McKay's Winston-Salem — Attraction in Winston-Salem

From a Customer but mainly Reseller POV. I sell physical media and my review is solely based on my experience as a reseller.

My GF and I frequent BOTH McKay's in NC about once a month from Central Virginia. Both locations in NC have their pluses and minuses. Both locations are off the Interstate and you have to go through a few tricky intersections to get there,

As for the Winston-Salem store here's my advice. DO NOT go on a Saturday or Sunday! This place is swamped on those days you'd think they were having a sale but really it's a heavily frequented spot on the weekend. I'm talking well over 100 people inside.

Also, their organization is not as nice as the Mebane location, this is probably due to the fact that the Mebane store is much newer and may have more space inside and more personnel.

The best time to go is Mon-Thurs. If you can. Significantly less people at both locations during those days, less noise, you can actually hear yourself think, no screaming kids and the aisles may have one or two people in them instead of 10 or more like on Saturday, and let me tell you the aisles at Winston-Salem are tighter than at Mebane. My GF and I went this past Thursday (03/27/25) and found it enjoyable instead of stressful.

As a movie reseller, both locations have lots to choose from but Winston-Salem was predominantly DVD. I'd say 75% of their movie inventory was DVD. Mebane had lots more Blu-ray and 4K options but this could vary from week to week.

Both locations are prone to theft. Blatant and upfront. The biggest theft has been that of Digital Codes that come inside Brand New Movies, typically Blu-ray and 4K. These codes have been removed without ripping off the cellophane. This leaves the customer thinking they are purchasing a brand new item but in fact the Codes are missing. I found over 30 brand new Blu-rays and 4Ks at Winston-Salem that were stolen.

When I went to the Manager with this information, he exclaimed to me that this has happened before and sounds like it's happened again. Both locations typically have ZERO employees on the floor, especially on the weekends. This is a terrible business practice. When I told the Manager that I couldn't buy as much because of the theft he said that due to the fact that I was a Reseller having the Digitals means more to me than it does a regular customer. I told him he needs to have people patrolling the aisles on a regular basis, he held back a laugh because they DO NOT have the personnel to patrol the aisles.

He thanked me for bringing it to his attention but said there was nothing they could do about it and YOU the Customer won't care if you're missing the Code.

So in short Winston-Salem is going to charge you the Customer their Brand New price on movies that have been tampered with. My advice is check the cellophane along the opening of the case if it's loose or looks ripped it's been tampered with.

I asked the Manager if there were people bringing in movies with Codes missing but he assured me that it's likely theft in their aisles. He later said that their location buys between 7K-10K items a day and twice that on the weekends.

I had $2200 in Store Credit when I came to their store...

DO NOT RECOMMEND PURCHASING VIDEO GAMES/CONSOLES FROM THIS LOCATION!

TL;DR: tried to purchase a Playstation 4 2x times from them, BOTH TIME I got non-functional devices. Had to make multiple trips back and forth about it, General Manager was a bit rude regarding the situation. In the end, I got my $200 dollars back, no console, and McKays lost the sale. /shrug

Unfortunate because McKays has an impressive inventory, competitive prices, and a 30-day back guarantee if issue so it was attractive to purchase the console there but ultimately it was an incredibly negative experience.

I'll try to summarize for those interested in more detail: purchased a Playstation 4 (+ accessories and games) brought it home - did not even properly power on.. did troubleshooting, nothing.. non-functional console. brought the console back with my receipt to swap - they tell me I need the controller too for them to swap the console? why? won't budge on that policy, so I have to take another trip back and forth return to mckays with the first non-functional console to swap for a new one I asked for the manager, who turned out to be the GM, to see if there's anything he could do to try and help rectify the situation - he was pretty rude, stand-offish, and ended up dismissing me.. he actually walked away from the transaction get home - try this "new" console - doesn't work, same behavior go back to McKays a 3rd time - they realize they accidentally gave me the original non-working console again ... get home with the 2nd console - it is also non-functional. do my troubleshooting, but nothing go back to McKays - this time the guy at the tech desk was very helpful and sought to try to rectify the situation, but ultimately his manager says the GM said we can't do anything about it I just decide to wipe my hands of this all, return everything, get my $200 back with no console (side-note: while returning everything the cashier also finds out that one of the game disks has been missing from the case this whole time) notified McKays ownership through their email about the situation, they just provided a non-statement in response.

I'd stay away if you're trying to buy video game...

NO LONGER THE STORE IT USED TO BE

My husband and I are very frequent customers and have been coming to various McKay’s locations for years. We together collectively must have spent thousands of dollars on books, movies, and games. It became a very fun activity to build our collections and we highly recommended this chain of stores to anyone we could tell. Now, we HIGHLY advise going.

Ever since their anniversary road trip in 2024, where they severely underestimated their popularity, the McKay’s establishments have been trying to recoup their losses. Movies that were .25¢-.50¢ are now $3-5. Video games that were $2.00-$5.00 are now $10.00-$25.00. For a second hand store that relies on purchasing your items for literal pennies, they grossly overcharge for, let me say it again, SECONDHAND items. It is no longer worth it to shop here, especially for popular games, books, and movies that are “newer”. Sometimes even selling it HIGHER than what it was originally bought. I’ve found receipts and stickers outlining the original price on items that are $5-$10 CHEAPER than what they are selling it for. Slimy behavior!!

My husband and I watched the change every time we visited to an unattainable and unrealistic experience from that point. Ever since their anniversary roadtrip and I believe them being bought out by the Tennessee locations…? it has been a sour experience. Our visits grow more disappointing every time we go.

Only reason I rate two stars instead of one, is because they do have a large selection of genres and just about anything you can think of, but come on, go back to your roots!!! No one thinks of you fondly anymore if they are locals- and out of towners don’t know...