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Topic: Is Wal*Mart ditching Blu-ray altogether?

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 12-03-2009 04:56 PM

Wal*Mart used to have a decent selection of Blu-rays. They even had a $10 section of them. Granted, it was never on the level of Best Buy or whatnot, but they were there. Now all of the Wal*Marts that I have been to lately have next to no Blu-rays at all. Maybe it is because poor people can't buy Blu-rays and mostly poor, mentally ill people shop at Wal*Mart? Why does Wal*Mart hate Blu-rays.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-03-2009 05:57 PM

The two Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Club in my town has Blu-ray discs, but not very many of them. I think they have reduced their stock of BDs due to shoplifting. Sam's usually keeps the new releases locked up in an area near the front. They have a few discounted BDs out on the sales floor, but most of those movies are older titles.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-03-2009 06:39 PM

They never had much to begin with Bobby... remember how I used to complain about the Wal-Mart by my house. I remember you sayying they had alot in your area though. The few they do have here are movies no one wants. Same for the Wal-Mart by Mike Henan. Target is much better stocked in both Utah and Arizona. Joe is screaming bloody murder on Facebook because Best Buy has raised all their prices just in time for Christmas. I'm still buyin from Amazon.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-03-2009 07:00 PM

Maybe Wal-Mart decided they can't make any money on the stupid things. Retailers are screwing themselves out of any and all profits by trying to top each other on price. The public has contributed to this by making "price" the all-important consideration, service and selection be damned.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-03-2009 09:19 PM

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
They never had much to begin with Bobby... remember how I used to complain about the Wal-Mart by my house. I remember you sayying they had alot in your area though.

Our Wal-Mart stores used to have a pretty good selection of Blu-ray discs. However, a few months ago Wal-Mart cut that stock of BDs down by more than half and filled the empty space with a couple shelves for a few BD player models. I don't understand that choice. They have another aisle featuring a bunch of cheapo DVD players that don't appear to be moving. Why not fill some of that ample space with some of those Blu-ray players?

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Joe is screaming bloody murder on Facebook because Best Buy has raised all their prices just in time for Christmas. I'm still buyin from Amazon.

When it comes to selling Blu-ray Amazon is kicking every retailer's ass, including Wal-Mart. I bought 8 movies on Blu-ray from Amazon in November and saved over $100 compared to what stores like Wal-Mart were charging for the same titles.

quote: Mike Blakesley
The public has contributed to this by making "price" the all-important consideration, service and selection be damned.

Stores like Wal-Mart don't provide what I consider service, much less a decent selection. Half the time you can't even go into the store and simply pick up a disc and buy it. You get to deal with locked cases or cages up front and flagging down an employee to retrieve the disc.

I understand why big box stores like Best Buy or movie stores in malls need to charge more for the movies. But they rarely have the kind of variety I expect to justify the higher prices.

Basically Blu-ray is going through the same thing DVD did a decade ago. At the end of the 1990s I was buying most of my DVDs online because the price and variety of movies at brick and mortar retailers was a joke. Once the prices and selection improved enough I did all my disc buying at the regular stores instead of ordering them through the mail.

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Mike Frese
Master Film Handler

Posts: 465
From: Holts Summit, MO
Registered: Jun 2007

posted 12-03-2009 09:30 PM

As a video store owner, I buy from WM weekly as my costs per copy are $3-5 per copy cheaper than traditional distribution. I spend a bunch each week. I also know the electronics manager well.

WM does not mess around with product they do make a decent return on. BR has been a slow go up until recently. My numbers were pretty laughable until the past month. WM has been dealing with the the major releases each week and maybe another 50 titles. They will not stop carrying them. they carry what they need and for the mainstream consumer that means this week's major new releases.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of buyers is not like Claude (wish I had you by my store). WM has also cut back on total dvd skus (especially TV).

I think you will more titles after Christmas because of demand. Target in my area is similar.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-03-2009 09:43 PM

Overall public demand for Blu-ray has been improving steadily over this past year, even on new releases. This week's #1 seller, Angels and Demons saw 25% of its total unit sales from Blu-ray. The problem is a lot of those BD sales are being made online.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 12-04-2009 04:05 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
You get to deal with locked cases or cages up front and flagging down an employee to retrieve the disc.

I had to deal with the same thing when I went into one a few days ago to get a beard trimmer (since mine went missing). No one that walked by knew who had the key and when I got someone to send out a page that I needed help, no one came. I eventually, just got tired of it, put back the other thing I was gonna purchase and left. They didn't deserve my purchase.

And the Target in the same neighborhood had no locks on any shavers/trimmers and for pretty much the same price. I doubt that people are more likely to shoplift the same products costing the same price from a Walmart instead of Target.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 12-04-2009 04:46 AM

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Joe is screaming bloody murder on Facebook because Best Buy has raised all their prices just in time for Christmas.

I am? Bloody murder?

quote: Bobby Henderson
You get to deal with locked cases or cages up front and flagging down an employee to retrieve the disc.

This is why I am glad that Circuit City is gone, all of their employees fired, now homeless and eating dried up sidewalk earthworms in an attempt to survive. Any time I wanted to buy a game there, I had to flag someone down and only one person in the store had the proper key. I had to do the same thing at Best Buy when I bought my DSLR.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-04-2009 08:53 AM

So Mike B. do you know off hand what is the profit margin is a place like Best Buy is making if they sell a current film on Blu Ray for $26.95??

Mark

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-08-2009 10:00 PM

Mark - prices vary somewhat by studio, but just as an example - our dealer cost on the widescreen version of "Public Enemies" is as follows:

Blu-Ray: Dealer cost is $23.19 for a 2-disk version

DVD: Dealer cost is $18.89 for the single-disk version, $23.29 for the 2-disk (yes, a dime MORE than the Blu-ray).

"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" has a dealer cost of $29.25 for the 3-disk Blu-ray, $25.25 for the 2-disk DVD, and $21.25 for the single DVD.

I'm not sure exactly what Best Buy and the like is paying, but their costs could be around 5% lower than these because they buy case lots.

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 12-09-2009 11:56 AM

Considering that Amazon is selling Public Enemies on Blu-ray for $19.99, one would hope that their cost is considerably less than $23.19. Night at the Museum 2 is even more significant, as Amazon's price is $19.99 compared to your stated $29.25 cost.

I'm quite surprised at how high those costs are that you listed! I would think it would be nearly impossible for a small shop to make any money on selling DVD's and Blu-ray discs.

I wonder how long it will take for the studios to drop the DVD-only editions altogether? Disney and Warner Bros. have been including DVD copies with some Blu-ray releases, which makes it easy for someone who hasn't taken the high-def plunge yet to buy the movie and watch it on DVD now, and enjoy it on Blu-ray when they get a player.

In the case of Night at the Museum, the single-disc DVD is $15.99 and the Blu-ray is $19.99, which includes the single-disc DVD. There is a 2-disc "Monkey Disc" DVD release available, but that second disc sounds pretty worthless. $4.00 to have the Blu-ray disc included seems like a really good deal to me, and I would think most people would agree.

I'm sure that there are people that still don't want to pay anything extra, but I think that crowd will lean more increasingly towards rentals, which I think the studios are going to start restricting in content (no extras, movie only).

DVD has become the cassette tape to Blu-ray's compact disc. I remember working in a Musicland in the mid-80's and watching the CD's take up an ever-increasing amount of shelf space, as LP's and cassette tapes took a proportional hit in their shelf-space. By the time I left to go to college in fall of 86, the LP's were relegated to two columns, and the CD's had taken over half the store.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-09-2009 01:50 PM

quote: Scott Jentsch
I wonder how long it will take for the studios to drop the DVD-only editions altogether? Disney and Warner Bros. have been including DVD copies with some Blu-ray releases, which makes it easy for someone who hasn't taken the high-def plunge yet to buy the movie and watch it on DVD now, and enjoy it on Blu-ray when they get a player.

Universal Studios Home Video wants to bring back the "combo disc" format in the form of "BD-59," a flpper disc featuring a dual layer BD-50 on one side and a dual layer DVD-9 on the other side. Remember the HD-DVD/DVD combo format. This is the Blu-ray version of it. They're going to ship the three Jason Bourne movies as separate releases in January (currently the trilogy is available on Blu-ray only in box set form). Universal is planning to ship another movie or two in BD59 format during January as well.

Universal wants to ship a single SKU home video product covering both Blu-ray and DVD bases. I think they could do that just the same with two separate BD50 and DVD9 discs in the same package. But no. They gotta get everything onto just one disc because there is more harmony in the world if everything can be neatly crammed onto only one platter.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-09-2009 02:56 PM

quote: Scott Jentsch
I'm quite surprised at how high those costs are that you listed! I would think it would be nearly impossible for a small shop to make any money on selling DVD's and Blu-ray discs.

Scott - why do you think most every small shop in the land is going out of business? The only reason ours still exists is because it's inside an auto parts store.

Wholesaler prices are also the reason why many smallish stores actually get their inventory FROM places like WalMart. It is indeed difficult to make much profit. Most people think we pay $10 for a $20 item, when in reality we pay closer to $16 or $17.

Take note that, at the end of my post, I said that Best Buy and etc. probably pay somewhat less because they buy case lots. Amazon probably pays even less because they buy by the pallet load, and alot of Amazon's business is conducted through "sellers" who are unloading excess inventory below the typical dealer's cost.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 12-09-2009 04:34 PM

I don't understand Amazon. Sometimes when I buy something there, I get a request to leave feedback. I usually never leave feedback. How am I supposed to know if I am supposed to leave feedback or not? This isn't friggin' eBay.

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