I wish stores would wise up on prices.

[EManT2200]

Originally Posted by Freekman

Not too long ago I was purchasing from Blockbuster, spending $30 for each Blu. Now, I do not purchase a single Blu in store if it is above $20, unless it is a TV season or film series. Best Buy has excellent deals sometimes and they have a wide collection of $15 Blus. I almost bought Fifth Element there yesterday for that price, but its so close to Black Friday and November has so many more releases that I decided against it. But stores like Blockbuster, Target, Walmart, and FYE are not going to lower their prices until consumers cease purchasing Blus/DVDs at insane prices. Stores like these are the reason many haven't adopted Blu yet. If people realized that Blu shouldn't be as expensive as they are, maybe people would stop buying at retail and start shopping online. Then, retail stores will start lowering prices and the world will live in peace. But since too many stubborn consumers exist and they will for a long time.

OK, some of you people are comparing STORE prices to AMAZON (and other online companies). Your local stores have to depend on the LOCAL economy, online'ers get to depend on the COUNTRYWIDE economy !Therefore locally - maybe 90,000 consumers divided among the local stores, online - potenially MILLIONS of consumers, which can equal lower prices ! How can you expect the local competition to sell maybe 50 blu-ray copies at the same price that online'ers sell thousands of blu-ray copies for ? The more copies you sell, the cheaper you can sell them ! ! !

[curse]

Originally Posted by EManT2200

OK, some of you people are comparing STORE prices to AMAZON (and other online companies). Your local stores have to depend on the LOCAL economy, online'ers get to depend on the COUNTRYWIDE economy !Therefore locally - maybe 90,000 consumers divided among the local stores, online - potenially MILLIONS of consumers, which can equal lower prices ! How can you expect the local competition to sell maybe 50 blu-ray copies at the same price that online'ers sell thousands of blu-ray copies for ? The more copies you sell, the cheaper you can sell them ! ! !

well that would make sense except that these companies have the same prices all over. And if some dont they price match anyways.

If my bestbuy would sell even close to amazon.. i would easily go in there and spend 3-500 bucks on blu ray. But 30 bucks for predator, 100 for matrix... come on.

heck even 70 for a james bond volume.

[blindcat87]

The pricing pattern is still following closely to what happened with the introduction of DVD. At this point in the DVD format's rise there was some experimentation by studios with pricing schemes, lots of deals could be found by the shopper willing to look online, but outside of sales prices still tended to remain around MSRP in stores.

We complain about the prices, but the stores seem to be doing fine. BD is growing and \\remains close to the growth of DVD in the same time frame despite tough economic times and BB and Wal-mart remain at the top of the sales numbers. Why should we expect the B&Ms to start lowering prices when they are getting the lion's share of sales at their current price levels? It is a real shame that the average consumer isn't smart enough to shop around and look for deals, but it is nothing new. Shoot, how long has Suncoast been in business? I recall when I was in college in the early to mid '90s their prices on VHS and Laserdisc were MSRP and sometimes above and last time I was at one a couple of years ago, their prices on DVD were no different barring the odd sale or clearance item and yet they continue to draw in plenty of mall shoppers who just don't know any better or are too lazy or unmotivated to save some money instead of getting instant gratification.

Until the sales numbers indicate to the folks with calculators and ledgers that they need to lower prices to make the total numbers look better, things just aren't likely to change too much. Personally, I care very little. I have a grand total of two local places to get BDs, Wal-mart and Hastings, unless I wan't to travel 70+ miles to shop for movies. I am happy with Amazon, my Prime membership pays for itself very quickly and makes buying a single movie on a whim no problem. When deals pop up like the WBshop coupons that got me Wonka and Oz for better than Amazon prices I take advantage, but other than that I stick with Amazon.

I am not saying folks are wrong to complain about prices and to wish for them to go down, but to me, once one takes the sales numbers and distribution of sales into account, the logic of where prices are now makes too much sense from a pure bean counter's perspective for me to wonder why. Personally, were I running one of the top selling stores, I would at least experiment to determine if some lower price points might increase the total profit on some titles, but I am not a business type, so maybe it really doesn't make sense at this time. Truthfully though, I think it is more comfort with where the numbers are more than anything else that keeps the people who determine price policy from experimenting, corporate numbers types don't like to rock the boat when things are solid and looking good on paper.

Chris

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by Chiyo_chichi

Buying Blus on Amazon is great. Some places like Best Buy are OK.

But other places like Target, FYE, Blockbuster charge list price...often $35, $40!!

Its crazy. They should take a hint.

They go off of MSRP, what their margins are, and the fact that Blu-ray is still in the somewhat "early-adopter" stage, and those people are willing to pay a premium......

Obviously if they moved zero inventory, they would take a loss on the floor-space/real estate, but they aren't, so they'll continue with the business model and pricing that works for them.

I don't know why people get upset with this stuff...... If I put a copy of "Talledega Nights" on Ebay with a Buy-it-Now price of $200, it would be unrealistically high, but nobody is forcing anyone to buy it..... just look at it, say "I won't pay that much for it" and move on......

You stated you know of places with better prices, so just do your purchasing there..... problem solved.