Physical Media might not be dead, but Physical Media in Retail Stores are accelerating the death (1 Viewer)

[Worth]

Laserdiscs were certainly expensive, but not quite that expensive. While some of the box-set special editions could easily go for $100 or more, the average disc price was closer to the $30-40 range. Fox discs were always stupidly expensive, for some reason. I remember paying $75 for the first barebones widescreen disc of Empire Strikes Back.

 

[TJPC]

Laserdiscs were certainly expensive, but not quite that expensive. While some of the box-set special editions could easily go for $100 or more, the average disc price was closer to the $30-40 range. Fox discs were always stupidly expensive, for some reason. I remember paying $75 for the first barebones widescreen disc of Empire Strikes Back.

I worked for a school board which purchased a laserdisc system for each school. We were allowed to borrow it on weekends, which we used to do once a month or so. Our public library and one or 2 movie rental places also had them.

My best memories of the experience was the “Forbidden Planet” set which had loads of fascinating extras the VHS did not have. My worst memory was watching “Lawrence of Arabia” and having to cross the room to change or flip the disc every 20 min!

 

[BobO'Link]

Laserdiscs were certainly expensive, but not quite that expensive. While some of the box-set special editions could easily go for $100 or more, the average disc price was closer to the $30-40 range. Fox discs were always stupidly expensive, for some reason. I remember paying $75 for the first barebones widescreen disc of Empire Strikes Back.

Those prices are interesting... It's been a loooong time - my recollection was that everything I had interest in purchasing was $75-$100. I considered joining a Laserdisc Club (IIRC it was Columbia House) just for "reasonably priced" discs - even then the average cost was in the $40 range. Try as I might I just couldn't justify that plus the cost of a player. My wife would have killed, skinned, and hung me out to dry if one had shown up. I had enough trouble justifying blank tapes.

 

[jcroy]

Laserdiscs were certainly expensive, but not quite that expensive. While some of the box-set special editions could easily go for $100 or more, the average disc price was closer to the $30-40 range. Fox discs were always stupidly expensive, for some reason. I remember paying $75 for the first barebones widescreen disc of Empire Strikes Back.

This approximately mirrors the brief time during my excursion into laserdiscs back in the early 1990s. The ones which were somewhat more "expensive", were Criterion released laserdiscs I purchased such as Blade Runner and Akira.

At the time, the Criterion Blade Runner laserdisc was orders of magnitude better than the then-current VHS versions in both picture quality and extra stuff. (This was before the director's cut was released).

The few other laserdiscs I purchased, were mostly around $40 or so.

The only reason I ever purchased any laserdiscs in the first place, was that back in the day my then-gf had a laserdisc player which she used for karaoke type stuff. If she didn't have one, most likely I would have never purchased any laserdiscs at all.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Speaking of niche formats, there was CED video disc. All the bulk of LaserDisc, with the bonus of subjecting the discs to damage from contact with playback needles.

 

[Ron1973]

When was the last 8-track player made? All the ones I have are probably 40 or more years old, but they still work.

They were still present in the 1990 Radio Shack catalog. I have one of the ones featured-it's just a simple, no frills player. I'm only the 2nd owner. A German couple had it, sold it at an estate sale, and the buyer flipped it on eBay without ever using it. He said he also had another player he'd got from the same sale, but he kept it for personal use. It's in mint condition and isn't a bad sounding little deck 8-track wise.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Speaking of niche formats, there was CED video disc. All the bulk of LaserDisc, with the bonus of subjecting the discs to damage from contact with playback needles.

Funny you should mention this. I'd never heard of this format until I read a post on another forum by a guy who not only has titles in this format but still has a player that can play them and just watched something in it. Here's the quote:

Yesterday watched Saturday the 14th on CED, brand new sealed disc played for the first time. Ridiculously short movie, and they crammed side 1 pretty full leaving just a few minutes on side 2 where everything wraps up.

I still watch things on VHS myself, but that's the only out-of-fashion format I use right now.

 

[Mysto]

Well Walmart has weighed in on the discussion. This is where their research is taking them.

https://thenextweb.com/insider/2018...a-video-streaming-service-to-take-on-netflix/

 

[Mark Y]

Today, while I was waiting for my car to be repaired (it took 5 hours!!!), I went around to the local retail stores to shop around. Now I live in the western suburbs of the metropolitan Chicago area, and I couldn't believe the reduction of space for physical media in 3 major retail chains, Best Buy, Target and Walmart. Now, I did read that Best Buy and Target were going to start eliminating CD's to be sold in the store.....but what I am talking about here, is not only CD's, but DVD's and Blu-Rays too!!! I couldn't believe it!!

Best Buy out of the 3 major chains is getting close to nothing. The store by me use to have 4 aisles of tv shows on DVD and Blu Ray.....it now has been reduced to ONE aisle. CD's didn't even have an aisle.....just one 4 shelf stand and one of those barrels with a bunch of CD's throw in big barrel like stand with 4.99 as the clearance price. Movies on DVD were still somewhat ok.....but their were only 3 aisles (they had tripled that amount at one time). And a stand in front of the store with new releases (even a couple of Lionel Richie Vinyl albums?). I was amazed how much space they reduced for physical media.

Target looks like they have already started drastically reducing CDs already. I usually go to a different Target (by my house) which has a bigger selection. But the Target I went to today (by my mechanic) had close to nothing as far as CDs....and the DVD/Blu Ray selections seem to be for movies only (very little TV shows though)

Walmart was the biggest surprise though......CDs there were about the same as Best Buy (one stand with about 4 shelves). They had more movies and TV shows then the other two retail chains, however there selections were reduced as well. But the most shocking thing (to me anyway) was they were literally selling Cardboard like cards with a picture of the movie on the front of it to buy just the digital code.....and it wasn't cheap.....some movies were 14,99....for the digital copy? They even had some movie collections (like the 3 Ghostbusters movies) to buy digital for like 29.99? I couldn't believe it!!!

I guess I am just old school.....I like owning the physical disc and just pick it off my shelf to play whenever I want. I really don't like streaming......or saving anything on a cloud.......I know some people like the new technology (and I'm not a 100% against it).....I just can't embrace owning something on a cloud, I feel as though these are more "services" like cable than an ACTUAL PRODUCT. And these "services" can change hands often for me to lose ownership to media I already bought and saved on a cloud.....again....sorry.....just old school. Today was just kind of an eye opener for me on how retail chains are handling the physical media situation.

Thankfully, there is a Disc Replay store (sells used CD's, DVDs and Blu-Rays) that was next door to Best Buy. And another Book Store down the street that also sells used books, CD's DVD's and Blu-Rays. Both of these stores had tons to choose from (and cheap!!!) And then there is always Amazon too (and hopefully they are not going to trend the same way as the 3 retail chain stores). I'm just wondering if, like vinyl records that seem to have somewhat of a "comeback", will apply for CDs, DVD's and Blu-Rays once they become extinct in the future......I guess time will tell.

Is this in Countryside by any chance?

 

[mrz7]

Is this in Countryside by any chance?

Yes…..it this area I am talking about is Countryside, Illinois.

 

[Malcolm R]

Noticed yesterday my Walmart has recently shrunk the CD section by 1/3.

 

[JamesSmith]

Noticed yesterday my Walmart has recently shrunk the CD section by 1/3.

I noticed that too on at my Wal-Mart.

==jthree

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Went into Best Buy today. This store had been holding out pretty well in terms of physical media... last week they finally eliminated all CD's, except for the clearance bin up front. (They apparently consider $5.99 to be a good clearance price...)

This week, they cut their DVD space roughly in half. A couple of weeks ago there were 5 1/2 rows of DVD/Blu-Ray/4K releases (rows, not aisles), and 1/2 row of CD's. Now it's down to 3 rows of video.

There's no stopping the decline, I'm afraid. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more protest over the disappearance of "shopping" as an experience. I used to love shopping in music stores, bookstores and video stores and I thought there was no shortage of people like me. But apparently the lure of the couch trumps all.

I've really grown to hate new technology in the last 10-15 years. It's been a couple of months since I even turned my cell phone on.

 

[TJPC]

My last “shopping” experience was in the era of large music stores. With DVDs and Blu rays, my wants have become so specialized that it is impossible for me to find anything I want except occasionally at exorbitant prices in any store, unless it just came out that day and it is say a Marvel release.

The closest thing to shopping recently occured when I would pull an empty cart up to the Walmart dump bin and fill it with rejected Blu rays while I sifted through the bin for things I didn’t have on Blu ray yet. (These dump bins still get my vote for the stupidest way to sell movies ever.)

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Yeah, I have a similar experience... I've already bought so much of the video and music I want that the stuff I still need tends to get more and more obscure, and places of the Best Buy/Wally World type don't even come close to having it. I'm more likely to find stuff at flea markets and yard sales than in a store now.

It's even that way with new releases. I looked through Best Buy trying to find the "Martian Chronicles" miniseries and season 1 of "Mr. Mercedes." Nothing doing.

They still have some TV on DVD, but most of their stock is now superhero movies, Disney films, and some anime.

 

[jcroy]

This "obscurity" thing was already a reality for me more than a decade ago, in regard to music cds. Even before the mass closures of record stores over the 2000s decade.

The kind of music cd titles I was interested, were only really available from the original record company or amazon (if they bothered to even carry it).

Fast forward to the present, it is now dvd/bluray's turn in this sorry state of affairs in regard to scarce availability of non-popular titles in offline retail stores.

 

[jcroy]

I've really grown to hate new technology in the last 10-15 years.

I would be thinking the same thing too. Though for me, I attribute my mentality to getting old and tired and seeing the world of my youth fading away into the dustbins of history.

ie. Basically I can never go back "home" again.

 

[BobO'Link]

Like many of you, my "needs" have become more esoteric or just plain impossible to find in a store. That's mostly because I have all the "new" stuff I want, music or movies, and tend to concentrate more on "catalog" titles, which most stores have never carried in any decent quantity. I was purchasing CDs online in the dial-up days, long before Amazon was invented, because local stores didn't carry what I wanted or at a price I was willing to accept (and we had a Hastings who had a fairly decent stock but not as much deep catalog that I was looking for).

Years ago I'd dig through the WM dump bins looking for that bargain. I've not bothered with one in several years although I do look at what's laying on top as I pass by. They're rarely worth the time and effort for the dollar or two I'd save and would rather spend my time watching something and just give an online vendor those couple of dollars to not have to waste the time at WM. That said, there was a horror 2-fer I heard about a few months back I did look for, but I also used brickseek to see if it was in stock before I bothered. With that knowledge I was able to go to the one area store that showed to have a copy and found it in just a few minutes. That's the only title I've purchased from a dump bin in at least 5 years. To echo Terry, it's the stupidest way to sell DVD/BR that I've ever seen.

 

[Suzanne.S]

I too, am usually looking for something much more obscure than any of the local stores have. Years ago Borders used to have a decent amount of catalog DVDs including silents, but they were at MSRP. I miss the shopping experience of looking at the artwork and exploring the shelves looking for titles to jump out at me. I miss the video store rental experience as well. I loved chatting with strangers about movies. Now I do nearly all of my shopping online unless it's something brand new that Randy wants to watch right away.

The Internet has been a double edged sword. I have access to more movies than ever before but I miss out on the community exerience of shopping or browsing.

 

[TJPC]

My most “notorious” experience occurred at a K-Mart type store (Sentry department store in Windsor Ontario) almost 50 years ago. I should have have know better, but store choices were limited unless I went down town. I was just getting into classical music and was flipping through their tiny classical section when the employee asked “can I help you?” I told her I was looking for a recording of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. Her response was to point to a list posted on the wall and ask “ What number is it on the CKLW list of top 40 hits this week?”!