I just got an email from them with a 40% off coupon (which can be added to the member's usual 10% discount.)

The coupon is for ALL CDs, including boxed sets (in any quantity.)

I'm willing to bet that the shelves won't be restocked after this clearance sale. Ugh.

The thing is, does anyone here ever actually buy a CD at a Barnes and Noble? I sure don't, unless they've got an exclusive that makes the VERY high price a bit more tolerable.

Even when I lived within walking distance of a Barnes & Noble I bought no more than a handful of discs, and those were mostly world music titles that I could not find anywhere else in my pre-internet days.

Our B&N has never had that great a selection, so I rarely bother stopping there.

I used to buy a lot of CD's at the B & N in Orlando on Bumby and East Colonial--they had a fairly extensive selection of somewhat obscure older titles for no better reason than they apparently never sold very many of them (and never returned them to their distributer)...

I stopped at my local B&N today and picked up a few discs. I asked the kid working the register if they were scaling back or eliminating the CD department there. He said that they aren't as far as he knows. He also said that they sell a lot of CDs there. Then again, the choices in this town are Target and Walmart (which have very small selections,) Best Buy (which has the best prices in the area, but an ever-decreasing selection,) FYE (which has the best selection and the highest prices) and B&N (which has the second best selection and the second highest prices.) I really miss the days when I could go into my neighborhood record store and find something worth buying every time.

The B&N on 22nd and 6th in NYC has a pretty good and deep selection, with *gasp* knowledgable staff. Best I've seen in a B&N, and pretty much takes up the whole first floor. They were even spinning the Nick Lowe "Jesus of Cool" reissue as I was strolling the aisles today. Tres hip!

Then that's where I'm heading tomorrow afternoon!

Other then Borders rather then B&N & a few indie used stores, you just described my city also!

Can you post a link for the coupon?

EDIT: Never mind... I found the link in the thread in the "General" forum right here at Iron Man With A Nose which discusses the coupon.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav ... &PID=22146

There is a second somewhat related thread on this topic if you want to check that one out too..
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=27288

Renny and I posted info about the coupon at the same time so the info is being split between two similar (but different) threads.

When you go into the B&N store, please check to see if there is any indication of a plan to reduce the size of their CD departments. (My local B&N employee did not think they were planning to do so here, but he was speculating.)

Great...there goes the stock! Glad I got there first!

I did indeed stop in at the B&N at 6th & 22nd this afternoon--just in time too, as this location is being shuttered as of April 1. While many books were marked down to half-price, no similar clearance sale applied to CDs, otherwise I would've really cleaned up, with the additional 40% off.

Still, I didn't do to badly. The store had a fair number of imports among the stock, and the prices, while high, weren't completely outrageous. The haul:

Tift Merritt: Another Country (w/ exclusive B&N bonus disc)
Joe King Carasco & the Crowns: 2-CD import comp of his 80s releases
Hawkwind: Space Ritual (import Collectors Edition 2-CD+DVD)
Van Morrison: Still On Top (3-CD import comp)
Super Furry Animals: Hey Venus! (US 2-CD version--this was the first time I've seen it for sale anywhere)
Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia: Well-Matched
David Hasselhoff: Best of (import--yeah yeah, I know, but it's a best of... )

Total bill was just over $90...considering the number of actual discs (what with the double and triple sets), a fair deal.

This is why Jimbo is a one-man dynasty.

the manager of the music department at my B&N said they no plans to stop selling CD's at this time. she did say they were going to cut back on stock however. she made sure to tell me that i could still order anything i wanted through them.

she told me the coupon was because the sales have been down and they thought it would stimulate them. i didn't want to tell her that sales of CD's are down everywhere (except in NYC and we all know why that is)

renny

I picked up a few discs with this coupon at a Tampa B&N yesterday. I even passed by the Borders I went to a couple of weeks ago with their restrictive 40% coupon that was such a bitter experience. The B&N trip was much better. My purchases included:

1.) Lyle Lovett And His Large Band
2.) Take 6 - Beautiful World
3.) Bill Watrous - Bone-ified
4.) Del Shannon - Greatest Hits (Rhino)
5.) Empire Brass - Class Brass
6.) Keb' Mo' - Keep It Simple
7.) Stevie Nicks - Trouble In Shangri-La
8.) Terence Blanchard - Jazz In Film
9.) Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band - Swingin' For The Fences

The store had a very nice CD selection. I was trying to limit most of my purchases to $15.99 list prices (to get under $9.99 w/ discount) and the total between $60-80. I came in at $79. I asked the clerk how many of the coupons he had seen, and he said mine was the first. He was blown away that there were no restrictions at all. (An aside: I was stuck choosing between Rhino's Greatest Hits for Del Shannon and Dr. John. I asked the clerk "Del Shannon or Dr. John?", and he said he hadn't heard of either one of them. I said, "Well, I guess you're not the guy to ask." Del won (20 tracks vs. 16 - and one of them's "Runaway". Case dismissed.)

Jim

Yeah...when I went there on Wednesday, I swear I didn't see any signage about them closing. Then today it was all over the place.

Shame. Their CD department was the best I've seen at a B&N.

At the two NYC B&Ns I went to Friday (Union Square and the soon-to-be-closed 6th Av/22nd St store), there were plenty of redeemed coupons on the cashier's side of the counter.

Interestingly, as I paid for my purchases at the Union Square store, a woman attempted to give me a coupon, then saw I had my own... I don't know if she was an employee or a public-minded citizen who had printed out extra copies to hand out!!!!!

My local B&N never had a CD section, just a rack with some latest releases. Never worth going in there unless you actually needed a book. Imagine that.

And I thought it was only the Germans who loved Hasselhoff.

Here's what I got:

The B-52s - Funplex
Cake - B-Sides And Rarities
Daft Punk - Musique Vol. I (CD/DVD edition)
Duran Duran's Red Carpet Massacre (deluxe edition)
Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind
Joe Jackson - Rain (CD/DVD edition)
Lenny Kravitz - It Is Time For A Love Revolution (deluxe edition)
Robert Miles - Dreamland
Tom Petty - Highway Companion (special edition)
Lou Rawls - Very Best Of - You'll Never Find Another
U2 - The Joshua Tree (double CD remaster)
Dr. Demento's 30th Anniversary Collection

Total with discount: $154

Wasn't his one hit a remake of "Get In My Car" or something like that. It even had a cheesy video. Man he's a mess these days.