shelf!

There was a young fella who greeted this crabby old man when I walked into the store. And when I was on my way out he was nice enough to inquire about my visit. "All that time and you're leaving empty-handed?"

So, I unloaded. I told him they didn't have that much merchandise that I was interested in: media. He nodded his head. I added that what they did have was impossibly hard to navigate as too much was crammed into way too small a space. He nodded and added that there was no way he could even reach the top shelf of discs. I added that by having the titles face out takes up more space and that the media should be spines out for much easier browsing. He nodded again and completely understood what I was saying.

He told me they had already heard all this from other customers and to come back in a month. They were already going to to renovate that part of their space and add all new shelving to fix each and every one of the problems I laid out.

Time will tell.

I know that its all part of the phasing out of physical media. And I'm sure these stores must know what merchandise is moving and what is not (the media is hidden all the way in the back of the store. You actually wouldn't even know it was there looking at the storefront from the mall hallway).

I guess I just wanted to gripe a bit as one of my favorite pastimes (browsing stores for media) continues to slide into oblivion.

 

[David Norman]

Closest store left is 70 miles away so rarely get that far in that direction. Always like looking there, but very rarely bought anything.

Back in the LD heydey there were more along with Camelot, Spectrum, Tower, Manifest that all competed and had tons to sift through, but all of them are
gone except the formerly Independent Manifest whose main business was music (now under FYE umbrella) and the lone FYE.

Luckily my closest BBY hasn't downsized much and 1 or 2 a bit further out are still surprisingly well stocked.
I still have several B&N as an oasis of browsing

With GoHasting/Movie Stop declaring Chapter 11 it doesn't look good for the specialist stores -- none near me at all, but it's one more nail.

 

[Charles Smith]

Thank you for that.

My town lost its FYE (standalone store) probably 6 or 7 years ago, and others I used to enjoy driving sone distance for are either gone or greatly reduced in size, just as you report. I used to score some incredible out of print finds in the used section.

I hope those changes do happen, even at this late date.

 

[atfree]

There's one near me in the Haywood Mall (Greenville SC). I was in there about a month ago. I was looking to see if I could find the Austin Powers blu-ray box-set (Shagadelic edition!) on the cheap. FYE had it new for $34.00. I bought a new one, still in shrink-wrap, on EBAY from an online retailer for $12.99 a couple of days later. FYE's used stuff is over-priced as well.

Also, when I asked the young lady working the floor if they had the Austin Powers blu-ray set, she said sure and came back with the DVD 3-pack. When I noted that I was looking for the blu-ray set, she giggled and said she didn't know the difference!

They used to be great for movies (along with Suncoast Video)...I could spend hours looking around.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yeah. Their USED stuff is also now interspersed among the new titles via genre. They have been one of the few places for a long time actively buying/re-selling used product. I've gotten GREAT deals there on titles I didn't buy on release date.

Shopping for USED Blu-rays used to be so easy...and so much fun. Now it's an absolute PITA (they're all hidden behind taller DVD cases jampacked into shelf units that are too small.

I forgot to mention I am a Backstage Pass member at FYE...but I can't see that continuing any more. That was a $25 annual fee to get a 10% discount on every purchase I made at the store. It always MORE than paid for itself.

They also had an active coupon//sale system via text message "30% off all used this weekend only"-type sales. They were stopped long ago. I asked reps if I needed to sign up again. They said, no, those promotions have just ended.

Grumble...grumble...grumble...

 

[Alf S]

We have one left in town and it's located in a nearly dead (once nice) now a ghetto mall. Only reason I went in was because they had some Napolean Dynamite figures on sale (my 8 year old son loves the movie) and I grabbed two "Vote For Pedro" t-shirts for him and me. Other than that, it felt like I was stepping back into the late 80's or early 90's when mall "record" stores were everywhere. Sad thing is FYE is still incredibly overpriced on what limited selection of movies they have...I don't really buy movies on disc anymore, but still, if that was my thing still, I'd never consider FYE as a source.

 

[TravisR]

Back in 2014 or so, the FYE and many of the surrounding stores were all closed so the mall could remodel a large area. FYE didn't open in another spot in the mall (as some stores did) and I figured they were never coming back but they actually reopened recently. I never shopped there much but I figured it was cool to have another outlet where I might stumble upon something. I went a few weeks ago and, like Mike said, movies and music are a small part of their inventory and vinyl Pop! figures (the little plastic toys with the black dots for eyes) and other assorted toys & shirts, etc. are the main focus of their business now.

 

[TonyD]

I'm surprised FYE has lasted this long.

New releases are over priced and used is a crapshoot.

Only thing I've ever been in there for in recent years is to see if there are any hard to find used cds

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yup. I still pick up the occasional DVD-a and SACD in there.

And aren't USED sections a crapshoot anywhere?

I agree with everyone about their prices on new titles...but that has actually gotten better in recent years. They have gotten away from their rebate program (to get new releases even close to competitive) and have been borderline competitive with the bigger new releases.

and vinyl Pop! figures (the little plastic toys with the black dots for eyes) and other assorted toys & shirts, etc. are the main focus of their business now.

Lots and lots of tchotchkes.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I was at the local mall for the first time in a while over the weekend, and while FYE was still there, it's gone through the same changes as Mike's store. The CDs and movies were in the back, behind a smorgasbord of t-shirts and tchotchkes.

I was looking to pick up the Hamilton cast recording as a gift. FYE wanted $28; I stopped at the BB up the street and snagged it for $20.

I used to love going to FYE and just sampling random CDs that I'd never heard of. I would usually pick up a few cheap used copies. Who knows whether I'll do that again.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I stopped shopping at FYE years ago because they priced me out of their store - my routine experience was very similar to what Aaron described. Everything they had, whether it was a CD, a DVD, or eventually, a Blu-ray, was priced way higher than anywhere else. The used selection was often priced extremely high as well - I never ended up buying used there because their used price on an item would often be what Amazon would charge for a new copy. I love physical media, and shopping in a real store used to be a fun experience, but when it got to the point that everything was so much more expensive in that store than it would be at Best Buy or Amazon, I had to stop going.

 

[TonyD]

And aren't USED sections a crapshoot anywhere?

Yep I meant the prices. Many used items are priced as high as the still sealed version.

 

[Charles Smith]

For me, every aspect of FYE ran the gamut. A couple of the stores almost always had some used treasure I'd been looking for, or something I didn't even know about but was thrilled to find, while others would quite literally NEVER have anything worth the time it took to walk in. And if they had multiples of some used item, the pricing could be all over the place -- which was usually not a bad thing! But I was especially sad about a couple of the stores they closed, where I'd find things like OOP Criterions and Walt Disney Treasures at totally reasonable prices. Desirable box sets and CDs, too.

 

[Malcolm R]

I think all the FYE stores in Vermont have closed except one, in the University Mall in South Burlington. The other store in downtown on Church Street recently closed. Last time I was at the U Mall (probably six months ago), the store was still the same size with a large media section.

The changes described in this thread sound similar to what I found the last time I went to Newbury Comics, a New England regional chain that, despite the name, until recently had quite a large selection of media (music and movies, new and used). Last time I was there, the music and movie sections were only a small fraction of what they used to be, and the rest of the store was filled with Spencer Gifts-type merchandise. No reason for me to go there anymore.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Spencer Gifts-type merchandise

An apt description...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I lived in Boston for ten years and would visit Newbury Comics on the way home from work every Tuesday for new releases - they were often very competitive with Amazon, Best Buy and the rest. Used prices were good. Nice giveaways too. (I have about a dozen Newbury Comics pint glasses that came free with various releases.)

Visited Boston last summer, first thing I did was go there, and it was almost all gone. Packaged media reduced to just a small corner of the store. So depressing.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I happened to be at Crossgates Tuesday to pick up a JCPenney order, saw the new and much diminished FYE, and thought of you Mike.

When the previous location first opened in the mall as Record Town years and years ago, it was one of the signs that the age of ownership for physical media had entered a new and exciting phase.

At least when the Colonie Center FYE downsized, it just became a smaller version of itself. The new Crossgates FYE is selling a completely different experience, and physical media seems like a peripheral part of that experience.

The really sad thing is that FYE's parent company, Trans World Entertainment, is headquartered in Albany. If they've done this much damage to the stores in their own backyard, what are they doing in the rest of the country?

 

[Mike Frezon]

I get up to the Queensbury store a couple-three times a year. They were the first in the area to mix the DVDs and Blus together into one big section. What a disaster. I had a long talk with the store's manager and she said they were part of a pilot program in the company...so I felt like I was doing something positive in bending her ear about all the reasons it was the wrong thing to do. So I speak openly to all the regular long-time employees I see there (which is nice because I've developed a rapport with some of them).

Whenever I make my case about mixing the different media formats like that I ask when they are going to combine their CD and vinyl sections into the same bins. That one has stopped them in their tracks each time. There is no answer...

At least when the Colonie Center FYE downsized, it just became a smaller version of itself.

I agree with your assessment, Adam, about the Colonie Center store...but even there they have really started devoting all their attention to the front half of the store merchandise area.

It won't be long before these stores will be gone, too.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Wow. . .FYE is just a chain store, but Newbury Comics is (was) kind of an institution.

On the plus side, when I was in Boston about a year and a half ago, I went into my favorite old used CD store, Nuggets, and was pleasantly surprised to find it almost exactly the same as I'd left it 20 years ago! The only difference is that the little $2 room was closed due to water damage from the building, but at least there was a $2 rack.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

On the plus side, when I was in Boston about a year and a half ago, I went into my favorite old used CD store, Nuggets, and was pleasantly surprised to find it almost exactly the same as I'd left it 20 years ago! The only difference is that the little $2 room was closed due to water damage from the building, but at least there was a $2 rack.

That makes me happy! I didn't get a chance to visit Nuggets but I've got some of the more obscure stuff in my vinyl collection came from them when I was living in Boston.