Target General Deals Thread

[hariseldon]

Originally Posted by gudemameshiba

For what it's worth his distributors were Alliance and Baker & Taylor. As far as I know, Alliance still distributes DVDs? Wikipedia says B&T's "entertainment products division" was sold to Ingram in 2019.

ALLIANCE is the 600 lb gorilla of media distributors though they;ve gone through a few changes in the last decade. SuperD bought all those storefronts now lumped in the DirectoU stores (Deep Discount, Blowitout, DVDPlanet, Odd Banana, ete and etc.), they then bought Alliance Entertainment in 2013 -- basically like New Zealand annexing India, but since Alliance had the much bigger organization and much much respected name they moved into Alliance Old HQ and kept the name. At the time the new AES was the 2nd Largest Media Wholesaler behind only Anderson Merchandisers. Many here remember when Anderson personnel were in BBY and lesser extent Walmart and were directly responsible for disc stocking, etc instead on BBY employees. I think Ingram has done the same for Target in-store media for the last few years.

I think they acquired much of Anderson's retail and distribution contracts when they imploded and I think now supply the majority of discs to BBY, BN, and Walmart stores as well as handle almost all online sales by BN (TCM, FYE, Criterion.com, etc), all the 8 digit SKU of BBY and at least some of Walmart online sale directly. They certainly indirectly supply discs to BBY and I'm 90% sure Walmart for their online sales sent via BBY and Walmart Warehouses.

B&T was a much small company but did supply BN and BBY stores at least as a secondary source. I'm not sure if Ingram supplies either of those stores some stock now.

Over the years, it's all gotten muddled who belongs to who anymore.
Amazon I've never gotten the full story on, but I think they get some discs directly and some through Alliance though obviously do their own shipping.
I'm not 100% sure if Amazon contracts with Allied Vaughn for that product or if they route through ALLIANCE first (or possibly a bit of both).

BN also seems to have some sort of direct connection with A-V though most of their online discs come from ALLIANCE. Every once in a while I'll see B&N items not eligible for FS (at $35 or memberships) and the cart show Shipped from B&N Specialty Store rather than their usual cart information. I see that Specialty listing occasionally with brand new items or items that are OOS everywhere else, but BN will take orders which act more like 3rd Party discs instead of BN inventory (or more specifically AES inventory)

[CADD_Guy]

This explains why a bunch of 3D blu-rays I had saved for the next sale all of a sudden disappeared

[Nothing371]

Originally Posted by neoz

Redbox used to send people out on Monday at midnight to local stores to buy BD's to put in the machine. Not sure what they do now.

Now Redbox rents the same seven 4K discs they had in their boxes two years ago at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. I really don't understand it.

Half of them are broken or in disrepair. I used to see people using them all the time, often had to wait my turn. They used to have new release discs all the time, stocked by 12:00noon on Tuesday. Now no one cares anymore and that was Redbox's decision. Just old gumball machines with stale gumballs.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

AV MOD Collection list of studios and networks they represent: PDF

Here's a newer list of their studio content participants.

https://www.alliedvaughn.com/wp-cont...-Providers.pdf

[taiwan]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

The one interesting Wild Card is suddenly MovieZyng is taking a much more active interest in selling product at the same time that AV products disappear from Target. It makes me wonder if those 2 events are somehow related

It could also be something temporary, a lapse in the contracts, something permanent, or a negotiating tactic on behalf of Target or Ingram.

I've never heard of MovieZyng but I did checked it out, they are too expensive. Godzilla vs Kong 3D was $21.49 when I last purchased from Target, they are selling it for $29. Teen Titans Complete series $31.49 at Target and Walmart, $46 at moviezyng. I don't see how they can stay in business when their prices are 15-20% more than Deepdiscount and they don't throw frequent 15% off like Deepdiscount does.

If Alliance is such a giant, I wonder why they don't carry Warner MOD and Universal MOD, or at least supply them to Target. From what you're saying, they are supplying Deepdiscount, FYE, and Blowitout. All those retailers still carry 3D that are removed from Target. This is really strange if Ingram is the supplier for Target for all those Warner MOD. My friend said don't expect Target to restore the catalog, less before the next B2G1 which we expect to be sometime in June. It's funny you mentioned Blowitout. I knew them for a long time from eBay and they always ship from KY like BN and FYE, but didn't know they used the same distributor. I don't know why they are so error prone. You can see that they receive very large amount of negative feedbacks on eBay. My purchase with them was not so pleasant either.

Originally Posted by CADD_Guy

This explains why a bunch of 3D blu-rays I had saved for the next sale all of a sudden disappeared

I first reported this because my last order of 3D Blu-ray with Target was April 22. Few days later, I believe it was April 25, that all the Warner MOD (all the Warner 3D plus everything from Warner Archive) and Universal MOD (like Croods New Age 3D and Trolls World Tour 3D) disappeared from Target's system. It is very sad because Target's B2G1 is where I get all my 3D at reasonable prices. Even if something like Dune 3D were listed at $35, it would come out to $22 after B2G1, which I can live with. Also, Target is by far the best retailers for 3D movies. If you used Target Red Card, you have at least 4 months to return it. My order in April 22 can still be returned in August. That gives me a lot of time to do a price match (using return and buy back cheaper or with B2G1). You only get 30 days with Amazon and 60 days with Walmart, and you cannot return too many items with Amazon or they would blacklist you. With Target, I have no issues at all.

[hariseldon]

Originally Posted by taiwan

If Alliance is such a giant, I wonder why they don't carry Warner MOD and Universal MOD, or at least supply them to Target. From what you're saying, they are supplying Deepdiscount, FYE, and Blowitout. All those retailers still carry 3D that are removed from Target. This is really strange if Ingram is the supplier for Target for all those Warner MOD. My friend said don't expect Target to restore the catalog, less before the next B2G1 which we expect to be sometime in June. It's funny you mentioned Blowitout. I knew them for a long time from eBay and they always ship from KY like BN and FYE, but didn't know they used the same distributor. I don't know why they are so error prone. You can see that they receive very large amount of negative feedbacks on eBay. My purchase with them was not so pleasant either.

Alliance does carry most of the Allied Vaughn MOD titles

I'm not sure I'd say they supply Deep Discount/Blowitoutahere/importcds, etc since they own them -- they are pretty much each other.

They do fulfill and/or supply the MOD titles to BN, BBY, TCM, FYE, etc.
If you order a WAC title from BBY, it will be shipped from the Alliance Warehouse in KY with their BBY header. I'm pretty sure the same with Walmart.com, but I can't remember ordering from them in the last several years.



Why Target chose Ingram i don't know. I guess it's possible they could change contracts if they thought there was any money to be made.


MovieZyng is Allied Vaughn'sdirect to consumer store and had their first big sale on WAC BD recently -- see the old thread. Their rep said it's possible they might have other sales on other discs though we were mainly talking about WAC multidisc and TV sets.

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by taiwan

I've never heard of MovieZyng but I did checked it out, they are too expensive. Godzilla vs Kong 3D was $21.49 when I last purchased from Target, they are selling it for $29. Teen Titans Complete series $31.49 at Target and Walmart, $46 at moviezyng. I don't see how they can stay in business when their prices are 15-20% more than Deepdiscount and they don't throw frequent 15% off like Deepdiscount does.

If Alliance is such a giant, I wonder why they don't carry Warner MOD and Universal MOD, or at least supply them to Target. From what you're saying, they are supplying Deepdiscount, FYE, and Blowitout. All those retailers still carry 3D that are removed from Target. This is really strange if Ingram is the supplier for Target for all those Warner MOD. My friend said don't expect Target to restore the catalog, less before the next B2G1 which we expect to be sometime in June. It's funny you mentioned Blowitout. I knew them for a long time from eBay and they always ship from KY like BN and FYE, but didn't know they used the same distributor. I don't know why they are so error prone. You can see that they receive very large amount of negative feedbacks on eBay. My purchase with them was not so pleasant either.


I first reported this because my last order of 3D Blu-ray with Target was April 22. Few days later, I believe it was April 25, that all the Warner MOD (all the Warner 3D plus everything from Warner Archive) and Universal MOD (like Croods New Age 3D and Trolls World Tour 3D) disappeared from Target's system. It is very sad because Target's B2G1 is where I get all my 3D at reasonable prices. Even if something like Dune 3D were listed at $35, it would come out to $22 after B2G1, which I can live with. Also, Target is by far the best retailers for 3D movies. If you used Target Red Card, you have at least 4 months to return it. My order in April 22 can still be returned in August. That gives me a lot of time to do a price match (using return and buy back cheaper or with B2G1). You only get 30 days with Amazon and 60 days with Walmart, and you cannot return too many items with Amazon or they would blacklist you. With Target, I have no issues at all.

I'm not telling you to actually do this, but check into if you can get a replacement for any of the recent M.o.D. titles.
Hopefully, nothing goes wrong with the disks and you don't need to, but it's better safe than sorry.
Plus, that will tell you if they really aren't going to sell those anymore, or if it is a temporary thing.

[neoz]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

Monday at midnight, meaning they waited overnight for the store to open the next morning to get first dibs?

Yep. I used to go into Walmart and talk to the guy that was stocking the BD's and he'd let me get which ever titles I wanted first with nice slipcovers. There would always be a person coming it and getting a bunch of titles and apparently they bought them to stock the RB machines. I don't go in at midnight on Monday's anymore so not sure if they do that still. I did see someone around 0600 usually on Tuesdays that looks like they are adding titles to the machine so maybe they do still do it.

[sandman slim]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

Monday at midnight, meaning they waited overnight for the store to open the next morning to get first dibs?

Back in the Long Ago, stores stayed open 24 hours. Every time there was a big release, we had people come in at midnight just to get the new movie early. Then Netflix ruined everything. Then Covid really ruined everything. In the Now Now, the movies get stocked on Tuesday, sometime, maybe, assuming anyone in Electronics actually shows up for work.

I miss the Long Ago...

[heavyharmonies]

Originally Posted by sandman slim

Back in the Long Ago, stores stayed open 24 hours. Every time there was a big release, we had people come in at midnight just to get the new movie early. Then Netflix ruined everything. Then Covid really ruined everything. In the Now Now, the movies get stocked on Tuesday, sometime, maybe, assuming anyone in Electronics actually shows up for work.

I miss the Long Ago...

Do the tell, so that we 'member who we was and where we came from...

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by taiwan

I've never heard of MovieZyng but I did checked it out, they are too expensive. Godzilla vs Kong 3D was $21.49 when I last purchased from Target, they are selling it for $29. Teen Titans Complete series $31.49 at Target and Walmart, $46 at moviezyng. I don't see how they can stay in business when their prices are 15-20% more than Deepdiscount and they don't throw frequent 15% off like Deepdiscount does.

Up until recently, MZ hasn't operated as a major competitor to traditional retail stores. But after having an all WAC sale, their rep said they're considering new avenues. They ship directly from the MOD producer.

We ship directly from where products are manufactured and warehoused - providing you with some of the fastest ship times in the industry.

Movie Zyng MOD DVDs are produced to order by Allied Vaughn – the company that manufactures MOD DVDs for Warner Archive, Fox Cinema Archive, The Universal Vault Collection, National Geographic and many more.

Originally Posted by taiwan

If Alliance is such a giant, I wonder why they don't carry Warner MOD and Universal MOD, or at least supply them to Target. From what you're saying, they are supplying Deepdiscount, FYE, and Blowitout. All those retailers still carry 3D that are removed from Target. This is really strange if Ingram is the supplier for Target for all those Warner MOD. My friend said don't expect Target to restore the catalog, less before the next B2G1 which we expect to be sometime in June. It's funny you mentioned Blowitout. I knew them for a long time from eBay and they always ship from KY like BN and FYE, but didn't know they used the same distributor. I don't know why they are so error prone. You can see that they receive very large amount of negative feedbacks on eBay. My purchase with them was not so pleasant either.

Not only are many of these companies getting their product from the same warehouse, some of them are all under the same umbrella. Alliance owns DirectToU, which is the parent company of Collector's Choice, DeepDiscount, CCVinyl, PopMarket, WOW HD (Formerly CD Wow!), ImportCDs, and Blowitoutahere. They are all basically the same.

Originally Posted by taiwan

I first reported this because my last order of 3D Blu-ray with Target was April 22. Few days later, I believe it was April 25, that all the Warner MOD (all the Warner 3D plus everything from Warner Archive) and Universal MOD (like Croods New Age 3D and Trolls World Tour 3D) disappeared from Target's system. It is very sad because Target's B2G1 is where I get all my 3D at reasonable prices. Even if something like Dune 3D were listed at $35, it would come out to $22 after B2G1, which I can live with. Also, Target is by far the best retailers for 3D movies. If you used Target Red Card, you have at least 4 months to return it. My order in April 22 can still be returned in August. That gives me a lot of time to do a price match (using return and buy back cheaper or with B2G1). You only get 30 days with Amazon and 60 days with Walmart, and you cannot return too many items with Amazon or they would blacklist you. With Target, I have no issues at all.

I appreciate that we're all looking for (mostly) traditional deals, but ask yourself, with all of these longer price-matching returns you're suggesting, do you really still wonder why Target is selling less and less movies? Like Best Buy, media is primarily a loss leader for Target, getting you to the back of the store in hopes that you'll buy other things on your visit. Since the internet crushed that model for B&M, there's less and less incentive for stores to continue stocking shelves with competitively priced movies for a demanding consumer bunch like ourselves looking for slipcover condition, stacking coupons during big sales, and then returning items months after the hot new release window to save a couple more dollars. I really don't think this is the standard shopping experience they had in mind.

Also worth noting, you're walking a fine line in the forum when you suggest potential workarounds to retailer policies.

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by neoz

Yep. I used to go into Walmart and talk to the guy that was stocking the BD's and he'd let me get which ever titles I wanted first with nice slipcovers. There would always be a person coming it and getting a bunch of titles and apparently they bought them to stock the RB machines. I don't go in at midnight on Monday's anymore so not sure if they do that still. I did see someone around 0600 usually on Tuesdays that looks like they are adding titles to the machine so maybe they do still do it.

Ahh. I thought you meant Target was open 24 hours. Here in the Twin Cities, we have had less late night or 24 hour retailers. In the 90s, I worked at a local music store chain that was an outlier, modeling itself after Tower Records' 9am-midnight 365 days a year. We did stay open past midnight for new release "night", but I think it was only for some major releases.

[50strat54]

I remember when people lined up at Best Buy to get the hot steelbook. I usually took my lunch early so I could be there by 11am.

One time at the Reseda Best Buy a guy had 10 steelbooks in his hand and people in the store were pi$$ed. The manager calmly went over and told him it's one per customer and he took all the steelbooks and distributed them to the customers.

I used to see that dude a lot at Best Buy and Target when a hot exclusive was coming out.

ahhhh those days are now long gone.

[Gold Ranger]

I don't think Target was ever open 24 hours, at least none of the ones I've lived near.

[taiwan]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

I appreciate that we're all looking for (mostly) traditional deals, but ask yourself, with all of these longer price-matching returns you're suggesting, do you really still wonder why Target is selling less and less movies? Like Best Buy, media is primarily a loss leader for Target, getting you to the back of the store in hopes that you'll buy other things on your visit. Since the internet crushed that model for B&M, there's less and less incentive for stores to continue stocking shelves with competitively priced movies for a demanding consumer bunch like ourselves looking for slipcover condition, stacking coupons during big sales, and then returning items months after the hot new release window to save a couple more dollars. I really don't think this is the standard shopping experience they had in mind.

Also worth noting, you're walking a fine line in the forum when you suggest potential workarounds to retailer policies.

It's a double edged sword. The generous return policy is also a way Target retains its customers and take away Amazon's share of business. I'm late into the Target B2G1 game. I only knew about B2G1 in late 2019. Since 2019, my BD purchases have gone to 85% Target and 10% BB (mostly during Black Friday for BB). Target online service rep was the one who suggested to me that I return stuff and back it back in store instead of complicated PM with B2G1 factored in. The alternative would be for me to buy the same thing at lower price and return the previous purchase back to the store, which would result in Target losing a lot of money having to ship stuff back and forth. Target understands that. It's up to Target to figure out if the business model is profitable. I doubt a few people taking full advantage of their store policies will all of the sudden make them want to change things. If they don't like some of the policies they are free to make a change. The 4 month return policy is limited to online only items. I believe the stuff they sell in store don't have that long return window, 3 months instead of 4 months. But in-store purchase of BD only has 2 months return window. So it's something they could address.

I think media is losing money for Target Walmart and BB only because of the real estate it occupy versus profit return, which is why all the store carried a lot less stuff these days. But I think online sale of media is still making money for Target even after B2G1, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it for years.

Originally Posted by Gold Ranger

I don't think Target was ever open 24 hours, at least none of the ones I've lived near.

Not 24 hours for sure. But there were some that opens til 12AM, and since COVID they don't do that anymore.

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by taiwan

It's up to Target to figure out if the business model is profitable.

Things are changing all the time. This convo was spurred by people noticing entire collections that have been recently removed from their site. I've occasionally checked what's in stock at my nearest store. 5 months ago it was 300 BD/UHDs, ~3 weeks ago 102, and today only 80.

[Blaze_Chamberlin]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

Things are changing all the time. This convo was spurred by people noticing entire collections that have been recently removed from their site. I've occasionally checked what's in stock at my nearest store. 5 months ago it was 300 BD/UHDs, ~3 weeks ago 102, and today only 80.

You have 80? My local one may be lucky to have 50.

[MazeRunner]

Originally Posted by neoz

Yep. I used to go into Walmart and talk to the guy that was stocking the BD's and he'd let me get which ever titles I wanted first with nice slipcovers. There would always be a person coming it and getting a bunch of titles and apparently they bought them to stock the RB machines. I don't go in at midnight on Monday's anymore so not sure if they do that still. I did see someone around 0600 usually on Tuesdays that looks like they are adding titles to the machine so maybe they do still do it.

When most blu-ray shopping Youtubers go to their Walmarts Tuesdays half the time the new releases aren't even out lmao.

[critterdvd]

Originally Posted by Blaze_Chamberlin

You have 80? My local one may be lucky to have 50.

I was gonna say when I was at my local Target (that services a town of approximately 125,000 people) there last weekend they literally had 27 different SKU's across DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K (1, Spider-Man) in the entire store. It's just two endcaps on the further two check-out aisles (ironically the two that are typically closed except Saturdays or Holidays).

[Blaze_Chamberlin]

Originally Posted by critterdvd

I was gonna say when I was at my local Target (that services a town of approximately 125,000 people) there last weekend they literally had 27 different SKU's across DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K (1, Spider-Man) in the entire store. It's just two endcaps on the further two check-out aisles (ironically the two that are typically closed except Saturdays or Holidays).

That's probably more accurate.