my wal mart doesnt have alot of Blu Ray in stock.

[LoneWolfCub]

so my Wal Mart doesnt sell Blu Rays. just wahts recently released movies. they do not have the $5 bin like other Wal Mart has. and they no longer sell cds. just vinyl records. around here only place to buy Blu Rays is amazon and online. we had a pawn shop thast had millions and sold them for $4 each even the seasons were $4. each. but they got in trouble with trafficking and stolen items. and got shut down.

[JDub1]

The Wal Mart where I live use to have a ton of Blu ray's in house, but now it's a small number.

[Monterey Jack]

I haven't been able to find decent Blu deals at Walmart in years. The Pandemic really accelerated the process.

[hockeyshark91]

Sadly, I think many retail stores are the same - Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Frys, heck, I'm not even sure Frys exists any more.

[scififan73]

It's not just that stores aren't stocking blus, this is a known and accelerating issue for years. They also aren't showcasing WHY an average shopper might wish to upgrade.
Disclosure, i am by these board forum standards pretty old. I turn 49 this year. I have worked in retail around the latest and greatest all my life.
Canada used to have an electronics chain called Future Shop, roughly equivalent to an American Best Buy (who did in fact gobble up the chain). 20 years ago when dvd first arrived, Future Shop had demo rooms in store in which the latest big screens were coupled with the latest high end audio in surround sound.
Coming from a vhs background these rooms made a hell of an impression, with their thundering, encompassing surround sound the likes of which i had thought possible only in a movie theater. They obviously impressed more than just myself as we did brisk business in not only dvds,but also cutting edge receivers and surround audio. Working here was where i would first gaze in amazement at just how much was possible to recreate in one's own home as far as capturing the movie going experience.
Today's stores?
Dozens of tv's all crammed next to each on on a shelf or wall, no breathing room and certainly not wired to any kind of real sound system. The picture is usually just an internal demo loop if lucky, if not than just a crappy satellite signal split 50 times like at the store i work in now.
There is no sense of wonder at what might be possible if one drops a few thousand, only a cookie cutter approach that caters to a lowest common denominator.
Streaming, everyone watching everything on an iphone, no one caring about actually OWNING the content they pay for are some of the reasons no one cares for higher quality than dvd.
And of course, very few shops left that set up in store the reasons why to actually want to upgrade.

[meremortal]

It's been happening for years. Probably around a decade ago was the last time I really remember a decent selection in the big chain stores. It used to be fun in the days when BB had the upgrade & save promotion and were giving away lots of coupons. I'm having more trouble recalling how WM has shifted, though I remember their Black Friday deals being pretty good in some previous years. Bringing up BB again, it used to be insane how many shelves of dvds they had in the mid 2000s. You could spend hours looking through them and get exhausted. They used to even have multiple employees working the dvd aisles answering questions and finding titles. But those days are long gone.

[Scarriere]

I’m not sure if they’re organizing or what, but yesterday I was in Walmart and only the $5 bin had movies. Everything else is gone.
I mostly buy movies from the Amazon links here, but it’s jarring to see them all gone.
I’ll miss browsing movies like I already miss doing that with cds and books.

[MazeRunner]

Walmart only sells hundreds of DVDs and Childrens Books, both of which will end up at pawn shops (DVDs), thrift stores (kids books when they age out of them), or landfills (both).

[civiclx]

Originally Posted by hockeyshark91

Sadly, I think many retail stores are the same - Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Frys, heck, I'm not even sure Frys exists any more.

I'm not sure which one closed first but the one on Hamilton and Brokaw are both closed along with the one in Fremont along 680. I'm a Best Buy guy (and Target more these days) but I enjoyed browsing Fry's from time to time.

[hockeyshark91]

Originally Posted by civiclx

I'm not sure which one closed first but the one on Hamilton and Brokaw are both closed along with the one in Fremont along 680. I'm a Best Buy guy (and Target more these days) but I enjoyed browsing Fry's from time to time.

I miss Frys a lot, that was my go-to for blu rays, they had at least three to four isles of them, remember those days?

[LoneWolfCub]

well theres a few sellers on ebay. that sells blus for 3-7 bucks. i always buy from. with free shipping or .25 cents additional. ebay is always my go to. yea im noticing that too. with black friday and blus. the next county wal mart it has the $5 bin. and my big lots has started to sell movies again. dvd and blu ray and cds. they stopped years ago but recently brought it back. years ago bf was fun. but then i learned that the price is the same all day. so i went later on in the day. i went to black friday 2021 around 5 or 6 am. it was a ghost town. no cash registers open. and some police standing around in a circle talking. and hardly any movies. and the stuff wasnt even picked thru. i say alot of people done online. only like 2 workers in site. i had to go back to electronics and pay for my stuff.. of course you all seen the wal mart ads. i only went for motley crue greatest hits red vinyl record. and hobbit and lord of the rings trilogy blus. plus picked up the marksman.

i dont have a best buy target or anything near me. their in the big city which is like 100 or more mile trip counted both ways. only go to the big city when i have a dr appoitment. but all we have is a mcdonalds, dairy queen, gas stations, dollar store and family dollar. and then subway. a mexican restraunt, pizza place. and 2 or so family owned restraunts. and a save a lot. nothing else. wal mart and big lots are of course in the next county. just one of those counties that has absolutely no buisnees

[sfmarine]

My Walmart surprisingly had a decent 4K selection but it's been drastically cut down now. They still seem to stock DVDs the most.

[Dellbeam]

It kinda sucks because more people see streaming as a better option. I don't know if that would lead to Blu Rays and 4k discs being considered obsolete in the coming decades because I liked having my own collection of physical media. Especially since I had a case of DVDs that I had when I was 5-10.

[AeroK]

I have better luck at Target than Walmart. If I want something really hard to find I may try Movie Trading Co. or HPBs. I’ll never completely abandon the format simply because I don’t know if I will always live in an area with high speed internet.

[Wingman1977]

Originally Posted by hockeyshark91

Sadly, I think many retail stores are the same - Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Frys, heck, I'm not even sure Frys exists any more.

Your assumption is correct. A lot of B&M retailers have scaled back on 4KUHD/BD.

Originally Posted by sfmarine

My Walmart surprisingly had a decent 4K selection but it's been drastically cut down now. They still seem to stock DVDs the most.

That's beginning to be the case for a lot of B&M locations. They sell more than 4KUHD/BD.

Originally Posted by Dellbeam

It kinda sucks because more people see streaming as a better option. I don't know if that would lead to Blu Rays and 4k discs being considered obsolete in the coming decades because I liked having my own collection of physical media. Especially since I had a case of DVDs that I had when I was 5-10.

They feel it's a more convenient option than anything.

[sfmarine]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

That's beginning to be the case for a lot of B&M locations. They sell more than 4KUHD/BD.

I know but it still blows.

[gardengirl1331]

Where I live there aren't many stores any more. Over the last 5-8 years we've lost probably 10 stores NOT counting most of the stores in our worthless mall (the owner raised rents like mad and every store but maybe 7 have since closed, now it's all just boarded up). We have three walmarts within 20miles of the house and 1 target. Our little stores like big lots and the dollar stores don't carry many dvds. The Walmart we go to shrunk their movies down to 1 aisle, but the last time we were there they seemed to have added some! When new movies come out they carry all three versions usually. The selection still isn't great, but I do manage to buy something most times we go (which is only like 6 times a year or so) I do buy from them online though, better shipping and the prices are the same as amazon, returns are easy. Plus unlike amazon they ship movies right away (I had a movie preordered on amazon 3 months before release date and two weeks after it still hadn't shipped, so I canceled and ordered from Walmart and it got here 2 days later), I won't pay for prime so they throttle shipping on us, where walmart ships within a couple days and sometimes gets here the next day, without having to pay them for the "privilege".

B&N closed in 2020 due to rents, but they just reopened in another location a couple months ago, so we can finally go look through books again, but sadly it's a much smaller location and they skipped movies/music much to the disappointment of all of their staff, and customers too. Maybe if enough people complain they'll get a small section again, but their prices are way too high.

I do buy a lot on ebay and used to from there. But it really sucks there aren't any more stores to browse.

[TheBluRayBandito]

It was only a matter of time before they cut down like other retail stores. Last I checked, some of the stores around here still had an aisle, both side, of movies and the boat; some with DVD bins. Some stores even have two aisles worth. I just wonder how long it'll be until we have to order exclusively online.

[fighthefutureofhd]

I still make a point to shop at my local record stores even though it is majorly inconvenient for me. Not to mention more costly. it's about 10 miles from my house to the local record store that I normally go to. I don't drive and there isn't a convenient, safe way to travel via bus. Which means I have to Uber/Lyft. That adds about $40 dollars to the cost. And that is on the low side. Meaning if Uber/Lyft isn't being its usually assy self. Otherwise, it could cost $40 just to get there. But I do it. And I do it for a myriad of reasons, but there is one simple one. I want to keep record stores from going extent. They are VERY important. More than anyone realizes. As Penny said, "if you ever get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends". And I have been doing that for 32 years.

Originally Posted by meremortal

It's been happening for years. Probably around a decade ago was the last time I really remember a decent selection in the big chain stores. It used to be fun in the days when BB had the upgrade & save promotion and were giving away lots of coupons. I'm having more trouble recalling how WM has shifted, though I remember their Black Friday deals being pretty good in some previous years. Bringing up BB again, it used to be insane how many shelves of dvds they had in the mid 2000s. You could spend hours looking through them and get exhausted. They used to even have multiple employees working the dvd aisles answering questions and finding titles. But those days are long gone.

I don't think it's been a decade or so. That would put it around 2012 and back then there were still plenty of stores selling Blu-rays AND cds/vinyl. In fact F.Y.E. was still big in my neck of the woods and Best Buy still had a huge stock of both cds & vinyl. I think things started petering around 2016 or so.

Originally Posted by LoneWolfCub

well theres a few sellers on ebay. that sells blus for 3-7 bucks. i always buy from. with free shipping or .25 cents additional. ebay is always my go to. yea im noticing that too. with black friday and blus. the next county wal mart it has the $5 bin. and my big lots has started to sell movies again. dvd and blu ray and cds. they stopped years ago but recently brought it back. years ago bf was fun. but then i learned that the price is the same all day. so i went later on in the day. i went to black friday 2021 around 5 or 6 am. it was a ghost town. no cash registers open. and some police standing around in a circle talking. and hardly any movies. and the stuff wasnt even picked thru. i say alot of people done online. only like 2 workers in site. i had to go back to electronics and pay for my stuff.. of course you all seen the wal mart ads. i only went for motley crue greatest hits red vinyl record. and hobbit and lord of the rings trilogy blus. plus picked up the marksman.

i dont have a best buy target or anything near me. their in the big city which is like 100 or more mile trip counted both ways. only go to the big city when i have a dr appoitment. but all we have is a mcdonalds, dairy queen, gas stations, dollar store and family dollar. and then subway. a mexican restraunt, pizza place. and 2 or so family owned restraunts. and a save a lot. nothing else. wal mart and big lots are of course in the next county. just one of those counties that has absolutely no buisnees

I don't quite think you are right on that. As far as 2021's Black Friday anyway. Sure, people were shopping online for Black Friday, but we were still in the midst of a pandemic with many places still on some sort of lockdown. Not as many people got out. Things have dramatically changed over the last few months though. The last Black Friday I participated in at stores was in 2019 and they were slammed. The pandemic changed that. I suspect we will still start to see more normal Black Fridays this year and in the coming years.

[bmudRB]

My Target has even less. It’s super pitiful.