osokin

Today I was flipping through a local newsweekly and I noticed a full-page color ad from Wherehouse Music, advertising a "buy any three DVDs and get 20% off" sale. Hmm, I thought, that's interesting: since WM already gives 20% off everyday, that means buying three or more DVDs will get you 40% off.

Not quite.

It turns out that about a week or two ago the company discontinued the practice of discounting their DVDs, and so now they'll sell them at straight list price - of course with the usual sales and promotional deals, such as the above.

When I talked to a couple people that work at the largest of the Houston WMs, they agreed pretty strongly that their DVD sales will probably begin to plummet now. All I can say is - at least they still sell used DVDs...

renaldow

Wherehouse never sold 20% off of MSRP. They (all the ones I've seen anyways) had artificially high prices that were used to take the 20% off of, which in many cases still had them .50 - $1 above MSRP for movie.

Many movies with MSRP's of $24.99 had bogus MSRP's of $27.99 - $32.99, for instance. A movie that was selling everywhere else for $19.99 would be 'on sale' at Wherehouse for $22.99. For the most part, Wherehouse was more expensive than Suncoast for DVD's, and that says quite a bit.

In short, 20% was a marketing scam, never existed, and now that it's gone may actually cause lower DVD prices as Wherehouse adjusts the false MSRP.

Jim

I looked quickly at the new prices yesterday at a Wherehouse and the ones I saw appeared to be the real MSRP. In most cases that appears to have increased the price of each DVD, but if you buy 3 at a time then you would save compared to how they used to price with those fake MSRPs.

The signs they have posted in the store say 'Buy 3 DVDs, Get 20% Off' and they had one plastered smack dab in the middle of the Used DVD rack. Wonder if that applies to the used DVDs as well?

osokin

Well, to be honest I never paid much attention to the list prices of the DVDs there - only the discounted price. But I will say that I've never witnessed the degree of markup you mention at the WM stores in my area, where the 20% "discounted" price was still higher than list. In my experience, their typical prices were almost always just a little higher than Best Buy's - e.g., 15.99 at WM versus 14.99 at BB; or 21.99/WM vs. 19.99. There's surely a markup there, but not enough that 20% off of it would still leave the price above list.

In any event, there's pretty much no way they'll be able to compete in the new DVD market now. No discount = No sale.

dvdirv

You folks should not be so critical of Wherehouse's new pricing policy

I went into one of the local stores and they were priced at list as this chat shows. However, no one mentioned those great "sale" discs.

Yep, if you buy one of the discs on sale, Wherehouse will deduct $2 off of the list price. What a bargain!

I just can't wait to go back and check out next week's great sale items.

vdadlani219

The local wherehouse here has Buy 3, get 20% off those, and get 1 for free. You can choose from about 25 different DVDs ($15-$40), including BTVS 1, X-Men, and some others. Not bad if they have any movies you like (couldn't justify buying 4 myself)

-Vik

osokin

I don't think the 'get one free' deal can be combined with the '20% off of 3.' They have two promos, and I think they're mutually exclusive: Buy any 3 of a certain selection of titles and get a fourth from that selection free; they had these 'certain selections' together on one or two endcaps. The '20% off of 3' goes for all the other DVDs in the store.
At least, that's how it's being promoted in the stores around here. Maybe one can strike a cool clerk and get the best of both promos together.