Best Buy will stop selling physical media (including 4K/Blu-ray/DVD) possibly as soon as end of Q1 2024

Thread: Best Buy will stop selling physical media (including 4K/Blu-ray/DVD) possibly as soon as end of Q1 2024
The market is there, maybe just not Best Buy's market. In the gaming space, I've seen dozens if not 100s of games get a Japan/Asia release, only to be snapped up by a boutique Limited Physical sort of online store within 12 months. Physical books and music, even vinyl, have made a comeback. Granted, these might be relegated to a smaller portion of the market which is why giant stores are closing, but physical won't go away.
 
Not suprising. The stores near me only carry big games like CoD and Madden. Most of their shelf space has gotten shrunken down and there's barely and space left.
 
Honestly, since they really cut back their selection around 2012 ish? I haven't really bought much of anything from them anyway. I'll never forget going there in 2009 to buy Bayonetta on the PS3 and the kid said "Oh, it's on the pallet in the back."

"..."

"...So... can you go get me a copy then?"

He couldn't.

So I just went to my local game store and bought it there, no hassle. No pallet there, apparently, either.
 
Wow, that's crazy. I like ordering shit from them.

So they are just giving up on that, I guess. The retailer makes nothing on money cards that you use on the online platforms, so they don't expect to make anything from that. Not selling movies, well it's not like they can sell a Netflix/Amazon Prime card for any type of profit. It must be so unprofitable that they just say "nahh we done with that"
 
Grinchy said:
Wow, that's crazy. I like ordering shit from them.

So they are just giving up on that, I guess. The retailer makes nothing on money cards that you use on the online platforms, so they don't expect to make anything from that. Not selling movies, well it's not like they can sell a Netflix/Amazon Prime card for any type of profit. It must be so unprofitable that they just say "nahh we done with that"
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I think it's a symptom of retail overall. My wife and I had a talk yesterday along these lines: one of our local retail chains has been offering delivery of groceries as well as the option to let folks order online, the employee fills up the cart in the store, and then you drive up and pay and take it out to your car. She brought it up because she noticed the store has been doing more and more coupons and incentives to do this latter "we'll shop for you" option and she thought it was stupid.

But consider the theft going unaddressed across the USA, consider Amazon. Confronting a thief in a store will get you fired and posted on social media. But catching a warehouse employee stealing on camera and firing them is a simple matter. Letting customers walk around your store costs a lot more than paying your employees to shop and deliver. They're becoming less of a store and more of a warehouse. Why spend all that money for lard asses to meander up and down your aisles, why budget for $x amount of theft per year, why pay to keep your store nice and clean? Stores can cut costs while at the same time charging customers a premium for the convenience of delivery and/or "shop for you" services.
 
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Half the joy as a film collector of movies on DVD or Blu-Ray is that you have the Extras and the commentary tracks. Maybe I'm missing something, but albeit you might get the odd 'making of' on Netflix, if it's a big production you're not getting the commentary side of things. I'm not on about the wanky actor commentaries either, as actors never say anything bad about anyone less it bite them in the ass, more the director cinemaphotographer writer production crew side of things where they talk about the challenges or how things changed. I always enjoy that aspect of things. Shame to see this stuff gradually getting snuffed out tbh.
 
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DonDonDonPata said:
I think it's a symptom of retail overall. My wife and I had a talk yesterday along these lines: one of our local retail chains has been offering delivery of groceries as well as the option to let folks order online, the employee fills up the cart in the store, and then you drive up and pay and take it out to your car. She brought it up because she noticed the store has been doing more and more coupons and incentives to do this latter "we'll shop for you" option and she thought it was stupid.

But consider the theft going unaddressed across the USA, consider Amazon. Confronting a thief in a store will get you fired and posted on social media. But catching a warehouse employee stealing on camera and firing them is a simple matter. Letting customers walk around your store costs a lot more than paying your employees to shop and deliver. They're becoming less of a store and more of a warehouse. Why spend all that money for lard asses to meander up and down your aisles, why budget for $x amount of theft per year, why pay to keep your store nice and clean? Stores can cut costs while at the same time charging customers a premium for the convenience of delivery and/or "shop for you" services.
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My friend manages a very large grocery store in the area. She says Instacart and services where the store prepare the order now make up 30% of all sales. The store likes those sales because they tack on extra fees. If I remember right the store makes around 25%+ more off those sales. A bit crazy that many people would add that much to already high grocery prices.
 
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Walmart lets you pick up orders for free if they are over $35. I do it all the time. It's fuckin great. Sometimes I put an order in at work, then just stop there on my way home. Someone is putting my shit in my trunk minutes after arriving.

I don't have to walk to the pharmacy to grab deodorant. I don't have to walk to GM to get those light bulbs. It's all just dumped in my trunk right after I park there on my way home.
 
AJUMP23 said:
Who is going to carry exclusive steel books then?
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Amazon?


Seriously I hate this trend, but I can understand how it's hard to maintain as brick and mortar retailer. But not selling online…. Where you can ship from a single warehouse? That's the really shitty part.

Hopefully SOMEONE still Carries BluRays. Hell even the Criterion Collection has let so many films go out of print in the push for their channel.
 
I read the writing on the wall for physical at the start on the PS4 gen. For movies I moved everything over to digital a year or so ago. I really shouldn't have waited so long with the latter. Many of my shows are in better quality than their physical release counter parts.
 
Hostile_18 said:
I read the writing on the wall for physical at the start on the PS4 gen. For movies I moved everything over to digital a year or so ago. I really shouldn't have waited so long with the latter. Many of my shows are in better quality than their physical release counter parts.
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When you 'buy' a dugital movie or show are you locked to a platform? Because that has been my problem with the idea. I do not want to have my collection locked by Amazon, Apple, whoever.

Or is there a legit way to just buy them in an open A/V standard?

Right now I have copied all of my DVD/BR to digital on my plex server. But to keep going that route I NEED physical to stay around... or else only pirating is left.
 
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Arkam said:
When you 'buy' a dugital movie or show are you locked to a platform? Because that has been my problem with the idea. I do not want to have my collection locked by Amazon, Apple, whoever.

Or is there a legit way to just buy them in an open A/V standard?

Right now I have copied all of my DVD/BR to digital on my plex server. But to keep going that route I NEED physical to stay around... or else only pirating is left.
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I use to buy everything, now I just source and download the best copy and keep it permanently on an ssd with backup. I have about 16tb of SSD. No regrets.
 
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I thought this might include games too but looks like games are safe....for now.
 
AJUMP23 said:
Who is going to carry exclusive steel books then?
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You mean the ones they advertise for preorders but then the second your order goes thru it removes the steel book from the order and if you bother contacting them they say they had only a limited supply? And it's even sometimes when you order months in advance?

I love those imaginary steelbooks!!
 
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This is why I've been building my dvd collection. Also you can get cool menus and of course extras. And you can watch it all as many times as you want – with no adverts.
 
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GGk0CZrWoAAKIdw


👆
 
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Are there still places where you can order physical media online? Here in the Philippines they've closed so many video shops that used to sell blurays and dvds.
 
GreyHorace said:
Are there still places where you can order physical media online? Here in the Philippines they've closed so many video shops that used to sell blurays and dvds.
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While not always the best deal, you can buy them direct from the distributor. I have purchased many Blu Ray directly from Arrow Video or Criterion. And of course Amazon still carries them, you just have to worry about mislabeled regions on occasion.
 
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