E Unit

I think Fry's will keep its section large, especially if Best Buy whittles their media section down to a couple of aisles. Which is fine by me since there's a Fry's 10 minutes away.

Surfinhank

The Frys store near me just expanded their blu-ray section (yet another DVD row sacrificed). They even split the horror/ sci-fi section into two separate sections and added a mystery/ suspense section.

kenbenobi

Manzana, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Sure, BB's section may shrink. But they're always going to sell new releases, and BB.com will always carry a larger selection. Until the day comes when BB goes under, following in the footsteps of Circuit City and Ultimate Electonics, I don't think you have to worry about them carrying media. But I highly doubt they will suddenly go under. They may close some stores, but they won't suddenly close overnight. Look at FYE! They've been closing stores for YEARS yet they're still afloat!

vocalhouse

I posted this in the "other" BD forum.

"Best Buy also plans to shift more of its existing retail floor space away from CDs and DVDs toward higher growth areas like smartphones, tablets and appliances."

http://www.startribune.com/business/196565091.html

PhantomStranger

Videogames are safe from the media shrinkage. Movies and music are the categories which are going to look like ghost towns.

Rocketdog2000

Actually, I just read in some trade magazine that FYE is planning on expanding (meaning opening new stores) for the first time in years, this year. It also said they were doing this based on last year being their second profitable year in a row, and their stock going up again, as well.

Best Buy, on the other and, isn't only hurting from media sales. Their Electronic and other dept sales have been on the decline for the last couple of years, too. Plus their ever changing corporate leadership hasn't exactly been helping them either. All that said, I do believe you are correct in that they likely won't close overnight. It would be more of a slow process, if it happens at all.

Manzana

Interesting replies. So we're all hoping Fry's Electronics will keep their movie section size making them the "only game left in town" for a decent selection of BDs, although they are pretty overpriced except on sale items (which unfortunately are usually the same old titles repeated over and over in every Friday ad "ad nauseum"). The FYE stores near me are always so overpriced, mostly sell used stuff, and give so little in trade that I rarely go (they stay in business since they pay so little and charge so much for used trade-ins... I've seen people bring in shopping bags full of DVDs and take $1-$2 each on most of the titles including some good ones, then FYE turns around and tries to sell them for $10-$20 each). If both FYE (and Gamestop) are doing well on the spreads between trades and re-sales, I surely don't know who these people are who think buying $10-$20 used DVDs is a good price. It's not too hard to find better used prices at Gohastings (and that's taking into account their recent price increases and lack of good weekly sales).

BB's selection of movies is not great, but they have $4.99 U&S or

E Unit

Fry's for the most part have big ass sales on a decent movie selections priced from $4.99 to $9.99. They're no more overpriced than Best Buy when it comes to regular prices.

vocalhouse

What's overpriced are the MSRPs. $49.99 for Fright Night 3D? Oy!

DVD Polizei

Best Buy may get out of the media business in their stores, but it won't cost them as much to keep the same amount of titles in warehouses, and offer them only online. Which is fine with me and I prefer it this way. I always spend wayyyyyyy more time in the store, fighting over a few bucks with a retard "manager" who somehow thinks I'm the Mike Milken of Media Thievery, out to cause world destruction because I'm simply pointing out that I can use my U&S coupons towards an already-reduced sale priced Blu-ray title.

TheBang

The problem with online-only is that you can't use manufacturer's coupons and promotions like Upgrade & Save coupons.

jiggyblau

Regarding MFR coupons, they could set up a system like Amazon has. I won't hold my breath though.

Regarding U&S, I don't see why they couldn't allow us to take them to stores where they could give us online vouchers worth $5 off a blu-ray $9.99 or more. It wouldn't take much of an effort to make it work. Of course, it's Best Buy, so, again, I wouldn't imagine it happening easily.

popegregFKAgoblin23

Explain please. Since when does Amazon accept manufacturers coupons?

Manzana

I think he means that they occasionally offer their own limited time coupons on certain releases to make up for mfg coupons, but that's not really a system and it's so random that it's nothing you can count on.

I've mentioned to store employees many times how I wish they'd implement an online system for U&S (such as unique U&S codes printed from the register when you trade in which you could use online), but knowing how they operate they are too big and bureaucratic to move or do anything quickly. Thinking they're going to upgrade their systems to add new features when they sound like they are trying to get out of the B&M media business seems like a pipe dream. I've mentioned various other significant annoyances to Amazon about their system (GC usage and promo balances in particular), the reps always say something like "great idea, I'll forward it to the right dept." and years later nothing has changed.

The closest thing we'll probably ever get to what we'd like is the Express Lane which has worked for me but is very time consuming since the employee has to do everything manually and often forgets how to do it (and has to ask others). I think my fastest Express Lane order was just under 10 minutes. So it should really be called the Slow Lane.

Sorry to be a cynic but this is all just wishful thinking.

jiggyblau

That's what I meant! I wouldn't call it random, because it's not, but it does seem up to Amazon's discretion, and probably the studios. There's no reason they can't work together to find a solution if Disney wants to keep using coupons for their new releases.

ka11ima

Does anyone know if Best buy will bring back their "trade up and save" bluray program? I still have 20+ DVD's I bought at a BB store closing for 1/each. Wouldn't mind trading those in for the 5 savings.

whotony

You didn't hear? They cancelled the program.

kenbenobi

The dates they put the coupons up is definitely random (ie, there is no pattern or timeframe to plan on). At least with store coupons, you know they'll come out around the release date. Amazon coupons for Disney titles can be 4-6 months in advance, before the title even has an official release date! And then the coupon is only available for a limited time! Thus, many people miss out on the coupon, since they have no idea in advance when Amazon will do it.

Pizza

The day of browsing is dead. It used to be fun to go to a store and just look around for awhile and then buy a find or two. (sigh)

EdTheRipper

It's been over for quite some time. Wal-Mart used to even have a decent selection, with oddball DTV horror flicks but it's been going downhill for a while. The only place I still really browse is MovieStop. Their prices can be a bit steep, but I will occasionally find something pretty cool.

applesandrice

Source?

TheBang

If they continue following the pattern that they've been following for the past year and half or so, the next U&S period will be in April, less than a month away.

Dr. Phibes

Hopefully it'll be before May 18th, I have $30 in RZ coupons that I need to use by then and I'm saving them up for that.

whotony

I'm sorry.

jiggyblau

I'm not going to go into great detail about "random" here, but I will defend myself. While we can't predict it, Best Buy does know when they're going to have their sales. The idea that the sales are random is different. Your definition of random is not accurate. It'd be akin to Best Buy putting dates in a hat and picking one. Few things in this world are truly random, and the word is misused today almost as much as "literally" is.