Who to buy from to get counted in sales figures?

[Robert Siegel]

As you all know, Warner has been in the news lately to see how the holiday will pan out, with Harry Potter, since it is being issued in both formats, being an important release in their decision making.

I want to buy this set not only because I love the movies, but I also want to support Blu-ray at a critical time (the possible Warner decision). Does anyone know for sure which stores to buy from that actually get counted in the weekly national sales figures? That's where I want to buy. I had heard Walmart does not get counted....does Target? Best Buy? CCity? I hope everyone will do their part to help Warner see the (blu) light:-)

[richteer]

Originally Posted by mntwister

As you all know, Warner has been in the news lately to see how the holiday will pan out, with Harry Potter, since it is being issued in both formats, being an important release in their decision making.

I want to buy this set not only because I love the movies, but I also want to support Blu-ray at a critical time (the possible Warner decision). Does anyone know for sure which stores to buy from that actually get counted in the weekly national sales figures? That's where I want to buy. I had heard Walmart does not get counted....does Target? Best Buy? CCity? I hope everyone will do their part to help Warner see the (blu) light:-)

All of those (with the exception of Walmart) are counted in the Neilsons.

[AlaskaDon]

Best Buy and Circuit City are counted, Wal-Mart is not. I'm not sure on Target since we don't have any here and I've never bothered to find out.

Amazon is counted, but not sure about other on-line retailers.

[Robert Siegel]

Thank you everyone, appreciate the response. Wow, it's funny not Walmart, because they are supposed to be the biggest retailer of dvd in the coluntry, does anyone know why they aren't counted? It's just as well, I prefer to give my business to other retailers anyway. I have had very good luck ordering from Amazon, so I am glad they are counted. That's where I will order Harry Potter.

One final question, I wonder how the studios look at box sets compared to individual releases? Any feedback?

This is a tense time with Warner watching the season. I really hope Warner stays smart and goes with Blu-ray which would end this format war which is good for no one. If they go hd-dvd, then we have a split and that could stop both formats from entering the mainstream, except for combi players, which would have a big future if that happened.

Last question, does anyone know if Kmart and Target sales are counted?

[Clark Kent]

The studio themselves know their own sales figures. Not as fast as Nielsen does for specific title counts but obviously they can figure out their total sales for a particular title, it just takes a longer period. People shouldn't worry about buying from a non-Nielsen tracked retailer. Warner still can figure out how many copies of Harry Potter it sold in total on BD, even if every copy happened to sell at Wal-Mart.

[Phane]

Originally Posted by mntwister

it's funny not Walmart, because they are supposed to be the biggest retailer of dvd in the coluntry, does anyone know why they aren't counted?

Walmart claimed it stopped sharing it's sales data because their competitors were using it to strategically compete against them.

[AlaskaDon]

Originally Posted by mntwister

One final question, I wonder how the studios look at box sets compared to individual releases? Any feedback?

Box sets only get counted as a single title. That really doesn't matter much though. The ones that the numbers are really important to are the studios and they can take into account that the single SKU was actually multiple titles at the higher price.