Wal-Mart cutting back DVD and Blu-ray display area
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike @ Oct 6th 2009 2:57PM
Yep, I was in my local Wal-Mart just last week and was stunned at how much they'd scaled back on discs.
Cap BD @ Oct 6th 2009 3:00PM
Love how the picture is a Target display. I wouldn't have braved a Wal-Mart either.
fred durst @ Oct 6th 2009 3:06PM
Since the turn of the century I have only purchased one movie at a brick and mortar store, and that was Dark Knight because I couldn't wait to see it again. Other than that everything I buy is via amazon or some online retailer. Now that I think about it practically all of my electronic purchases have been online minus my Xbox 360. Wow, times have changed.
Billy THERE U R! @ Oct 6th 2009 3:15PM
Walmart is EPIC FAIL! Bleh***
I would NEVER set foot in that trashy place.
Bozster @ Oct 6th 2009 3:22PM
Well it was obvious.. Digital delivery is the next step. Optical media is dying rapidly. There's no money any more in it. People either rent, or stream or whatever but they don't want to own a piece of plastic that will collect dust. It's just the way it is. Lesson learned from DVD days.
dagamer43 @ Oct 6th 2009 4:30PM
You do realize that once we go purely digital, there is no "owning" content, only licensing it for several devices, requiring you to purchase a NEW license for EACH device you own.
No, if you were smart, you wouldn't be playing up the death of optical media, and we haven't even gotten into issues of "claimed HD quality" of 1080p digital downloads. At 8-10Mb/s, that stuff is a JOKE.
DEEZNUTZ @ Oct 6th 2009 3:57PM
Yup, my point exactly. Yeah, all the BS fine print aside, I still know that I OWN that disc that's on my shelf, can SELL that disc on my shelf, can LEND OUT that disc on my shelf. Neither of the above will apply with digital movies. Not to mention the shitty HD quality.
David S @ Oct 6th 2009 4:06PM
Some people like 67% less bits for their content, Others don't.
Fortunately, everyone can choose between the highest quality format and lesser quality formats that offer other comparative advantages- whatever they might be.
But Brick and Mortar hasn't been a good place to buy packaged media since the dot com era. Why it took 10 years for Wal-Mart to figure that out, idk.
Ben @ Oct 6th 2009 4:31PM
dagamer43,
Vudu HDX content is 1080p24 and has Dolby Digital Plus audio all in a 9Mbps stream and it looks fantastic.
David Susilo @ Oct 6th 2009 4:33PM
Digital download? yeah right. The quality of digital downloads (AppleTV, cable, satellites) is sub-sub-sub-par to Blu-ray. And that's just the picture quality. The sound quality is even worse.
hmmmm.... @ Oct 6th 2009 5:24PM
"no money any more in it"?
Packaged media still makes about $15-20 BILLION dollars/year. It has already made ~$8.8 BILLION thus far in 2009 between rentals and sales, with Q4 coming up.
In the same timespan, digital delivery (including cable and sat. VOD) has made $968M.
Hmmm....$8.8B >>> $968M
See here:
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/1700397-post46.html.
Where is the money again???
Jonsson @ Oct 7th 2009 3:42PM
The incredibly tiresome soore looser have spoken again. Nothing new just the same retarted BS.
DEEZNUTZ @ Oct 6th 2009 3:53PM
It's sad. I will always want that dust collecting plastic, over some proprietary file that is still under the control of another company, or hardware maker. Should they have an copyright issue with the movie you just bought, will they just not allow that file to play anymore? Will they remotely delete the file from whatever player you have it stored on? (See Amazon Kindle and what they did the the e-version of 1984). It just seems that the more we move towards digital, the more rights are being stripped, and the less you can do with the file/movie/license/whatever their legal department wants to call it.
Digital Delivery isn't ready for prime time. Even with disc rentals (which I love!), I can take it to how many other friends homes to watch it with them, or hell, even lend it to them and ask them to mail it out right away. Tough luck trying to do that with any digital delivery. Short of carrying your laptop, your SOL.
Color me surprised if they incorporate all the convenience of having a physical copy of the movie (transportability, etc.) in an all digital medium. But I just don't see that happening.
Chip Douglas @ Oct 6th 2009 3:57PM
I have bought one Blu-Ray disc on impulse this year when I first bought my player. I have since purchased a few more titles from Amazon. Otherwise, I rent what I want to watch or stream. I am not purchasing and definitely not replacing titles like I did with DVD. I don't know if this is just the "Economic Downturn" and trying to save money on entertainment, or if it is a growing trend. I am not interested in amassing a collection of videos like I once did in the past.
pvcleave @ Oct 6th 2009 4:24PM
Read the actual article. Wal-mart is not getting rid of DVDs or Blu-ray disk, they are simply getting rid of the end aisle displays to clean up the store image. Wal-mart accounts for 33% of disk sales.
Andy Sullivan @ Oct 6th 2009 7:40PM
It will always boil down to what is worth owning to YOU and the rest we'll just rent because we do not really care to watch it more than once. I own Transformers, Dark Knight, Spiderman trilogy, Twilight (wife), Watchmen, The new Star Trek when it comes out, and a few other PQ and SQ driven movies. Those seem offer the exceptional qualities that many will pay the extra coin to own. Blu-ray sales are male dominant and action adventure driven. It's not hard to track the biggest sellers over the last three years.
justme @ Oct 6th 2009 5:46PM
Owning discs doesn't make sense to me anymore. Oh sure, I bought into it with DVDs, but I'm not making that mistake again. After you watch it once, you're like, 'Ok, now what?' Then it ends up collecting dust on the shelf. Oh sure, you can display em like trophies... "These are movies I own and can watch whenever I want but hardly ever do" And sure, everyone has a few movies they'll watch more than once. But really, rental is good enough for most movies. Plus I get HD movies on cable and on demand. If all movies were made digital and were available whenever you wanted based on a subscription, I'd be fine with that.
Andy Sullivan @ Oct 6th 2009 8:29PM
Justme, you're assuming that a collection of preferred movies (to you) is nothing more then a bunch of movies. Many many people have libraries of books and are very proud of them even though they may only read most of them once. A collection of anything from stamps to baseball cards can be a source of enjoyment and pride of ownership. They don't take up that much space, can be traded, shared, or just watched at you leisure.
justme @ Oct 8th 2009 3:49PM
I have a huge collection of movies, both on my shelf and in DVD storage boxes. At one time, I was buying a movie a week. There are some titles I've bought multiple times.... The original edition, the special edition, the extreme edition/director's cut, etc. I even picked up an application just to catalog all the titles so I knew what I had. My friends used to joke that my collection rivals what you could find at Blockbuster.
But at one point I began to question why? Why did I NEED to own a movie? There are a few titles that I watch over and over, but the vast majority I hardly watch at all. I really didn't NEED to own most of the titles. So by the time Blu-Ray came out, I decided that I was done purchasing discs. It's nothing against Blu-Ray. I have a Blu-Ray player. I watch Blu-Ray movies. And I watch DVD movies. But I don't need to own them anymore. It's just far more economical. And I get the same enjoyment out of the movie simply by renting or requesting on demand.
DavidB @ Oct 6th 2009 8:28PM
DVR's are hurting disc sales way more then the tiny tiny tiny amount of download sales are.
ddrumer @ Oct 6th 2009 9:13PM
Glad I read before I double posted . . . that is so a Target display!!!! Anyways, there is nothing like owning the disc of a movie you really love. With my collection growth slowing due to salary cuts, I, however, still can't resist a little indulgence now and again. Wal-mart usually gets the money . . . seems like that will stop . . . . . . . . .
T-bone @ Oct 6th 2009 10:02PM
Wouldn't they have to "scale up" Blu-ray to more than the 2 shelves on each end of the isle with the Blu-ray players in order to scale down?
I was in my Wal-Mart about 2 weeks ago and they had more Blu-ray than the previous visit...go figure.
mntwister @ Oct 7th 2009 5:14AM
Walmart is only ridding the stores of the center isle displays of sale priced items, which at the current time are the $10.00 Blu-rays and 10 and 5.00 dvd's. But if you look at the stores, they have actually expanded the electronic isles to hold more discs, so they really aren't getting rid of anything except isle clutter. Take a look next time you're there.
Evan @ Oct 7th 2009 1:25PM
I've NEVER been able to find a movie I've been looking for in Walmart without a lot of effort.
- Blu-Ray movies are not in alphabetical order.
- movies are face-out, not spine-out, so you have to flip through movies to find one.
- movies are in displays according to price.
Walmart is displayed for people who come in saying "I want a $5 movie today", or "I think I'll splurge and buy a $10 movie today". They are not displayed for people who know which movie they want before they enter the store. As far as I'm concerned, Walmart's inability to effectively sell movies to people who actually care what they are watching is part of their problem.
Jvirg1 @ Oct 7th 2009 3:12PM
I don't agree it makes sense. It is crazy. Listen to yourself. You just said when it comes to these purchases Amazon is better so let's stop selling them. Well, you can't beat Amazon for many things. And retailers like Wal-Mart are now moving more and more items to online and not stocking and store employees are saying look online. If I am going to look online I will go to Amazon. I go to a local store to bring it home today. Wal-Mart is what they are today because they had great prices and great selection. More and more I walk out of the store not finding what I want and never have I gone on to Walmart.com to order it I went to Amazon. 5 years down the road Wal-Mart will regret decisions like this.