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

[Corey3rd]

This is mixing two classes of show. Smallville, NCIS and Bones are current when it comes to DVDs. all their seasons outside the latest have been released. They're still considered New releases that get promoted when the come out right before the new season. CHiPs and All in the Family will have the problem of fighting for the limited shelf space. They won't have the same level of promotion since they're later seasons.

This condensing plays more into the Complete Season set is what a store wants to put on the shelf for their inventory. Last time I went to Best Buy and poked through the TV section, most they had up there was the latest release and only a select few series like Seinfeld and Family Guy had their older boxsets.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Scott, same here. 99% online buyer. The only issue here that concerns me is that, my perception of posts at HTF and some e-mails from one in the know, is that we online buyers represent a very small % of the TV/DVD sales. Maybe the online-buying trend is on the rise. I hope so, since the online buyer (my read on it) seems to be a more-informed shopper of these shows (edited, removed music/scoring, etc).

Hopefully, more potential buyers out there are switching to broadband 'net connects that helps online shopping big-time. I was fortunante that I had DSL available back in '04 when I first connected on the 'net at home and recently changed over to FIOS speed.

 

[John DeAngelis]

"Cutting back" is not the same as eliminating. "Eliminating" means to totally get rid of something. For example: I'm cutting back on food, but not eliminating it.

 

[RickER]

Ohh, i wouldnt of used food as an example...cause eventually you DO eliminate it!

By the way, glad to see the usual suspects Scott, Gary, and of course Mr. "high speed" Willis!

Hi guys.

I think we ARE a small minority.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Thanks, Rick "Boldly go where no man has gone before...", into the world of FIOS... If it wasn't for my dinosaur PC, the speed would be even faster (20/5 subscriber, typical speeds are 14M/2M), big improvement from my DSL days.

imo, if we on the 'net were a larger % of the pie, the TV/DVD mkt would be a different place. However, that said. I think that the online community, led by our resident heroes at TSoD and the HTF'ers here, made a big difference with the recent Fugitive issue. I referenced a TOS tribute to you on that thread in case you missed it

"In every revolution, there's one man with a vision"

 

[RickER]

Oh, yea, better check it out.

Sometimes the small minority makes a difference.

Do we have ANY B&M stores that cater to the non-mainstream public, for movies, TV and music? I cant think of any, cept maybe Boarders.

 

[ChuckWL]

More on the Borders plans here:
Borders To Shrink Music Shelf Space



They are cutting back on media and the company is cutting back as a whole. This company is not doing well:

Borders Group Cuts 136 Jobs, Or 12% Of Corporate Work Force
Friends are telling me to expect store closures in the future.

 

[Nick Zbu]

To be fair, Borders has never really been that stable. Their prices on media has always sucked and they pander to a consumer that only uses the internet to look at email. They never caught up with the idea that people buy stuff online because it's cheaper and without sales tax, and that selling anything for a premium price is suicide even when the economy is doing well. I'm a short distance from their world HQ and it's obvious that they don't have their heads on straight when they have three stores in the Ann Arbor area alone. The place is just there for college students or the higher-end consumers who simply don't know better. That's not a business model, that's a suicide note. It's not surprising they're going to be closing down some locations.

Best Buy, however, is just getting lazy. Again they're pandering to the consumer who has more money than sense, and a failing economy smartens people up right away. Sticking with large ticket items (that are optional, you don't need a HD TV to live) and overpriced appliances isn't a way to remain solvent. They used to have some good deals on their DVDs, but that isn't going to remain so if they limit their selection. A wide selection may take up space, but at least it provides an incentive for people to walk into the stores and browse.

It seems that brick & mortar stores are still having problems really facing what the internet can do for consumers, and still can't overcome it. It's been a good ten years. No wonder they're failing now, they don't even know the first thing about running a business.

 

[MCCLOUD]

You may want to consider ordering on-line from Walmart if you have a Walmart near you. I order from Walmart and use site to store. They ship it to your local Walmart and you pick it up there. You don't have to pay any shipping cost.

God Bless!

Robert

 

[Jeff*H]

Another problem coming from the reduction of DVD inventory in B&M stores is that the studios are also taking the hit by missing their forecasted revenue budgets that they depend on. DVD sales are down significantly and while Blu-ray is doing pretty good, it's not compensating for the DVD slide (and is still very overpriced on software). VOD, on the other hand, is doing very well with cable providers along with Netflix and Redbox. People are preferring to stay home and get their movie and TV entertainment that way during a tough economy where so many people are getting laid off. Plus, for every business that gets into trouble, it affects other businesses that supply them or benefit from them in other ways, a chain reaction. (Watch what happens when an anchor store in a strip mall or shopping mall goes down the tubes these days, the smaller stores around it are not far behind).

TV on DVD is not immune to this unfortunately, even though it's comfort food in tough times (and good times too, of course) for many folks including myself. I think right now the supply is exceeding the demand as people watch their dollars carefully. Stores are reducing inventory, so your favorite (older, slower-selling) titles are harder to find, as stores use that space to sell more popular current shows or video games and other more popular electronics software/hardware. Interestingly, it seems like both Universal, Shout! and Sony have slightly increased their classic TV output this year so far compared to '08, while CBS/P has started to pull back a little bit. 2 different strategies, it will be interesting to see where things go from here.

 

[Gary OS]

I'm with you all the way on those thoughts, Shane. I truly do believe we are going to see a downturn in vintage material. In fact even though we've heard some good news recently (FKB S3 among others), I really think we are already in the midst of the slowdown. At this point I'd be overjoyed to see some classic TV from Amazon's Burn on Demand program. I think that might be the only way some shows are going to see continuations.

Gary "take care, my friend" O.

 

[David Rain]

Um, are people actually still paying retail ? Seriously ? That's a joke right ?

 

[Mark Talmadge]

This is for MCCLOUD and anyone else who uses Walmart's site to store method for shipping. Stay away from that like a bad habit. Walmart's has the nasty habit of carelessly loading their trucks and tossing single items into various boxes. They don't exactly use care when shipping merchandise to their stores.

You're better off just ordering from Overstock or Amazon.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Mark, thanks for that tip! I've pondered doing this for awhile (Walmart online, picking up at the store) but the complete-online way has just been too convenient for me. The one exception for me is when I occasionally use DD instead of Amazon....I just prefer Amazon's auto-printout no-shipping return cost setup vs DD's. I have to trade a couple of e-mails with DD, wait for their RMA pdf attachment, print it out, etc., to get their free-return shipping svc. Amazon's is automatically free.

 

[irishsooner]

well! always enjoy the humor i get from the trashing of B.B. i work the media dept and i have seen the decline in dvd variety and also sales. pretty much when it came to anime we had to dust off the cobwebs every week. also seems that if you are under 40 or 30, you couldn't care less if we carried the old stuff. well maybe more so if under 25. as to me i can't remember buying dvds and my discount on a typical dvd basically pays the tax. our discount is almost near cost and even on blu-ray we are better off waiting for ad product. i use netflix as my movie or tv habit since i would only watch most things only once. another problem is the lack of new product coming out compared to just a few years ago. i was checking joblo.com and it was just awful so far this year. will agree our website needs a overhaul and a change in shipping charges. some of you might not know this but if you created an account in-store for bestbuy.com(credit card only) that the shipping charges are waived! only deal is i don't know if that is still true. we had a link on our toolkit that did that. well thought i would give my 2 cents, and i know rick(tulsa) knows my background and have talked about best buy stuff.

 

[RickER]

Im glad you posted Robert.

Yea, we have talked a lot about BB strengths and weaknesses. The Memorial store just isnt the same without you Robert, and thats the truth!

Your also right about nothing good coming out. Generalizing of course, most of the big titles are out! What i wouldnt give to get The Six Million Dollar Man, or Batman (66). I could name a dozen movies id love to have too. But the truth is, i know, that no one is begging for a release of Futureworld, or Year of the Comet. And if i walked into ANY store, not just BB, is get the blank look of , what the hell?

Glad i got Ghost in the Shell SAC 2nd Gig about a month ago. BB had it for $50. A damn good price for an anime box set. Most places have it for $80 to $100.
But that was the first anime i bought in YEARS, because of the reasons i stated in an earlier post, among them, anime has sucked of late.

Robert and i have talked often about BB being hit or miss on classic TV and movies, because we both love them.
I hope you guys have at least one guy like Robert in your local BB, cause most give you that blank look when you ask for any show or movie over 20 years old!

If BB has one problem, thats gonna get worse, its that they cater to much to young people, as most stores do. Maybe they need to remember us 40 to 60 year olds...we have monie too!

 

[ChuckWL]

Amazon has been shipping my DVD/Blurays to me in paper bubble wrap lined envelopes lately instead of boxes so I hardly call that extra care from Amazon since the disc boxes get smashed and 9 times out of 10 & I have to return them for damage.
(I have called them several times on this, like beating a dead horse )

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Just FYI:

Two weeks ago I went into the Best Buy nearest me (less than 2 miles) to purchase the newly-released "Rockford Files: Season 6" and "Columbo Mystery Movies: 1990" sets. I was astonished to see that most of the DVD section had been drastically scaled back in favor of Blu-ray. Even the "New this week" section was now almost all Blu-ray. Needless to say, I couldn't find the sets in question so I asked one of the "Blue shirts" to help me out on the computer. He informed me that the Best Buy store across town (about 20 miles away) did recieve four copies of each of those titles. I then asked him what was going on with their DVD section and he told me that they had made the decision in their store to scale back DVDs in favor of Blu-ray. I then "got on my horse" and drove to the Best Buy 20 miles away. I noted that they still had a failry extensive DVD area; but they had moved it all to the back of the store. Blu-ray was now featured prominently in the front of the store. The four copies of "Rockford Files: Season 6" were gone; but I *was* able to snag the last of the "Columbo: 1990" sets.

It was evident while walking through their DVD section that they were closing a lot of titles out. All the Anime stuff was on sale and most of the rest of the catalog titles were drastically reduced. While walking through the Disney section I spoted the OOP "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" two-disc SE on sale for $9.99 and immediately scooped it up.

I ended up ordering "The Rockford Files" set from Amazon. I doubt I'll be visitng Best Buy anymore except for computer stuff.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

The one thing I like about Amazon is that they ship you replacements DVD's before you have to ship back to them the damaged copy.

 

[irishsooner]

here in tulsa my store and the owasso store are going to top 20 anime dvds only. also best buy is cutting vendors back which looks like the end of indie product. really don't see criterion stuff because it never sold in the stores and customers usually bitched about the price and didn't do the research. as to not finding your rockford files season 6, i would have pre-ordered online for pickup because pre-orders have priority over walk-ins. usually better that way if most stores get 4-6 copies. now the big thing i hate working at best buy besides typical atitudes of high and mighty customers towards the employee, is the same old sales on 3.99-6.99 dvds. i say bring out the classic sci-fi/horror dvds and put them on sale or mix up the selection. go ahead and buy online from amazon or deep discount just to save a couple bucks because that couple bucks is our profit being a physical store and its costs. pretty much our big store is like the beverly hills of tulsa with high expenses.