Would you ever find major retailers in the US breaking street date? (Revised thread) (1 Viewer)

[Johnny G]

Sorry guys, I just started a thread without realising we weren't allowed to name retailers on this subject. Robert Crawford edited the heading but I can't edit the post so I thought I'd better restart it without naming names.

I was in a UK supermarket today which is owned by one of your major US shopping mart chains & saw Two Towers on sale. I asked the cashier & she said yes, they'd been selling it since Saturday even though she said it's not released until Tuesday. I thought this rather odd because I know some Mom & Pop stores do it but I never thought a big company like that would.

Just wondered if this happens in similar large shopping marts the US.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

This has happened in the UK because the supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's) decided they were too important to follow the rules and put the Two Towers DVDs on the shelves as soon as they had them. Other retailers had no choice but to do the same.

 

[Mike DB]

Here in New York City there's at least one that sellls the real thing, they have 2 shops in Manhattan, not sure if they have any other outlets. At any given time they will commonly have 3 or 4 titles on the shelf about 1-2 weeks ahead of the official release dates. Pricing is not bad and occasionally they are even the cheapest in town regardless. I can tell some titles are coming from Canada but I'm not sure if that's why they can sell them early. I buy there on a regular basis with no problems and they also are very good about returns when needed.
These are legit releases, never unauthorised stuff.

Some of the shops that sell used occasionally also sell screeners and advanced copies that show up ahead of street dates. The quality is good but the titles often have disclaimers and warnings running along the bottom of the screen. I can't tolerate that.

You don't want to know how fast titles show up for sale on the streets here, sometimes before they are out in the theaters, seriously! But when they are out that fast it's all unauthorized junk , I wouldn't go near it if they were giving it away.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Mike,

I have been to that Manhattan store. A few
flights down

 

[Brian W.]

God, I wish. I've looked, but I think here in L.A. is probably the place you're LEAST likely to find stores breaking street dates on DVDs, for obvious reasons -- the chances of getting caught here are are astronomically higher.

But several years ago in Seattle I found a major nationwide retailer that had broken the street date on a DVD title by two weeks, inadvertently, I think.

 

[Bill Williams]

Last year, with the release of the 2-disc SE of A Hard Day's Night, I found it a good four days before the official release date on sale at one particular retailer who shall be nameless for this series of posts. Apparently this retailer gets some DVDs in stock early, yet with other DVDs they may not show up at this particular retailer at all.

 

[David Lambert]

Rarely a week goes by that I don't spot at least one title that is breaking street date. Heck, I already own Dark Shadows Collection 7, and coulda had Beastmaster Season 1 if I wanted it. Both street tomorrow.

And yes, it's a "major retailer". One of the biggest for DVDs and electronics.

 

[Dane Marvin]

I saw "The Shield" season 1 at a national chain two weeks in advance once. Didn't buy it.

This past Saturday, I went into the the "big" discount store and saw "Mr. Show" season 3, which they were supposed to have put away until Tuesday (according to David Lambert), so I also looked for "ER". I saw the spot where the DVDs were supposed to be and the price tag, too, but there were none there. I asked the guy and he said they sold out and would have more coming "in the next couple days", which I assumed meant Tuesday.

The same store mentioned above lots of times gets permission from studios and distributors to release titles a week in advance. I've purchased "Little House On the Prairie" season 1 & "The Twilight Zone" Collection 5 before the street date. This business practice seems pretty unfair to me, and I see why smaller stores are withering. It has never stopped me from making an early purchase though. :b

Edit: Oooh... yes, I saw BeastMaster and Dark Shadows this weekend, too, David!

 

[Glenn Overholt]

A week in advance? No way!

Glenn

 

[Mike DB]

Way!
Sometimes more than a week.
Certainly not on every title. Only a few titles at any given time and you never really know what titles they will be. I've seen them out as much as a full 2 weeks before the release date. Sometimes I have to check on line to make sure it's not just some older title that I didn't know was already out or an obsolete older version.

Here's a few of the titles I recall they had out early ( can't remember exactly how early)

Road to Perdition
Jackie Brown
Grease
Die Another Day
West Side Story
Bourne Identity
Roger Rabit
Ice Age
Monsters Inc

 

[Luis S]

Sadly the local Mart, hasnt broke street date in ages. Probably my fault too. I use to exploit the hell out of it. However on the upside I got a local Mom&Pop that breaks date by as much as 3 weeks at times! Sometimes I pay a little extra, but with something like say LOTR,its worth it just to have it almost a month early!


Luis S

 

[Christopher Cheadle]

I've never had the "luck" to hit a B&M outlet in the greater Dayton area that breaks street date. However, I did receive my copy of Suspiria (3-disc set) exactly 2 weeks before the official release date from a very large online retailer. It's the only time it happened with them, so I imagine it was just a stocking/shipping mistake.

 

[ColeKR]

I actually believe Mr. Show was bumped up a week.

 

[Nathan*W]

Saw Rocky & Bulwinkle a week before street. Simpsons Season 3 as well. Different stores, but both major retailers.

 

[Malcolm R]

US stores are constantly breaking street date. Makes me wonder what the point is anymore. Most seem to still adhere to the date, but if you look hard enough you can find early copies of most anything in any given week.

The price tag chain had lots of the 8/26 catalog titles out this past weekend already. Rather ironic, since I've visited their store on a weekly basis since 8/5 looking for the catalog releases of the "Critters" films and nearly a month later they have yet to bring a single copy of those into the store.

 

[Mark Philp]

I've seen this quite a bit here in upstate NY, but not so much in places you might expect, like certain discount stores or electronic stores. There's a large regional supermarket chain here and they had "Harry Potter" out in a huge display at the entrance to each store the entire weekend before the release date. I asked the video manager about it and she told me the order came down from "corporate" to put them out early. By saturday evening a big discount store in the same plaza had their's out too. I've seen this happen in other stores since then. If the distributors really wanted to stop this practice they could always ship the titles directly to each store overnight so they wouldn't arrive until the actual release date. I guess it's easier just to "look the other way" with their big accounts. I'm not one of these people who has to have it the first day, so it really doesn't matter to me either way.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

By saturday evening a big discount store in the same plaza had their's out too. I've seen this happen in other stores since then. If the distributors really wanted to stop this practice they could always ship the titles directly to each store overnight so they wouldn't arrive until the actual release date

When one store in an area breaks street, it is permissible under the understood rules for everyone else to as well so they can compete. Shipping to the individual stores would be outrageously expensive. Most retailers ship to central or regional warehouses, and truck or ship from there to the stores.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Then by that logic, there shouldn't be any problem with anyone here announcing what store has what disk out early, right?

Glenn

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Yes there is Glenn, because then the studios see what store it is, the store gets in trouble, and then no one breaks street As long as it's kept quiet on a local level, usually it doesn't get back

 

[Glenn Overholt]

But the whole idea behind it was to get all of the retailers enough time time to get it, esp. the mom & pop stores., in stock.

Trouble? I don't think the studios care at this point.

Let's say that K-Kart breakes the date. A studio rep sees it on sale. (Actually, they could hire just about anyone to go out and find it, and buy it - getting proof)

Instead of sending K-Kart their next order, they send them a letter saying that they will be shipping their next order the day of release, thus ensuring that K-Kart cannot get them out on the shelves on time.

They could recruit us. Send us enough to buy 2. We keep one and mail the other back with the receipt.

Now, who's running the show now? The studios, not the stores. K-Kart would have a fit. It isn't like they can buy them from omeone else, and it isn't like they can say - well, we just won't buy your product anymore!

Glenn