Hastings Entertainment to file for bankruptcy

My buddy in Amarillo will be crushed. He used to get quite a bit of stuff with their reward program.

 

Up until a couple years ago they had over 70 stores in a dozen or more states. And the one state where they almost have as much as Texas would be in Oklahoma. Cities I've been to would be Ardmore, Duncan, Enid, Mustang, Norman, Ponca City, Ada, Lawton, and Midwest City.

I had relatives in Lubbock, both have passed on now. On the way down there and on the way back I would hit different Hastings stores. There was always something to buy if you had a little time and wanted to dig for bargains. And there were a lot of them, trust me!

The latest on CD"s----Used CD's are now 40% off, last week they were 30%. New CD's are 15% off, last week they were 10% off.

One thing that is going on that somewhat surprises me is that the one in my area has been that the top drawer groups (Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, Metallica, etc.) have been purged.

 

I had one in the next town over that came in like 1999. This was the place to be as they only had a mall bookstore in the form of Walden Books. About 2006 Barnes and Nobles came in and took some of their thunder. They lasted around here until 2010 and closed up shop. Nearest one to me now is about 4 hours away. I only used their online business once, didn't have a problem.

 

I also noticed that many of the major rock artists' catalogs, most notably the Eagles, have been purged after the liquidators re-priced all the CDs. But, The Beatles are still there.

I went there yesterday and all of the good stuff is either picked over, or isn't priced low enough.

Back in the 90s, there were a pretty good place to shop for music. Their music people weren't very knowledgeable, but were always very courteous and tried to help.

One of Hastings's problems is that they tried to be too many things.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if they've shipped some of the music elsewhere. Based on the tiny discount on new/sealed music and the low volume of shoppers, there's no way they could've sold that many CDs and LPs in such a short amount of time. What I have noticed is they've re-stocked a number of their gift items and action figures. I assume either those were kept in the back stockroom or recently shipped to the store.

 

Or it's stock that the liquidation company has brought in for the "special bargain" sale.

 

Bringing this thread up to date.

Kwadguy is right. As far as new merchandise is concerned, in regards to electronics the discounts aren't worth getting excited about. Crosley turntables are 10% off, Sony Blue Rays are 10% off. Big whoop.

Sealed cd's, be it new releases or back catalog, are only 20% off. On the other hand, the store in my area went to 40% off on used cd's, I haven't gone to the book or dvd sections but IIRC they are 40% off too. PLUS-they also throw in a "buy, get one free." They are wanting to unload used stuff--period. The cd's unfortunately are getting thin regarding the classic rock variety. Still, am pulling a few here and there.

 

I goofed, should have proofread this post a tad. It should be "buy two cd's, get the third one free." And THAT is on top of the 40% sale for used cd's!

 

They just started selling off the rental DVDs and blu-rays. What the liquidators did was raise them to their absolute retail price. Not really worth it.

 

When you consider that GoHastings had 40-50% off used sales with great regularity for years, they've barely reached the standard sale price pre-bankruptcy.



Before their "great" going out of business sale, they often had sales like this:

 

Kuadguy, I understand that the company suffered because of their practice of buying used items over the last few years. They took a bath. Gee, I wish it were that way when I tried to sell them a bunch of old vinyl. They offered me literally pennies for VG+ popular titles, and what they had in their inventory was old easy listening stuff, the chewed-up junk you find in Goodwill stores.

 

I've never been in one of their physical stores (none in New England, none in California), but their online model was just ridiculous. Shipped was fixed, per item at $1.29 (and before that $0.99, with some sales dropping to free shipping). Tens of thousands of cheap used items (music,video) priced at under $2.00, and sometimes as low as $1.00. Frequent couponing lowered prices further. And orders fulfilled from individual stores.

So you might order 10 $1.00 CDs. With shipping (assuming no discounts, which were common) you'd pay $22.90 shipped. And those CDs would often come in 10 separate packages from 10 separate stores. Even with a commercial rate, shipping on those 10 packages would exceed the total sales price.

No one should run a business like that.

 

Sounds like a business slogan: We lose money on every sale but make it up with volume!

 

Grant is right. And the one store that is never more evident is the Hastings in Albuquerque on Wyoming and Montgomery. It's one thing to buy easy listening, there are a fair number of easy listening lp's in my collection. But we're talking about the Henry Mancini soundtrack related things. And I've seen the grading in that store. Someone unloaded a storage shed full of that stuff.

And when Hastings first started to buy vinyl, it almost looked like that as long as the album and the sleeve matched up, they were fine! Now this was two years ago, one would think that they would have wised up. But starting back around April, I was informed that for "the time being", we are not taking in any more vinyl.

Oy!!!

 

Although they stock some good brands, sadly, their guitar strings and cables still come out to be more than one might spend online. The student model instruments look junky, but would make excellent gifts if any of you have kids.

 

Thought I'd update a little here--

Used CD's are now 50% off, new CD's are 30% off. For a long time, they held the line regarding new release vinyl at 10%, now it's 30% as well. The Hastings in my area does not have used vinyl (they decided NOT to stock used vinyl, wrong thing to do), but the one in Montrose does. Not sure what % is there, will go down there next week.

A strange thing is going on in my store. They've re-arranged the store around and created space for a different company to come in and lowball their stuff The store name is Hart Strings Childrens Wear, they're doing 20-30% off on various kids things. Kind of an odd situation but as the owner of the building thinks, well-I guess they did it because THEY COULD! Regardless, it has helped sales with the used books and movies.

 

They always bring in crap merch from other stores, other sites, other vendors for these sales. It's an art form. Suckers line up to buy it, too...

 

I went the other day and fund a brand new copy of the Partridge Family's second season DVD that was wrapped up as a used copy. I got it for $5.99, less than the discount was supposed to be. I wish they had the third season. That's all I need now.

 

Same here. Strange they would only sell kid's clothes, but I suppose it's not much different than what sellers do by bringing in other junk to sell at estate sales. The placed most of the children's clothing on the front store fixtures.

So, I bought a few CD titles used at 50% off and a few new titles at 30% off. The 30% discount isn't bad, most of the titles I bought were around $8-$9 a piece, which is what a used CD of a current/recent release would normally cost at a CD Warehouse.

If anyone needs cheap model paint or supplies, their hobby section is also discounted at 30% and most of it should be gone before they hit the next discount tier.

 

Yeah, we got the kids clothes too.

 

Hastings went to 60% off on used cd's and 40% on new cd's 6 days ago. Pickings are real slim at the store near me. I wish I had some extra coin for a road trip, I'd like to take a run into Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle as there are a couple dozen Hastings in those areas. Ah well, can't complain, God knows I've bought more than I should have. Been fun though. One thing I haven't done is check out the dvd's as they have the same discount price. One problem though--I'm still sitting on a box full of dvd's when the Blockbuster store in my area closed up a year ago last February.

 

Just got back. I think it's disgusting how the liquidators are price-gouging. They are selling a CD of Prince's "Sign ,O, The Times" for $30! Disgusting!

 

I noticed that all of the sale prices were torn off the CDs and marked back to regular/list price.