Monday
05Oct2009
Wal-Mart Eliminating In-Store DVD, Blu-ray Displays
Monday, October 5, 2009 at 2:07PM
Dating back to the announcement that Virgin Megastores would be closing in the US, it has been a bad time to be in the DVD retailing game. Blockbuster announced last month that it would close a quarter of its stores, RedBox keeps facing friction from the studios about its distribution model, and last week, we wrote about NetFlix looking to shift the focus from physical discs to online rentals.
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Blu-Ray, DVD | Print Article | Email Article | 10 Comments | Share Article
Reader Comments (10)
as someone who works at best buy and has worked there since before blu-ray even existed, I don't see this as a good move. blu-ray is getting more and more popular every day. it's true that people aren't buying movies as much as they used to, but from my experience, depending on the release, they may or may not be a traffic driver. for example, when transformers comes out, I know we will sell a lot of the blu ray for that. also, there are times when we only sell out of the blu ray version quickly and not of the standard dvd. just my 2 cents...
High-end Wallmart shoppers. Wouldn't they just order it online? Or go to Bestbuy thats not filled with as many hobos.
P.S. "Peopleofwallmart" make feel bad for still shopping there.
OH NO! Now I can't buy new release Blu Rays from Wal-Mart... oh wait, I never bought new release Blu Rays from Wal-Mart because their new release prices suck donkey balls. But to be fair, so does Best Buy and Targets as well. Thanks god for free shipping over $25 and no tax from Amazon.
I think the "traffic drivers" argument is true. With many families going into debt and pinching pennies... (oh God, I've done it: I hate it when people begin their arguments with the Big Blanket Reason of "The Economy"...sorry). Anyway, my point is DVDs are no longer "impulse buys." Collectors and fanboys do not buy their DVDs from Wal-Mart.
Now if Best Buy began shrinking their inventory drastically I'd be very curious as to why...
Wal-Mart's whole electronic department sucks anyways. They have people working in the department who don't know anything about the product they're selling. Amazon.com is the best for Blu-Ray.
I'll admit I just got the new Snow White on Blu Ray for $10 on amazon! STEAL! Also, I buy my blu ray from Zia Records. I don't care if its used! I'd rather keep them in business anyways.
This is certainly something that points to a bigger picture trend. People have been consume consume consume for years but more and more I see people trying to minimize the crap in their lives.
DVDs are fun and entertaining but in general they just end up being clutter.
Bluray is the actual killer of DVD formats, it was way to expensive for people to afford. HD-DVD had a chance as the media would have cost about 1/3 of a Bluray but the battle ended in favor of Sony. Hence, we've seen a drastic decline on sales. Now that the recession is upon us, it even hit them harder, people are lot more smarter about how they spend their money; why would anyone spend over $25.00 for a movie that they may only watch once or twice??? I'd say it again, Bluray killed the market for DVD formats!!!
Blue-Ray has killed nothing, DVDs are and will continue to be around. Common folk probably dont have flat screen tvs let alone a HD one to appreciate Blue-Ray. With the rise or hard drive storage, DVDs will be the last great physical storage format, and Blue-Ray will be continue to be the high-end physical format.
I have been to a few Walmarts around the St Louis area and none of them have any blu ray's for sale. Well there may be one or two left overs on the shelf. I asked an employee about it and she told me that they are not selling Blu Ray at all....