Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[qwertyuio]

Originally Posted by mar3o

This is all over the internet. Pretty sure it's happening.

Every single place talking about it on the internet is referencing the digital bits article so ... that is not some sort of validation. The guy does rampantly speculate and he's been completely wrong about things in the past, but if this happens it won't be shocking to me.

The bigger loss here will be black friday sales, as Amazon tends to only price match competitors, they do not often push new boundaries when it comes to having sales. Target and Walmart have always had poor selections in their movie sales compared to Best Buy, especially in 4K titles. Bestbuy is the one that pushes the $6-10 price range 4K releases during those sales with the display shippers, and once they disappear I'm not seeing much motivation for Amazon to do anything other than keep up with Walmart and Target which are also dying in physical media selection.

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by qwertyuio

Every single place talking about it on the internet is referencing the digital bits article so ... that is not some sort of validation. The guy does rampantly speculate and he's been completely wrong about things in the past, but if this happens it won't be shocking to me.

The bigger loss here will be black friday sales, as Amazon tends to only price match competitors, they do not often push new boundaries when it comes to having sales. Target and Walmart have always had poor selections in their movie sales compared to Best Buy, especially in 4K titles. Bestbuy is the one that pushes the $6-10 price range 4K releases during those sales with the display shippers, and once they disappear I'm not seeing much motivation for Amazon to do anything other than keep up with Walmart and Target which are also dying in physical media selection.

As a former employer of Best Buy and actually working the media department off and on for 9 years, my co-workers and I called this back in 2018. You could just see it. 2019 was the year where it all got crystal clear what was coming. When Disney launched that onslaught of 4K catalog titles both in steelbook and regular SKUs and the stuff was either collecting dust or being sent back (even when Best Buy would put them on sale for great prices), it was over. COVID accelerated what was already in the works. When the second biggest Best Buy store in my area remodeled last year and didn’t bring the discs back, I told myself that either 2023 or 2024 was going to be the year. I wasn’t far off.

[BrandonJF]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

As a former employer of Best Buy and actually working the media department off and on for 9 years, my co-workers and I called this back in 2018. You could just see it. 2019 was the year where it all got crystal clear what was coming. When Disney launched that onslaught of 4K catalog titles both in steelbook and regular SKUs and the stuff was either collecting dust or being sent back (even when Best Buy would put them on sale for great prices), it was over. COVID accelerated what was already in the works. When the second biggest Best Buy store in my area remodeled last year and didn’t bring the discs back, I told myself that either 2023 or 2024 was going to be the year. I wasn’t far off.

It has been a mystery to me why it has gone on this long. At the stores I go to, media does not seem to move.

All of the stores have abandoned maintaining the video game sections almost entirely. End caps where new releases used to sit are almost always empty. New product never makes it to the shelves. They just warehouse for .com orders. Best Buy kept making deals with Limited Run Games, which always seemed insane. Small indie titles that rarely even get in front of a customer. Why?

Last Black Friday, the rows of media shippers were no more. Maybe a couple in the store. That really should've been the warning shot that this was over.

Yet, they keep up with all of these exclusive steelbooks still! I always thought the exclusives were to drive people into the store. The low margins on these - and the past discount levels - seemed like loss leaders. What has been their purpose for the last 5+ years?

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by BrandonJF

It has been a mystery to me why it has gone on this long. At the stores I go to, media does not seem to move.

All of the stores have abandoned maintaining the video game sections almost entirely. End caps where new releases used to sit are almost always empty. New product never makes it to the shelves. They just warehouse for .com orders. Best Buy kept making deals with Limited Run Games, which always seemed insane. Small indie titles that rarely even get in front of a customer. Why?

Last Black Friday, the rows of media shippers were no more. Maybe a couple in the store. That really should've been the warning shot that this was over.

Yet, they keep up with all of these exclusive steelbooks still! I always thought the exclusives were to drive people into the store. The low margins on these - and the past discount levels - seemed like loss leaders. What has been their purpose for the last 5+ years?

The purpose was revenue but at a certain point, you just see the numbers. Couple that with Best Buy wanting to move into other avenues more heavily like appliances, mobile, and apparently health in the coming future, having media take up floor space just wasn’t worth it anymore. I mean, when I was working there, even on massive releases like Avengers Endgame and Star Wars The Force Awakens, we were sending more back than we were selling. That’s how bad it got. For context, I worked in the media department when Episode I The Phantom Menace came out on DVD. That was 2001, I think. The store I was working out had 500 copies of that thing on week 1. It sold out in a week. 500 copies! Barbie, the biggest hit of 2023, comes out next week. If a store got 75 copies of that thing, I can almost guarantee that maybe 30 copies will move in a month. That’s the perspective.

[EzioAuditoreAC]

Best Buy has confirmed the report.

[El Rey]

Originally Posted by mar3o

So you think every person that buys physical media is on these boards? Lol, not even close to being correct.

Originally Posted by MileHigh AI

considering El Rey ignored everything else that was said, yes El Rey probably does believe that. El Rey is exactly the type of person who the studios and companies love. El Rey won't actually question things and accepts what the corporate overlords say to like a good little lemming. If El Rey was anything more than that, El Rey wouldn't have cherrypicked the response to fit their narrative (which wasn't even a good response because as you pointed out it leads directly to the assumption that every person that buys physical media is on these boards, otherwise El Rey would have explained themselves better in their response if they didn't want that to be the takeaway.)

lol y'all seriously lack reading comprehension skills, the self-importance is strong here, evidenced by the nonsensical wall o' text posts.
Yes I am a corporate shill, a lemming, etc. Did you hit all the benchmarks that the one lonely synapse could reach for?
I am sorry you didn't get the response (attention?) you feel your aforementioned nonsensical manifesto required but sometimes the correct answer is the simplest (also trying to speak simple for you, I am sorry I am not fluent) and is the response you deserved
nothing was cherrypicked, the data is the data. Your mind is made up because feelings I guess, i dunno or maybe you don't know how to read data? A little from column A, a little from column B I suppose.
But if you want to rely on anecdotal evidence - there are posts from a BB employee in here who states he knew this was coming years ago and another poster stated that BB has confirmed this. Guess you won't be addressing those then?

[ryanmcv]

https://variety.com/2023/digital/new...es-1235754919/

Best Buy confirmed Friday that it is ending sales of DVDs. “To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”

[drb999]

The final Black Friday for blu-rays at Best Buy

[joshsquash729]

Man, what a shame. At the very least, I hope for some darn good sales as they try to get rid of inventory.

[ChrisLikesBatman]

Exclusive breaking news from The Digital Bits: https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/m...ts/101223-1100

Best Buy confirmed the news to Variety: https://variety.com/2023/digital/new...es-1235754919/




or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb.

.

[BillieCassin]

Why did this get moved to "collection galleries" ROFL?

[darichestman]

Yeah right it will be dead in a year in January I’ll be canceling my Best Buy credit cards and my BestBuy total and switching to Amazon prime

[Ruined]

In fairness, Best Buy is one of the worst places you can buy media.

15 day return policy, literally the worst in the business

And, god forbid you open something without noticing it got damaged in the mail, at least my best buys always give a hassle to return/replace. If they don't have it in stock, store credit only which is BS.

because of their terrible policies, only time i shop there for media is when they have an exclusive I want, and I buy a ton of movies. maybe thats part of the reason they are having poor media sales

[HD Canuck]

Originally Posted by Pip: The Movie Fan

If this is true and it goes through, Best Buy has lost itself a customer.

They've already lost me here in Canada as a customer. Pretty much no physical media. Their prices shot up after they acquired Future Shop. Can't even find a decently priced HDMI switch. Everything is so overpriced now.

[starmike]

I'm actually going to keep buying from BB until they stop. Maybe they'll get the message. Also, why do they sell high-end gear if they're going to drop the very media that gets you the best quality? Streaming is shit and nothing more than a convenience.

Also, the studios put digital out a month before discs. What do you think people are going to do?

[ChrisLikesBatman]

Originally Posted by Ruined

In fairness, Best Buy is one of the worst places you can buy media.

I think the issue is bigger than that. If one of the largest physical media stores stops selling physical media, the studios won't have much incentive to keep making physical media.

Best Buy is the first to go in 2024, but the others will likely follow.

[infiniteCR]

I'll cancel the card too. I only ever used the rewards on movies so not really worth keeping.

[soaptrail]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

Walmart is already the largest retail seller of Blu-ray, DVD and 4K titles

Really? Many locations have pitiful selections and low inventory on exclusives, plus getting a pre-order before they sell out on limited edition products is a crapshoot.

Walmart sells the most movies does not mean they have the best selection. It could simply mean that Joe Farmer goes there to buy the lastest blockbuster on DVD.

[Red Dragon]

Okay seriously... I was at the very least hoping for an awesome Best Buy exclusive steelbook for "Oppenheimer" along with a "Scream 4" steel to go along with the others they released, not to mention "Dune: Part 2" to go with the steelbook for the first film...

Amazon will probably provide the final Scream steelbook, and maybe even "Dune: Part 2" (maybe), but the "Oppenheimer" is a bit less likely...

Either way, this is a bit disheartening as I own many Best Buy exclusive steelbooks.

Oh well...

PS - I enjoy streaming as much as the next guy (I currently enjoy NETFLIX, MAX, HULU and Amazon Prime), but, having said that...



..."THEY KIN TAKE OUR LIVES... BUT THEY KINNA TAKE OUR PHYSICAL MEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[motorheadache95]

Man, long gone are the days I used to pop into Best Buy going through their aisles of DVDs and Blu-ray’s. Occasionally I would still stop in and check out what they had, which was usually a pretty small selection and expensive sticker price releases, but they did sometimes have a deal on a Collectors Label release or one of their steel books. But this update doesn’t really shock me.