Best Buy doubles blu-ray prices

[TheMovieGraveyard]

I had some Best Buy points convert into rewards recently and went to go buy some stuff from my Saved list on their site. Was shocked to see just about everything on my list was pretty much double the price of when I last looked. There still are some weekly sale titles but most titles on their site have been switched to full MSRP. For example Ghostbusters Afterlife on regular blu-ray is currently $38.99.

I've never seen any retailer do this before. Are they just ready to get out of selling movies online as well?

[Therion]

Looks like they're trying to push TotalTech.

See my longer post here https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=16065

[dvdvhsvcd]

like Barnes and Nobles between random sales

[Blaze_Chamberlin]

You can still price match.

[dlbsyst]

Originally Posted by TheMovieGraveyard

I had some Best Buy points convert into rewards recently and went to go buy some stuff from my Saved list on their site. Was shocked to see just about everything on my list was pretty much double the price of when I last looked. There still are some weekly sale titles but most titles on their site have been switched to full MSRP. For example Ghostbusters Afterlife on regular blu-ray is currently $38.99.

I've never seen any retailer do this before. Are they just ready to get out of selling movies online as well?

That's what it looks like to me. Who's going to pay these prices?

[bakechad]

This thread is obviously focused on movies, but this Totaltech price thing goes beyond movies. Best Buy has inflated the prices on nearly 200 different in-store items ranging from increases of $10-$900.

To get the "normal" price, you need to join Totaltech.

I'll shop elsewhere.

[JurassicBD]

Sounds like they've started taking notes from amazon prime: save their better deals for subscribers only. Though in the case of BB, which has been largely responsible for many, if not most of amazons best media deals, this is likely a desperate effort to keep amazon from matching their promos. It's always sad to see BB offer a new deal, 1-8 hrs later amazon pricematches the deal, and yet it's usually amazon that sells out first, for deals that aren't even their own, and that they don't really even highlight to their customers, but every deal tracker on the internet promotes it for them. I guess it's possible that BB might be better prepared for the promo, by increasing their stock of sale items before they go on sale. But, considering how fast they sometimes sell out too, often before amazon even gets around to matching them, I don't think that's always the case. Regardless, if that's what they're after, it'll backfire. Most people simply aren't going to subscribe to a $200 service, unless they're making a one time big purchase (higher end tvs, appliances, computers, etc), and it pays off in the savings on the purchase or the added support they'd be getting from it - in which case they're not likely to renew. Those who might be inclined, just for deals on more routine purchases, likely already pay amazon $140 per year for a service that they'll no doubt perceive to have better value, considering the vastly greater variety of items amazon carries, generally faster shipping, streaming and other benefits. Mostly deeper pocket subscribers might likely subscribe to both. The same kind of person who joins both Costco and Sam's Club. People more interested in paying extra for the service than saving money.

That said, I've got over a dozen BDs in my saved list and only a few went up, but not by a large margin, and one of those has already dropped back down to where it was during the holidays. Amazon raised their price on the same items soon after, btw. BB hasn't been focused on carrying a lot of back catalog titles for years. They're not a specialty media vendor that needs to have as large a selection as possible. They're more about inventorying newer releases that draw more interest. Once stock is low enough and interest has dwindled, it's not uncommon to see stores like this revert to SRP pricing. BB has done so for years. Which is why some people still think amazon has competitive prices. They do when you compare older titles that places like BB, target, walmart, don't actively promote any longer, if they carry them at all. But most of amazons routine weekly deals, regardless of product category, are mere pricematches of the bigger competitors, excluding the vast amount of Chinese brands that are sold through them exclusively.