News Best Buy is exiting the DVD and Blu-ray market

[Aragorn]

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/best-buy-ending-dvd-blu-ray-disc-sales-1235754919/

Best Buy confirmed Friday that it is ending sales of DVDs. “To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”

Best Buy will continue to sell movies and TV shows on physical discs through the 2023 holiday shopping season online and in stores, before discontinuing sales in the new year. The company will continue to sell video games. As of mid-2023, Best Buy had 1,129 store locations, with 969 of those in the U.S.

Plenty of places to buy online elsewhere, but in-store is now slim pickings. Target has cut down on it significantly (my store is down to one shelf and no more new releases are being put at the registers for impulse buys). Walmart seems to be mostly cheap DVDs and that bin of random, disorganized movies. I don't know who would go to Barnes and Noble to pay 75% more. Plus it wasn't like Best Buy was carrying a massive catalog of titles anyway. Every store I've been to has shrunk their section considerably.

The impulse buyers who grab the latest blockbuster will just stream it now.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/best-buy-ending-dvd-blu-ray-disc-sales-1235754919/



Plenty of places to buy online elsewhere, but in-store is now slim pickings. Target has cut down on it significantly (my store is down to one shelf and no more new releases are being put at the registers for impulse buys). Walmart seems to be mostly cheap DVDs and that bin of random, disorganized movies. I don't know who would go to Barnes and Noble to pay 75% more. Plus it wasn't like Best Buy was carrying a massive catalog of titles anyway. Every store I've been to has shrunk their section considerably.

The impulse buyers who grab the latest blockbuster will just stream it now.

The only reason to go to my local Barnes and Noble is for their Criterion selection when they're having their 50% off sale.

Otherwise, the whole music/DVD has been consolidated/condensed down to a small selection of titles.

 

[The Wormhole]

Honestly, I don't think I've even been inside a Best Buy in four years, and their DVD/Blu-ray section was already significantly smaller than it was a decade ago. As it is, most DVDs and Blu-rays I get these days I order through Amazon, but on the occasion I do make a purchase at a brick and mortar store, it's usually Walmart, which actually does still have a decent selection even if it too is significantly smaller than it was a decade ago.

 

[Skywalker]

We're even starting to slow down on ordering DVDs to be added to the collection at my library. That's more of a gradual process because people still check them out (way cheaper than buying them), but it's shifting in that direction.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Honestly, I don't think I've even been inside a Best Buy in four years, and their DVD/Blu-ray section was already significantly smaller than it was a decade ago.

I had to go into Best Buy recently to pick up something for someone who needed it right away, and couldn't wait two days for Amazon to ship it. So I figured I would take a look at their home media section, since it had been so long since I had been there last.

I wouldn't even call it a "section" anymore. It was literally just a single display, about the size of an end table, with two rows of shelving on each of the four sides. And even with that small space, the shelves were still half-empty.

 

[Dar70]

I couldn't find a DVD section in my local Best Buy. I buy very few nowadays. Just stuff that is hard to find on streaming. I recently ordered Forbidden Planet because I like to watch it every so often during Halloween season. But yeah the days of plentiful DVDs is waning.

I still shop at Best Buy for many of my electronics mainly speakers and TV and some home appliances. I won't buy any of that stuff from Amazon. Amazon is no longer a much better deal and I find returning stuff to Walmart 2 miles away is easier than packaging up a big bulk item and shipping it out.

 

[David cgc]

I went to a couple Best Buys recently. In some of them, they had a DVD section, small though it was, but it was only about half the discs they had, the rest were in display kiosks scattered around the store. In the others, they put the kiosks near the official DVD shelf, which helps a lot if you're looking for something specific.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Good news for Amazon I guess. Bad for the consumers because Amazon price matches Best Buy so their prices will go up especially if Target gets rid of physical media too.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Meanwhile...

 

[Snaploud]

Meanwhile...

View attachment 36849

I haven't checked out the DVD section of a B&N in a long time. Is everything still ridiculously overpriced?

 

[Aragorn]

B&N is always overpriced until they have their specialty label sales like Criterion. I can't imagine they get many impulse buys who would pay $40 for a $25 movie. Maybe they hope people will use their reward points on them?

I was at a Borders once and saw someone purchase an insanely overpriced DVD box set when it would've been significantly cheaper to go to Best Buy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Games at box stores, still look like they are DVDs, because they still sell them in the same boxes, but you crack open the box and there's a 12 digit code that lets you download 130 gb, three times, onto your game systems hard drive from a high speed server.

(I think? I'm not a gamer.)

You'd think that the Box Stores would be doing this as a stop gap between leaving the market and stopping doing what they are going?

Although, I think I just described buying an amazon gift card or an itunes gift card, so the only thing lacking from your virtual purchase is the physical "box" which they should allow you to print, that they have designed for you to print, which then you can thread into a empty dvd case, and you can display your game or movie that is not physical media, on a shelf in the living room so that your guests know who you are, even though they can't borrow the movie or game, which is the other half of putting games and movies on display, helping out your cheap moron lazy friends too idle to cultivate a strong collection... Which is why they invented Netflix, back when Neetflix had everything, so that tourists could be an approximation of you without without rolling their sleeves up and rummaging though sales at 15 different Buy More outlets all Sunday trying to find the best deal on the UK print of Cheaper by the Dozen.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Meanwhile...

View attachment 36849

Whether they'll cut back is another question. My local branch tells me not at this time.

 

[marillion]

Our Best Buy got rid of music and most of their DVDs a while back, which is sad. I don't buy DVDs anymore, and in fact, the player has been in a box in the garage for several years. That said, I still enjoy buying CDs and while of course there are plenty of online resources, going down to BB and flipping through the stacks was enjoyable.

 

[bdub76]

Terrible news.

Some content is only available on physical media. And some can only be found on streaming services with ads: A Man Called Hawk is an example.

We’re entering the dark ages again.