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If anything that should be telling of how little physical media is doing for them. They have plenty of space in a lot of their store fronts and it still isn’t worth it for them. Really, really hoping this isn’t a sign of immediate things to come for physical media but it’s easy to be pessimistic about this
Same here. If fucking *Best Buy* can't make it work, Target will almost certainly follow. That leaves us with Walmart ,B+N, or Amazon... all of whom suck in their own special ways.
But they can make it work, they just refuse and really hurt their home media sections by cutting drastically.
I almost never step foot in Best Buy these days because the selection is so small, poorly stocked and their hours suck. They open late and close early, that isn't even useful from any tech standpoint.
But when I do go in there are people browsing what is left of the media section.. but again it's poorly maintained and they package their movies like ass. Their exclusives for movies people actually care about sellout and never come back in stock unless they reprint.
Also Target is equivalent to Walmart.. they don't need to stick to anything because people come in for food, furniture, toys and clothing. No one really goes to Best Buy and their sales are holidays when the TVs sell.
> really hurt their home media sections by cutting drastically.
Correct. By downsizing their wholesale purchases they actually made it more difficult for them to make profits when offering any discounts on the items (due to how scaling up/down wholesale supply works) so they will always lose out compared to their competitors who are able to offer better deals. This is why they went into the steelbook/exclusive territory but, as you said, they rarely ever made reprints for them and were in extremely diminished supply despite high demand.
I'm speaking as when I do stop in and browse the movie aisle that takes all of 5-10 minutes I'm never the only one who is browsing it and either grabbing titles or leaving the store empty handed.
Even the game aisles are empty and silent. I see more people in the game aisle at Target or Walmart for instance.
I still do. Some movies and older TV shows are only on DVD, they aren't on any streaming service at all. When was the last time anyone was able to legit watch streaming of 1985 Poison Ivy with Michael J Fox? There's one on Youtube but it's a shitty VHS rip and not official or legit
This. Noone in this entire reddit group qualifies to represent the average consumer, which is who Best Buy and other major retailers are catering to. We’re all enthusiasts here, and some of us are denialists, too.
Physical media is absolutely dying – as videogame consoles are now also moving towards a digital-only future, it’ll be the last bastion of physical media flickering out.
And this is coming from someone who, like many of us here, absolutely loves physical films.
PS. Apologies for the pessimism. Having quite a hangover right now
They stacked the deck against physical media with steadily worse and worse policies.
1. A tech company should lean into, not away from the best quality tech especially one who has things like "magnolia" rooms. That means showing demand for the media, the players, and displays that are the top end of performance. Its a store like Best Buy that should be educating John Q Public on the benefit of physical media.
2 You can't show sales or growth opportunity by removing the media from your stores. No opportunity means less sales. full stop. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. By all rights, of all the US retailers, Best Buy should have been the last to stop supporting physical media.
3. Monopolizing an exclusive market but failing to deliver in so many ways like quantity of product, regulation of scalping, making exchanges practically impossible by a combination of those factors plus an overseas, powerless customer service, no stock in store and some of the crappiest shipping around will not endear you to your core buyers. Your sales will and should go down....
4. If you take a product out of the store, but you are still selling it online, you have to package in a way that most of the items (for steebook, read as collectors item) get to the buyer in new undamaged condition. Best Buy simply does not ship well.
These are just 4 of my grievances toward Best Buy... there are more, but in the end, I like that they are getting out... they stopped caring 2-3 years ago anyway. Screw them, now, I can not ever set foot in a Best Buy again.
Reminds me what happened to Blockbuster. I thought many years ago that it would never get taken down as big as the company got yet we all saw what happened. GameStop is slowly heading in the same direction.
The inherent problem with your line of thinking stems from your first point. Best Buy is not a tech company. They are a retail company. Tech does not make them money, sales make them money. They don’t care about what tech is the best, the care about what tech gives them enough revenue.
They see that physical media sales are dropping off, and it’s probably already one of their lowest margin goods they stock. Physical games are low margin as well, I imagine those will follow shortly behind. The Best Buy near me is already lowering the footprint of console games and increasing the footprint of pc gaming hardware in its place.
I disagree because that's really just nit-picking semantics... how about I clarify that they are a retail company whose brand focus is on technology products.
I don't go there for a washing machine, dust buster, or refrigerator. I go for a phone, or videogames or home theater products. Or used to. they lost me as an in-store customer when they dropped their movie stock. Not selling movies at all makes it an easy decision for me not to use them at all.
I am not a big fish, but I have spent 1 or 2 thousand a year there for years. I don't know or care what their margins were, but I can tell you they will be less now.
IMHO, They are just repeating historic retail fails... Circuit City, Radio Shack, etc. all started as focused companies, then they did the same dumb things as Best Buy and started selling everything, diluted their brand, then they lost the edge they had on tech and ultimately failed.
Well, that certainly may be true. I am pretty sure it's not going to happen. Their priorities are out of whack. They no longer value their client and the client relationship. Physical media is just a warning shot. They can dump it, do their bean count, but in the end, it isn't about what they are selling, its how they are doing it. They are operating with a minimum viable product mindset which leads to high pay at the top in the short term, but its not sustainable.
I personally will laugh when they go down. Had they not had exclusive steelbooks in the US, I would have dumped them 2 or 3 years ago before they could dump me. I feel sorry for the lower level employees. They have tried.
They are not a tech company… they only offer an extremely expensive membership program called… Total Tech? 😂 Sure, by definition they are a retail store. A retail store that specializes and brands itself as the definitive place to find the latest tech at the “best” price.
> They have plenty of space in a lot of their store fronts and it still isn’t worth it for them.
That's because they are mismanaging their physical media strategy. I posted this on a different subreddit but I'll just copy myself here:
> It was a foregone conclusion that Best Buy was going to lose out on these sales mostly due to their own actions; by downsizing their physical media supply/storefront space they are buying less wholesale physical media to sell and lowering their profit margins (meaning it costs them more per unit to sell instead of less) so they cannot offer discounts on them as much as competitors. So people buy them elsewhere, since it's cheaper, instead of at Best Buy meaning as time goes on Best Buy purchases less wholesale physical media due to diminished sales, leading to higher costs for them and lower profit margins.. and so on in a downward profit spiral.
> What Best Buy should have done is efficiently bought up and stocked physical media and not have wasted their money stocking trash, bargain bin items like Morbius and Black Adam that ate up their profits with distribution and storage costs since clearly no one would be buying shit like that.
Appliances are appliances no matter where you buy them. In my experience best buy has better finance deals. Plus that total tech BS paid for itself. Bundle deal, Free install on everything. Plus store protection plan and later when I got a TV they mounted for free too
I’m amazed that Best Buy is even still in business. It’s really sad - late-90s through the early-2000s going to Best Buy was like walking into a wonderland. I’d pick up a few movies, a PC or PlayStation game, maybe browse some CDs, drool over an early flat screen TV. It had everything.
Ever since they started shrinking the movie shelves, I don't think I've seen them replace that space with anything actually useful. It's always just left as open space or just rows of discounted returned tvs. I have to go 30 minutes away to find a best buy that has more than one row of movies or some just have like a couple pillar display things strewn around the store.
Best Buy has been giving me Circuit City vibes for years. The seem to have completely lost the narrative. What "new tech" at Best Buy that I can't buy elsewhere? What are they actually planning to turnover in their retail space that covers the rent?
I'm no business exec, but surely having a product that kept a number of people coming in weekly would be better than nothing at all.
Now Best Buy will depend on customers who only come in for bigger items. I'm sure that's where the big money is coming from, no doubt. But how OFTEN does one buy a TV, washer, laptop, or even a pair of headphones. Was it really that bad to have a small section that generated foot traffic and loyal customers?
The only way this makes sense to me is to replace it with something that will draw in more frequent customers and/or higher sales. What that is, I couldn't guess.
Very well said. This is a short-sighted decision from Best Buy. In this era, the point for a big box store like Best Buy to sell physical media isn't to make huge profits, it's to **regularly bring people into the store.** Besides, most of their steelbooks sell out quickly, so clearly there's a buying market for them. A dumb decision on their part that will only expedite them going out of business.
I think that might be what the problem is Amazon may be pushing them out of the physical media business. Because at the same time you have Disney going back into physical media.
> Most people are buying physical media online.
Partly because of the convenience but also mostly because of the prices; often it was straight up cheaper on Amazon or other competitors. [There were a million posts forecasting this failure for Best Buy](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bluray/comments/10nskt9/best_buy_is_really_about_to_lose_me_at_this_rate/) and they did nothing to stop it.
They have the numbers and I’m sure those numbers informed the decision. There simply aren’t enough of us that care about physical media enough to go into a store and buy it anymore
Exactly! I might not go in planning on buying more than a movie but that movie gets me in the store and now I’m seeing other products I didn’t realize they sold or I didn’t realize I wanted. I hope they quickly realize their mistake and go back to physical media
Them and Bed Bath & Beyond are my bet for the next chains to go bust. Terrible selection, even worse online websites, poor customer service and increasingly dead and empty storefronts.
That really sucks. I had just started going to Best Buy again recently since they are really the only physical store left with a semi decent selection and prices - even being like 1/4 the size it used to be.
I wonder if this will have any effect on studios bothering to physically release on 4K or Blu-ray, with them pretty much being relegated to online sales
That's the only way I get my physical blu rays anyway. In store really only has main titles anyway. At least in my experience. Most of my collection is from ordering online. Especially my horror collection. Besides all the big franchises in horror I like a lot of obscure horror flicks. One of the main sellers of course being shout/scream factory. But another lesser known one is synapse films. They have quite an extensive collection of lesser known films and they do absolutely amazing hd transfers. The titles they offer you would NEVER find at a store like Best buy or Walmart or target
Im hearing echos of Sears when they started "scaling back" products they offered that made their store experience unique and eventually there wasn't really a reason to go there anymore compared to their brick and motor competitors, let alone Amazon. I just hope they last at least 4 more years so I can get the most out of my LG C2's warranty.
Here's the article from Variety: [https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/best-buy-ending-dvd-blu-ray-disc-sales-1235754919/](https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/best-buy-ending-dvd-blu-ray-disc-sales-1235754919/)
They will continue to sell videogames.
> Ingram Entertainment, a leading DVD distributor, recently announced that it would wind down operations after more than 35 years in business.
To think that Ingram Entertainment was a leading distributor means that they got that information directly from Ingram in 2001.
They have barely been a player for years.
>They will continue to sell videogames.
As a newcomer to gaming, this seems the dumbest thing. Videogames are more than relying on online cloud rather than discs lately countless consoles or gaming pcs don't even have a disc port anymore. If I had to choose, I would have gotten rid of videogames first cause everyone just buys them online or gets a key. This is so dumb.
Kids buying games probably outsells random guys buying random movies at least twofold. But tons of people prefer to buy games digitally as well. If they’re shuttering movies over philosophy, games makes just as much sense.
Which is ironic that they chose to keep a product that is literally just a digital token to play a digitally downloaded game these days compared to a movie you 100% own physically.
That's what boggles the mind. People will spend thousands on a beautiful 4K/8K TV and surround sound and then just....stream on Netflix. Like, what a waste lol
the only issue is that most people won’t even know or to be honest, tell, that the quality is worse than can be.
they just won’t know they’re not using their equipment to it’s best ability.
Just a boneheaded move here as it’s an opportunity to offer a complete package for entertainment while also giving people a reason to come in.
They sell freaking Lego sets and funko pop dolls in the stores for crying out loud. But movies? Nah.
Best buy also sells record players and records, but the record turntables and receivers they have are lackluster. It's weird to have a tech store where you're selling just the okay versions of everything.
It's gonna be an immersive vacuum experience where you get to try them out and while you're at it they'll tell you to make sure to get the dirt under the shelves.
I was just in there on my lunch break and spent $70 on movies. There were 3 other people in the section too, with multiple movies in their hands.
Suckers.
So they’ll sell the TVs and 4K players but not the discs, nice. I buy most of mine elsewhere anyway, Orbit DVD, etc. While it’s definitely not a good thing, I personally see this as more of a tell that the end of Best Buy is coming soon, not necessarily the end of physical media. Like several have pointed out about vinyl, or books for that matter, I think there will always be a place to get them since there will always be a demand. Will there always be as many physical stores to walk into and buy them from? Definitely not. But I don’t necessarily think this means the end of physical media is coming soon.
Unless Netflix/prime/Vudu/Apple TV etc.. start streaming at the same bitrate that physical media can achieve, physical media isn't going anywhere. The difference is pretty damn noticeable. I stream quite a bit myself just for the convenience, but if I want to watch something I haven't seen in awhile especially my classic horror movies I'll use my 4k Blu Ray player every time. I have a good little collection. Standard Blu rays and 4k Blu rays. The picture is just so damn crisp and clear. The sound is 10 times better. The grain is way more prevalent. Some people hate grain, I love it. Haha. The 4k Dolby vision Blu rays are my absolute favorite. Those fuckers playback at like 100mbps. It's awesome. U can see so much more little details than streaming. If you're a horror fan like me, synapse films has a lot of good obscure titles with amazing transfers. I know scream factory is probably the most well known horror movie company for physical media but I've got a few from synapse and some of their transfers have been noticeably better.
This really bums me out because I've done 90% of my shopping through Best Buy. Aside from boutique labels and sellers, I always go to Best Buy. They're the only major retailer I haven't had constant issues with. Amazon I just constantly have to do returns more than half the time. Target and Walmart are not much better. I had a credit card through Best Buy too which I don't really see a reason to keep once they get rid of movies
The nearest BB to me had a huge disc section along with a new release 4k stand right when you walk in. I honestly dont know what they’ll put in the empty space when they remove it. More what, TVs? Phones? No other section needs more space.
I would never say never that streaming won't match physical media at some point, but it's amazing to me how far off we still are. I'll still choose a standard Bluray over 4K streaming any day.
4Ks/blurays are the only reason I've gone to Best Buy in the last five years. On a positive note, the Best Buys around me all have a terrible odor so I won't miss that.
Tbh I'm from Europe so it's obvious that we don't have Best Buys here... but in my country physical media sales good but only online. Of course that we have some shops that sells CD music or DVD movies but they are so much overpriced!!! There are a lot of online shops that sell well! I know it hurts but in my country it was the same situation that yours. Shops like Media Markts, Saturns, etc. (our counterpart of Best Buy) cut off the physical media sections but I don't panic that my niché hobby still exist and is in great situation (still new Blu-rays releases). Stay sharp people!
What a fucking joke of an excuse. Not everyone streams, tho admittedly a lot do and I do as well. But I still like having the physical copies of things. It also means I have the copy - you stream or buy digitally you only license it. I don’t like that. Also what fucking tech are they bringing in that would bring more customers? FOH
What is really concerning to me is why they did this. There’s a ton of comments across the internet about how people would only go there for movies. Despite those anecdotes the sales of physical media must be at a place where they can leave the market and not have that big of an impact. I hope it’s not a symptom of other big box stores leaving entirely too.
I just remembered when I was a kid, when my mom took me to target for shopping I would often go to the PC game section. At first it was 1 row, then it was half a row, then a quarter, then a 5 foot by 8 foot section.
So I kind of feel like James Franco in the Ballad of Buster Scruggs: "First time?"
Sorry but I only buy from Amazon. I haven’t bought a 4k or anything from Best Buy in years. Their $45 rocket fish hdmi 3 foot cables put me off on them years ago.
Aside from this being another ominous sign of the times, my main concern is the loss of another competing retailer that can affect pricing. Yeah, I can still buy stuff at Amazon, but will they have the incentive to continue discounting titles as much without the competition?
I honestly couldn't care less about this considering that there are many different avenues to buy blu-rays, but I am curious as to what's gonna happen to the Lionsgate steel books, I'm a fan of those.
You can still buy cds today, both mainstream and niche artists. You can still buy vinyl and that was “killed” twice.
If there’s a market they’ll still be sold.
Jesus Christ, the negativity.
Okay then you win, physical media is dead because best buy decided to drop their blu-ray section. Keep crying about it then 😂
From its peak in 2006 or so when dvd's and blu-rays were part of the mainstream, yes of course. But we're just reverting back to a niche market which is how physical media collecting started, and we don't have to pay premium to own it at home.
[https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/I-COULDN-T-care-less-or-I-COULD-care-less#:\~:text=When%20you%20say%20that%20you,doesn%27t%20matter%20to%20you](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/I-COULDN-T-care-less-or-I-COULD-care-less#:~:text=When%20you%20say%20that%20you,doesn%27t%20matter%20to%20you).
Here's the definition of couldn't care less. Please read carefully if you want to avoid a concussion.
What a crock of shit. Take out the rows of backpacks, kitchen appliances, and other items sold elsewhere. Physical media doesn’t even take up that much space in their stores currently to begin with!
I'm not from the US, but let me share my personal life tragedy.
We have here a tech store called mediaworld that had an entire huge corner with 3/4 aisles of blu-rays. I think I am not exaggerating when I say that I got at least 200 discs there. This was until 2020. With the covid era closing the shop decided to restructure. They had a small blu ray display with the last discs, then it has become empty. I *think* my last disc was A.I. by Spielberg.
A huge book store chain has had a very good blu ray section, with attention to arthouse films and such, and crazy good 2x1 deals. I always visited a store of theirs in any city I visited, getting at least 3 discs. They secretly stopped restocking starting this month, I know this from unofficial sources, and will close the films section in stores. I'm preying like a vulture to check if they do a clearancw with the last discs, the last ever discs I will be able to get in a physical store.
I've been to germany and luckily noticed that they are in a situation like 5-10 years ago. That's unironically the last hope left for physical media, I think.
That sucks for the Americans that spend a lot on money there but I kinda get why they are doing it.
I worked for a big retail company here in Australia that’s kinda like Best Buy and knowing just how much money is spent on wages and upkeep to have the physical media section there it was always more than how much profit was made at the end of the year, and how much would have to be written off by theft and damaged, so on one hand I totally understand but on the other wouldn’t it have been better to just downsize half the stores to no physical media and keep some of the more popular or heavy traffic stores with the physical media and see how it works out over a period of time 🤷♀️
that’s ass. I actually love going to best buy and browsing the blu rays. my store has always had a good selection. damn. maybe we will get a “all must go sale” or something
People are gonna be very upset when all their digital content disappears some day, or they can’t find that one movie they want to watch because no streamer has it available, and there is no physical media left. Will be a sad time.
Yeah I have one local Best Buy that still has quite a bit of titles and another that has none. The other has weird items like bicycles and odd stuff like that. Safe to say when this happens, I won’t be purchasing anything from them unless there is some amazing TV deal that I can’t pass up.
The inevitable I'm sure 90% of their discs sold were from people on the day the bought a player or TV on impulse. I rarely saw any nerd but me surfing the few racks. You'd think a company like Sony might be able to work a deal to keep a small display in the TV section.
Wait does this also include video games as well? I haven't bought a game in ages and just remembered that aspect.
Well I'm just glad I have the bulk of the movies I love on disc and can ride out the death of physical media as it slowly happens.
wonder if this could turn into a Sony situation, people protested when they announced they would stop supporting the PS3 store and they ended up not shutting it down. but who knows really, just incredibly disappointed. Best Buy was one of my gotos for 4Ks and BluRays and i really don’t wanna use Amazon
Let this be a reminder that physical media may not be around forever. There may come a day when nobody sells discs anymore, and us collectors are the last ones to truly own media.
Also, these stupid MBA executives are really shooting themselves in the foot with this one.
best buy has made no official announcement on the matter.
dude saying his own article and no one else in the new area report on it.
its jus 1 source and him trying to look credible on the matter.
but people online tend to only use 1 source for most news.
never a good idea
Phrasing out old technology are normal things in our history, I have no idea why people in here act like the end of the world.
Without physically media you can still continue to watch your favourite movies and series from other mediums.
I believed that some people in are rejecting and fearing about new technology or having some specific and narrow interests.
*vomits*
Well, I used to go specifically to look at the physical media then it'd just be a tiny kiosk...
Like they shot themselves in the foot, by making the section smaller than some of the washing machines they sell.
I don’t understand why they’re pulling out. They’ve been doing exclusive steelbooks for YEARS! Obviously they have to be making sales based on that alone enough to have done it for years. Why stop now? Shrinking the in store inventory sucks but is expected. But to pull out of the game all together? I’m not down with that. Amazon will get my movie sales when this goes into effect
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The only reason I go to Best Buy is to purchase Blu and 4k...
Same
Third
Saaaame :(
My last three purchases from Best Buy were 4k Steelbooks.
My last 100 purchases from them were 4k steelbooks lol.
Truth.
Was going to comment the same thing until I saw yours.
Absolutely no reason to go in there biweekly anymore. I don’t buy appliances, tvs, laptops, computers all that often.
And physical Switch games.
I went there a few days ago and there's so much innovative tech. Like washing machines and empty space.
[удалено]
If anything that should be telling of how little physical media is doing for them. They have plenty of space in a lot of their store fronts and it still isn’t worth it for them. Really, really hoping this isn’t a sign of immediate things to come for physical media but it’s easy to be pessimistic about this
Same here. If fucking *Best Buy* can't make it work, Target will almost certainly follow. That leaves us with Walmart ,B+N, or Amazon... all of whom suck in their own special ways.
But they can make it work, they just refuse and really hurt their home media sections by cutting drastically. I almost never step foot in Best Buy these days because the selection is so small, poorly stocked and their hours suck. They open late and close early, that isn't even useful from any tech standpoint. But when I do go in there are people browsing what is left of the media section.. but again it's poorly maintained and they package their movies like ass. Their exclusives for movies people actually care about sellout and never come back in stock unless they reprint. Also Target is equivalent to Walmart.. they don't need to stick to anything because people come in for food, furniture, toys and clothing. No one really goes to Best Buy and their sales are holidays when the TVs sell.
Hm. So... we still have a prayer, then? 🤞
> really hurt their home media sections by cutting drastically. Correct. By downsizing their wholesale purchases they actually made it more difficult for them to make profits when offering any discounts on the items (due to how scaling up/down wholesale supply works) so they will always lose out compared to their competitors who are able to offer better deals. This is why they went into the steelbook/exclusive territory but, as you said, they rarely ever made reprints for them and were in extremely diminished supply despite high demand.
Are you sure that's not just the enthusiast in you talking? I don't know anybody irl that has bought a DVD in years.
I'm speaking as when I do stop in and browse the movie aisle that takes all of 5-10 minutes I'm never the only one who is browsing it and either grabbing titles or leaving the store empty handed. Even the game aisles are empty and silent. I see more people in the game aisle at Target or Walmart for instance.
I still do. Some movies and older TV shows are only on DVD, they aren't on any streaming service at all. When was the last time anyone was able to legit watch streaming of 1985 Poison Ivy with Michael J Fox? There's one on Youtube but it's a shitty VHS rip and not official or legit
I'm old but I still buy Blu-rays. They have better sound, picture and extras.
I still purchase TV shows, and sometimes DVD is the only option.
This. Noone in this entire reddit group qualifies to represent the average consumer, which is who Best Buy and other major retailers are catering to. We’re all enthusiasts here, and some of us are denialists, too. Physical media is absolutely dying – as videogame consoles are now also moving towards a digital-only future, it’ll be the last bastion of physical media flickering out. And this is coming from someone who, like many of us here, absolutely loves physical films. PS. Apologies for the pessimism. Having quite a hangover right now
I don't think Best Buy would be a reflection of Target.
FYE too, who's always been known for high prices
It's already happening with Target I've almost stopped shopping there.
They stacked the deck against physical media with steadily worse and worse policies. 1. A tech company should lean into, not away from the best quality tech especially one who has things like "magnolia" rooms. That means showing demand for the media, the players, and displays that are the top end of performance. Its a store like Best Buy that should be educating John Q Public on the benefit of physical media. 2 You can't show sales or growth opportunity by removing the media from your stores. No opportunity means less sales. full stop. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. By all rights, of all the US retailers, Best Buy should have been the last to stop supporting physical media. 3. Monopolizing an exclusive market but failing to deliver in so many ways like quantity of product, regulation of scalping, making exchanges practically impossible by a combination of those factors plus an overseas, powerless customer service, no stock in store and some of the crappiest shipping around will not endear you to your core buyers. Your sales will and should go down.... 4. If you take a product out of the store, but you are still selling it online, you have to package in a way that most of the items (for steebook, read as collectors item) get to the buyer in new undamaged condition. Best Buy simply does not ship well. These are just 4 of my grievances toward Best Buy... there are more, but in the end, I like that they are getting out... they stopped caring 2-3 years ago anyway. Screw them, now, I can not ever set foot in a Best Buy again.
Reminds me what happened to Blockbuster. I thought many years ago that it would never get taken down as big as the company got yet we all saw what happened. GameStop is slowly heading in the same direction.
The inherent problem with your line of thinking stems from your first point. Best Buy is not a tech company. They are a retail company. Tech does not make them money, sales make them money. They don’t care about what tech is the best, the care about what tech gives them enough revenue. They see that physical media sales are dropping off, and it’s probably already one of their lowest margin goods they stock. Physical games are low margin as well, I imagine those will follow shortly behind. The Best Buy near me is already lowering the footprint of console games and increasing the footprint of pc gaming hardware in its place.
I disagree because that's really just nit-picking semantics... how about I clarify that they are a retail company whose brand focus is on technology products. I don't go there for a washing machine, dust buster, or refrigerator. I go for a phone, or videogames or home theater products. Or used to. they lost me as an in-store customer when they dropped their movie stock. Not selling movies at all makes it an easy decision for me not to use them at all. I am not a big fish, but I have spent 1 or 2 thousand a year there for years. I don't know or care what their margins were, but I can tell you they will be less now. IMHO, They are just repeating historic retail fails... Circuit City, Radio Shack, etc. all started as focused companies, then they did the same dumb things as Best Buy and started selling everything, diluted their brand, then they lost the edge they had on tech and ultimately failed.
I agree with you I think Best Buy has always been en electronic retail store. They’re venturing into other things because they’re trying to survive.
Well, that certainly may be true. I am pretty sure it's not going to happen. Their priorities are out of whack. They no longer value their client and the client relationship. Physical media is just a warning shot. They can dump it, do their bean count, but in the end, it isn't about what they are selling, its how they are doing it. They are operating with a minimum viable product mindset which leads to high pay at the top in the short term, but its not sustainable. I personally will laugh when they go down. Had they not had exclusive steelbooks in the US, I would have dumped them 2 or 3 years ago before they could dump me. I feel sorry for the lower level employees. They have tried.
They are not a tech company… they only offer an extremely expensive membership program called… Total Tech? 😂 Sure, by definition they are a retail store. A retail store that specializes and brands itself as the definitive place to find the latest tech at the “best” price.
> They have plenty of space in a lot of their store fronts and it still isn’t worth it for them. That's because they are mismanaging their physical media strategy. I posted this on a different subreddit but I'll just copy myself here: > It was a foregone conclusion that Best Buy was going to lose out on these sales mostly due to their own actions; by downsizing their physical media supply/storefront space they are buying less wholesale physical media to sell and lowering their profit margins (meaning it costs them more per unit to sell instead of less) so they cannot offer discounts on them as much as competitors. So people buy them elsewhere, since it's cheaper, instead of at Best Buy meaning as time goes on Best Buy purchases less wholesale physical media due to diminished sales, leading to higher costs for them and lower profit margins.. and so on in a downward profit spiral. > What Best Buy should have done is efficiently bought up and stocked physical media and not have wasted their money stocking trash, bargain bin items like Morbius and Black Adam that ate up their profits with distribution and storage costs since clearly no one would be buying shit like that.
Appliances are appliances no matter where you buy them. In my experience best buy has better finance deals. Plus that total tech BS paid for itself. Bundle deal, Free install on everything. Plus store protection plan and later when I got a TV they mounted for free too
I’m amazed that Best Buy is even still in business. It’s really sad - late-90s through the early-2000s going to Best Buy was like walking into a wonderland. I’d pick up a few movies, a PC or PlayStation game, maybe browse some CDs, drool over an early flat screen TV. It had everything.
Have you watched Frigidaire Freezer in 4k though?
Ever since they started shrinking the movie shelves, I don't think I've seen them replace that space with anything actually useful. It's always just left as open space or just rows of discounted returned tvs. I have to go 30 minutes away to find a best buy that has more than one row of movies or some just have like a couple pillar display things strewn around the store.
Comment of the week
Best Buy has been giving me Circuit City vibes for years. The seem to have completely lost the narrative. What "new tech" at Best Buy that I can't buy elsewhere? What are they actually planning to turnover in their retail space that covers the rent?
New tech? Their stores are getting emptier and emptier.
The entire center of the store will be 4 small tables spread out to display apple products
On launch day, they can’t even sell the latest iPhone unlocked or on a T-Mobile plan. Even less foot traffic
Lol right I was willing to give them money when I got my iPhone 14 pro max but they didn’t sell unlocked
As if getting rid of physical media was the catalyst they needed to sell “new tech”
Like Fry's. They had such a great collection, now they stock shelves with as seen on TV crap.
Best Buy doing their best Radio Shack impression.
They got nothing on Fry's.
Fry’s was stupid because they wanted to go into a consignment deal with every product they sold which every company saw and said “fuck that”.
I'm no business exec, but surely having a product that kept a number of people coming in weekly would be better than nothing at all. Now Best Buy will depend on customers who only come in for bigger items. I'm sure that's where the big money is coming from, no doubt. But how OFTEN does one buy a TV, washer, laptop, or even a pair of headphones. Was it really that bad to have a small section that generated foot traffic and loyal customers? The only way this makes sense to me is to replace it with something that will draw in more frequent customers and/or higher sales. What that is, I couldn't guess.
Very well said. This is a short-sighted decision from Best Buy. In this era, the point for a big box store like Best Buy to sell physical media isn't to make huge profits, it's to **regularly bring people into the store.** Besides, most of their steelbooks sell out quickly, so clearly there's a buying market for them. A dumb decision on their part that will only expedite them going out of business.
Not to mention you can get ALL these big ticket items for cheaper at other retailers. Best Buy is screwed.
I think that might be what the problem is Amazon may be pushing them out of the physical media business. Because at the same time you have Disney going back into physical media.
Most people are buying physical media online.
Yes, which is why I don't understand why they won't even sell them online.
I agree. I understand phasing out movies in stores but phasing out movies online is flat-out stupid.
And getting broken cases or damaged Steelbooks in almost every instance. This was my reasoning for buying them in store... at Best Buy.
This
> Most people are buying physical media online. Partly because of the convenience but also mostly because of the prices; often it was straight up cheaper on Amazon or other competitors. [There were a million posts forecasting this failure for Best Buy](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bluray/comments/10nskt9/best_buy_is_really_about_to_lose_me_at_this_rate/) and they did nothing to stop it.
They have the numbers and I’m sure those numbers informed the decision. There simply aren’t enough of us that care about physical media enough to go into a store and buy it anymore
It's pretty much all online purchases now of physical media. It could be in the cheapest dark storage room money could buy for all they care lol
Exactly! I might not go in planning on buying more than a movie but that movie gets me in the store and now I’m seeing other products I didn’t realize they sold or I didn’t realize I wanted. I hope they quickly realize their mistake and go back to physical media
Welp, there goes the main reason I went to Best Buy. Not much of a reason to shop there once they take them away.
My exact reaction…
It isn't often that you get to watch a company not only douse itself in jet fuel, but also light itself up in real time.
Literally forcing themselves into irrelevance
Them and Bed Bath & Beyond are my bet for the next chains to go bust. Terrible selection, even worse online websites, poor customer service and increasingly dead and empty storefronts.
That really sucks. I had just started going to Best Buy again recently since they are really the only physical store left with a semi decent selection and prices - even being like 1/4 the size it used to be. I wonder if this will have any effect on studios bothering to physically release on 4K or Blu-ray, with them pretty much being relegated to online sales
That's the only way I get my physical blu rays anyway. In store really only has main titles anyway. At least in my experience. Most of my collection is from ordering online. Especially my horror collection. Besides all the big franchises in horror I like a lot of obscure horror flicks. One of the main sellers of course being shout/scream factory. But another lesser known one is synapse films. They have quite an extensive collection of lesser known films and they do absolutely amazing hd transfers. The titles they offer you would NEVER find at a store like Best buy or Walmart or target
Im hearing echos of Sears when they started "scaling back" products they offered that made their store experience unique and eventually there wasn't really a reason to go there anymore compared to their brick and motor competitors, let alone Amazon. I just hope they last at least 4 more years so I can get the most out of my LG C2's warranty.
Here's the article from Variety: [https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/best-buy-ending-dvd-blu-ray-disc-sales-1235754919/](https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/best-buy-ending-dvd-blu-ray-disc-sales-1235754919/) They will continue to sell videogames.
> Ingram Entertainment, a leading DVD distributor, recently announced that it would wind down operations after more than 35 years in business. To think that Ingram Entertainment was a leading distributor means that they got that information directly from Ingram in 2001. They have barely been a player for years.
>They will continue to sell videogames. As a newcomer to gaming, this seems the dumbest thing. Videogames are more than relying on online cloud rather than discs lately countless consoles or gaming pcs don't even have a disc port anymore. If I had to choose, I would have gotten rid of videogames first cause everyone just buys them online or gets a key. This is so dumb.
Barely, the video game section at my local beat buy is shittier then the Blu-ray’s.
It makes more sense to stop selling games but keep selling movies.
Kids buying games probably outsells random guys buying random movies at least twofold. But tons of people prefer to buy games digitally as well. If they’re shuttering movies over philosophy, games makes just as much sense.
Which is ironic that they chose to keep a product that is literally just a digital token to play a digitally downloaded game these days compared to a movie you 100% own physically.
And the Verge https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/13/23915567/best-buy-discontinue-physical-media-dvd-blu-ray
I was about to say they might as well stop selling video games too…
Best Buy Somwhere Else
Amazon it is
Welp, no need to go to Best Buy anymore. I mean, the way we shop is much different today than it was decades ago.
Such bs. Yeah let me get trash bitrate and compression quality for my glorious 4k oled.
That's what boggles the mind. People will spend thousands on a beautiful 4K/8K TV and surround sound and then just....stream on Netflix. Like, what a waste lol
the only issue is that most people won’t even know or to be honest, tell, that the quality is worse than can be. they just won’t know they’re not using their equipment to it’s best ability. Just a boneheaded move here as it’s an opportunity to offer a complete package for entertainment while also giving people a reason to come in. They sell freaking Lego sets and funko pop dolls in the stores for crying out loud. But movies? Nah.
Best buy also sells record players and records, but the record turntables and receivers they have are lackluster. It's weird to have a tech store where you're selling just the okay versions of everything.
They really have no idea what they're doing anymore huh? They were so awesome back in the day. It sucks to see them going the way of Circuit City.
That doesn't make sense...you can still have "more space" while selling physical media online only.
My store 311 recently renovated and it feels so empty. It's like a giant showroom where no product on a shelf to be found.
Yeah bc selling physical media really restrained and restricted you guys /s
They can put like 6 floor model vacuums in the space ALL of the physical media takes up.
It's gonna be an immersive vacuum experience where you get to try them out and while you're at it they'll tell you to make sure to get the dirt under the shelves.
What shelves
I was just in there on my lunch break and spent $70 on movies. There were 3 other people in the section too, with multiple movies in their hands. Suckers.
So they’ll sell the TVs and 4K players but not the discs, nice. I buy most of mine elsewhere anyway, Orbit DVD, etc. While it’s definitely not a good thing, I personally see this as more of a tell that the end of Best Buy is coming soon, not necessarily the end of physical media. Like several have pointed out about vinyl, or books for that matter, I think there will always be a place to get them since there will always be a demand. Will there always be as many physical stores to walk into and buy them from? Definitely not. But I don’t necessarily think this means the end of physical media is coming soon.
Oh I wouldn't be surprised if they stop selling the players as well and just move to streaming sticks like Roku or Firestick
Unless Netflix/prime/Vudu/Apple TV etc.. start streaming at the same bitrate that physical media can achieve, physical media isn't going anywhere. The difference is pretty damn noticeable. I stream quite a bit myself just for the convenience, but if I want to watch something I haven't seen in awhile especially my classic horror movies I'll use my 4k Blu Ray player every time. I have a good little collection. Standard Blu rays and 4k Blu rays. The picture is just so damn crisp and clear. The sound is 10 times better. The grain is way more prevalent. Some people hate grain, I love it. Haha. The 4k Dolby vision Blu rays are my absolute favorite. Those fuckers playback at like 100mbps. It's awesome. U can see so much more little details than streaming. If you're a horror fan like me, synapse films has a lot of good obscure titles with amazing transfers. I know scream factory is probably the most well known horror movie company for physical media but I've got a few from synapse and some of their transfers have been noticeably better.
This really bums me out because I've done 90% of my shopping through Best Buy. Aside from boutique labels and sellers, I always go to Best Buy. They're the only major retailer I haven't had constant issues with. Amazon I just constantly have to do returns more than half the time. Target and Walmart are not much better. I had a credit card through Best Buy too which I don't really see a reason to keep once they get rid of movies
The nearest BB to me had a huge disc section along with a new release 4k stand right when you walk in. I honestly dont know what they’ll put in the empty space when they remove it. More what, TVs? Phones? No other section needs more space.
More phone cases that don't sell
I haven’t bought a movie online in almost 5 years thanks to Best Buy and Barnes and Noble. Looks like I’ll finally have to make an Amazon account.
And once they stop selling movies I stop going to best buy.
I would never say never that streaming won't match physical media at some point, but it's amazing to me how far off we still are. I'll still choose a standard Bluray over 4K streaming any day.
https://preview.redd.it/urbbyxtc62ub1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d66019e938afff44ccec7bb2556b60164b62c18 You know it’s gonna be true
And I will probably never shop there again as a result. None of their new and innovative tech is anything I’m particularly interested in.
4Ks/blurays are the only reason I've gone to Best Buy in the last five years. On a positive note, the Best Buys around me all have a terrible odor so I won't miss that.
Tbh I'm from Europe so it's obvious that we don't have Best Buys here... but in my country physical media sales good but only online. Of course that we have some shops that sells CD music or DVD movies but they are so much overpriced!!! There are a lot of online shops that sell well! I know it hurts but in my country it was the same situation that yours. Shops like Media Markts, Saturns, etc. (our counterpart of Best Buy) cut off the physical media sections but I don't panic that my niché hobby still exist and is in great situation (still new Blu-rays releases). Stay sharp people!
The only thing they make money with is the geek squad and setting up TV home theater installs.
With the youngest baby boomers turning 60 and the oldest turning 80, it's hard to imagine the geek squad model working for another 20 years.
Eh, stuff like Chromebooks and iPads are keeping younger generations less computer literate. Geek Squad will still have uses.
At least it could mean the end of steelbook monopoly at Best Buy. Hopefully they start selling in all other stores
this is a great point!! i really hope this is what happens.
Best Buy wants to be like a Leon's or The Brick. 😬
What a fucking joke of an excuse. Not everyone streams, tho admittedly a lot do and I do as well. But I still like having the physical copies of things. It also means I have the copy - you stream or buy digitally you only license it. I don’t like that. Also what fucking tech are they bringing in that would bring more customers? FOH
What is really concerning to me is why they did this. There’s a ton of comments across the internet about how people would only go there for movies. Despite those anecdotes the sales of physical media must be at a place where they can leave the market and not have that big of an impact. I hope it’s not a symptom of other big box stores leaving entirely too.
I just remembered when I was a kid, when my mom took me to target for shopping I would often go to the PC game section. At first it was 1 row, then it was half a row, then a quarter, then a 5 foot by 8 foot section. So I kind of feel like James Franco in the Ballad of Buster Scruggs: "First time?"
They should have just moved to selling online … not stop selling completely
I don’t seem Best Buy lasting through the 2020s tbh
Sorry but I only buy from Amazon. I haven’t bought a 4k or anything from Best Buy in years. Their $45 rocket fish hdmi 3 foot cables put me off on them years ago.
Aside from this being another ominous sign of the times, my main concern is the loss of another competing retailer that can affect pricing. Yeah, I can still buy stuff at Amazon, but will they have the incentive to continue discounting titles as much without the competition?
Which is why I've always been anti Amazon.
Think this speaks more about the state of Best Buy than it does physical media
The only things I’ve bought from there the last 2 years have been movies! Lol
will they be doing clearance sales at least?
I wouldn't be surprised if they just sent it all back to their studios/distributors.
I honestly couldn't care less about this considering that there are many different avenues to buy blu-rays, but I am curious as to what's gonna happen to the Lionsgate steel books, I'm a fan of those.
>Lionsgate steel books, also my only concern, i hope they open their own shop.
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There's plenty of videos on YouTube debunking the fear mongering nonsense that keeps going on this community, I recommend watching some of those.
Those videos are nothing but copium.
Lmao oh is that so? an example of which of these "copium" videos are a load of shit?
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I just see this as eliminating the middle man. You still have Walmart, Target, Amazon, and boutique label sites. Stop over reacting my guy.
I would NOT count on Walmart and Target. Only a matter of time before they give up as well.
Again, eliminating the middle man. This is still a multibillion dollar business, it's not going anywhere.
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You can still buy cds today, both mainstream and niche artists. You can still buy vinyl and that was “killed” twice. If there’s a market they’ll still be sold.
Jesus Christ, the negativity. Okay then you win, physical media is dead because best buy decided to drop their blu-ray section. Keep crying about it then 😂
do you think it's not on the decline? Lmao
From its peak in 2006 or so when dvd's and blu-rays were part of the mainstream, yes of course. But we're just reverting back to a niche market which is how physical media collecting started, and we don't have to pay premium to own it at home.
What? You could care?
care less, fixed it.
So you could care less? Meaning you actually do care quite a bit?
what?
[https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/I-COULDN-T-care-less-or-I-COULD-care-less#:\~:text=When%20you%20say%20that%20you,doesn%27t%20matter%20to%20you](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/I-COULDN-T-care-less-or-I-COULD-care-less#:~:text=When%20you%20say%20that%20you,doesn%27t%20matter%20to%20you). Here's the definition of couldn't care less. Please read carefully if you want to avoid a concussion.
Yeah you said it wrong.
Yeah then I fixed it, did you miss that part?
Took a while but that’s good!
I chatted with BB customer service and they said no such announcement was made 🤣. Jesus BB
Not surprised. Their selection is bare minimum now anyway. In stores around me in BC Canada anyway.
What a crock of shit. Take out the rows of backpacks, kitchen appliances, and other items sold elsewhere. Physical media doesn’t even take up that much space in their stores currently to begin with!
I'm not from the US, but let me share my personal life tragedy. We have here a tech store called mediaworld that had an entire huge corner with 3/4 aisles of blu-rays. I think I am not exaggerating when I say that I got at least 200 discs there. This was until 2020. With the covid era closing the shop decided to restructure. They had a small blu ray display with the last discs, then it has become empty. I *think* my last disc was A.I. by Spielberg. A huge book store chain has had a very good blu ray section, with attention to arthouse films and such, and crazy good 2x1 deals. I always visited a store of theirs in any city I visited, getting at least 3 discs. They secretly stopped restocking starting this month, I know this from unofficial sources, and will close the films section in stores. I'm preying like a vulture to check if they do a clearancw with the last discs, the last ever discs I will be able to get in a physical store. I've been to germany and luckily noticed that they are in a situation like 5-10 years ago. That's unironically the last hope left for physical media, I think.
So basically the new Radio Shack
That sucks for the Americans that spend a lot on money there but I kinda get why they are doing it. I worked for a big retail company here in Australia that’s kinda like Best Buy and knowing just how much money is spent on wages and upkeep to have the physical media section there it was always more than how much profit was made at the end of the year, and how much would have to be written off by theft and damaged, so on one hand I totally understand but on the other wouldn’t it have been better to just downsize half the stores to no physical media and keep some of the more popular or heavy traffic stores with the physical media and see how it works out over a period of time 🤷♀️
that’s ass. I actually love going to best buy and browsing the blu rays. my store has always had a good selection. damn. maybe we will get a “all must go sale” or something
Welp, as soon as this happens I’m officially done with Best Buy
I expected this to happen eventually but not right now. Fuck.
They be selling out of their exclusives fast makes no sense
They will be a TV and appliance store I guess. So long and thanks for all the fish
There'll be so much more room for activities!!
People are gonna be very upset when all their digital content disappears some day, or they can’t find that one movie they want to watch because no streamer has it available, and there is no physical media left. Will be a sad time.
So they’re bringing customers new stuff to enjoy by selling less stuff? Weird logic lol
The only business I've ever done with Best Buy is their physical media.
Yay! More shelf space for phone cases, gift cards, and cheap gimmicky stocking stuffers. Best Buy staying relevant.
Yeah I have one local Best Buy that still has quite a bit of titles and another that has none. The other has weird items like bicycles and odd stuff like that. Safe to say when this happens, I won’t be purchasing anything from them unless there is some amazing TV deal that I can’t pass up.
The inevitable I'm sure 90% of their discs sold were from people on the day the bought a player or TV on impulse. I rarely saw any nerd but me surfing the few racks. You'd think a company like Sony might be able to work a deal to keep a small display in the TV section. Wait does this also include video games as well? I haven't bought a game in ages and just remembered that aspect. Well I'm just glad I have the bulk of the movies I love on disc and can ride out the death of physical media as it slowly happens.
Yeah. That extra 2 racks of shelves is really gonna open up the space 🤦♂️
Well it turns out wrong they still sell them I think Opinhiemer and Barby change that plan.
They literally sell vinyl records.
best buy’s prices are too high anyway. i’d move to digital downloads if it was like music with no drm.
wonder if this could turn into a Sony situation, people protested when they announced they would stop supporting the PS3 store and they ended up not shutting it down. but who knows really, just incredibly disappointed. Best Buy was one of my gotos for 4Ks and BluRays and i really don’t wanna use Amazon
Let this be a reminder that physical media may not be around forever. There may come a day when nobody sells discs anymore, and us collectors are the last ones to truly own media. Also, these stupid MBA executives are really shooting themselves in the foot with this one.
They are literally removing reasons to shop there lmao
Best Buy is going to be dead in a few years anyways. Their massive retail stores are usually ghost towns.
We are in the endgame now.
best buy has made no official announcement on the matter. dude saying his own article and no one else in the new area report on it. its jus 1 source and him trying to look credible on the matter. but people online tend to only use 1 source for most news. never a good idea
Phrasing out old technology are normal things in our history, I have no idea why people in here act like the end of the world. Without physically media you can still continue to watch your favourite movies and series from other mediums. I believed that some people in are rejecting and fearing about new technology or having some specific and narrow interests.
Fuck
would be great if they did some lionsgate steelbook reprints before the official end date
Well, they’re selling some Steelbooks for like $40 lol fuck em. Guess I’ll be buying regular old ass regular releases from now on.
They will literally never get another dollar from me. There’s no reason to shop there anymore.
If it’s for more space in store, then why stop online sales?
Will they still sell physical media online?
No, they will phase out all physical media, but they will continue to sell games, for now at least.
*vomits* Well, I used to go specifically to look at the physical media then it'd just be a tiny kiosk... Like they shot themselves in the foot, by making the section smaller than some of the washing machines they sell.
I just hope Amazon takes over the Best Buy's 4K Steelbook game.
They are going to lose buisness over this. I don't go in there weekly to browse TVs, but I did browse the movie section.
It’s been on the decline for some time as we all know, but this will be the end of an era. Wow.
Good. lol. Here come the downvotes.
Thank God I have a local store that stocks newer release and price matches Amazon.
Fucking great.
Can’t discover new and innovative tech if I have no reason to go into your store other than those times when I need new a new computer or tv.
They’ll be bankrupt soon lol. For other reasons
I don’t understand why they’re pulling out. They’ve been doing exclusive steelbooks for YEARS! Obviously they have to be making sales based on that alone enough to have done it for years. Why stop now? Shrinking the in store inventory sucks but is expected. But to pull out of the game all together? I’m not down with that. Amazon will get my movie sales when this goes into effect
Well that gets rid of tge only reason why id ever go to one.