Pricing in Canada (1 Viewer)

[Lance Nichols]

If anyone from Chapters/Indigo reads these sites, here is why I no longer buy DVDs from you. Typically your prices are $10-25 more per disc than any other online CANADIAN site (When I was looking to order the Doctor Who Collection, you were taking preorders on it (pre-shipping) for $70) and that is INCLUDING shipping on other sites. B&Ms have items (even older titles that are "not available" to you) in stock and cheaper.

Hell, it's cheaper to buy a disk from the States, have it imported, pay the duties and huge dollar value difference then it is to buy from Chapters/Indigo. Heck, even HMV is cheaper.

Oh, while we are on the pricing thing, I got an HMV gift certificate for Christmas from the in-laws. I went downtown and nearly choked on the pricing for some discs. I took a whole handful of ST: TOS discs to the counter and asked them if they would price match. HMV price: $25.99 per disc, Futureshop, and others: $19.99. HMV's answer: "No, we don't match with Futureshop; they get discounts because of volume." Ah, excuse me? HMV is Canada's largest music/video retailer now that Sam’s has left.... How can they NOT get "bulk order discounts"? Because I had the gift certificate, I did wind up getting discs that day, but not the outrageously priced ST: TOS discs. Instead I got the overpriced Faulty Towers set, Empire of the Sun, and (finally) Pleasantville.

Instead I went to my favorite small local shop bought ST: TOS 39 and 40, Pi, BtVS: Season 1, M*A*S*H: SEASON 1, and Deep Impact. HMV’s loss.

 

[Chris PC]

Yep. Use the power that you have in the marketplace and shop around. Buy stuff like DVD's at the lower price. I mean, sure, if you shop somewhere regularly and their prices are fair but not EVERYTHING is the absolute lowest, well, thats fine. If a place is charging way too much, well, they are relying on the business they get from people who don't shop around. So far, I agree that Future Shop is one of the best places to buy DVD's. I will continue to shop around, but Tower Records, Music World, HMV and Chapters are always way off the mark with their MUCH higher prices.

 

[Denny_S]

Now that we no longer have Tower Records and Sams, does that mean that HMV is going to be charging even more for their discs ?

Even with their book of coupons (which you had to spend $40 in the store before you got one), you get $4 off on DVDs priced at $32.99 or more which means that it may cost $28.99 for a DVD that will sell at Future Shop or DVD WAVE for $23.99 in the first place !

A recent example was the Dario Argento DVD 'Sleepless' - HMV's price : $34.99, DVD WAVE's price : $23.49 !!

It's about time that stores like CHAPTERS, INDIGO, HMV, MUSIC WORLD and others realise that there are other places where people can shop for their movies besides those MEGA chains with their MEGA prices !

 

[PatrickM]

I almost exclusively buy discs from Futureshop at the store since the pricing is always at least a $1 or even up to $4 cheaper in the store than on Futureshop's website here in Vancouver. I'm not sure why.

For instance, I believe Pearl Harbor was $27.99 on the website and I just picked it up for $23.99 in the store.

Patrick

 

[Lance Nichols]

I agree, HMV has been steadily increasing the pricing model on DVD materiel since the beginning of 2001. With Tower gone, and Chapters/Indigo being unable to price comptitively with HMV even, or listing titles as not available, it seems that HMV has the market to themsevles, at least in the "mega" chain. I have raipidly fallen in love with DVD Wave, but they can't have the seletion/volume that larger retailers should be able to afford. At least I would think that should be the case. It seems it is not, as "specialty" titles, like Criterion, or Anime DVD Wave has better selection on, and pricing.

HMV, et al are carrying more and more, but only "popular" titles, rare, unique and intresting titles are getting harder to find, and pricier. You would think that the minimal overhead that these titles would cary could be floated by the rest of the inventory. Instead they don't get brought in at all. I stopped buying at Tower becasue pricing was getting out of line, compared to HMV (which at the time was less expensive by $5-10 on slescted discs and had the "club" card), I should not have maybe, they carried a wider variety of films.

 

[Bill McA]

What is DVD Wave???

 

[Sebastian_M]

I have a friend who used to be a store manager for HMV and he told me that its the company's policy to have the highest markup on the market. That's why it seems like HMV's DVD prices are always through the roof, its their company policy for them to be like that.

Seb

 

[JohnN]

I see more and more people are wising up to these high margin Canadian B&M outlets.

I, for one, have stayed away from HMV, Chapters, Towers and Sams as I found them all to overprice all their dvds by between 20% to 30%

My dvd collection is now at 550+ dvds and I believe i bought 2 dvds only, at HMV when I first started my collecting in 1999. :b

Over the last 2 years in particular, since my collecting is weighted more to Foreign and premium Criterion releases, I have been more aware of store pricing policies.

I find that Future Shop usually has the best pricing on new Hollywood releases and as far as local B&M stores, Bay St. Video has the best prices for the more exotic, Premium, or foreign releases.

DVD Wave at 9688 Leslie Street(north on Leslie above 16th line) also has a large selection and condistantly good prices. They are more likely to maintain stock of Hollywood released items after Future Shop has run out of inventory.

However, for Foreign and Criterion releases, I have found that only Bay St. Video maintains a good selection but even they price these items at msrp+. U.S. e-tailers, however, continue to discount against both these categories both with preorders and regular pricing.

I have found that for many of my items with orders of 4 or more discs, I can save $10 Canadian per dvd shopping online net(even when you take exchange, shipping costs, Customs, GST and PST into account)...latest example is an order I placed with DVDPlanet yjat was delivered last week for which the average cost of the 3 Criterion dvds was $36.55 Canadian(+GST&PST) vs the best B&M price of $48 Canadian each(+GST&PST).

These days, a lot of my shopping is done from a shopping list where I have already found the best online price and use it to decide what I am willing to pay locally.

By the way, I would estimate that about a third of my collection was purchased online.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Morale of the story. Avoid HMV and these other dumb establishments. I usually buy from 1 of 2 wholesailers, get them early, and get them cheaper.

 

[Kami]

Tower Records, Music World, HMV and Chapters are always way off the mark with their MUCH higher prices.

I don't think Music World should be in that list. Their new release prices are very competitive. Sometimes titles are the same price as Future Shop and if not, usually only 1 or 2 dollars more. They always have a good selection of $15.99 and $18.99 bargain titles as well. As for catalog titles, they are expensive...but so is Future Shop for the most part.

My favorite places to shop for DVDs in Canada (in order) are Future Shop, Costco (new releases only), and Music World.

 

[Lance Nichols]

Yeah, I was tenting to by all my special intrest titles from DVD Empire, but I REALLY hate not keeping the money in Canada. DVD WAVE is by far the best I have seen for pricing, followed by FS - as long as it is not the catalog titles, but recent releases. I still have reservations about FS, as a former employee of a competiture with better business ethics. I fear what will happen as the coparate culture and clutter from Best Buy work their magic.

DVD Boxoffice was my favored online (Canadian) retailer, but thier pricing is starting to creap up as well, not to mention that the policy of including shipping costs on each title, makes them look inflated even more.

 

[MichaelPe]

Canadians really shouldn't complain. Sure, some stores overcharge, but overall, our retail prices are much better than those in the US.
While on a trip in Boston last weekend, I walked into Best Buy and they had a few titles on sale (I was told they had the best prices available). Let me give you some examples:
Pearl Harbor - $19.99US (Future Shop had limited quantities last week for $19.99CDN, but the rest were $23.99CDN)
Moulin Rouge - $22.99US (On sale for $19.99CDN last week at FS)
Remember The Titans - $19.99US (HMV: $29.99CDN)
Bridget Jones's Diary - $19.99US (HMV: $29.99CDN)
Crazy/Beautiful - $19.99US (HMV: $26.99CDN)
So, even our HMV prices are equal to or better than the best US prices.