Best Buy Ends Sales of Physical Media Early 2024

[MrHT]

This is sad news.

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/be...hysical-media/

[sfmarine]

I hope this isn’t true, but it won’t surprise me if it is. Crazy that they’re even abandoning online sales, so no more exclusive Steelbooks. Literally the end of an era.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

I hope this isn’t true, but it won’t surprise me if it is. Crazy that they’re even abandoning online sales, so no more exclusive Steelbooks. Literally the end of an era.

It doesn't make sense to me too because physical media is still very popular, especially with 4K discs kicking off. I see many many people at the physical media section when I go to Best Buy.

Abandoning physical media entirely is suicide for the retailer. Don't know what they are thinking.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by MrHT

It doesn't make sense to me too because physical media is still very popular, especially with 4K discs kicking off. I see many many people at the physical media section when I go to Best Buy.

Abandoning physical media entirely is suicide for the retailer. Don't know what they are thinking.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is related to the rumor of Walmart taking over the disc distribution business. Probably don’t want to deal directly with a competitor for competing product in the retail space.

My usual Best Buy has definitely scaled back but it’s not as bad as some locations. But the store itself is pretty much a ghost town compared to its prime.
And this store is in Best Buy’s home market of the Twin Cities, MN.

[HDTV1080P]

In the state of Alaska there is only 2 Best Buy stores and hopefully Best Buy will continue to sale physical media. Out of the two Best Buy stores in Alaska only one store has the high-end Magnolia Home Theater center.

For many years Best Buy had a 30 day return and exchange policy. But just recently I had to return a defective item to Best Buy and I was lucky only 2 weeks had passed. Best Buy recently changed their return and exchange policy to a maximum of 15 days. While I like Best Buy since they carry high-end selection of items that most other stores do not carry, at the same time the new 15 day return/exchange policy is going to hurt the company nationwide. Some customers are going to shop at other retail stores that have a 30-day return/exchange policy. Online stores like Amazon offer a 30 day return/exchange policy. Walmart is one of the best retailers for return/exchange policy with a 90 day policy.

In Best Buys defense I understand why they went from a 30 day return/exchange policy to a 15 day return/exchange policy. The Best Buy stores and online website was being abused by people taking advantage of the companies 30 day policy. Some customers were buying expensive several thousand-dollar items and returning the items in 30 days and treating the store like a free 30 day rental company. For one very low budget movie I watched, on the audio commentary track, one of the directors for a certain movie was talking about how to make the budget for the movie they borrowed an expensive drone from Best Buy and then returned the drone to get a complete refund after shooting the movie footage. I think the audio commentary even talked about the drone being damaged a little. Anyways I will not mention the movie or director's name. But now since people have been abusing Best Buys return/exchange policy the 30 day return period is now 15 days. And if a product like a drone, digital camera, and many other products are returned in a used and opened condition, Best Buy now charges a 15% restocking charge for the return. This new 15 day return policy with 15% restocking fee is in place to try and prevent or slow down people from using Best Buy as a free rental place for high priced equipment. But at the same time, it might hurt Best Buy in the long run by having strict return/exchange policies for customers that are just regular customers that are not trying to use the store as a free equipment rental. Now if one becomes a Best Buy member for $179.99 a year for the Best Buy Total Membership or $49.99 a year for the Best Buy Plus Membership then most products have a 60 day return/exchange policy as long as one is a active Best Buy member.

I wish Best Buy would return to a 30-day return/exchange policy for all customers and then I wish they would have a 90 day return/exchange policy for members. But because of customers abusing the Best Buy policies and using the store as a free equipment rental, the Best Buy stores might have to keep the 15% restocking fee for certain items that have been opened.

Quote

“Drones, digital cameras, camera lenses, camcorders (including action cameras), electric bikes, electric mopeds, premium scooters, super scooters, mobility scooters, electric wheelchairs, leg and body recovery systems, projectors, projector screens, and special-order products”

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/help-to...at260800050014

[JurassicBD]

Can't blame them for wanting to quit a relatively low margin item in the current economy. We're seeing that everywhere, even with food. Much more so, considering media has likely seen a dramatic increase in returns in recent years due to the utter failure of the industry to address all the essentially self-imposed replication and authoring quality control shortcomings, on top of damaged deliveries due to the absurd packaging that online etailers try to make do with these days to save a penny and/or pretend to reduce their carbon footprint for PR and tax benefits.

The linked article is clearly written by someone who doesn't have a clue, but it sounds like this is essentially official according to the bits, which is who they were getting their info from in the first place. For me the biggest surprise was that walmart is top dog in media sells, even surpassing amazon! Just the other day I saw the Wizard of Oz UHD on amazon, it said 1000+ sold in the past month. That's a lot of sales from only one retailer for the poorest selling format of a film from 1939 that's been out on UHD for four years already and seen numerous sales this year alone.

Regardless, I have no use for this retailer, if they stop selling physical media and will close my account the moment they do, just to make a statement. And to think I was actually considering becoming a subscriber for a year to see if the new subscriber only discounts are worth it.

[Dreamliner330]

I’ve recently been scaling back my purchases of physical media. I’m trying to quit before retailers make me. It’s been very obvious this is coming:

Some Best Buy stores have already removed physical media with their new remodels.

Remaining Best Buy stores only have one aisle and a few stands.

They’re charging ridiculous prices. $36 for a new release 4K steelbook, $31 for regular 4K.

Target got rid of catalog titles, reduced to new release endcap.

Target now replaced the new release movie endcap with books, movies shifted to the side.

Walmart gets some new releases, then they quickly disappear and they stock tons of old DVDs instead.

Everything that comes from Amazon looks like it’s been stepped on.



Sadly, I feel one day I’ll regret the money & time I’ve spent collecting physical media.

[fitprod]

Originally Posted by Tok

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is related to the rumor of Walmart taking over the disc distribution business. Probably don’t want to deal directly with a competitor for competing product in the retail space.

That isn't a rumor at all... The fact is Wal-mart is in talks with SDS, the joint distribution company formed by Universal and Warner, to take over inventory of their disc merchandise. Wal-mart has always named a different studio or in this case distributor, to control their inventory. (Every major studio has been in charge at some point.)

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/walmar...disc-business/

fitprod

[BrandonJF]

Originally Posted by MrHT

It doesn't make sense to me too because physical media is still very popular, especially with 4K discs kicking off. I see many many people at the physical media section when I go to Best Buy.

Abandoning physical media entirely is suicide for the retailer. Don't know what they are thinking.

"4K discs kicking off"? I'm not sure what you're referring to there. Physical media isn't "very popular" at all. Your one data point of seeing people at the physical media section is likely not representative of every other Best Buy. It sure isn't the case at my Best Buy. And when I go there I can see some titles I've looked at previously haven't sold "a" copy. I haven't figured out why they've been selling physical media as long as they have. There is one Best Buy in my area that doesn't aside from a small number of video games.

I'm not one that's going to proclaim physical media as being "dead" - it isn't going to die. It is going to move to being an online-only niche product (it's already a niche product) with studios likely continuing to license out titles.... and prices going up (something else that has already happened).

Best Buy's media sections haven't been shrinking for years because of how successful sales have been. It's hardly "suicide" for the retailer.

Target just gutted their movie section even further in favor of vinyl and manga.

My closest Best Buy is in the middle of ripping up the video game section. It looked like they were reducing it's size and I have no idea why they keep it at all. That particular Best Buy rarely puts new games on the shelf. They just recently started putting out some PS5 games. The PS5 launched 3 years ago. A PS5 game might have made it to an end-cap a small number of times until now.

I love this news. I'll never feel the need to go to a Best Buy again.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by BrandonJF

"4K discs kicking off"? I'm not sure what you're referring to there. Physical media isn't "very popular" at all. Your one data point of seeing people at the physical media section is likely not representative of every other Best Buy. It sure isn't the case at my Best Buy. And when I go there I can see some titles I've looked at previously haven't sold "a" copy. I haven't figured out why they've been selling physical media as long as they have. There is one Best Buy in my area that doesn't aside from a small number of video games.

I'm not one that's going to proclaim physical media as being "dead" - it isn't going to die. It is going to move to being an online-only niche product (it's already a niche product) with studios likely continuing to license out titles.... and prices going up (something else that has already happened).

Best Buy's media sections haven't been shrinking for years because of how successful sales have been. It's hardly "suicide" for the retailer.

Target just gutted their movie section even further in favor of vinyl and manga.

My closest Best Buy is in the middle of ripping up the video game section. It looked like they were reducing it's size and I have no idea why they keep it at all. That particular Best Buy rarely puts new games on the shelf. They just recently started putting out some PS5 games. The PS5 launched 3 years ago. A PS5 game might have made it to an end-cap a small number of times until now.

I love this news. I'll never feel the need to go to a Best Buy again.

Yes, 4K discs are kicking off. It’s a new format in its infancy stage and slowly gaining popularity. By pulling physical media off store shelves, how can we expect that popularity to continue to rise?

Think about it. When DVDs were first introduced around 1999 or so, did stores just pull DVDs off the shelves and stop selling them? Not ideal to do that if you want a new physical media format to succeed!

[gnicks]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner330

I’ve recently been scaling back my purchases of physical media. I’m trying to quit before retailers make me.

...

Sadly, I feel one day I’ll regret the money & time I’ve spent collecting physical media.

Why would you regret it? It's not like those discs stop working if they stop being produced, and they will most likely remain the highest quality available for years.

Speaking for myself, I'll buy physical for as long as they are sold because I want to actually own something, and the quality is still better than streaming.

[4Dblu]

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

Well i knew it was coming. So i figure after the holidays. It's a Rap...

[Batman1980]

Best Buy has been treading water for years now and they're basically just trying not to sink completely yet. Sad part is that's going to be it for dedicated electronics stores.

[djpalacios91]

Came here just for this, it's getting more and more bleak as far as physical media sales, which is a real shame. Streaming and compression heavily reduce the audio and video quality of content. I always prefer having a physical disk for anything I enjoy watching. Also, one doesn't have to worry about rights between streaming services and subscriptions. A streaming service only world is a real damage and threat to consumers everywhere.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by gnicks

Why would you regret it? It's not like those discs stop working if they stop being produced, and they will most likely remain the highest quality available for years.

Speaking for myself, I'll buy physical for as long as they are sold because I want to actually own something, and the quality is still better than streaming.

Physical media is still very popular and it will be around for many many years to come. The thing is, most people have Prime now and are more comfortable just buying all their physical media online from Amazon. So I guess Best Buy is surrendering and giving the business to Amazon.

[drb999]

This is really sad day for physical media collectors for sure.

[cornbetts]

A very sad day indeed.

[GloveSlap]

So is a thread on this not allowed in the proper Blu-ray section of the forum? This is big news for movies going forward and deserves high visibility.

[Trekkie313]

Originally Posted by GloveSlap

So is a thread on this not allowed in the proper Blu-ray section of the forum? This is big news for movies going forward and deserves high visibility.

This thread is fufilling that role. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=366791

[mikey horror]

Why does everyone seem to think that Best Buy decides the fate of physical media? They’ve been on their last legs for years. They’ll be closing all their stores any day now anyway. Surprised they lasted this long to be honest. People don’t shop at electronic specific stores anymore. If they need a new appliance, they’ll go to Home Depot where they can pick up a million other things they need. If they want a new TV, they’ll go to Target or Walmart where they can pick up groceries, clothes or home goods while they’re there. People love one stop shops. Physical media isn’t going anywhere, it’s just becoming more niché, that’s all.