Headsup, Silverscreen are in administration

Garp

Garp

Garp

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,573
Location
Seattle
Get yourself down to your nearest and dearest Silverscreen if you want some stonking bargains on DVDs, as they've now gone into administration and are selling off their stock to cover debts. Expect prices to drop a little bit over the next few weeks, but already some good titles are available for only £3
 
Garp said:
Get yourself down to your nearest and dearest Silverscreen if you want some stonking bargains on DVDs, as they've now gone into administration and are selling off their stock to cover debts. Expect prices to drop a little bit over the next few weeks, but already some good titles are available for only £3
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They are puting a variety of discounts on from 10-50% depending on the popularity of the title. I couldn't find much that I wanted when I went in there that couldn't be had elsewhere cheaper tbh. Their selection of anime had 10% off max and some of it wasn't discounted at all :(

MB
 
My local one's been like that the past week but with very few good discounts :( Am glad I didn't get a job there that I applied for though :o
 
They always seemed odd to me. Their prices were, with very few exceptions, fairly uncompetitive not just compared to online retailers but also the high-street shops like HMV or Virgin, when those two have any kind of sale. (and that's very often these days)

Even during their "closing-down OMGWTFBBQ!!1one" sale (in their Tottenham Court Road store, where they very daringly set up shop infront of one of the biggest Virgin megastores in the whole of London) I just couldn't really find anything that was compellingly cheap. I walked out very puzzled about 1. why they bothered to open the store in the first place, 2. did they really think they'll compete with the Virgin Megastore literally 5m away and 3. why are the things there still so expensive?
 
I've always found my local silverscreens to be cheap in comparison to HMV/Virgin et al. :confused:
Of course I don't tend to be totally focussed on blockbuster films and classics, so it may be I'm just managing to find good bargains, but its not unusual for me to have walked out of SilverScreen with a couple of DVDs for just £4-£5 each. Hell.. I even picked up Donnie Darko for £4 about a year and a half ago.
 
Garp said:
I've always found my local silverscreens to be cheap in comparison to HMV/Virgin et al. :confused:
Of course I don't tend to be totally focussed on blockbuster films and classics, so it may be I'm just managing to find good bargains, but its not unusual for me to have walked out of SilverScreen with a couple of DVDs for just £4-£5 each. Hell.. I even picked up Donnie Darko for £4 about a year and a half ago.
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LOL

There was a massive glut of Donnie Darko prints in the UK last year epecially when the extended version came out, some places were giving it away for free or for 99p, odd that they miscalculated so badly.

I'm sure there are some deals there I might have another delve tomorrow

MB
 
The local one has been closing down for a few weeks, but to be honest the deals aren't anything special. In fact the only thing I've bought from there was Memento for £3 and that was a month or two back before the big sale.

I was kinda hoping there might be some nice discounted box sets, but £90 for Friends is a lot of money regardless of how many episodes you get. No sign of No Angels either.
 
HangTime said:
The local one has been closing down for a few weeks, but to be honest the deals aren't anything special.
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I guess that is/was their problem, all their store locations are in prime commerical shopping spots. The rent/lease must be HUGE ! And selling only DVDs, with prices hardly better than HMV/Virgin they are going to struggle from the start. Even in their closing down sale, the west wing boxset (which list as £220), is down to £140, and STILL is more than online prices. No wonder they are where they are now.
 
I've been in the Nottingham branch to check out their 'sale', nothing special at all. I've had the occasional bargain from there in the past, but overall, they ain't cheap.
 
Yeah i remember going in there to look at the Anime, only to find every DVD I looked at was way more expensive than I had seen it anywhere else.

With the closing down of Silverscreen and MVC maybe outlets will realise that they need to do something about what they sell. More variety (we can already buy the top 50 DVDs and Classics from supermarkets) would be a good start, both of them had quite a poor selection. I can live with paying a little more for a DVD with the convenience to being able to get it then and there for the shop.
 
Muban said:
Yeah i remember going in there to look at the Anime, only to find every DVD I looked at was way more expensive than I had seen it anywhere else.

With the closing down of Silverscreen and MVC maybe outlets will realise that they need to do something about what they sell. More variety (we can already buy the top 50 DVDs and Classics from supermarkets) would be a good start, both of them had quite a poor selection. I can live with paying a little more for a DVD with the convenience to being able to get it then and there for the shop.
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When I think back to less than 10 years ago and the number of independent record shops and second hand record shops there were it makes me sad. I used to spend hours looking for old albums and paying pennies for old tapes which made it really cheap to sample different artists. Then the independents were put out of business by HMV and MVC in the price wars and the supermarkets got involved and now we have Tesco, HMV or the internet as pretty much the only options with only HMV being any good if you want to physically browse and I suspect they now only cater for 2 sections of the market; those who do not have access to credit cards or the net and those who want to buy a physical product there and then.

I long for the days of browsing seondhand record/ DVD stores and actually talking to people about their purchases and getting recomendations from the staff [sigh]

MB
 
Muban said:
With the closing down of Silverscreen and MVC maybe outlets will realise that they need to do something about what they sell.
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I thought MVC was quite good actually, because they had a very wide range range of stuff (at least in my local store), far more than Virgin. They also had a load of 'listening posts', before Virgin introduced them here, and so you could sample albums before you bought them. Prices were OK when you took the MVC cardholder's discount into account.

The big killer I think is the internet; the idea of online shopping for cds/dvds etc, or even downloading music directly from the net has now become mainstream. Sites like Amazon, Play and Itunes are known by the public at large and we all know that normal retail outlets can't compete on price.

While the idea of record stores with knowledgeable staff, loads of old/obscure stuff kicking about in the racks is quite a quaint one, the fact is that high street outlets need to have a lot of mainstream stuff to keep the punters come in. There's a few independent record shops here, but they are a bit out of the way and have other ways of attracting punters such as selling tickets to local events, branded clothing etc. They can cater to the Vinyl market too, but obviously only at a small independent level - big national chains can't really do that.
 
HangTime said:
Prices were OK when you took the MVC cardholder's discount into account.
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It was just a gimmick though, wasn't it. The cardholder prices were no cheaper than elsewhere, and they were full retail price without. The problem is, HMV and Virgin have the high street market sewn up. MVC and the like didn't bring anything new to the table. Interestingly, the Nottingham Silverscreen has a Caffe Nero upstairs. Problem being, I've never seen anyone in it.
 
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