All I can say is I am glad my membership lasted through the December sales, for a reason I forget it was extended for a month, and that I didn't renew it as I was waiting for the next Criterion sale to do so. If the 10% off is only good on non sale items, like a CVS coupon, then it is useless to me. I don't drink enough coffee in a year to exceed the $25 cost of membership.

Hopefully the cafe was closed only because they haven't had a chance to restock the food and coffee. The cafe at my local store was open, without seating, for as long as the store stayed open in March.

I let my renewal pass because since the stores were closed, and no member coupons I held off. Idid get an e-mail that if I renewed I would get 3 extra months. So I did, but the 3 months were not added. I had to get onto customer service and eventually got the 3 months added. Not happy about the cafe being closed, since I am a weekend regular at my local store, so maybe I should have not renewed, with possible new policies, less coupons, Masked in store visits with distancing. Ughh "new normal" The stores may open next week here in NJ.

Interesting NY Post artical about the 1968/69 Hong kong flu, which I lived through as a kid. Search google for it

Hello hariseldon,

Thank you very much for your insight.
I just read the post from Red Hood. It looks like he encountered the same problem too.
The manager told me that he couldn't override the system to give me the additional 10% membership discount because the item was already on sale for 30% off. To his credit, he scanned a non-sale blu-ray in the same transaction and the price rang up correctly with the 10% membership discount.
I hope it's just a glitch in the system.
Thanks again.

Unfortunately I'm getting a bad feeling about this.

Pretty much no coupons,
Membership discount for instore might now be essentially meaningless
The only perk left if Free Shipping on orders under $35, but with coupon codes even that isn't all the helpful.

FWIW -- there is a GIFT CARD deal of sorts available this week -- Buy $100, get a $10 Rewards Card (or Cert). I don't know if this is just an online deal or if it's in store.
Note the rewards cert will deliver around July 3 and be good for around a month. My Happy Cards from the 2 AMEX deals should be here today (ordered 6/6) so I guess in theory I
could fold those into a Rewards Card and amplify the 15% savings -- $170 for $200 HappyTeen Cards then buy $200 BNGC + 20 Rewards if the instore works like the Christmas deal
did.

The terms do not mention B&N stores so not sure if this overlaps AND if store will allow multiple of $100 like the Nov $50 and $75 deals

"BN.com: Get a Free $10.00 Barnes & Noble Reward with purchase of 100.00 or more worth of Barnes & Noble Gift Cards or Barnes & Noble eGift Cards at Barnes & Noble.com in a single transaction only at BN.com. This offer is valid only on purchases of Barnes & Noble Gift Cards or eGift Cards totaling $100.00 in a single transaction only at Barnes & Noble.com. The value of your qualifying Barnes & Noble Gift Card or Barnes & Noble eGift Card purchase must total at least $100.00 to qualify for the $10.00 Barnes & Noble Reward. Sales tax, gift wrap, processing charges, shipping and handling charges, or any additional charges will not count towards the qualifying purchase amount of $100.00. This offer can be redeemed only once per customer. Your purchase must be made between June 12, 2020 and June 22, 2020 at 2:59 a.m. Eastern Time to qualify for this offer. The $10.00 Barnes & Noble Reward will be delivered via email to you on July 3, 2020 to the email address associated with your $100.00 BN.com Gift Card / eGift Card purchase on Barnes & Noble.com. The $10.00 Reward is valid beginning July 3, 2020 and expires on August 10, 2020 at 2:59 a.m. Eastern Time. "


I did roll my last $60 Rewards from Christmas into an item I returned to store to get a no expiration GC. I bought THE FLY COLLECTION Bluray online and returned it in store back in February. I noticed the online inventory still show THE FLY COLLECTION as available for pickup. My plan back in Feb was to wait for the 40% off SALE and buy it with the same GC -- member discount and basically 25% discounted Gift Card. COVID last waste to the Best laid plans if now no sale and no member discounts -- might as well buy at the Target B2G1 or Deep Discount Sale

Today was first day store was open. Hours were 10:30 am to 6 pm M-S and 11:30 am to 6 pm Sunday. Cafe was open with no seating. Lots of stuff moved around including video section. Wider isles. Customer Service closed. Any questions ask cashier. Didn’t ask if 10% member discount only good on non sale items. Not much on sale. Good to have back but not a place to hang out currently which is how it should be at present. Hand sanitizer in front of store.

Is there any benefit or reason at all to either renew or purchase a BN membership? Seems to be a giant waste of cash.

We don't really know yet though I'd say $25 doesn't quite qualify as Giant.

Most of the year I feel my Prime Fee is far bigger waste, but I keep it anyway.

Just like my FYE Backstage I finally talked myself into last year RIGHT BEFORE that raised most of their new movie prices to 110-130% MSRP -- at least for the studios/labels I'd use it for.
The MOD lines (WAC, Sony, Universal) were actually a decent deal with 10%off to MSRP with the BSP and their 25 (or 31.4%) discounts stacks. Now the $29 price on most Sony's (24.99 MSRP)
make it impossible to use. I get a better deal ordering from Bullmoose at $20ea/no tax It's worse on the WAC line which often sold for 16.99-19.99 before and now are 24.99 or higher (21.99 MSRP) and the Target B2G1 and Wbshop 4/11 deals

I figure my BN membership has saved me over 5-8+K in the last 15 years so one more year isn't going to make me feel bad

I was primarily using the membership at the cafe. They have really good flat bread pizza. They were giving free coffee deals regularly.
I was just at our store today and the cafe was back open for some of the menu items. Unfortunately,it looked like they removed the video department and put some more bookshelves where they were. I didn't check upstairs to see if they moved it there .But they used to at least have a great Criterion selection.
And they closed one of our other stores a few weeks ago.

Hariseldon, Is the AMEX happy card deal still available? I don't seem to be able to find it. Thanks.

It should be, but like most AMEX OFFER (mine's a Hilton cobrand) it's not on all cards. This one happened to be active on mine and my wife's card. Now that I've used it I can't see the fine print, but I thought it went through the end
of June. Even with these two cards which are essentially married I sometimes see an offer on one but not the other. Right Now I have a BP Gas $10 off 25 on one but not the other,
I've actually had a good year with AMEX -- this is about $140 I've gotten back which it triple what I normally get.

My old Costco Amex card rarely had these offers.

Any word on member coupons instore or online coming up for Father's day? With most of the stores open, one would think that member coupons would get customers into the stores. Wishful thinking?

Not seen anything. Coupons used to mainly show up on Thursday and then eventually Friday at least for the In-store Weekend Holidays.

I don't think there has been any coupons at all since Presidents Day and March/Spring

Nothing online about a 40% sale and I'm not likely to go to a store to check unless someone reports it's definitely happening -- even then I may stay put

Not a surprise, but it appears no Fathers Day 40% Sale this year.
Outside hope it will be delayed a few weeks and I'm still hearing faint rumors that the Criterion Sale is pushed back 2-4 weeks

Something else that bugs me about the membership. Mine was supposed to expire on July 8. It got auto-renewed 2 weeks ago and now extended until July 8, 2021. In addition, at no point did B&N come out and extended people's membership for a month or 2 while the stores were closed. Things aren't looking well overall, but this along with the removal of the discounts on sale items is reducing the membership to almost nothing.

In case you were not aware, you can go to the settings of your account and set them so that your membership doesn't automatically renew. The default is to automatically renew but you can change it. You can also cancel your membership after it renews if you no longer want the membership .

I know that. Found it weird that the store renew my membership more than a month before it was supposed to expire and in the middle of the pandemic. That feels like B&N needed some cash in advance.

They've done that for years though, it's not a new thing. Easy enough to reverse up until the original expiration date.
Seems I remember getting an email a few weeks prior saying you're coming up on your expiration and whether or not
you have the auto renew enabled. Mainly it seems to be a reminder for you to check your CC. Mine renewed near the end of April
so it's somewhat fresh. I erased all my mid April April and older emails so I can't find the reminder email so it's possible I'm imaging that.

The 2019 Summer Criterion sale began June 28, the Friday before 4th of July. That Friday would be June 26th this year. July 3rd is the holiday when most offices are closed this year. There was a mid June 40% off all blu rays last year that didn't happen this year though I don't think most stores were open mid June this year. Here is hoping for the return of sales.

I think if it was going to start this Friday somebody would know about it.
Even it it went back to the Tues after July 4 where it was for years, somebody would have leaked something.

Still my best guess is a sale starting 7/31 or 8/4 and possibly ending Labor Day Monday or a late starting 2-3 week sale that would catch the Varda set and still have a 3 month spacing to the Nov Sale. At worst -- there's still the Fall Criterion.com flash sale that conceivably they could move from Mid Oct back to September which would give closer to 6 month spacings with the Feb/March Sale.

I was wondering if Criterion themselves would start doing more flash sales if B&N had to stop. I don't think Criterion could keep going if they didn't have those store sales to move large chunks of inventory twice a year.

And I'm really starting to think they need to fix their prices. There's other boutique labels doing similar stuff at better prices.

Yet another rumor (waiting for 2nd person to independently hear similar) -- delayed start possibly 7/10 through 8/2.
This fits better with my prior best place 2nd hand information from several wks ago but still nothing concrete

EDIT: I see a Reddit post showing a pic of a BN computer screen with a banner from the Sale, I can't find the original poster, but there have been 2 different Employees who have been 100% on their BN announcements in the past so this sounds a little more solid

Copied from Home theater Forum who got it from a Criterion Facebook group. May or may not be true.

Stopped by the local B&N. I noticed that most of the stickers with the percentage off amount no longer had the "members save an additional 10%" wording at the bottom of the sticker. A few still had it. None of the posted signs with sale items mention the 10% off. There were no signs for the Best Seller books which always said "30% off, members save an additional 10%. " My best guess is that, as posted here that the 10% membership discount, is no longer given on sale items. The few items with mention of the 10% off are probably old stickers that were missed with the change in policy. The customer service desk is closed so there wasn't anyone to ask to confirm . I do not have a current active membership.

Wow. Talk about sticking it to long-time customers. This is what Borders did shortly before they closed down.

I'm a multi-year B&N member, but I won't be renewing in December. I really don't see B&N lasting through the end of 2020.