Barnes & Noble In-Store 50% Off Criterion Sale 7/9-7/29

stimutax

CAGiversary!
Just wanted to let you good folks know that Barnes & Noble will be having their annual Criterion sale next month, good on both DVDs and Blu-Rays. (This will probably be online too but can't say for sure.) Cheers.

Edit: Sale extended to 8/5.

 
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Hmmm, if my math works out I'll get paid twice while this sale is going on, wonder how much I'll end up spending this year.

 
Does BN still offer a trial membership? This deal is awesome if you can stack member discounts and potential coupons w/ the 50% off sale. I don't really shop there any other time of year so actually buying a membership isn't really a good deal for me.

 
Basically this means you get the DVDs for regular price because Barnes&Nobles it costs around $40 for a new Blu Ray and $25-$30 for a new DVD.

 
Basically this means you get the DVDs for regular price because Barnes&Nobles it costs around $40 for a new Blu Ray and $25-$30 for a new DVD.
If you have the BN Membership, sometimes there are member-only coupons. I was able to get many Criterion Blu-Rays for around $13/ea. during these sales.

 
Basically this means you get the DVDs for regular price because Barnes&Nobles it costs around $40 for a new Blu Ray and $25-$30 for a new DVD.
Agreed, B&N's pricing on new stuff is completely bonkers, but my understanding is that Criterion largely sets the pricing of their products and you'd be hard-pressed to find them for 50-60% off MSRP most of the year.

 
This is usually the time to get the more expensive boxed sets for 50% off.  Even when Amazon runs decent sales, the newest releases and the bigger box sets (like the newly released Shoah) usually aren't included.  MSRP on Shoah, for example, is $99.99, so half off at B&N's sale would be cheaper even than the already cheap $68.99 Amazon has it for now.  With your member 10% off, that covers sales tax and a bit more.

 
Per a couple of Barnes and Noble employees on another site - the summer 50% off Criterion Collection films starts tomorrow! Usually they are good in store and at bn.com. 

 
Per a couple of Barnes and Noble employees on another site - the summer 50% off Criterion Collection films starts tomorrow! Usually they are good in store and at bn.com.
For folks who don't mind staying up late... there might be some overlap between the B2G1 deal and the criterion sale. So keep an eye out for that. It has happened before so odds are it will happen again.

 
For folks who don't mind staying up late... there might be some overlap between the B2G1 deal and the criterion sale. So keep an eye out for that. It has happened before so odds are it will happen again.
Hoping so, but last time when it overlapped, the end time for the B2G1 sale was 2:59am EST, this time according to the info on the sale, it's 11:59pm EST. The Criterion sale starts at midnight EST, so... Not counting on it. Between that and the changes that have happened in the coupons, I'm feeling less than excited about the sale this year. :(

 
Bah. Nope, no overlap. That's going to cut severely into how many I buy...



Of course, I decide to stay up and there is no overlap. It figures.
 
So what did everyone grab on the first day?  I went to the store and picked up...

Badlands

The Blob

Gate of Hell

Ivan's Childhood

Naked Lunch

Repo Man

Wild Strawberries

That got a few of my bigger priorities out of the way, anyway, though I've still got a few definites.  Not sure exactly how many I'm going to end up buying this time, since with the unique codes they're using now, the coupons will be limited this time around if there are any.  The last few months I've gotten flyers in the mail (that's right, physical mail... they can't be bothered to send me email coupons, but they'll spend actual money to send them to me printed on paper) with a couple of coupons on them, but even if I get one for this month, it'll only cover two of them.  Still, I'm waiting on the more expensive titles until I see...

On a side note, they also had another sale in the store with a bunch of more general DVDs and blu-rays (not part of the Art House sale) on sale for 50% off.  From that I grabbed the Barbarella blu-ray for $6.75 with my member discount.

 
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If you have the BN Membership, sometimes there are member-only coupons. I was able to get many Criterion Blu-Rays for around $13/ea. during these sales.

The problem is that they've changed the coupons... The general, reusable coupons that they used to give out have been entirely gone for months now. Now they're all one time use codes. You can use as many as you can get, but they're a lot harder to come by now (beyond whatever few you can get B&N to send you, you have to find someone who has them who isn't using them and is willing to give them to you) and they're not reusable.

It's been this way since early this year... even late last year they were transitioning over, and a lot of the coupons they were issuing were this way. So at this point, I'd say that it's unlikely we'll see any change in it.

The only general coupons that seem to still exist at this point are the new member coupons, if you can get your store to take them (they get really picky with them around here, so I've essentially given up).

 
The problem is that they've changed the coupons... The general, reusable coupons that they used to give out have been entirely gone for months now. Now they're all one time use codes. You can use as many as you can get, but they're a lot harder to come by now (beyond whatever few you can get B&N to send you, you have to find someone who has them who isn't using them and is willing to give them to you) and they're not reusable.

It's been this way since early this year... even late last year they were transitioning over, and a lot of the coupons they were issuing were this way. So at this point, I'd say that it's unlikely we'll see any change in it.

The only general coupons that seem to still exist at this point are the new member coupons, if you can get your store to take them (they get really picky with them around here, so I've essentially given up).
Ah, that's a bummer. I will probably hold off on picking anything up then. It's still a good deal for members who shop there a lot. The fun part of my budget is severely hampered right now, so I should probably just behave for once and not even go in there! There are several movies I'd really like to get though....arrrghhh!!!

 
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF. MUST SAVE MONEY BUT ALSO MUST HAVE ALL THE CRITERION IN MY WISH LIST." - my brain right now. 

I gotta pick up Kagemusha.....and maybe Blow Out....and maybe other things....................OH GOD.

 
Well, there goes all my money.

Let's hope for coupons that stack with the sale like we always manage find somehow.
I have a closing barnes and noble near me. They already have lots of criterion films b2g1 free( because just about all DVDs and blurays are b2g1). Does anyone know if the 50% off will stack with the b2g1? Would it be automatic at the register or ymmv depending on the employee?
 
I have a closing barnes and noble near me. They already have lots of criterion films b2g1 free( because just about all DVDs and blurays are b2g1). Does anyone know if the 50% off will stack with the b2g1? Would it be automatic at the register or ymmv depending on the employee?
I would operate under the assumption that store closing sales do not stack with regular sales (they ususally haven't at most closing stores that I've seen, though I have no experience with Barnes and Noble in that regard). You'd really have to ask them, though, since that's not a regular case.

 
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Son. Of. A. Bitch. Yesterday I was out of town and I checked 3 of my local stores they all had Kagemusha, and now today, NONE of them do. djdsifhdufhusfhsiufhsuif hiufhfdsuih

 
Jumping on this very late, but I guess I'll get Rashomon and Tenenbaums. I already have all the other Anderson films, as well as all the Chaplin ones (which are all still sealed...no time to watch!).

 
The 15% non-member coupon is ymmv.  The coupon didn't seem to scan in automatically as I seem to remember it doing for previous Criterion 50% off sales.  So the discount is at the discretion of the cashier/manager.  Luckily the coupon contains a statement pertaining to the order in which discounts are to be taken, implying that it is stackable with other discounts or sales.

 
The 15% non-member coupon is ymmv. The coupon didn't seem to scan in automatically as I seem to remember it doing for previous Criterion 50% off sales. So the discount is at the discretion of the cashier/manager. Luckily the coupon contains a statement pertaining to the order in which discounts are to be taken, implying that it is stackable with other discounts or sales.
Yup, I had a cashier absolutely refuse to take my 15% off coupon today. When it didn't just scan automatically, he found some text on it that says "may not be combined with any other coupon or promotional discount" and said he couldn't take it. it was clear that it wasn't going to be worthwhile arguing with him, so I told him to just keep the Criterion disc I was buying and took my coupon back. I'll try another store tomorrow, hopefully they'll take it there.

If they won't take it, and if they've stopped taking coupons on the Criterion sale entirely, I'm pretty much done with Barnes and Noble. I won't be renewing my membership. I'll still buy some titles there (and will probably finish out the stuff that I want yet from this sale), but I'll be buying a lot more in sales like the ones that Criterion themselves have and the Best Buy one last month rather than waiting for B&N like I have in the past. B&N doesn't seem to get that the coupons are the only thing that make them stand out from other retailers. If they're going to stop taking them, I have no reason to go there.

 
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Yup, I had a cashier absolutely refuse to take my 15% off coupon today. When it didn't just scan automatically, he found some text on it that says "may not be combined with any other coupon or promotional discount" and said he couldn't take it. it was clear that it wasn't going to be worthwhile arguing with him, so I told him to just keep the Criterion disc I was buying and took my coupon back. I'll try another store tomorrow, hopefully they'll take it there.

If they won't take it, and if they've stopped taking coupons on the Criterion sale entirely, I'm pretty much done with Barnes and Noble. I won't be renewing my membership. I'll still buy some titles there (and will probably finish out the stuff that I want yet from this sale), but I'll be buying a lot more in sales like the ones that Criterion themselves have and the Best Buy one last month rather than waiting for B&N like I have in the past. B&N doesn't seem to get that the coupons are the only thing that make them stand out from other retailers. If they're going to stop taking them, I have no reason to go there.
Same story here. I mentioned to the clerk that I've always used these coupons in years past without issue. I was told that they couldn't take more than the already 50% off. I then pointed to the sticker saying that members get an additional 10% off. She just said "Well the computer didn't take it." I quickly verified that amazon didn't have the same title (Lord of the Flies) at 50% off and when they didn't I just bought the one movie and left.

B&N is getting downright stupid here. They are just tightening the noose around their own necks in hopes that it saves them from their already uphill battle. Good luck for them, I'm about as done as I can be.



M
 
I was able to use the coupons today in a different store with no problem at all.  Oddly, it didn't even look like the cashier had to do a manual override.  The first time he scanned one, it didn't work, but then he hit a single button (I couldn't see which one) on the keyboard, scanned it again, and it went through just fine.  So there's that.  

Of course, since they've switched to the single-use coupons, it's still only one item for each coupon you can manage to get ahold of.  But at least its something... :/

 
Very happy got Devil's Backbone. Was upset at first because online said they had it but it wasn't in the blu section. Thankfully the guy said they had it at the register. I think this is hands down my favorite cover for a Criterion only one that might be better is my Samurai Trilogy.

 
Anybody know if the sale ends tomorrow as in the end of the day? or as in middle of the night tonight by any chance? Couldn't find any info :/

 
Anybody know if the sale ends tomorrow as in the end of the day? or as in middle of the night tonight by any chance? Couldn't find any info :/
I had a store employee tell me last week that the Criterion sale (but not the larger art house sale) had been extended until August 5th, but I have not been able to verify this anywhere, so i don't know if it's true or not...

 
I had a store employee tell me last week that the Criterion sale (but not the larger art house sale) had been extended until August 5th, but I have not been able to verify this anywhere, so i don't know if it's true or not...
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray-Disc-DVD-Special-Editions/379003202

Great news! Our Criterion Collection Sale has been extend through August 5. Even better, Guillermo del Toro's classic horror film, The Devil's Backbone, is now part of the sale. Build your Criterion library today and save 50%.

 
Bah.  The same guy that took the coupons two weeks ago without any problem refused them this time.  What the hell?  I was going to buy four more titles before the sale ended, but screw that... Barnes and Noble just lost that $60 purchase (after the coupons), and likely a lot of my future business as well.

What's weird is that these coupons, which I received in a flyer in the mail, don't actually have the "may not be combined with any other coupon or promotional discount" text on them which they've used to refuse some of the other coupons in the past.  The closest that they have on them is "not eligible for purchase of [...] products marked as not eligible for coupons or promotional discounts".  While there is some text to that effect on the Criterion titles on the website, there was absolutely nothing in the store which indicated this.

 
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