Hollywood Video to shelve DVD next to VHS? (1 Viewer)

[Jan Strnad]

The manager of my local Hollywood Video mentioned that Headquarters has instructed them to shelve DVD and VHS together, by title. They think this will make it easier for patrons to find the titles they want.

Is anyone able to verify or disprove this rumor?

Jan

 

[David Williams]

I wouldn't be surprised since Blockbuster already does this. I think it's the stupidest thing... The video section should be shrinking not merging with the DVD section.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I dislike this as well. I was very upset when BB did this and to see HWV make the same mistake is sad. The advantage of DVD by itself was that the entire shelf range to search for titles was smaller, now it's all stretched out because of the VHS's being mixed in. And if you find a title on VHS, but no DVD, you have to wonder, is it supposed to have a DVD and you just can't find it there, (like a customer misshelved it, or is no DVD available).

 

[Mark Philp]

I've noticed this in a number of stores around here. I guess it's latest merchandising "trend" to hit the video trade. My local store manager told me since they're getting in far more DVD than VHS it only makes sense to group them together instead of having a whole other section for fewer and fewer tapes It's like back in the days of VHS and Beta, they'd shelve them side-by-side and then when Beta finally died they didn't have to re-arrange the whole store.

 

[Malcolm R]

Movie Gallery has just done this in our local store, as well. Blockbuster has always been this way since they opened here.

 

[Jan Strnad]

Well, that's all bad news, IMHO.

I never, ever rent VHS anymore and have no interest in digging through a bunch of tapes to find the DVDs I want. I can imagine that VHS renters, who don't have DVD players, feel the same way about DVDs.

Jan