RIP: Shopping in Stores (300 Anno Domini -2009) (1 Viewer)

[DaveHof]

Hello everyone – long time listener, first time caller.

Today I went out to purchase season one of Room 222. I’ve always considered going to a store to make a purchase to be one of life’s simple pleasures, and this was something I looked forward to all week.

First stop was Best Buy- they didn’t have it. Next, I went to two different Zia locations (Zia is a buy-sell-trade music and video store). Struck out at both places. I went to Barnes & Noble, even though I knew the price would be higher. No luck. Last stop was Target, and they didn’t carry it either. So I came home, money still in my pocket.

I realize that Room 222 will not sell as many copies as “Quantum of Solace” or “Twilight,” two of this week’s other new releases, but I always thought the purpose of a store was to carry a variety of merchandise, so people with different interests could find what they liked. Apparently that is no longer the case. I’ve been through this before, with The Donna Reed Show, Jason of Star Command, Secrets of Isis and other TV titles. But now I’m done.

There used to be places that could be counted on to stock every new release, regardless of their perceived popularity – Virgin Megastore, Tower Records. They’re all gone, and the few places left that sell DVDs treat them like an afterthought.

So, like so many of you have already done, I will now purchase my DVDs from amazon or Deep Discount. And another of life’s simple pleasures bites the dust.

 

[TravisR]

I completely understand wanting to buy an actual product in your hands at a store rather than just ordering it online but I more or less gave up on even looking for catalog titles (movies or TV shows) in brick and mortar stores a couple years ago. Truth be told, I don't really miss it since finding the titles that I wanted was hit and miss and sometimes the prices could be the MSRP. Meanwhile online, you're 99 times out of 100 going to get some discount and, in my experience, most stuff ships within a day of ordering.

The Fugitive S2V2 comes out this week and I'm not even going to look at Best Buy for it. If they even have it, it'll probably be $5 or $10 more than I would pay on Amazon. If the brick and mortar stores don't want to/can't stock it or discount it, I'll happily go to someone that does.

All that being said, I still pick up Blu-rays and DVDs (like current movies or TV shows or more well-known catalog titles) at brick and mortar stores if they've got a better deal than Amazon, etc.

 

[JohnMor]

Most of my purchases are on amazon now, but I do really miss Tuesday night shopping at Tower Records after work. It was a highlight of my week. Just exploring all the titles (both video and audio). As you said, one of life's pleasures. :frowning: I didn't do it every week, but at least once or twice a month.

However, I am very lucky that I live near two Fry's stores. I still get some pleasure from prowling the aisles there. On titles like Room 222, they might not have them first week (although they might), but they usually have them by the second week.

 

[Regulus]

Most of my purchases these days are on-line (With DeeDee's and "The Big River" getting the lion's share of those purchases)

As for "Brick and Morter" Purchases Wally's and Targhee are my primary stores (Especially when I get most of my DVDs there for FREE thanks to the local Auto Dealers!) About the only time I go to BiBi's is during their "Black Friday" Sales in November.

 

[member666]

Same here. Especially shopping on a weekend when all the stores are packed to the max.

 

[Tina_H_V]

Hello, Dave. Welcome to HTF. Glad to have you here with us.

This is why I did not take a chance on relying on the brick & mortar shops for Room 222 this past week.

I decided to place a factory direct pre-order--and got Room 222 on time with a day to spare!!!!!

IMHO, the S/H price was worth receiving it on time--not to mention saving my car the wear-n-tear of having to go look in my town for it.

Now, the previous week, I was fortunate to find The Nanny's 3rd season at Fry's before I reported to work. I checked the week before to make sure they would carry it. I was told they would have four copies on the ensuing release Tuesday (St. Patrick's Day).

And they did.

And, I, also miss Tower Records for this. They were one of the few honest B&M stores I could rely on come release day to have a title I may not find at a Best Buy or Circuit City (R.I.P.). It was at Tower where I found That Girl's first season back in 2006 on release day--as well as a few key purchases I KNEW I could make on opening day for a nice, sweet song. With Tower out of the picture now, I am debating, for That Girl's final season, due out May 5th, should I check with Fry's or pre-order on line?????

 

[Jeff Willis]

Hello, Dave, and add my welcome to HTF with Tina.

I've been collecting TV/DVD's since '04 and rarely buy in any local B&M. I have found that the online shopping is far more convenient, in most cases cheaper, and time-saving than going to local stores. Except for an occasional exchange/mailing inconvienence with Net buying, I've had good experiences with online DVD shopping.

I much prefer buying my TV/DVD's at Amazon due to their (imo) superior Cust Svc return/exchange setup. I used to use DD most of the time but over the past couple of years, I've had more damaged DVD's shipped from them vs Amazon, mainly due to their trend of using shipping envelopes vs boxes for DVD packaging. At least, that's been my experience with them. I also prefer Amazon's return-mailing label print-out online availibility vs DD's "ask for free the free RMA shipping form" setup. I recently mailed back a damaged DVD to DD several weeks ago with one of their free RMA forms and as yet haven't received the exchanged DVD. In nearly every case for me, Amazon's shipping time is faster than DD's, even with Amazon's free-shipping method.

DD's prices may occasionally be slightly cheaper than Amazon's but I've found that Amazon's better Cust Svc makes up for the price differences.

I occasionally use DVDPacific as well although they didn't offer free shipping the last time I used them so I have to do the math with them to see if I save $$'s vs Amazon. I think their prices are hard to beat for "Timeless" DVD sets though.

 

[wh5916]

I had this same problem, several years ago, when season one of "Lost in Space" was first released onto DVD. Wal-Mart didn't carry it at the time...Target didn't either...couldn't find it anywhere locally, for many months.

Same thing with a deluxe reissue of "The Wizard of Oz" a couple of years ago. I gave up and ordered it from amazon.com instead.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Like you, I really enjoyed my weekly Tuesday visits to my local B&M store (which for me was Best Buy following the demise of Circuit City.) This ended about a month ago when I discovered that my local Best Buy didn't have any sets of "The Rockford Files, Season 6" or "Columbo Mystery Movies 1990" on street day, even though both of these sets were advertised in their Sunday weekly flier!! (It turned out that only one of the Best Buys in our metro area received any shipments of these sets. And that Best Buy only received four units of each set.) So I've been ordering all of my DVDs exclusively now via Amazon.

What Best Buy and other B&M retailers don't seem to understand is that even these relatively obscure titles help generate store traffic. For example whenever I was at Best Buy I would always look over their Blu-ray decks, A/V receivers, and laptops. It's only a matter of time until I purchase a Blu-ray deck (I already own a half dozen BDs) and they were going to get that sell. After purchasing the Blu-ray deck I was going to need a new A/V receiver (and probably new speakers.) I'll probably purchase all of these items from Amazon now!

 

[Mark Talmadge]

The problem? Most retailers won't continue to carry a title if it doesn't sell and stores like Best BUy and Target have limited shelf space. What I would do? Some Best Buy stores allow you to pay for it at their store, have it shipped to their store and you can pick it up when it arrives, usually within 4-5 days.

You don't even pay shipping.

 

[Corey3rd]

You can still find the popular stuff in the stores. But that's always been the way it is. Online has always been the natural way for me to buy DVDs. Why waste the time and gas when they'll deliver it to me without charging for shipping? And if a disc shows up trashed, they'll replace it. I'll browse around my local wholesale club when they have the megabin filled with discount boxsets.

far as Room 222 goes. I think it's better that people don't buy it in a store, because the uniformed will be completely ticked off at the image quality that Fox gave Shout!. They will return the DVDs and demand their money back from what they'll believe is bootleg product.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

What everyone needs to understand is that stores will only carry those TV Show titles that will sell. They won't stock everything that came before because there isn't any store that does that. This is why I use Borders, Target, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, FYE for my first choices and then Amazon, Overstock and other online retailers as a backup idea for obtaining these sets.

 

[DaveHof]

Thank you everyone for the welcomes.

Actually I almost went to Fry's on my Saturday travels but was fed up by that time (plus they weren't exactly around the corner from where I live). I did see Room 222 a couple of days later at a Suncoast store, but by then I had already placed my online order.

As so many of you said, there are better deals to be had online, which helps to compensate for the pleasure of buying in person at the store. However, I'll still miss the experience and I still think stores are missing out by not offering a wider selection. Back in the day, how often did you sift through the DVD offerings at Tower or Virgin and impulse buy a title that looked intriguing, or that you weren't aware had been released? That is less likely to happen on amazon, even though they try to steer you to related titles when you order.

 

[Stephen Wight]

I've just had a similar experience.None of the stores,where I live,have gotten Family Ties Seson 5 in.I had one of the stores order a copy in for me.

 

[Elena S]

This is why TV shows on DVD don't sell very well anymore. 90% of the people I know who shop for such purchases do so at a store. They're not going to invest the time to look up a purchase online.

A store worth its salt would at least offer to order a title for you if they didn't have it in stock. And stores wonder why they're going under. They have forgotten how to service their customers.

 

[Corey3rd]

A majority of these stores have online sites. It's easier for them to have you order it directly from the online site versus having to special order it, make sure when it shows up that someone doesn't stick it on the shelf, call you, hang onto the title behind the counter and have you come over and pick it up.

I also don't see how that much time is invested to look up a title at amazon. You're online at work anyhow. you ponder if a show is out on dvd - got to the site, type the title and in a split second you know if it exists. It's certainly a lot faster than picking through the DVD section at most stores.

 

[Brian Himes]

I gave up on retail stores a long time ago. With the closing of Virgin Megastore here in San Francisco, there is nowhere left to buy DVDs in a store. Tower closed over a year ago. FYE closed almost three years ago. Warehouse Music & Video shut down almost five years ago. The few Musicland/Sam Goody stores that were left are gone. Sure, there a couple of Boarders, but at least here, they don't carry much. Everytime I've tried to find something at Boarders they've never had it. The Best Buy is just about impossible to get to if you don't have a car. Virgin was just about the last really good and reliable place to find anything and they'll soon be history. It's a rather sad thing to say, but I guess it's just a sign of the times.