Walmart HD-DVD Impact (1 Viewer)

[Shane Martin]

The last I looked Walmart doesn't sell Sony HDTV products.

 

[Douglas Monce]

The only thing I ever seen in the $4.99 bargain bin are older releases of movies that now have a special edition release and spanish language titles. You don't see new release, or even films that have been out for a year in the bargain bin. You don't see Happy Feet in the bin. It's $20 just like everywhere else.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

No they don't. But they do sell Sony head sets, radios, game consoles, etc.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Walmart makes very little money on DVD sales. In fact most of the time DVDs are a money loser for Walmart. But when people come in to buy Rocky 28 on DVD they also buy a jar of pickles and a beach towel.

However in this day when movies make more money on DVD than they did in the theaters, the DVD has become the primary source of income for the studios. Walmart can afford to lose a studio or two a lot more than the studios can afford to lose Walmart. And Walmart has deeper pockets.

Also I think Disney would be the most likely studio to cooperate with Walmart. They have a long relationship with producing exclusive items for Walmart (not talking just about DVD here)

And again this is all speculation. I doubt very seriously that Walmart would ask any of the studios to change their marketing models at this point. However in November if Walmart has a bunch of HD DVD players on their shelves, they might start putting pressure on the studios to go format neutral.

Doug

 

[Chris S]

The discussion in the post I was responding to was more than just HDTVs (which I recall seeing last time I was in my local store but that was a year or two ago). We're talking all Sony electronics and media. CD players, stereos, cameras, DVDs, alarm clocks, etc.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Software, hardware, two isssues that slightly depend on each other yet, can be exclusive of each other. Walmart will continue to sell Blu-ray, hardware and software regardless of the new cheaper HD-DVD items. They may not sell t.v.s from Sony, but Phillips has a BD player also hence they need to sell BD software regardless. This won't change in any way when the cheap players come into play as the consumer will choose based on desire. Desire for a cheaper HD-DVD player, or expensive BD software and hardware.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The average Walmart customer doesn't have to. Only 2 million not-average customers do. Considering the massive numbers of people that shop at Walmart, I doubt it will be a problem.

 

[Ryan-G]

Well, my Wallmart's in Pennsylvania are pretty much filled to overflowing with the bottem end of the pay-scale. So I'm only commenting on what I've seen, and read on analysis's of Wallmart.

Which brings me to my next point, From the report I read today, Wallmart's the second largest, and that's only because of extreme discounting on HDTV's IIRC, so much so that it's probably being sold at a loss. The piece is up on msn's money section.

As far as losing 40%, they wouldn't. If Sony pulls out all console and games from Wallmart, people will go elsewhere to get them. Wallmart isn't going to make everyone suddenly abandon PS2.

Wallmart needs products to survive, and key ones. Suddenly being unable to fill gaming needs, or stock titles from certain studios is going to make people angry at Wallmart, and they'll go elsewhere to buy.

Wallmart doesn't define what people want, it's just a place to get it. Wallmart is alot more dependent on other companies than they are upon it. If Hollywood decides tomorrow that Wallmart's gotten to big for it's britches, Wallmart's suddenly not going to be able to sell movies anymore.

 

[PeterTHX]

All this speculation over a mistranslated article...

 

[Ron-P]

That is what is so fun about this hobby Peter. All the guessing, rumors and such that mostly turn out to be nothing of importance.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Well if Hollywood were smart, all the studios would band together and dictate to Walmart. But no one ever accused Hollywood of being smart.

And frankly one game console isn't really going to eat into Walmart's profits, Particularly considering they are selling a hell of alot more Wiis than PS2s.

Doug

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Man, I REALLY don't want Wal-mart involved with either format this early. They will definitely screw with the quality of the format.

Wal-mart Customer: "I just spent $1500 on a widescreen HDTV and an HD-DVD player, and I'm STILL seeing black bars on King Kong! I want my money back!!!"

You know this is going to happen. Academy ratio and scope films will certainly suffer if Wal-mart gains too much influence in the HD formats.

I love both formats, but I would fear this could make HD-DVD the "budget" format, while Blu-Ray winds up being known as the "quality" format loved by film enthusiasts. I'm not saying I want it that way...

 

[Douglas Monce]

I agree with you. I'm not convinced that anything in the original article is real. I was just talking about what Walmart could do if the article is true and if they choose too. I just think that most people don't realize that Walmart is truly the 800 pound gorilla that no one wants to mess with.

Doug

 

[ppltd]

Actually, the ad says buy it on DVD. No mention of BD anywhere.

 

[Chris S]

I understand why they used that image on the HDTV and it does say "Own it on DVD" in very small font. But just to the right of the set the ad pitches the "HD movie experience" with HD DVD. The problem is that this will still confuse the issue for many non-HT people.

It's no different then the way CC or BB place pricing labels for one title almost touching another title. Its a trick to fool people into thinking that both titles are the same price when in reality they might not be. It's sneaky (or at times deceptive) advertising and that's definitely something these formats don't need right now.

 

[Chris S]

Lets just say you have more faith than I do that the average shopper is not the supreme majority of Walmart's customers.

But don't take any of this to mean that I don't want them to succeed. I really do hope they sell well because it could really help to convince the studios that the average person is very much interested in HD quality playback which is very important if we are to continue seeing major releases that aren't just big budget summer titles. Unfortunately I simply don't think that Walmart is the right store.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

The key is that, each Movie title is a different product and a monopoly in itself. Thus the studios will not really lose much sales, except for maybe the impulse purchases, because the customer will simply buy the title they want from another store. In the long run I will know not to go to Walmart for any Sony/Disney/Fox/etc. movie purchases and then I will end up buying the shaving blades I need from the other store too. The fact is Walmart does stand to lose too, if it ever came down to a standoff between the studios and them. Of course all this is just speculation and Walmart may sell a cheap HD-DVD player or a cheap Blu-Ray player, or even both for that matter and also continue to carry both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs.

Caught this picture of what looks like a cheap chinese made Blu-Ray player. By the looks of it, it seems like something that might sell for $199 or even less.

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/2/27/htf_imgcache_7812.gif] [/url]

Click on image for a larger image.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

But Walmart has no vested interest in HD-DVD and could care less which of the two formats wins and thus would be less inclined to take any stand that would risk losing them any money, deep pockets or not. Whereas the studios do have a direct stake in their format of choice and thus might be more willing to risk losing revenues in the short term for their long term objective of seeing their chosen format succeed.

 

[KurtEP]

While it's true that people have a lot of other shopping options in big cities, the situation is often quite different in smaller towns. In a lot of places, Wal Mart is simply the only place to buy stuff like this. If they don't carry it, you're going to have to get it from the internet or via mail order. While that doesn't seem like a problem for most of the people posting here, I can assure you that there are still lots of people who never use the internet for purchases (lots of my relatives being good examples). If you pull out of Wal Mart, you pretty much lose that market.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

You do have a valid point there, I can think of a few small towns like that (my college town being one of them). Although. I am not sure how much sales are genereated from such towns, I can't imagine the sales being very high. But regardless, your point is well made.