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

[Alan Tully]

Who'd have thought that physical media was just a passing phase (well, with music, a rather long phase, first LP 1948 & CDs are only a couple of years away from their 40th birthday). Maybe movies & TV series are on the cusp (will these new epic fantasy TV series be released on Blu-ray like Game Of Thrones was?). Oh those happy memories of mooching around the vast Tower Records, Piccadilly Circus, for my money the best record store (HMV were good, but not quite in Tower's class & Virgin although huge, never had a good vibe to it). I (like I'd think a lot of members here) don't personally know anyone who buys discs these days, & a few days ago I met up with some old friends (known each other for more than 50 years), big book lovers, & they've gone full-on Kindle!

 

[BobO'Link]

I used to buy a lot of WA titles online from Target. They don't carry them any longer and they don't carry any Shout titles. If they're not carrying titles online then there is no chance they're carrying them in-store on their shelves.

Same here - I've purchased many WA, Shout!, and Kino titles from Target online, especially during sales. Only select Kino titles are left these days. The WA and Shout! titles have all disappeared in the past 6 months or so.

The last time I was in a Target the media in stock was mostly new(er) releases and had been significantly reduced in number (a single short row and two end caps for everything).

 

[TJPC]

I find quite often that even the "new releases" title is a misnomer, placed on a rack with various shop worn DVDs from the past year or two jumbled up with a few Blu rays.

 

[Sega]

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.

What you say is 100% right. I get all my DVD's from Amazon how. Book's also. BestBuy is all but gone.
Target & WalMart are good for other stuff. But DVD's ect. Pass.

 

[Sega]

When was the last time you visited these store's DVD sections? It's been happening gradually. It just didn't happen overnight. Every time I went to Walmart or Best Buy in the past, I would visit their DVD section, and each time it looked smaller and smaller than before.
I know I purchased a lot of DVD's online because they're cheaper than buying them in the stores. I'm sure a lot of people do the same so that probably has some effect on brick-and-morter store's business..
I could also be a regional thing. I noticed stores in different regions are stocked differently. I visited 2 Walmarts (one in a middle-class neighborhood, and one in a more affluent neighborhood. The "affluent" store had a larger DVD selection.

It's all about. Who has the $$$$ to burn?

 

[TJPC]

Walmart was matching Amazon prices as I recall. Each time I checked — at least pre-COVID, their price was always less already.

 

[Traveling Matt]

There's a good chance that the only thing that will save a lot of movies and TV shows from disappearing in the future to bad hard-drives and "who knows what else that we haven't thought of yet" is pirates and archivists technically participating in illegal activities.

I've thought about this too. I realized there's a global archive of movies, TV shows and music backed up that far surpasses on-site studio archives in terms of redundancy. It was illegally formed, but it was formed.

 

[Indy Guy]

In Hollywood we still have Amoeba Records which closely resembles Tower, Virgin and HMV of yesteryear.
It is huge and renews your zeal for questing or taking chances on unknown titles. While in there last week, I checked out the massive CD department to see if an album existed for the excellent 2017 Elvis doc, "Elvis Presley the Searcher". I hit paydirt! They had a 3 CD collectors edition including a nice booklet on the making of the nearly 4 hr film. (available in UK on Blu ray. US DVD only)
Big box stores killed this type of media emporium by mimicking a niche business model that was unsustainable on the retail scale of Walmart and Target. You have to have rare titles as well as recent hits to draw repeat clients to what should feel like a library. Once that aspect is abandoned as not being practical for the corner Walmart, profitability collapses.
Ironically the Tower Records model (as well as locals like LA's Dave's Video and Ken Crane's) might work again when the neighborhood big box guys are done playing around with their dusty shelves and bins of DVD junk everyday grocery and vacuum shoppers have no desire for.
I was in Paris a few months ago and had the chance to visit not one but 3 FNAC stores! This french media giant seems to be thriving by sticking to the Tower formula. They also create special deluxe editions exclusive to their label.
My prize FNAC purchase was the recent French romantic biographical film "Eiffel" in 4K. It hadn't been released yet theatrically in the US.
In French with no English subtitles, I was resigned to viewing the vintage construction of the Eiffel Tower "sans" dialogue. Then a tech friend brought over a thumb drive he had downloaded, plugged it into my Oppo player, and "Voila", English subs in perfect sync! Now I look forward to another deep dive in a FNAC store to discover more films I may have passed on due to soundtrack issues...the quest goes on, it's just a lot harder today!

 

[jayembee]

There's a good chance that the only thing that will save a lot of movies and TV shows from disappearing in the future to bad hard-drives and "who knows what else that we haven't thought of yet" is pirates and archivists technically participating in illegal activities.

One of the reasons why "lost footage" from many movies has been recovered is because of collectors who acquired prints of films back when that was illegal. The first time I ever saw The Wizard of Oz in color (well, one reel of it; there wasn't enough time for the whole film) was at the home of a collector who had a print.

 

[Kent K H]

One of the reasons why "lost footage" from many movies has been recovered is because of collectors who acquired prints of films back when that was illegal. The first time I ever saw The Wizard of Oz in color (well, one reel of it; there wasn't enough time for the whole film) was at the home of a collector who had a print.

Even with that, we’ve lost so much film, television and radio content because of executives looking to save/make a buck with no thought of the future, yet studios and executives are still hostile towards the people who have pulled their asses out of the fire in the past when a decision turned out to be short sighted.

I read the other day that the original Monty Python’s Flying Circus episodes almost got wiped like a lot of early Doctor Who. Thankfully, someone warned Terry Gilliam, who got hold of them.

 

[Alan Tully]

My niece must have around a billion digital photos of her son who's now 16. I told her that she should really pick out a couple of hundred of the best ones & go to a photo shop & get prints done (on non-fade paper) & put them in a photo book. I'm thinking that if something happens to the files, at least she'll have the pictures. I don't think she's done it. And I dunno, maybe she's right. I suppose it's my age & generation, & I just like physical stuff, & I understand that it's a big headache for the Hollywood studios now, all those billions of dollars of films on computer files.