Is This Why The Rental Chains Struggle?

[SPF 0]

I call my local Blockbuster and Hollywood Video to see if they rent Blu-Ray titles. The clerks in both places (including a mgr in BB) had never heard of BR.

Excuse me, but you freakin' work in the video business. How could you be so blissfully unaware of this?

Sheesh.

:::rant over:::

[vick vega]

Yeah that's lame that they are in the video business and don't know this shit. They have them online so you can do the blockbuster online deal, but I'm really not down w/ the whole online rental thing.

[ProvenFlipper]

I went to Hollywood once and inquired about BD rentals... The girl kinda knew what was going on but her facts weren't all there. I didn't hold anything against her because at least she knew something about what was going on. I laughed because she was really excited about it and called "Super High Definition," which is correct. But honestly, most of the people that work in the video stores are just clerks that get paid $8 dollars an hour to ring people up. Some of them are passionate about movies, but may not care about technology at all. Hell, they problably go home and watch movies on a tube TV and use the TV speakers for sound.

[Shadowself]

Unfortunately a huge percentage (most?) of the personnel in most CE, computer and electronics stores don't have a clue about what's going on.

Specific example from this past weekend...
I went into a CE store to get an adapter for one of my wife's gizmos. The intial reaction by the clerk was, "We don't carry those." When I explained more precisely what I was looking for (a power adapter that came in two distinct pieces) he then said, "Oh, those might be over here." and took me to the section of the store next to "his section". The then took two items off the shelf and said, "This is what you need." I did a quick glance at them and thanked him. (Turns out he had suggested two incompatible pieces. I had to go back and get another variant of one of the pieces in order to get it to work.)

Then I went to "look through" another section of general interest to me. I then noticed two different signs displayed in this section about no interest for one year and 5% off all purchases. I'd been considering buying a $2,000 item from that section for a while and both of these offers combined got me wondering about just going ahead and doing it. Both displays said to ask the sales staff for more details. So... I walked over to the nearest sales person and asked. He knew absolutely nothing. In fact, he picked up one of the signs, read it aloud and said to me, "It says you need to ask for details." What did he think I was doing?

When I asked if he could find out for me, he stepped over to the house phone and made THREE separate phone calls and talked to four different people (he spoke to them by name thus indicating four separate people) before he could find anyone who could give him the details on the deal.

While the clerk may have been the bottom of the barrel (when asked how late the store would be open that day his response was "until we close"), he should not have needed to talk to four different people before he found out what was going on with one of their sales.

I always try to support the "brick and mortar" stores, but this experience was asinine.

I'm always glad when I run into people like Brian -- and I make a special point to ask for the manager and praise them highly (both the individual sales person and the manager for hiring people like that sales person). Unfortunately, more often than not I run into the two people like this past weekend rather than people like Brian.

With regard to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video...
I returned a DVD a few weeks back that was scratched to the point of not being usable. When I took it back, the clerk went to look at it. How did she remove the disk from the package? By placing her thumb on the center post, placing her long, curved fingernails from all four fingers far under the edge of the disk and ripping the disk out of the package. For a couple seconds all I could do was stare. When she went to do the same thing to the replacement I was going to take home I quickly and emphatically stopped her. I then proceeded to show her how the release mechanism in the DVD container worked -- no fingernails under the disk required! From her reaction clearly no one had ever showed her how to get disks out of the containers!

To my dismay, a similar thing happened a week later in another store. When I commented about it to the sales clerk she said, "I didn't use my nails!" When I showed her how the release mechanism works, and you don't have to put your fingers on the underside at all, her response was, "My way works fine too." With the store manager looking on and not backing me up, I took the disk and left. I don't shop there anymore.

Like I said above, I like to support the "brick and mortar" stores, but I've found you have to be extremely selective -- and watchful -- in order to get what you want and need.

Ok, long rant over... I've just got to finish my third cup of coffee before I type these things!

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by Shadowself

Unfortunately a huge percentage (most?) of the personnel in most CE, computer and electronics stores don't have a clue about what's going on.

Ok, long rant over... I've just got to finish my third cup of coffee before I type these things!

You just described 90% of my co-workers...

[zombie]

I agree that the clerks who work at rental stores should at least have a basic knowledge of what Blu-ray is but that said, I don't have a problem with these stores not carrying BDs yet. The current market is way too small to make it worthwhile for most of them.

[phloyd]

It took a looong time before BB and HV carried DVD. They hated the idea. Now they seem to love them

No BD or HD DVD there any time soon I am sure... Netflix however...