What Are Retailers Thinking?

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

why in god's earth would Best Buy pull the plug on 360s in the nation's #1 electronics store? if they did that they can basically kiss themselves into last again in the console wars. if they can't turn a profit on the 360, good chance the xbox series is done over at MS.

Best Buy wouldn't pull the plug, M$ would punish them buy not letting Best Buy purchase 360's and other products for resale. However, Best Buy and M$ would never let it get to this point, therefore the reasoning why Retailes WON"T make a move and try to end the war. They are letting the studio's duke this out.

[statikcat]

Microsoft would never have Best Buy stop selling 360s no matter what (especially over movies). They are probably the #1 dealer. I can't think of anything. Best Buy isn't doing Microsoft a favor or vice versa.. it is business.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

Best Buy wouldn't pull the plug, M$ would punish them buy not letting Best Buy purchase 360's and other products for resale. However, Best Buy and M$ would never let it get to this point, therefore the reasoning why Retailes WON"T make a move and try to end the war. They are letting the studio's duke this out.

sorry, i meant why would ms pull the plug on letting the nations #1 electronics retailer sell their beloved POS aka the xbox 360.

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by statikcat

Microsoft would never have Best Buy stop selling 360s no matter what (especially over movies). They are probably the #1 dealer. I can't think of anything. Best Buy isn't doing Microsoft a favor or vice versa.. it is business.

My point being that Best Buy and M$ currently have a great relationship. Best Buy would NOT jeopardize it by deciding to go blu exclusive. They may voice their concerns in private, but they would never go out on a limb and decide that they were blu exclusive prior to an "official end" of some sorts.

This is why retailers WON'T pick a side!!

[JimSD]

Best Buy wouldn't have to cut off HD DVD cold turkey, they could do it gradually. First cut back on the space allocated to it. Don't restock catalog titles that sell out. Only get new releases and smaller amounts of those. When customers see 8 racks of BD and 1 of HD DVD it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. That way they can pick a side without making HD DVD lose face all at once.

[Go Blu]

They should make them only available ONLINE.
Free up the shelf sapce for something that actually sells.

[iamJackBauer]

i personally dont see how DD will be the future, there will always be the market that wants a hard copy, which is why CDs are still around... yea, music dls seemed to have taken off well but... they are cheap, they are quick to DL, they dont take up a lot of space, and songs are more portable (you dont see people walking down the street with a movie player)

the majority of people want their hard copy, although some people dont, so it is good to have the choice.

but i was thinking the same thing, retailers should just choose a format already, take the war into their hands... and considering how Bluray sales are smashing HD DVD they would choose bluray, forcing exclusive formats to go blu.

[Proteus]

OMG people... really.. seriously...


Microsoft would not 'punish' BestBuy if they dumped HDDVD by pulling product.

Holy hell where do people come up with this stuff??

If BestBuy dropped support for HDDVD, _nothing else would happen_.

There isn't a manufacturer (Microsoft or Toshiba) stupid enough to 'punish and pull their products' from the nation's single largest electronics retailer. Seriously, can anyone even comprehend how stupid this would be? It is beyond normal human comprehension it is so ridiculous. These products are generating probably 20%+ of their national income from BestBuy alone!

There is no 'punishing' and such in the business world. BestBuy might get 'looked over' for a few promotional dollars at best. But, hardly anything to be too concerned with.

The original poster is absolutely correct in his statements. Retailers need to learn how to look ahead a bit and to a future that, frankly, may not include them. Then stop and think about how they are helping pave the road to that future where their entire optical media business is gone and the affect on their bottomline that would have.

Truthfully, I can't believe retail has even allowed this 'format war' to go on this long. It shows an ignorance of such grand proportions that it is simply overwhelming. If retail lets this continue to a stalmate, then not only will the consumer go online to get films via digidown but they will be 'upsold' as they peruse those services to buy their electronics online as well. B&M retailers lose _everything_.

The writing is on the wall and it's not hard to read.

[dakota81]

Tuck downloads. I don't like HD DVD, but I would rather have even that then downloaded garbage. Same reason I still buy cds instead of itunes.

And if Best Buy dropped HD DVD, Microsoft cannot stop them from buying and selling xbox360s, or any other Microsoft product.

[dakota81]

Originally Posted by Proteus

There isn't a manufacturer (Microsoft or Toshiba) stupid enough to 'punish and pull their products' from the nation's single largest electronics retailer. Seriously, can anyone even comprehend how stupid this would be? It is beyond normal human comprehension it is so ridiculous. These products are generating probably 20%+ of their national income from BestBuy alone!

You even have it backwards. There isn't a manufacturer stupid enough to 'invoke an anti-trust lawsuit' from the nation's single largest electronics retailer.

[mattym]

downloads may be more comman 5 years from now, but i wont buy a download movie if i can buy a dvd, as downloads are too slow, too big and way too much hassle (im thinking about all the music ive bought and have to mess about with licences when i change machine!!!) So screw MS, i want physical media

[TheTenth]

hmm don't you read the (internet) news?
Microslut did another dirty money spreading with Viacom for 500 million dollars for some sort of advertising internet thingie, meaning, they got them in control ... and guess what ... Viacom owns Paramount, all clear now?

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by TheTenth

hmm don't you read the (internet) news?
Microslut did another dirty money spreading with Viacom for 500 million dollars for some sort of advertising internet thingie, meaning, they got them in control ... and guess what ... Viacom owns Paramount, all clear now?

huh? what does that have to do with retailers dropping a format?

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by Proteus

OMG people... really.. seriously...


Microsoft would not 'punish' BestBuy if they dumped HDDVD by pulling product.

Holy hell where do people come up with this stuff??

If BestBuy dropped support for HDDVD, _nothing else would happen_.

There isn't a manufacturer (Microsoft or Toshiba) stupid enough to 'punish and pull their products' from the nation's single largest electronics retailer. Seriously, can anyone even comprehend how stupid this would be? It is beyond normal human comprehension it is so ridiculous. These products are generating probably 20%+ of their national income from BestBuy alone!

There is no 'punishing' and such in the business world. BestBuy might get 'looked over' for a few promotional dollars at best. But, hardly anything to be too concerned with.

The original poster is absolutely correct in his statements. Retailers need to learn how to look ahead a bit and to a future that, frankly, may not include them. Then stop and think about how they are helping pave the road to that future where their entire optical media business is gone and the affect on their bottomline that would have.

Truthfully, I can't believe retail has even allowed this 'format war' to go on this long. It shows an ignorance of such grand proportions that it is simply overwhelming. If retail lets this continue to a stalmate, then not only will the consumer go online to get films via digidown but they will be 'upsold' as they peruse those services to buy their electronics online as well. B&M retailers lose _everything_.

The writing is on the wall and it's not hard to read.

Why do retailers continue to put up with Sony regarding shelf space for PSP movies then? It doesn't really matter because the point is that NO retailer will risk the relationship it has with M$ and rock the boat.

[mystiksuicide]

BB has more influence over M$ than M$ over BB. Case and point BB threatened to pull all Toshibas off the shelves when they found out about the $98.00 liquidation sale at Wal-Mart.

BB actually sold the A3 at $98.00 at huge loss to Toshiba. BB does whatever the hell it feels like.

[statikcat]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

My point being that Best Buy and M$ currently have a great relationship. Best Buy would NOT jeopardize it by deciding to go blu exclusive. They may voice their concerns in private, but they would never go out on a limb and decide that they were blu exclusive prior to an "official end" of some sorts.

This is why retailers WON'T pick a side!!

Retailers really have no reason to pull a format until it is over. What makes a great retail is that they offer a wide variety - popular and unpopular. Best Buy does not care who wins the war. Their job is not to judge but just to sell what people want. If I owned Best Buy I would not pull HD-DVD or even think about it. People can decide what they want for themselves. That is not to say they shouldn't downsize the HD-DVD section due to less sales - that would make sense.

Now with Blockbuster I think they really only had room for one format and simply chose the format that more people rented from them.

[zipbags]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

BB has more influence over M$ than M$ over BB. Case and point BB threatened to pull all Toshibas off the shelves when they found out about the $98.00 liquidation sale at Wal-Mart.

BB actually sold the A3 at $98.00 at huge loss to Toshiba. BB does whatever the hell it feels like.

Mystic,

Have you heard anything about BB execs contemplating action either way?

[blukrank]

I'm pretty sure Target is on the Blu side? Last time I was in there they had tons of Blu-Ray's and yeah they did have some HD DUD's but not many.

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by blukrank

I'm pretty sure Target is on the Blu side? Last time I was in there they had tons of Blu-Ray's and yeah they did have some HD DUD's but not many.

Again, from my first post, Target most like favors blu in private but won't make an official stance, BUT they will make the conditions favorable to blu by increasing the space and endcaps.

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

BB has more influence over M$ than M$ over BB. Case and point BB threatened to pull all Toshibas off the shelves when they found out about the $98.00 liquidation sale at Wal-Mart.

BB actually sold the A3 at $98.00 at huge loss to Toshiba. BB does whatever the hell it feels like.

What would Best Buy do if M$ pulled out? Sell Apples and PS3's only? M$ as 10 other places they can sell PC's and 360's. I worked for BBY for 10 yrs, trust me, there are politics to be played here and that is why they haven't stated a side.