Best Buy to Eliminate DVD Inventory & Anime (1 Viewer)

[Joseph Bolus]

Well the point I think people are trying to make in this thread is that we're apparently no longer being given a choice in the matter. I was willing to pay the Tuesday advertised "street price" on these sets if they were available. I purchased "Rockford Files: Season 6" from Amazon out of frustration. (BTW, It's curious to me that both of these sets were in the Sunday Best Buy circular even though only one store out of the three in our area was going to have any in.)

As far as the money that Best Buy is making on the DVDs: Again, that's not the point. When people come into Best Buy to purchase DVDs they will often browse the other areas of the store and purchase items that *will* provide a profit for the store. For example, I always look through the A/V Receivers, Blu-ray players area, and the Computer area whenever I make the sojourn to Best Buy for discs. At the very least, I'll usually purchase some computer supplies. I won't be doing that as frequently anymore.

 

[irishsooner]

have to agree on that! sounds like they don't care if they put out the new releases or even check in their product. in our district of some 15-20 stores we can see who has it or not. pretty much all the stores will have it especially if we advertise it. not good for customer loyalty when we need it more so now!

 

[BobSchneider]

Well Im not terribly shock BB is dumping amine.... (no real loss in my book because most of it is border line child/ violence porn any how, sorry but that how I feel) .But I do agree it a pain in the arse to find any dvd at BB and the staff is clueless to find anything . The best way with BB is to order it online Monday night after mid night before tuesday release with in store delivery. Alot of titles will show up with the loss leader sale price -10.00 off retail (ie Hawaii Five-0 s5 was 36.95) eventhough Five-0 s5 wasnt loss leadered in the sunday add. Yes I know I could maybe find a bit cheaper deal online up I like the convenice of instore pick up and I just go to BB online pickup window and get the dvd set without hunting around the dvd displays and taking to several clueless BB sale peeps. For me this is best way to get dvd sets at BB and the accuracy of the online system for instore pick so far (for me) has been 100% and the prices are decent and I like the instant gradification of online instore pickup

 

[Professor Echo]

Add Barnes & Noble.com to the list of unreliable sellers, at least in my experience.

I took advantage of their "After Holiday Sale" and ordered the vintage TV series THE THIRD MAN 2 Disc set from Timeless Media. After six weeks they informed me it was no longer available and that the Federal Trade Commission would not allow them to keep it on backorder for me. ??? So they canceled the order. That same day I went to their site and it still showed the DVD set as being available for order. When I wrote them about this they said it will probably come in, but I will have to place a new order for it and could no longer qualify for the free shipping offer.

I also ordered the Timeless 2 Disc sets for RACKET SQUAD and GANGBUSTERS. After five weeks of waiting for the order to arrive, they sent the Single Disc version of both titles. I wrote to them and got the usual insincere corporate apology that seems to have been borne into this world from customer "service" in India. They advised me to send both titles back and they would send replacements. A subsequent (semi-) form letter next arrived saying they were out of stock on RACKET SQUAD, but that they would be sending the 2 Disc set of GANGBUSTERS.

So what shows up? The same Single Disc version that I already have! I wrote them back again and got the same form letters about returning the wrong REPLACEMENT DVD along with the wrong original DVDs they sent. They would ship me return labels, but no packaging to send their DVDs back.

So here it is almost seven weeks after I placed my order and it still isn't right. Needless to say, I am done with Barnes & Noble until the devil pulls an intact Popsicle out of his butt.

 

[Bryan^H]

This isn't good at all.

First Circuit City folds, and now Best Buy is cutting back on dvd. I'll buy dvd titles from Amazon but doggone it, the dvd medium has at least 10 good years of life left in it.

Best Buy should calm down, take a deep breath, and realize they are only going to alienate their core base of consumers.

Waht's next for them? Video game reduction?

 

[TravisR]

They're only cutting back on titles that don't sell.

 

[Gary OS]

But this can only hurt the overall dvd industry and cause them to reduce releases even more than they already are. This will especially hurt vintage TV on DVD production, as the studios are very unlikely to be willing to continue to create dvds that will not be given shelf space at B&M stores.

Gary "this is nothing short of bad news for classic tv fans, no matter how you slice it" O.

 

[nolesrule]

This is a business. Retailers aren't going to devote retail floorspace to products that don't justify the space they are taking up.

The DVD industry is already in trouble. More specifically, classic TV fans should have seen this coming for years. Look at all the TV shows that were abandoned in the last 5 years after 1 or 2 seasons of releases for all the proof you need. If actual sales justified the costs, they would continue the releases (and that was back in the time when retail stores actually devoted floor space to those products).

 

[Gary OS]

Joe, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not blaming the retailers at all. Of course they are a business and have to do what's best for them. The problem is what's best for them is going to hurt a hobby I love very much. I'm simply alerting fellow fans to the very thing you just said - Classic TV on DVD is definitely on the decline. I just want to be clear on that point. It's not a light thing when all these retailers start limiting shelf space for vintage material, much less begin going out of business altogether. I'm getting the impression from some posters here that they don't think this is a big deal or that it won't hurt an already bleeding animal, namely Classic TV on DVD. We can discuss chicken and egg and all that, but the bottom line is that this move isn't going to help bolster the vintage TV on DVD market. That much we know for sure. It's only going to accentuate an already bad situation. Do the retailers owe it to me to care? Of course not. But does it make it any less painful for a fan like myself to know why they are doing it (bad sales, slumping overall economy, etc)? Not really. They are concerned with what's in their best interest as they should be. And I'm concerned with what's in my interest, as I should be. Neither one is wrong. It just is what it is.

Gary "hope that explains where I'm coming from" O.

 

[Susan Nunes]

I am furious over this. Not all of us out here have access to Amazon, which has screwed up royal with its new "credit card only" policy. There are many of us who do NOT have credit cards. The only option for me is to order from eBay with PayPal if I can't get videos through Suncoast Video or other places.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

I think you guys have got it all wrong. Best Buy has been wanting to cut their DVD inventory in favor of the Blu Ray format. With Circuit City folding up, more consumers will be shopping at Best Buy. Best Buy seems to think that since they are the only remaining electronics and technology store that more consumers will buy Blu Ray.

The problem is that Blu Ray is still considered by most consumers a new expensive format and with our economy the way it is, Best Buy is trying to hasten the death of the DVD format. Best Buy has always carried a large selection of DVD's and I'm afraid that Best Buy's DVD selection might become more like Target's DVD selection.

This doesn't bode good news and could even hasten internet piracy ten-fold.

It's not that Best Buy is getting rid of non-selling titles, most titles don't sell that fast after the first two weeks of its release, but that Best Buy has always concentrated on current technology. This does nothing but bode bad news for not just the DVD market but also for the TV Shows on DVD market.

TV Shows aren't exactly a priority for being released to Blu Ray and most of the prices are outrageously high. I'd rather spend $50 on a TV Season set rather than $80-100 for a Blu Ray version.

Guaranteed that within the next few years, Best Buy's B&M stores will no longer carry DVD titles. Currently? I download all of the movies I want through either Bit Torrent or Rapidshare. My TV Shows are all purchased on DVD. I know that if Best Buy commits to this that 100% of my media will be downloaded and just burned to DVD'R's.

 

[AnthonyC]

Why does one retailer not carrying these titles mean that you will turn to piracy?

I can only think of one non-first-week DVD I've bought at Best Buy in the past ~2 years and that's because it was part of a great sale. Their non-sale prices are terrible so the only thing this will change for me is I won't waste as much time browsing the DVD section with no intention of buying anything next time I'm there.

 

[Regulus]

With the downturn of the Economy people aren't buying as much as they were. Recessions don't last forever and we'll have a rebound eventually. We need to be happy for what's been available on DVD. How many DVDs do we really need? When I started my collection two years ago I would never imagine I'd get to where I'm at now. By years end I'll have over 10,000 TV Episodes comprising over 200 Series, as well as over 1,000 Movies and over 500 Serial Chapters. It will take me at least a decade to get through em all! Here's a point to pondor, times are changing and we are in the middle of it. Heaven only knows how we will get our Entertainment ten years from now. (Personally I think my DVD Collection may actually outlast the Networks that put them out!)

 

[TravisR]

You're apparently worried about the DVD industry but you steal movies online?

 

[Corey3rd]

of course Best Buy will be increasing the Blu-ray section since there's more Blu-ray titles out. And more to come. And there's only a finite amount of floor space. They've already ravaged the CD department so there's not much carpet left to claim there. DVD section is the obvious space.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

The Industry is turning, I think, Especially for TV on DVD sales to the Internet, I think Itunes, Amazon, Netflix and others will thrive on TV Downloads, I'm hoping for an across the board drop on prices to .99 cents an SD episode and $1.99 for HD per episode. Itunes recently offered Season 1 of Damages for .99 cents a show I had some money left on Xmas cards so for $12 or so I own the Series on my Apple TV. Now if some smart Downloader would offer to finish NYPD Blue, Hill Street, Big Valley and others and Keep going with Gunsmoke and Rawhide, and offer Cheyenne, Maverick, Dragnet, Quincy, et all. frankly the DVD Industry can go to hell.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Speaking for myself, I prefer DVD releases to online/downloads, unless we're talking about the Amazon (and/or others) "burn-on-demand" availability.

I don't know anything about the other downloading services but is it true that you all are talking about watching TV shows on a PC? If that's the case, I'm not a fan of that market.

 

[troy evans]

Best Buy wants to get rid of movies and Anime that don't sell, great. How much of that crap needs to be taking up space on shelves anyway. Last I checked all the Anime fans download their movies and episodes off torrent sites and such. So, good, get rid of it on the shelf and make space for things that actually sell. As far as B-movies that no ones heard off, good, get that crap off the shelves as well. For years Best Buy has been stocking weird, obscure titles and Anime and it never moves. I go into BB all the time and see the same titles in the same amounts sitting there week after week. As far as tv on dvd goes, I think Blu-ray can take over where sd dvd leaves off. Blu-ray has the possibility to deliver on their, "beyond hi-def" slogan with tv on dvd. One of the things long talked about on Blu was its incredible storage capacity. You could take a show that's been remastered and set at 480p and put a whole season on one or two Blu-ray discs. That would be far cheaper in cost and labor and supplies than making 5-7 sd dvds for the same purpose. Hell, some older shows don't even get remastered or cleaned up for sd dvd releases. My point is that not everything that hits Blu-ray will need to always be 1080p and DTS-HD Master. The format is beyond just that. We have more on sd dvd than we ever had on VHS. When sd dvd first started no one knew how many tv shows we would end up getting and we got alot. Blu-ray could bring us many more as long as we don't put our heads in the sand and act like sd dvd is it and we'll never see any more tv releases. It seems we go down this road every time a new format comes along and almost every time that new format excels beyond our wildest dreams. Just a thought.

 

[Brian^K]

While piracy probably doesn't completely gut the market, I bet it does put enough downward pressure on prices that I would not be surprised to learn that selling DVDs and such just isn't profitable enough to be a worthwhile use of resources.

 

[Ockeghem]

Susan,

A slight aside, in the hopes that it may help you with your situation. Amazon also allows for the use of debit cards, which aren't credit cards, but have a similar numbering structure. We use ours frequently, since we don't use credit cards for any reason. We've been doing business with them for years, and have not had a problem.