Blu-ray in retail stores - reports and anecdotes

[tron3]

Originally Posted by cartier

You should have asked to see the manager and asked them what kind of expert this employee is, and if they approve of them making comments like this instead of being unbiased.

I think I would have put it back and bought nothing, THEN talk to his manager.

He would probably just "have a talk" with the guy. No one gets fired over this stupid stuff. So, if you fear for his job by some reason of mercy, you have nothing to fear.

With that being said, I now wonder if my BB incident happened because the employee was HD DVD biased.

[buckshot]

Originally Posted by SS316SRV

I did say "could" and not "should". I agree though, he shouldn't have been fired, he was just a cashier.

I never said you said you should get him fired

OFF WITH HIS HEAD. cashiers are tools anyway. especially home depot ones.

[SS316SRV]

Originally Posted by sj001

I hate Best Buy, the only reason I would buy there is for instant gratification, otherwise I think they are just way over-priced on everything, and at least in my area, the employees seem to be very lacking in the knowledge department. I have educated some of them, but like the story from the OP, I did have one employee ask me, "why bother? just get it on HD-DVD, that's the way to go...", right out of the blue. Then he argued with me how Blu-ray was a waste of time. Pissed me off, and I gave him a piece of my mind... I know that one person doesn't reflect the company as a whole, but those are the type of experiences that keep me from going back to places.

You're right. It doesn't reflect every store, but it reflects the store in your area. It is their problem because they are lossing your business. Now the they are priced just like most/any B&M store. Hard to fault them there. The interweb is just cheaper (little overhead).

[SS316SRV]

Originally Posted by buckshot

I never said you said you should get him fired

OFF WITH HIS HEAD. cashiers are tools anyway. especially home depot ones.

HAHAHAHA

YES! Why fire him when we can just kill him. Cashiers at BBY are a dime a dozen. Now if it was a good looking cashier that said it to me, then I wouldn't have cared, mainly because I would be listening to her speak (just staring).

[tron3]

Originally Posted by rsound

...They would sometimes ask me while I was purchasing them - "do you know your purchasing the widescreen version". I would politely responds "yes I am , thanks". I could never understand what the biz reason was for that. They would push widescreen tv's but, push full screen DVD's - go figure.
...

Probably over stocked on them. Some people do prefer them because they hate letter boxing. I prefer that over the sidebars.

And I thought I was SOOOO smart buying only widescreen DVD's because I knew one day I would have a widescreen tv.

[crunchywyte]

I never had anything like this happen to me at BB, but I was at Circuit City the day before Transformers was out buying KEF stands for my rear speakers and the guy who helped me said "Remember Transformers Tomorrow, HDDVD!" and I just responded "No, sorry I'm true blu".....he just looked at me and then kind of backed down a little and then said "Oh, Oh, you're blu-ray, that's cool, I got both anyway" LOL it was kind of funny how fast his tone changed....

[sj001]

Originally Posted by crunchywyte

I never had anything like this happen to me at BB, but I was at Circuit City the day before Transformers was out buying KEF stands for my rear speakers and the guy who helped me said "Remember Transformers Tomorrow, HDDVD!" and I just responded "No, sorry I'm true blu".....he just looked at me and then kind of backed down a little and then said "Oh, Oh, you're blu-ray, that's cool, I got both anyway" LOL it was kind of funny how fast his tone changed....

Slightly off topic, but...
Isn't that Mike Tyson's Punchout in your avatar?
That game rocked!

[kaliraver]

Originally Posted by sj001

Slightly off topic, but...
Isn't that Mike Tyson's Punchout in your avatar?
That game rocked!

Sure does look like little Mike.

[stockstar1138]

Seems like we get a lot of "just went down to the local wal-mart" or "wal-mart increased blu-ray" or "198 HD DVD player at WM" threads, so i just thought it would be nice to have one continuous thread regarding wal-mart. i think a lot of people would agree with me that somethings up with wally world, between redoing and expanding blu-ray, rumors of some failed contract with toshiba flying around, employees being told to move hd dvd players as fast as they can. just post it all here from know on and then we can keep the info straight and will be able to look back and refrence comments others have heard out of wal-mart. please post location and date with all anecdotal stories.

[Maxell]

All I'll say right now is that Wal-mart will be a HUGE factor for the high-def market. They are the #1 retailer for DVD's and other things. But they are way behind in high def because many dont carry them in stock in many stores or very scant. But they will be #1 high def media sales if they ever get their act together and carry way more hi-def titles, especially Blu-Ray!

[monkyman]

Wal-mart is in it for Wal-mart, their descisions will be based on what's best for them. Expect them to flip-flop for a while untill they make the best deal.

[richard lichtenfelt]

Walmart only sells more regular dvds than other retailers b/c of their $5 dvd bins. These ultra cheap movies appeal to people who don't care too much about movies and don't mind buying cause they cost about the same as a rental. Walmart does not sell many niche or high end products of any kind.

[cuco33]

Starting an 'Official' thread based on rumors?

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by cuco33

Starting an 'Official' thread based on rumors?

no but we get a lot of ppl who report that wal-mart just changed their hd displays or just got an endcap, or that they just expanded their blu but not their hd dvd section, i think it would be nice to just put it into one continuous thread instead of making a seperate thread every person sees something new at wal mart. also there has been a lot of talk about walmarts attitudes towards hd media, a lot of it rumor, a lot of it is from employees, a lot of it can be seen by the way they display hd in their stores. so we can all post in one thread and say, a WM employee just told me this, or walmart sold out of hd dvd players and took down display, looks like they aren't getting any more (just made that up) but this is what this thread is for.

[bluseminole]

My Wal-mart just got into Blu and HD DVD, like in the last month. They have one endcap to house both formats--maybe 12-15 titles in each format. Terrible titles, too, not the big sellers, with the exception of FF2. They don't sell any players. This, along with the fact that my BB actually cut their HD disc shelf space in half, has me relegated to internet ordering.

[buckshot]

I have stated previously that the walmart in poway, ca only had 4 titles. they now have 24 titles on bd and about 8 hddvds. its an end cap in electronics. and the idiot who got into an argument with me a few weeks ago has been fired.

[SixAxiS]

I noticed a few blu-ray movies at wal-mart retailing $19 which is a pretty good deal. After waiting awhile I noticed the prices are back up to $24.99 and $29.99 at wal-mart. I decided not to buy any BD there.

[u_nick]

My Wlamarts have had just a line of BRDs in with the PS3 games for what seemed like forEVER.

Finally one of them today had and endcap. If I had to guess, I would say it was 70% BRD and 30% HD. Prices were pretty great I thought, for a retail store. A couple movies down at 18 or 19 bucks, and the majority at 24.99, even the new Fox releases.

[MotionBlurr]

We need to add Target stores in this thread. They sell almost the same things Walmart does. Cheap generic TVs and DVD players.

[darkpoet25]

Originally Posted by SixAxiS

I noticed a few blu-ray movies at wal-mart retailing $19 which is a pretty good deal. After waiting awhile I noticed the prices are back up to $24.99 and $29.99 at wal-mart. I decided not to buy any BD there.

The price depends on the title. The Wally World I work at has Halloween and the Patriot for 19.99, the rest are 24.99 and up. Both Planet Earth and the Sopranos are around 64.99. We change titles every week for new releases, so that would explain why you saw the price jump. What's funny is since Transformers came out on hd dvd, even dvd, they haven't been selling well. We probabaly have at least 12 copies on hd dvd, they haven't sold once since the day they came out.