stingermck

Went to Sam Goody and got some new PSP games 30% off, not bad.

A friend of mine scored at Suncoast. There was 2 copies of the Ray Charles CD Set "Pure Genius" Retail $150. Each set had 2 different bar codes. One with a price of $119.99, one with $19.99. He took that one to the register to see how much it would be with the discount. The two clerks give it to him for $11, not even questioning it.

And a funny story, while the transaction was going on, he was talking to the clerks about the closing. They said a lot of people aren't even aware of the closing. People are even still wanting to apply for jobs! The manager even let one guy fill out a complete application, and then told him "You know were closing, but if a position opens up, we'll let you know" Lol

forumsmy

If anyone is interested in Seinfeld S5 and S6 and maybe the gift sets, you may want to check out your local going-out-of-business Sam Goody or Suncoast. Several of the ones I went into had SO MANY that they had the display storage racks filled with them and one store even had two boxes on the floor filled with them (40+ in each box plus the shelving). They will probably be around for a long time if you didn't get it cheap before. They might make it to the higher discounts, if there are any.

Additionally, I think that the stores will be closing by March 7. At one Suncoast, on the front security sensors, a hand-written note said that they will NOT be getting in the new Harry Potter Goblet of Fire as it come out March 7 and the store is closing. Maybe a clue ???

BobLylo

No they remained 30% from what I had seen...btw, I also scored one of the Hullabaloo Volumes for 15 bucks and change...has anyone seen Volume 1 of it??? If so, please tell me especially if it's in the tri-state area for it's overpriced on any web bidding war

Darkerknight_sc

Christmas movies were moved to 70% off today when I went but ALL other dvd were still only 30% :/

jimbeam

At Suncoast, I found -
Masculin Feminin: Criterion 22.99 - 30%
Quills: 3.99 - 30%

Quills says "phase 2" on the price tag, but it doesn't appear to be used.

natevines

That's nice for Masculine/Feminine. I saw it at Sam Goody for 30 - 30% and was tempted to buy it. Why the discrepancy? I would pick it up in a flash for the price you got it for...

jimbeam

Yeah, I don't know. I saw several Criterions there. M.F. and Chasing Amy (doesn't really count) were the only ones that were marked below MSRP.

Htom Sirveaux

I stopped at my local Suncoast (Highland Mall, Austin) on Saturday and the deals didn't seem to have gotten any better since a week ago. The signs on the windows of the store proclaimed that prices were 30-70% off, but the only items I saw in the latter category were a couple of holiday movies. Everything else of interest was still at 30%. The store was full of people (I didn't see anyone buying) and plenty of merchandise still sitting on the shelves.

dcprules

I managed to score an XBOX 360 12mos card (with the headset, Microsoft Points, etc) for about $48. When you factor in the $20 rebate included in the box, it'll only wind up to be about $28 for 12mos of XBOX Live. I was very content with that. Thanks to the original poster.

Wallet Boy

I picked this up today as well. Can never find it for less than $20. Good stuff. I almost picked up Christmas Vacation for $7 but I didn't want that as much. They had Elf for $7 as well, but I already have it.

Autolycus

Hi, folks, this is my first message here as a new member.

I went by the Monroe Mall (Monroe, NC) Sam Goody store when the store closing sale first started. It had no used dvds or cds. The new dvd selection was fairly weak, with common titles, and a few dvd box sets (including two Thin Man box sets, a MGM Marx Brothers box, a That's Entertainment box, an Andromeda Season 1 box, etc.).

I went back again last Thursday. Though little of the stock appeared to be selling at 30% off (the store had only a handfull of customers when I was there), I was surprised to see that most of the dvd box sets in the store had apparently been sold.

I then began to see some additional dvds in various sections of the new dvd racks which had not been there on my previous visit. They were all in the sealable plastic bags which Sam Goody (and Media Play) had used for their used dvds. All of this new merchandise was priced at $19.99.

The new merchandise included Thin Man movies (I counted two complete sets of the six movies, including the bonus disks, all priced at $19.99 each), the That's Entertainment movies (including the bonus disk, priced at $19.99), John Wayne movies (titles which had been in the Wayne box set), Clint Eastwood movies, the King Kong/Mighty Joe Young movies, Tracy/Hepburn movies, and individual dvds from Season 1 of Andromeda.

Apparently, the employees of the store had taken all of the dvd sets which the store had when the sale began and had split up the ones which could broken up (the few remaining box sets such as the Tarzan collection did not have separately housed movies). They had then discarded the boxes and put these individual dvds in the sealable plastic bags and priced them at $19.99.

In the case of the Thin Man set, by doing this, the price of the dvds had gone from the original Sam Goody price of $59.95 for the box set (or what would have been $41.97 at 30% off) to $139.93 (or a whopping new total of $97.95 at "30%" off) for the individual dvds from the set. In the case of two movies from the John Wayne box, "The Searchers" and "Stagecoach," these two films were now priced higher at $19.99 each (or $27.99 for the two movies, less "30%" of course) than a two-fer pack of both Wayne films which was still in the Action/Adventure section at $18.99 (or $13.29, less 30%). My guess is that since these box sets were still on display for sale in the store when the sale had started at 20% off, that this was done when the sale reached 30%.

My question is this: has anyone else seen anything like this at other Sam Goody or Suncoast stores during this going out of business sale? My guess is that the store employees in Monroe didn't do this on their own (too much additional work and initiative on their part) but had received some sort of directive from the liquidator. This certainly seems a stupid and unethical thing to pull (other savvy customers could easily pick up on this as I did), as well as illegal.

Cameron

Hi everyone, Cameron here. For those who don't know, I manage the Suncoast Store in Tulsa, OK. Before everyone starts e-mailing me for and inside scoop, let me lay down some things.

-Employees don't know when the prices are going to drop. I am usually told a day or two in advance by the liquidators, so I can schedule people to change all the signs and sale tags. No I cannot share this info online, but a good rule of thumb is every drop will be in 10% incriments. Most prices will stay in effect for at least two weekends, (although this is subject to change)

-Stores are not recieving new stock, however remaining stock may moved from one closing store to another. It all depends on when the stores lease expires. Many stores will be opened until at least the end of March.

-Stuff truly is flying off the shelves, even at 20%-30% off. Which oddly enough in many cases hasn't been as good as some of the sale offers Suncoast offered in past months. The Christmas movie deal is killer (and won't be going any lower.) It seems when you post store closing signs, things seem to go a bit crazy, which leads me to my next point.

-Usually people would put things back where they belong, but in closing it seems people seem to just toss it anywhere, (including just dropping it on the ground?) I have to say that stuffing merchandise makes it much harder on mangers and employees as it creates extra work. We rotate alphabetization so that everything in the store is touched at least every two days. When we find an obvious stuff we usually put a sale tag on it, and feature it on the front sales rack. This is just me, giving grief to the people who cause me extra work. Just keep in mind, that everyone working is losing there job (including myself) and this creates more stress.

-To those who speak ill will towards employees, let me clarify, that not only do I not live at home with my parents, but I make a pretty good living doing something I enjoy. Yeah, I've made more money doing other things, but It hasn't been nearly as fun. And Yeah, not having to keep late hours is going to be nice, but I have been able to pass some knowledge, and learn a bit more in this job.

As for the above post, I have no idea what happened there...Its not being handed down from on high, something seems fishy there.

Watching this thread, I gotta say the Ray Charles Box is the best deal I have seen. Looks like something was misticketed (probably a tag from another Ray CHarles disc) and no one caught it....good for you.

All that said, if your in Tulsa...Come by and say hello. I'm only here for a few more weeks, and then its back to Nashville...



-

natevines

Can you disclose (if you know that, is) if prices WILL go lower for DVDs, or does that vary from store to store?

Cameron

it will go as low as 70 off in 10% incriments, if stock makes it that far. Once it hits 40 off, that is going to just about beat any online price for most items, when it gets to 50, its cheaper than wholesalers, so it wouldn't suprise me if stores get bought out by local merchants (mom & pop shops etc.)

thedarktroll

AUTOLYCUS,

Thanks for the VERY interesting post. I live in the Indian Land area of South Carolina (Lancaster County) and had planned to take a trip out to Monroe to visit the Sam Goody there today, in fact. You just saved me a trip---unless I decide to head out that way to eat at Cook-Out. Love those milkshakes.

I have no idea of the legality of such a maneuver---but it certainly negates the point of the closing sale (and then some), and sounds like a sham to me. Opening sealed merchandise, retagging it OVER the msrp...nah. Not cool. I didn't see any evidence of such things during the Media Play closing sale at the Matthews, Charlotte, or the Gastonia stores. Perhaps it's the work of an unscrupulous store or district manager, still hoping for a bonus that will never come. Who knows?

If you're familiar with Monroe, are there any places in town that sell used DVDs, other than Blockbuster?


CAMERON...

I'm very sorry to hear you're losing your job. I worked music retail for years (mostly at Camelot Music, remember them, anyone?) and like you, I get a bit peeved when snooty snerts that haven't worked a day of retail in their lives start to take a very condescending attitude towards the average employee at such places, assuming they live at home, have the brains of a walnut, and could care less about what they sell, how much they sell it for, or the extent of their product knowledge.

Not all retail people are mindless drones or teenyboppers...some of us actually have a very deep passion for music or film, and we choose to work retail even if the pay sucks and the customers are lazy ignorant slobs. How's that for stereotyping?

Cinemaddiction

Finally bit on the sale and got "Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas" for a whopping $3.59. I'll check back later tos ee if any of the live action manga stuff is around, i.e. Biozombie, Versus, etc.

jimbeam

Yes! I thought I was the only one who remembered Emmet Otter.

MikeDeN2K

I picked up Mission Hill: The Complete Series for $22.99 plus the 30 percent off, so it came to 16something. Not bad.

Cinemaddiction

..in the meantime, the clueless eBayer's are still shelling out $50 for the OOP version. I'm a fan of pretty much anything Henson did before he bowed out, especially "Emmet Otter".

joliom

That's funny. Penn-Can was on the list too! Reading the blog, it looks like they tried a major renovation after the period I described to little avail. I had no idea it limped along for that long. The last time I visited was probably 1991 and it looked like it was on its last gasp then. I also had Sears and JC Penny's confused (strange too, I could swear I remember going to a JC Penny's there back in the late '80s). And the movie theater and Burlington Coat Factory are still in operation today despite the rest of the mall being boarded up for the past 7 years! Hilarious.

phraseturner

I think I remember reading that one of the versions released of this title has all Kermit segments edited out of it. Can anyone else chime in if they know the details..?

Perhaps that's why one version is fetching big $$ on eBay.

joliom

You should come work at the Sam Goody we have here at Ala Moana. I've had some of the worst shopping experiences there of my entire life. The supervisors I've dealt with (and granted it's been awhile since I've shopped there) were antagonistic, unreasonable, and downright rude. I remember one time I bought a copy of Halloween 5 on DVD. I took it home and it wouldn't play on any of my 4 players so I brought it back to exchange for a new one. They told me I couldn't exchange it because it was opened (even though I had the sales receipt from the day before). After spending 5 minutes arguing with this colossal ass of a supervisor trying to figure out exactly how it was that I could determine the DVD was defective if I couldn't open it, and having to read back his own return policy to him, he finally relented and said that I could exchange it for the same item (which is all I wanted in the first place). But they don't have any more Halloween 5 DVD's in stock. Can I exchange it for another item, then? No. Can I get my money back? Hell no. I have to special order another one - that's my only option. So I ask how long the special order will take. He says 3-5 weeks minimum! I asked him why it would take that long when I can order one myself from Amazon and have it within a week's time? Too bad. Deal with it. So I wait 5 weeks and still haven't got the phone call telling me that my item has come in. I call the store and they tell me that they haven't even placed the special order yet! So I have to re-order, I wait another 4 weeks and still no call. I call the store and they tell me they don't expect a shipment for another 3-5 weeks! So now with all my patience completely exhausted, I call customer service and explain my situation. To their credit, they were the polar opposite of the in-store staff. They admit that the way I was treated was ridiculous and authorize an in-store credit that I can use for anything I want. I go back in to use my store credit (which they hassled me about, forcing me to call the customer service rep to straighten them out), and what do you think I see? Five Godamn copies of Halloween 5 sitting right there on the shelves! So I ask them why I never got a call when I had this title on special order for over two months, and they tell me that those are regular retail copies, not for fulfilling special orders. Mine was still on order. I couldn't friggin' believe that shit. And to top it all off, they said if I wanted to use my store credit on one of those copies I'd have to pay the difference since the price was now $3 higher. The funny part was that I paid their massively marked-up bullshit price ($10 more than Amazon, if memory serves) originally because I didn't want to wait a week for it to ship. Needless to say, I haven't bought anything from a Sam Goody since. To all you Sam Goody & Suncoast employees out there that like your job and treat people nicely, you have my sincerest sympathies. I hope you all find new jobs that you like just as much. But the chain itself can pretty much kiss my ass.

Doc Moonlight

The version of EMMITT OTTER that is available at Suncoast was released last year. It is the "original" cut of the story and debuted on HBO. When it was shown the next year on ABC, Kermit was added into the story because ABC thought it would be more popular. So Kermit wasn't edited out of the story, he was edited into it.

Cameron

^that is correct for the most part...however, the new disc also has some lines and a brief bit clipped as well....so both disc are edited...

I own them both though...

kenbenobi

I was on vacation in Los Angeles, so stopped by the Fox Hills Mall location, which is closing. I found a few 70% off holiday bargains: It's a very merry muppet christmas for 4.49, Elf for 5.99, and Year without a santa claus for 4.xx. I actually passed on the 2-disc A Christmas Story for 8.09. I'll just keep up the yearly tradition of watching it on TBS Christmas Day. I know it's edited and has commercials, but it's pretty much guaranteed to be on... I also got some trading cards for 50% off...

BTW, I can now answer my earlier post that I don't believe received a response: you CAN use Suncoast gift cards at the closing stores, but you can't get Replay points for your purchases.