What about the retailers?

[MerrickG]

There is all this talk about Warner jumping ship to bluray exclusivity will end the format war, but what about the retailers?

Where do they stand on all of this? They have to be putting some pressure on the studios.

[SS316SRV]

No they don't. Retailers put pressure on customers to buy. They don't care where it comes from or where it goes as long as it has a low buy-cost and a high sell-cost.

[WickyWoo]

Yes they do care, and retailers are pushing for the end of it as well

[SS316SRV]

They don't care which format wins, they just care if it sells.

[Vonscoot]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Yes they do care, and retailers are pushing for the end of it as well

Absolutely. Retailers are hesitant to give larger shelf space to HDM because of the lower sales when compared to DVD. Having to provide space to 2 HD formats only results in fewer choices for the consumer. Once one format prevails, retailers will dedicate that old HD format space to the winner, resulting in more selection and more titles instock. This of course benefits all of us here.

[darinp2]

If Warner and New Line make a move then I could see retailers following by decreasing the shelf space for the other format. I was at Fry's in Renton, WA the other day and in the main section they have 4 shelf segments for Blu-ray and 3 for HD DVD, but I found a lot more BDs in storage around the store than HD DVDs. They have bins of them underneath and not just underneath the high definition section. They have some on the other side of the aisle and even in another aisle. Not saying they would, but if they decided to move the HD DVDs out at that point, they would have had way more than enough BDs to fill all 7 shelf segments.

--Darin

[mystiksuicide]

As soon a blu started to take a commanding lead the Toshiba endcap came down.
There are now 5 blu endcaps and 0 hd dvd

[quetzalcoatl]

Originally Posted by SS316SRV

They don't care which format wins, they just care if it sells.

I think you are wrong here.

Where do you think the better margins are?

And since there are many more CEs making Blu-ray palyers there will be more combo deals since almost every CE that makes a Blu-ray player also makes a TV. And the retailers like being able to sell packages.

[oldmike]

yep its hard to give store space to stuff that just sits there
thats why most have 2 times the Blu-ray
they want a end so they can know what to push to make more $$
cant tell me that they dont make more per disk on a HDM then DVDs

[bkbluray]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Yes they do care, and retailers are pushing for the end of it as well

+1 Retailers are going to stock more of what sells more. If HD-DVD sales decline (which they will), they will have no incentive to keep HD-DVD on the shelf. Instead, they'll make more room for Blu-ray and regular DVD.

[MerrickG]

Im getting this weird feeling that the retailers may actually be the ones forced to decide.

Id rather Warner decide in our favor.

[HeavyHitter]

Every retailer I go to that sells HDM has a 2:1 ratio of BD to HD movies in stock/for sale. This includes Best Buy, Target, etc.

If Warner doesn't make a move soon, the retailers will (and should).

[GregBlu5]

We've seen this for a few months already. More and more shelf space to Blu, less and less to HD. Pretty soon, probably after the 1st of the year, we'll likely see more and more stores stop carrying HD altogether.

If Warner does go exclusive Blu at the CES, this will be the major signal the retailers need to dump HD fast and furiously, and they'll tell customers: "Since only two movie studios support HD, we stopped carrying it. It wasn't selling."

HD could begin to vanish so quickly, we'll hardly know it happened before the war is effectively over.

(This is the aspect of the Betamax vs VHS wars that does apply. Retailers no longer wanted to support two formats and Beta's space shrank and finally disappeared from most retail outlets.)

-Greg

[Crackbone]

The two most powerful forces @ work in this format war are the studios and the retailers.

It was like this for the last format war, and it'll be a defining factor once again.

The Red Ants don't see it. The PS3 is going to get BD over the hump, acclerate the sales to the point where either the studios or the retailers make the decision.

HD DVD's flaw is thinking that the mainstream would have any decision in the outcome of this war. It's going to be over long before any of the mainstream customers ever buy in.

[ckenisell]

I don't buy the "shelf space" argument. If it sells, they'll find the room. Why do you think HD-DUD is still on the shelf. Granted, it doesn't sell as well as Blu-Ray, but the retailers are making some money selling the HD-DUD discs. And they'll get to turn around and resell those titles in Blu once DUD goes away. Bam. Double-dipping.

[mystiksuicide]

They won't just eliminate hd dvd they will just be given a smaller area. Of course the consumer will see this and buy blu players and blu movies.

Sales will continue to favor blu so hd dvd area will shrink yet again until it finally and gradually just disappears.

[Elandyll]

Warner has admitted in their public release that the reason they shelved (ah ah) Total HD was because of retailer pressure to limit the numbers of formats.

I think it is therefore logical to think that retailers are also pressuring to have only 1 format.
More space for leading format. Less confusion for consumers.
More $$.

[Phane]

I'm just sick of retailers not knowing a damn thing about either format and saying stupid stuff like HD-DVD upconverts DVD's and Blu-ray doesn't and that Upconverting DVD players give the same video quality as HD-DVD and Blu-ray at a fraction of the price. If they trained their damn employees properly, the format war might end faster.

[mystiksuicide]

Well, you can't expect much from the retailers when you pay someone minimum wage. They should always seek the Magnolia employees if those stores have one.

Those employees get sent to seminars every 3-4 months. That's why you will usually see most of them are Blu-Ray backers unless of course they are xbox fanatics but even most them will say they have both.

[CptGreedle]

I know that the retailers would love to see the war end, cause then they could use fewer shelves for their HDM until it catches, on, and more importantly, they can replace all the loosing shelves with the winning format and go all out promoting it. Right now I find it difficult to get them to promote HDM, they still tell people to buy DVDs.