Silvercreen goes into receivership

[sandman]

I always quite liked Silvercreen. True, their prices could often border on the ridiculous, but the stores were relaxed and bright ( a million miles away from the dark loud HMV ). They had a very good range for a high street store, actually had somewhere for the kids to go while you looked around at dvds and the prices were often very good when they had a sale.

I wonder what went wrong. Did they enter the market too late, just as the masses were beginning to use Play, amazon etc on a grand scale? Or is there simply no need for them what with the likes of HMV, Virgin, woolies and smiths being so well established on the high street.

Assuming no-one buys them, I will miss them. Is this a sign that dvd retail is stagnating? I paid £7 for The Island toay, a film thats been out only a few weeks. I saw War of the Worlds for £9. These are high street prices and its got to the stage where I simply will not pay £14.99 for new releases (let alone the "official rrp of £24.99"). Its better to wait 6-8 weeks and pay half the price.

[tsunami1]

Surprised by this, they opened a new one on Oxford Street only a matter of weeks ago. Ocassionally had decent offers but in general was always cheaper elsewhere so I can sort of understand why sales would be poor.

[SeanR]

was silverscreen the company that took over all the old MVC stores?

[Popo]

Aside from sale stuff their prices were amongst the highest on the high street.

Surprised, but then not really surprised.

[MrPogo]

They were pricey, overcrowded (the aisles barely allowed for two people to pass each other) and arranged things very poorly in my opinion: I'd be looking at 'TV Drama' on one of the long stand things, see the row ended at say M, and then go along to the next stand. That contains 'TV Comedy', so I'd go back and look at the other side of the first stand. That's 'Kids Films'. Eventually I find out 'TV Drama N-Z' was on the wall behind me. Then when I go to look at TV comedy I'd find that goes up to 'K'. look at the wall behind me and see that's 'Martial Arts'. The next lot of TV Comedy is on the other side of the stand this time. No consistency.

[shock33]

As others have said, I always found them overpriced, insanely so given that they were next door to an Asda which had films for about 1/2 the price they were charging....

[Popo]

ALSO - the Silverscreen in Glasgow is always BOILING hot. I can barely stand to spend more than 5 minutes in there.

[ryodi]

It is probably the supermarkets that killed them. Their boxsets and older DVD prices were comparable with HMV/Virgin but for the brand new released they were selling them for ~£16 while ASDA et al are selling them for ~£13 on release day and longer term for prices comparable to what you can get online. While HMV\Virgin can fall back on music/games/books to make up the profits Silverscreen have only DVD sales and it wasn't enough.

[MrPogo]

They also never seemed to have that much of a selection considering they specialised: If I was specifically looking for something a bit obscure and comparing all the prices round town it was invariably Silverscreen who never had the title in stock.

[Nick R]

was silverscreen the company that took over all the old MVC stores?

That was Music Zone, at least where I am.

[kamrantaz]

Music Zone do it properly. Insane choice, decent prices.

[thingymajig]

Doesn't say anything about it on the website.

[squigglepiggles2]

any wonder why? their prices are way to much, HMV do better promotions

[angel]

It was music zone, my mrs works there.

[squigglepiggles2]

music zone is still open in Hanley! Silver Screen where i live isn't to brilliant, they seem to have all the crap titles in, its never been busy either

[ryodi]

My local Silverscreen had a big Store Closing sign in the window today. Their problems can be summed up by the new release of King Kong which Silverscreen are selling for £16.99 and Asda are selling for £9.95. How could they complete with that?

[Boyatsea]

Silverscreen sells DVDs at £5 more than anyone else. They've gone bust. This is a surprise to anyone, why?

[KartoffelKopf]

I wonder what went wrong. Did they enter the market too late, just as the masses were beginning to use Play, amazon etc on a grand scale? Or is there simply no need for them what with the likes of HMV, Virgin, woolies and smiths being so well established on the high street.

Yep, all of those reasons basically

Silverscreen were just too late, they came in just as the DVD market was plateauing and the cost of setting up their stores (Oxford Street is £1m a year rent for a start) required a much bigger margin then they could get away with, what with Asda now shifting ridiculous amounts and buying in at an average unit price of around £4 they just couldn't compete.

The DVD industry at the moment is all about market share. I know of one studio who sold in the region of 3 million EXTRA DVD's last fiscal year for exactly the same revenue as the previous year.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

My local Silverscreen had a big Store Closing sign in the window today. Their problems can be summed up by the new release of King Kong which Silverscreen are selling for £16.99 and Asda are selling for £9.95. How could they complete with that?

9.94

[squigglepiggles2]

SILVERSCREEN

2 DVD'S FOR £15

HMV

3 DVD'S FOR £20

I'd pick HMV, they're alot more helpful too

[MrPogo]

Bah, I was hopeful for some fantastic bargains in there today, but everything's still full price despite the 'Closing down, everything must go!' sign in the window.

[squigglepiggles2]

They won't do that will they? they need all the money they can get

[MrPogo]

They won't do that will they? they need all the money they can get

Well, I'd have thought if they know they're finished then even flogging everything at cost price would be better than what they'd get by trying to sell it in bulk to another chain.

[squigglepiggles2]

surely they'd get less money if they brought it in bulk, as its cheaper, but they'd get more moeny if they sold things individually, that how pubs make their moeny

[Mercury]

I don't think I have ever seen one of these stores. Our local MVC has closed but not been replaced by anything. Assume Music Zone only took a subset of the stores.

[MrPogo]

surely they'd get less money if they brought it in bulk, as its cheaper, but they'd get more moeny if they sold things individually, that how pubs make their moeny

Well, that's what I was saying :S

For the sake of convenience pretend every single DVD cost Silverscreen £5 each from the official distributors. If they reduce everything in store to £5 before they close down they'll shift an awful lot of the stock to normal customers.

If they wait till the stores are closed then the receivers will have a million DVDs on their hands to get rid of. They will obviously have to shift these in bulk to say HMV or whoever, and HMV won't even pay the £5 times a million, they'll offer say £2.50 per disc.

Thus I'd have expected them to have a big sale before shutting down, as this would surely be more profitable than the alternative.

[Monkeyboy]

The one near me barely opened a year ago. Their prices can be a bit crap. You have to poke around for a bargain. I won't miss it. Music Zone is cheaper.

[ryodi]

The Silverscreen near me started their closing down sale today. Which was essentially the sale they already had with an added 10% of any item that wasn't already in the sale. Bargainous.

[veryjammy]

Music Zone is great, their non-sale price of Simpsons boxsets is 18 quid and they always have some DVD for a fiver to tempt me.

Have only ever seen Silverscreen in the south and I thought they were shit.

[squigglepiggles2]

I like music zone, but ours is really tiny, you can't swing a cat in it with out smacking its head on the walls. Music Zone in Hanley is all neatly laid out also, the way they had the film titles stocked in SC was really hard like explained above, nothing was in its correct space as it should be, and some dvd's were in the wrong place. In SC Quantum Leap was placed in Drama, Du'hu its SCI-FI, big quantum leap fan here! I got my first box set from SC, kept it in its shrink wrap, saw it cheaper in HMV, i took the first one back to silverscreen and they asked if it was faulty, i told them that HMV were selling it cheaper, they wouldn't give me my money back for that reason. So i took it to trading standards. TS said that i was in my every right to take it back unwrapped if i found it cheaper elsewhere! Sorry if this doesn't make sense, not to good at grammar.