@ my local Wal-Mart, saw downsizing!! (1 Viewer)

[JamesSmith]

Dear guys,

At my local Wal-Mart, I saw some downsizing of the DVD/BLU Ray/TV Shows on DVD aisles. Though they were in the midst of doing whatever it is they were doing, it looked like the store was cutting down the four rows or two aisles to three rows or one aisle. The other side of the aisle was just Vinyl Records with no CD's. For some reason this made me sad. Have any of you noticed this?

--James

 

[The Obsolete Man]

You were lucky to still have that large of a section.

One of the local ones is down to a single double sided aisle for all Movies and TV shows. That's the good one. The other one remodeled last year and cut down to a single side of an aisle for everything they carry.

 

[Malcolm R]

My store did away with CD's a while ago, save for one endcap with occasional new releases. Mine has never had too many movie discs, just one side of one aisle, with an endcap for new releases and a couple small island racks and dump bins out in the main aisles.

 

[BobO'Link]

You were lucky to still have that large of a section.

One of the local ones is down to a single double sided aisle for all Movies and TV shows. That's the good one. The other one remodeled last year and cut down to a single side of an aisle for everything they carry.

That sounds like what was done here. The larger store formerly had 2 isles, 4 end caps, and 4 stand-alone displays. Now it's like yours - 1 isle, 2 end caps, and 2 stand-alone displays. Well... plus the 2 dump bins that I no longer bother with (I stopped looking when it became the same 20-30 titles for over a year). The smaller store now has a very short, single side of an isle for everything movie/TV with a stand-alone display. It's sad... The music isles at both are also significantly smaller, but I've not purchased any music at all from a WM since they began selling edited discs.

 

[JackieT]

Our stores are remodeling this month and DVD area is slimmed way down. What's funny is the vinyl section is growing.

 

[jcroy]

The closest outlet has been remodeling some areas, including the a/v section (hosting the dvds/blurays, video games, etc ...). They moved the a/v section into a less visible corner, away from it's old semi-prime floor space.

 

[BobO'Link]

I just don't get vinyl sales growing - why? Must be people who've not had to deal with the hassle and issues inherent in vinyl. Say and believe what you will, it *does not* sound "better."

 

[Wayne_j]

Sometimes vinyl can sound better if they have to less dynamically compress the master for vinyl to keep the needle from jumping. A properly mastered CD should sound better than Vinyl however.

 

[Paintbeanie]

I haven’t seen any downsizing at my Wal Mart but the local Target recently downsized their movies section. It now doesn’t even have an entire aisle as 2/3 of one side was revamped for their records.

 

[Malcolm R]

I just don't get vinyl sales growing - why? Must be people who've not had to deal with the hassle and issues inherent in vinyl. Say and believe what you will, it *does not* sound "better."

Especially at $25-40 per album. Yikes!

 

[JamesSmith]

Our stores are remodeling this month and DVD area is slimmed way down. What's funny is the vinyl section is growing.

I thought that was funny, too. Didn't they go out forty years ago.
--jthree

 

[jcroy]

My speculation is that vinyl is more of a "status symbol" or hipster signaling thing, and very little to do with technical audio issues.

On Paul Krugman's theory of hipsters

An example of countersignaling.

www.vox.com

 

[TravisR]

I just don't get vinyl sales growing - why? Must be people who've not had to deal with the hassle and issues inherent in vinyl. Say and believe what you will, it *does not* sound "better."

I buy records but I'm reasonably limited in what I buy. For me, it basically is two categories: the deluxe soundtrack re-releases that I think of more as a collectible than something I frequently listen to and the other category is older bands where I like the idea of listening to them as they were originally heard by first generation fans. It's more like a 'time machine' than anything else for me. The more modern music that I listen to (if you want to call the 90's "modern"), I have no interest in owning any of that on vinyl because it wasn't originally released that way.

Ten or fifteen years ago, it was also a great way for me to get old stuff cheaper than dirt and take a chance on pretty much anything. I could buy some random 70's soul music or weird rock group that I'd never heard of or a soundtrack for a dime or a quarter and I could trade it back in if I didn't like it or if it was scratched. I found a bunch of great music that way. As long as it wasn't a first pressing of an album by The Beatles, it was probably a buck or less. Now anything in remotely decent shape and popular is expensive.

 

[BobO'Link]

Hmmm... maybe I need to look into selling my collection. Nah... I'll keep 'em for nostalgia. The *only* thing I miss about vinyl is the cover art and liner notes large enough to read without breaking out a magnifying glass. I've not listened to any of my vinyl in over 20 years and discovered a couple of years back that the motor on my turntable (a BIC 980) has frozen up. The motor can be possibly repaired and absolutely replaced but...

 

[jcroy]

I buy records but I'm reasonably limited in what I buy. For me, it basically is two categories: the deluxe soundtrack re-releases that I think of more as a collectible than something I frequently listen to ...

If I was still into the collecting aspect (and not listening) of vinyl, I would be buying the "picture discs" releases in droves. They're almost always limited editions, even back in the day in the 1980s.

Unfortunately "picture discs" have considerably more record surface noises, than the equivalent generic black vinyl verisons released.