Target General Deals Thread

[bkhage01]

I went in my local Target this week and was in and out in less than 60 seconds. I didn't think the movies section could shrink any further, but it's exactly one four-sided shelf now. Absolutely pitiful. That will be my last time going in Target to try to find a movie that's been out longer than a week

[mclellandj]

Target and Best Buy can't win when it comes to physical media -- they can't beat online retailer prices and they have earned no goodwill from customers. Target also makes it a hassle to price match. At least at Best Buy I can check on my phone and just do it at check out.

[Ari_Gold]

Originally Posted by mclellandj

Target and Best Buy can't win when it comes to physical media -- they can't beat online retailer prices and they have earned no goodwill from customers. Target also makes it a hassle to price match. At least at Best Buy I can check on my phone and just do it at check out.

I feel like Target has been easy to price match the past couple months. I just do it at the self checkout, and an associate looks it up on their device.

[Samus Aran]

I've found price matching at Target to be easy or difficult depending on the employee doing it. It's always been smooth sailing when I've gotten a price match at the self-checkout. When they tell me to go to customer service to price match, that's when it's been bumpy.

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by DVD Josh

Interesting article, but the technical specs miss one key element - mastering. Mastering for vinyl and CDs can be vastly different, and that has a major - if not the most significant - impact on how it ultimately sounds. For example, I've heard Airbag from OKC hundreds of times. The first time I heard it on vinyl, I could hear instrumentation and layers I never heard before even with high end headphones. I felt like this was the first time I was really "hearing" the song. That's the impact mastering can have.

When the author says this - "CDs reflect exactly what the artists recorded in the studio. Vinyl distorts it." - he could not be more full of shit if he tried. It takes what was to that point a very good article and destroys it. It's just nonsensical.

Everyone's ears are different and will hear many things differently.

I believe the author is almost correct, he should have written CDs are our best approximation of what the artists and engineers hear in the studio.

Nothing can absolutely reproduce what is in the studio.

As I have posted I grew up with vinyl, lived with vinyl CDs all the way.

The owner of my favorite Record Store who bought my vinyl collection has told me quietly that CDs are better. He is an expert in vinyl collectability. After sorting through my albums he would research the good ones on the internet that he didn't know the value of off the top of his head.

Sitting is the ten cent pile were my Carly Simons, John Cougar Mellencamps and Emmylou Harris album. I pulled the ones I loved and took credit for the rest.

Fun Fact: A lot of Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen is not that collectable anymore. But Madonna is! I had picture discs, promos, and lots of rarities of all three of those artists. The Ramones also bring in good value for their vinyl albums.

With Madonna going on tour her stuff will have an uptick in price.

[taiwan]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

Everyone's ears are different and will hear many things differently.

I believe the author is almost correct, he should have written CDs are our best approximation of what the artists and engineers hear in the studio.

I totally agree with you. First of all one should get a hearing test. You'd be surprised. In my 20's I could hear 20Hz-18.5kHz. Now I'm in my 40's and I could only do 20Hz-15kHz in one ear and 12kHz on the other. I had two pairs of Philips Studio Reference Series headphones I purchased from the Netherlands 20 years ago (it beat out bunch of Sennheiser headphones in What Hi-Fi and was nominated recommended headphone for a couple of years) Recently I bought a pair of headphones and was doing a comparison, and I found out my reference didn't sound like I remembered. That's when I found out my hearing had deteriorated naturally due to age. If you can't hear close to 20Hz-20kHz, then what you said don't count much.

When I was younger I did a lot of A/B blind testing between metal cassette vs CD, CD vs MP3, CD vs MiniDisc, CD vs SACD, CD vs Vinyl. About everyone could score 100% on CD vs Vinyl, but not everyone would agree which is better. There is just this distinct imperfection that gives vinyl away. My reference track was Starship Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. If you put this under spectrum analyzer you'll see solid 20-20kHz. There is a particular cheat I had, a high frequency decay from a particular section. Now I can't hear it anymore. Usually compressed music would not do well in my cheat. Back then a group of golden ears and I did a lot of comparison tests. The order of A/B test results were CD vs Vinyl > CD vs cassette > CD vs MP3 > CD vs Minidisc (late ATRAC version) > CD vs SACD. Maybe my ears were not that good during the SACD test, my test results were poor (not much better than guessing).

In short, CD sounds the best under reference setup.

[Jr7936]

target just told me online when I tried to do a price match, that because an item is on sale they weren't able to price match it

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by Jr7936

target just told me online when I tried to do a price match, that because an item is on sale they weren't able to price match it

I really believe stores are going to abandon price matching.

Amazon and Walmart two of the biggest retailers no longer do it.

At least Amazon has an algorithm to check prices and price accordingly.

Walmart overall just has lower prices on everything and they don’t care if you go to Amazon to buy Top Gun just because it’s 2.00 cheaper.

Target needs an algorithm to check Amazon and Walmart. Best Buy to be honest isn’t even in these three retailer’s league.

[Bubbles-11]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

See the real problem is the stocking all the crap. Nobody wants to go pay $30 for some random disposable Dreamworks nonsense.
Who the hell buys vapid kids' entertainment DVDs for $14.99? That stuff is free on Youtube now. This isn't 2004.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.. you really trying to push the "Animation is for children only" myth here?

[HorrorBlu]

So, this is new. I pre-ordered a book during one of their B2G1 sales, and Target actually sent me a counterfeit. They didn't even finish printing the cover.



Anyway, keep an eye on what Target is sending you. Pretty awful seeing counterfeits coming from major retailers.

[Captain N]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

So, this is new. I pre-ordered a book during one of their B2G1 sales, and Target actually sent me a counterfeit. They didn't even finish printing the cover.



Anyway, keep an eye on what Target is sending you. Pretty awful seeing counterfeits coming from major retailers.

I suppose it's possible, but it's far more likely to be a manufacturing error than a counterfeit. I've bought/seen plenty of books that were printed or cut wrong on production. A long time ago, I remember some bookstores even offering discounts on those.

Again, not saying it isn't possible. Bluray retailers sometimes sell the Spanish grey market versions as if they're legit, so it's possible, though major retailers like Target and Walmart are unlikely to be duped by such companies since any supplier doing that would be exposed to massive civil damages liability, not to mention criminal liability, too. If you're a counterfeit supplier, you'd have to be out of your mind to contract with a legit retailer in the States.

[MazeRunner]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

So, this is new. I pre-ordered a book during one of their B2G1 sales, and Target actually sent me a counterfeit. They didn't even finish printing the cover.



Anyway, keep an eye on what Target is sending you. Pretty awful seeing counterfeits coming from major retailers.

Looking on Instagram at people posting the book and I’m seeing full covers, and a few that look like this:



I wonder if yours was supposed to be like that?

[HorrorBlu]

Yeah, mine is supposed to be like your picture. The one I received doesn't even have that green second page you see sticking out of the side, so it isn't a matter of the cover being cut wrong.

Also, the texture of the book is dry and chalky, and looks like something printed off a home printer. I have the author's previous book in paperback from the same publisher, and the two are supposed to match, but seeing them both in person you can tell something is way off.

Going to try to exchange in store, since online will probably just send me another like this.

[kenbenobi]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

Yeah, mine is supposed to be like your picture. The one I received doesn't even have that green second page you see sticking out of the side, so it isn't a matter of the cover being cut wrong.

Also, the texture of the book is dry and chalky, and looks like something printed off a home printer. I have the author's previous book in paperback from the same publisher, and the two are supposed to match, but seeing them both in person you can tell something is way off.

Going to try to exchange in store, since online will probably just send me another like this.

On the bright side, you should have no problem finding it in-store, since Target's media section is basically a book store now!

[Captain N]

Could be a b2g1 next week ...

[gman102081]

Originally Posted by Captain N

Could be a b2g1 next week ...

It’s a BOGO half off sale. Def worse than the standard
sale we were expecting.

[FlamedLiquid]

Seems they are replacing some of the b2g1 sales with these b1g1 50% off sales. Meh.

[Samus Aran]

[asianguyvwhk]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

Yeah, mine is supposed to be like your picture. The one I received doesn't even have that green second page you see sticking out of the side, so it isn't a matter of the cover being cut wrong.

Also, the texture of the book is dry and chalky, and looks like something printed off a home printer. I have the author's previous book in paperback from the same publisher, and the two are supposed to match, but seeing them both in person you can tell something is way off.

Going to try to exchange in store, since online will probably just send me another like this.

Or it could be someone returning a counterfeit copy to Target and the employee took it as is (and it got sent back to the distribution center). Seen it happen with games and movies (less likely since they're shrinkwrapped), where an employee at Best Buy took back a fake and didn't know any better until another employee putting it on the shelf noticed it.

[VictoryAtNight]

Awesome sale this Sunday. Looking forward to possibly mix & match a movie & video game.