Story of pre-empting woe...

I just got back from a *quest* for the new Stones discs.

Went to Best Buy. Asked if they kinda sorta had any of the Stones discs in stock. The music dept guy, unfortunately, was a real *******...he refused to even look, and just told me to go to bestbuy.com. I attempted to go around him by asking his co-workers, but no go.

Went to Tower. They hadn't even gotten them IN yet.

Went to Barnes and Noble. They wouldn't entertain my query.

Went to a "mom&pop" record store, famous for their price gouging, who occasionally get stuff in early. No go.

Went to Borders. Before I even started to ask, the guy said "Tuesday." ****.

Completely the circuit at--where else--but Circuit City. THey aknowledged they had them, then refused to sell to me.

I'm clearly cursed.

-D

 

No. You are a victim of the RULES !!!

NO CDS 'TIL TUESDAY !!!



Mud-

 

Once, on a Sunday at a Circuit City near me, I found a copy of a DVD that was scheduled for release that Tuesday. (don't recall the title) Anyway, I took it to the counter and it wouldn't scan. The girl called the front-end manager over to figure out what the problem was. He looked at the title and said, "Sorry, I can't sell this until Tuesday. It's not active in the system yet." I made a fuss about it being on the shelve and all but he wouldn't budge. I guess they're afraid they'll loose their distribution rights or something. I gotta tell ya, if I had something in stock and you had cash in your hand, we'd trade.

 

It surprises me that some places refuse to sell them early in this case. This is for a few reasons:
1. These were announced for Aug. 20th and were then delayed -- there was really no official announcement of the delay.
2. They're not new releases. If we're talking about Star Wars DVDs or the newest Metallica album, then I can understand the hesitation to sell early, but these are "just" remastered CDs. The old versions are still on the shelves at many retailers.
3. These aren't high-profile releases (outside of music lovers on the 'net). Some of the bigger chains put smaller releases (catalog films on DVD, for example) early because they don't know any better.

 

Technically, record companies can't stop a store from "breaking street date" on a new release, but they can refuse to deal with a store or distributor in the future, and they can stop providing supplemental advertising funds for the store as well. I imagine the chain's main offices would be pretty strict about their stores selling early as well.

Incidentally, I'm told if one store in your area breaks street date, the other stores in your area are allowed to do so as well. I got the DVD of the film Dogma a couple of days early awhile back because our local Blockbuster jumped the gun on it, so everyone else had it out as well.

We have one particular independent store who notoriously break street dates, and I stopped by there to see if they'd have The Who's My Generation-Deluxe Edition in early, but no soap there. They had the new Rhino Ramones reissues and a few others out early, but no Who, and though I didn't think of it at the time, no Stones either. Perhaps the labels and distributors are keeping particular tabs on early sales of these titles.

Sounds like Best Buys are going to be particularly crowded on Tuesday.

 

I know the Stones are not the Beatles but I am kinda surprised that no one is having a midnight sale of these cds. They've done it for single cds by lesser artists, IMO.

Mud-

 

Re: Re: Story of pre-empting woe...

I wouldn't say that, I picked up some of them from Best Buy today!

 

Re: Re: Re: Story of pre-empting woe...

Matt....I saw your other thread. Seems Best Buy is breaking the rules.

Lucky you !!



Mud-

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Story of pre-empting woe...

Well, I was asking the salesman about the availability of "More Hot Rocks". He was not sure on the More Hot Rocks; And I also asked about these being early or if the release date never changed and they just put them out when they finally got them. His response was agreement with my second question about the release date never changing. So if that's true, then they are not breaking any rules at all.

 

From the e-mail that my Best Buy had posted in the Stones section, it also appeared to me that they were viewing the delay as simply a delay in the delivery date, rather than actually pushing the release date back. Otherwise, I doubt that any of us lucky souls would ever have gotten these discs before Tuesday.

Jay

 

You must have the "look".

I bought once about 70 CDs at once at J&R in Manhattan. 69 were of classic rock and the 70th was Sinatra's Trilogy. When I reached the hotel I checked the booty and the Sinatra wasn't there.

I'm sure the cashier's thought it wasn't from the same purchaser and took it out.

 

All my local sources didn't have the discs. I didn't bother asking. Sometimes that's just a plain' ol waste of time. :/

 

Re: Re: Story of pre-empting woe...

I do have "the look."

I'm one of those people who tends to be watched the INSTANT he steps into a store, perhaps because I look so purposeful. Every three seconds I get the "do you need help, sir?" which is of course a fancy way of saying "PLEASE don't steal anything on my shift."

-D

 

Hmmm, I get odd looks when the sales people find out that i'm not looking for rap CDs.

Anyway, I EXPECT to find what i'm looking for tomorrow at good prices!