Walmart experimenting with unique UPCs

[wormraper]

I use the my blu-ray.com app to categorize all my movies and use the wonderful barcode scanner to do so. I decided to recently add in a handful I had gotten from walmart into the system and they all threw back an error. I manually checked all the UPCS and realized they were different than the upc listed on the site... I had also got a copy of "Jupiter Ascending" for a friend from amazon and then had my copy from walmart as well. the versions were identical, but the UPCs were different. the one from amazon was congruent with the listing that this site and dvdempire and other hosting sites had + the press release from warner. the walmart version had a different upc.. and this isn't just some sticker put over the case or slip, it was an actual printed UPC that looked in all ways identical to the normal version except for the number. tonight I had to grab some groceries so I checked on several movies., I noticed they all had weird ending cents on the price tag. normally walmart does $xx.88 or $xx.96 for their price tags, but all of these have bizarre ones like $xx.43 and $xx.87 ... every single one that had those price tags (which was pretty much anything new) carried a different UPC .. I asked my the electronics cashier who knows me coming and going about it and he said that walmart is bargaining with the studios to have unique UPCS for all new movies from now on. it gives them the ability to deny price matches as well as make sure no one can return a movie from another store to them. all affected movies ..the regular UPC version doesn't even show up in their system, only the modified walmart only UPCs will show up


well, plus it has the annoying problem of creating discrepancies in the database when you try to use the barcode scanner. just thought I'd give everyone a heads up. affected titles include pretty much everything from the last few weeks, including "Jupiter", "Kingsman", American Sniper, Focus, P. Almanac etc.

[bigdaddyhorse]

I know it's hard for most, impossible for some, but try not to buy discs from Wal-Mart!

It was bad enough when they were getting in rental discs to sell, stripped of features and what-not. At least these have features and lossless audio, but yeah, a new nightmare is born, seriously. I guess it's only a manner of time before each store will have it's own upc's, then no more price matching and no more great deals.
I thought WM didn't price-match anyway, so why even bother?

[babybreese]

Their $7.88 BD bin can be host to many a fine bargain.

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by babybreese

Their $7.88 BD bin can be host to many a fine bargain.

True, esp. those with vudu copies to sell.

[mattob]

Originally Posted by wormraper

I use the my blu-ray.com app to categorize all my movies and use the wonderful barcode scanner to do so. I decided to recently add in a handful I had gotten from walmart into the system and they all threw back an error. I manually checked all the UPCS and realized they were different than the upc listed on the site... I had also got a copy of "Jupiter Ascending" for a friend from amazon and then had my copy from walmart as well. the versions were identical, but the UPCs were different. the one from amazon was congruent with the listing that this site and dvdempire and other hosting sites had + the press release from warner. the walmart version had a different upc.. and this isn't just some sticker put over the case or slip, it was an actual printed UPC that looked in all ways identical to the normal version except for the number. tonight I had to grab some groceries so I checked on several movies., I noticed they all had weird ending cents on the price tag. normally walmart does $xx.88 or $xx.96 for their price tags, but all of these have bizarre ones like $xx.43 and $xx.87 ... every single one that had those price tags (which was pretty much anything new) carried a different UPC .. I asked my the electronics cashier who knows me coming and going about it and he said that walmart is bargaining with the studios to have unique UPCS for all new movies from now on. it gives them the ability to deny price matches as well as make sure no one can return a movie from another store to them. all affected movies ..the regular UPC version doesn't even show up in their system, only the modified walmart only UPCs will show up


well, plus it has the annoying problem of creating discrepancies in the database when you try to use the barcode scanner. just thought I'd give everyone a heads up. affected titles include pretty much everything from the last few weeks, including "Jupiter", "Kingsman", American Sniper, Focus, P. Almanac etc.

Yes, this is not surprising at all. they probably do this in the music end cap too (it's really not aisles any more). I can see Best Buy, Target and Amazon doing it too.

[svenge]

Meh, I don't see the big problem there. There's store-exclusive model numbers / SKUs on things like TVs and major appliances all the time for largely the same reason.

Sure it's slightly inconvenient for cataloging purposes, but that's not even on the "concern radar" for any of the parties involved.

[benricci]

I think calling this a nightmare is a bit of an overreaction, don't you?

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by mattob

Yes, this is not surprising at all. they probably do this in the music end cap too (it's really not aisles any more). I can see Best Buy, Target and Amazon doing it too.

Music has been doing this for decades with some bonus tracks at retailer A, and other ones at retailer X. It helped lead the record industry to ruin too!

[Mandalorian]

As weird as it is, if the disc is identitical, there's nothing to worry about. You do have a reason to be cautious though, given the sale of rental/lower quality discs in the past. If it's mainly a logistical thing, and you want the standard retail release with no odd differences, then definitely check before buying.

[slaizer2000]

Soemtimes stores will take the original movie with original UPC, open it and put some special feature in it (vudu code, special disc, comc, etc) and in those cases they will put a UPC label over the original UPC code to differentiate it from the normal release. Sometimes if you look under the UPC label you will be able to see the original UPC code.

[jtu128]

I think another factor no one has mentioned yet is that Wal Mart accepts no receipt returns. Unique UPCs would eliminate someone buying something cheaper from another store and returning it to Wal Mart for a profit.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by babybreese

Their $7.88 BD bin can be host to many a fine bargain.

Except that my local Wal-Mart has never had one for BD.

[imsounoriginal]

Is changing the UPC supposed to be their way of being able to deny price-matches?

[bud_brigman]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Is changing the UPC supposed to be their way of being able to deny price-matches?

I was wondering if it was because of their liberal return policies -- no receipts are required, as long as you don't abuse it. People admittedly DO abuse it, buying items from elsewhere, waiting too long to return them, and then just "returning" it to Walmart.

With unique UPC codes, Walmart can now say "You didn't buy that from us."

I returned some Amiibo that I had bought from Walmart, but I had lost the receipts. The manager overriding the return-with-no-receipt was very passive-aggressive about the whole thing. I looked at her and said "Change your policies, then."

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Except that my local Wal-Mart has never had one for BD.

That sucks. Mine has vudu on at least half the dump bin, and many on older catalog stuff where I don't see digital copies offered otherwise, like the Fifth Element remastered disc I had to buy for my Best Buy steelbook. Figure that can be another buck or 2 back from selling the code here.

Although the store on the other side of town doesn't even have a $7.88 bin! All about location I guess, I notice besides no cheap bin, the stock is different from area to area. It's more "hood" and they have a rack of Spanish language dvds now in place of the cheap bin. The store with a cheap bin doesn't have the Spanish stuff. Also, the hood store doesn't carry Kit-Kats!

[slimdude]

I don't buy my movies from Walmart anyway because, I don't feel like dumpster diving in their bin as if I'm on a scavenger hunt searching for food.... Besides, Walmart doesn't have that many blu-rays to begin with! They have 85% DVDs and 15% blu-rays, so 9 times out of 10 they're not going to have what I want.

[schan1269]

Originally Posted by wormraper

I use the my blu-ray.com app to categorize all my movies and use the wonderful barcode scanner to do so. I decided to recently add in a handful I had gotten from walmart into the system and they all threw back an error. I manually checked all the UPCS and realized they were different than the upc listed on the site... I had also got a copy of "Jupiter Ascending" for a friend from amazon and then had my copy from walmart as well. the versions were identical, but the UPCs were different. the one from amazon was congruent with the listing that this site and dvdempire and other hosting sites had + the press release from warner. the walmart version had a different upc.. and this isn't just some sticker put over the case or slip, it was an actual printed UPC that looked in all ways identical to the normal version except for the number. tonight I had to grab some groceries so I checked on several movies., I noticed they all had weird ending cents on the price tag. normally walmart does $xx.88 or $xx.96 for their price tags, but all of these have bizarre ones like $xx.43 and $xx.87 ... every single one that had those price tags (which was pretty much anything new) carried a different UPC .. I asked my the electronics cashier who knows me coming and going about it and he said that walmart is bargaining with the studios to have unique UPCS for all new movies from now on. it gives them the ability to deny price matches as well as make sure no one can return a movie from another store to them. all affected movies ..the regular UPC version doesn't even show up in their system, only the modified walmart only UPCs will show up


well, plus it has the annoying problem of creating discrepancies in the database when you try to use the barcode scanner. just thought I'd give everyone a heads up. affected titles include pretty much everything from the last few weeks, including "Jupiter", "Kingsman", American Sniper, Focus, P. Almanac etc.

It is all about not having to price match.

Different UPC, different product.

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by bud_brigman

I was wondering if it was because of their liberal return policies -- no receipts are required, as long as you don't abuse it. People admittedly DO abuse it, buying items from elsewhere, waiting too long to return them, and then just "returning" it to Walmart.

With unique UPC codes, Walmart can now say "You didn't buy that from us."

I returned some Amiibo that I had bought from Walmart, but I had lost the receipts. The manager overriding the return-with-no-receipt was very passive-aggressive about the whole thing. I looked at her and said "Change your policies, then."

This must've changed in the last few years. Around '05 I bought a dvd from WM cheap bin ($5 or less) and opened it outside since it was a floater. It was scuffed to death, so I took it right back in and was denied a return since it was open. They also said something about "you might've dubbed it", to which I replied "yeah, I bought it 3 minutes ago and have a super-fast dvd-dubber in my car, but I only dub cheap $5 dvds no one has heard of". Fool said something like "it's possible".
I still have that dvd, which thankfully or not, does play fine for both films (Scarecrow and Scarecrow Slayer).

[bud_brigman]

Originally Posted by bigdaddyhorse

This must've changed in the last few years. Around '05 I bought a dvd from WM cheap bin ($5 or less) and opened it outside since it was a floater. It was scuffed to death, so I took it right back in and was denied a return since it was open. They also said something about "you might've dubbed it", to which I replied "yeah, I bought it 3 minutes ago and have a super-fast dvd-dubber in my car, but I only dub cheap $5 dvds no one has heard of". Fool said something like "it's possible".
I still have that dvd, which thankfully or not, does play fine for both films (Scarecrow and Scarecrow Slayer).

Apologies if I wasn't clear -- I meant unopened.

Their reaction is ridiculous, of course. Your receipt would have shown that you just bought the item. Like others in this thread, I usually find it best to just not shop there.

[blonde_devil]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Is changing the UPC supposed to be their way of being able to deny price-matches?

This is very possible. I know when I worked at Future Shop, it had to be the same item, not similar, to price match. If store x advertised a new cd and we had it, we matched it even if the UPC was different because we usually never saw that store's UPC but if store x had a deluxe edition or something for cheaper than our regular version, we wouldn't drop our regular version as technically it is a different version. So I could see them doing this to try and stop that but it seems like a waste as that UPC really doesn't matter. With the stopping of exchanges/returns, a simple policy change would fix that so why new UPC's? All they need to say is "no receipt, no returns" like everywhere else and that would fix things. Going through the process of new UPS codes seems to be excessive.

My guess is that these are different for some reason, most likely they got a deal, and this is their way of marking those off instead of cutting the cases like they used to do. I can't remember, does the movie name actually show up on the receipt or does it just say "blu-ray"? I am thinking that they made a deal with the studios to buy in bulk - be it stuff not selling, insurance claims, etc - and this is their way of marking it internally instead of drilling a hole in the case like they used to do with cds or black marking/removing the cover like they did with books.