"Wherehouse Music does have one redeeming value, the 3 for 1 dvd tradeins, which allow you to trade them 3 crappy bargain bin titles for 1 MSRP DVD of $29.99. I have gotten rid of some very crappy movies that I would have gotten $2 or less at other dvd shops."

So does this mean you can go buy 3 $5.88 Bargain Bin movies and trade them in for a $30.00 flick?

It seems to me that this sort of childish remark would be better suited directed toward those "complaining" in the original ariticle. How is someone making an intelligent (read: cheapest) buying decision whining or crying?

I can see a higher per-disk cost for something that, admittedly, might not sell as much as, say, LotR, or for a company that is much more low budget and doesn't have as much room to 'lose' money as a big company. And certainly, the more you make, the cheaper, to an extent.
But how does lossleadering, in the big stores, affect this? If it costs you 12.48 to make CT, and you sell it to any retailer for, say, 15.00, and they sell it for 14.99. knowing that most people who come in there may buy at least a high-profit pack of batteries also, isn't that their problem? If they keep doing that, and only do that, I guess eventually they will say to you Hey, we're selling CT for 14.99, we only want to pay 11.50 for it. But they generally don't--I have noticed many loss leaders go up 5-10 bucks or more the week after release. And a store which constantly sells stuff for under their cost, is going to do one of three things: raise those prices, make money somewhere else, or demand a lower cost for their supplies.
And yes, I definitely want to make the most of my dollar--I comparison shop on most everything, and try to find the best deal for me, on 20k cars or ~15$ dvd's. That makes the store fight more for my business, which gets me better deals, so I spend more, so good stores get more money to hire more people, etc. Win-win.

Divx discs were the same physical media used by DVD, and they sold for $4.49 (some were even RSDL). Insiders told me that the scheme was profitable, even without extra revenue from the purchase of reviewings.

Profitable, eh? Tell me. Where's DIVX now?

This analysis has one serious flaw: only the replication costs scale with lot size. The per-DVD cost of artwork, production and marketing fade to practically nothing for the kind of volume sold by a major release, while the per-DVD cost to the wholesaler stays about the same. That means huge profits for the major studios. Plus, unlike direct-to-video releases like Troma's, major-label DVDs usually don't have to recoup the production and marketing costs of the movie itself, which really cuts down on the overhead.

It's a highly successful video compression codec.

To address a few things:

The usual wholesale price for a $19.99 MSRP is $11.84.

The average wholesale price for a $29.99 MSRP is $15.67.

Stores like Best Buy get additional discounts. So they're usually selling new titles at cost, or slightly higher.

Columbia House is not and has never been in the disc business. They are in the shipping and handling business.

And their wholesale cost is MUCH lower - they pay around $4 for CDs which are manufactured specifically for them. So far the DVDs they sell are the same as retail, but it probably won't be long before we start seeing the little "CRC" near the UPC, or "Manufactured for Columbia House under licence" on the label.

The reason that CD piracy is so rampant is that the record companies have been gouging the public for YEARS. Manufacturing costs declined, but retail prices for CDs continued to increase well beyond inflation.

Remember when albums were around $5.99? Then CDs were more expensive, because they were new and shiney and digital and the cost to produce them was greater than with vinyl.

That stopped being true around 1985, but did CD prices drop to fall in line with records? No.

DVD offers so much added value that as long as they're available in MANY outlets at good prices piracy will continue to be a non-issue.

Hmm. Nobody has mentioned that Musicland Group (the parent of Sam Goody, Musicland, Mediaplay, & Suncoast stores) went into bankruptcy earlier this year and was summarily given away by Best Buy. That's right, GIVEN AWAY for an assumption of the debt. I forget who "purchased" it.

So all you who detest these overpriced resellers can rejoice.

I don't have any sympathy for mom and pop stores. They must compete in the marketplace effectively or perish. I am not going to pay more at Suncoast Video because I like talking to the clerks. I can always talk to them and then buy at Best Buy.

While that may be a small part of it, I think the real reason is that it is almost as easy as boiling water these days to Pirate music.

Oh, I haven't shopped at Suncoast or the like since they stopped selling Laserdiscs. Prices are insane.

I agree, why should I pay 5 or 6 dollars more. Whoever has the cheapest price I'll buy my DVDs from that place. It could be Best Buy or Wal-mart, or even Target at times has good sales. I'm not going to Virgin to pay 19.95 or 24.95 when I can go somewhere else and get the same title for 14.95. New releases at Virgin, Tower Records, Coconuts, Sam Goody (if the list is 29.95) are 22.95, and they make it sound like a bargin (yeah right). Best Buy ot Target would have the same title for 14.99 or 15.99. If I can't get the movie when first released I'll get somewhere used for about 10 bucks, most of the time about a week or two after it was released. Big bad Wal-mart, shame on you for having sales on DVDs cheaper then other places, the nerve of some places.

Is Suncoast considered 'mom and pop'? I consider them chain/franchise. I will spend a *little* more for service, knowledge, and selection that I respect, but not a whole lot more [ie, Suncoast.]
I have been giving a little local bookseller a lot of my business recently--I know I could do better online, but this is a small-town, mom/pop kind of place, and their prices aren't *that* much higher. I do agree they need to compete, and since this guy can't compete with WalMart's prices, he competes with selection and personal attention [ie, when I buy a book by Author A, he says "Have you tried Author B? He writes kinda like Author A, except for blablabla. If you want to try it, I'll special order it for you."] I'm lucky if I get a 'How are you today' from the WalMart droids. Sometimes, some items, some dollars I can deal with that, other times, not. Suncoast, however, imho, takes that to an extreme. Yes, they're friendly [the ones I go to, at least], yes, they seem to actually notice what someone's buying and make targeted recommendations or discuss things with me, but to me, that's not worth a 20-40% price increase. If I use a lot of someones time or knowledge, however, I'll try to make a point to buy the product from them [again, if the price is a *little* higher.]
I did however like MediaPlay, with the caveat that I haven't been to one in a couple years.

I think CD piracy came about due to an interesting combination of factors:
* cd prices didn't go down, like they said they were going to when they first came out
* a new generation of more tech-oriented music fans
* prevalence and ease-of-use of CD burners/MP3
* a perception of 'music industry stagnation', ie, where's the 'alternative' or 'classic' music
* alternate channels of getting music, some legal, some illegal
* novelty of points 3, 4, 5 above

Their demise had everything to do with supporting studios refusing to release A-material (the lifeblood of the rental business) and little to do with the costs of replicating discs.

VCI is a small label label like Troma, and yet many of their offerings MSRP for $10 (and these discs are reasonably good quality, too) . If it truly cost $12.50-per to replicate, they wouldn't be doing this.

I rent all my movies at Wherehouse. $1 per rental, and with your AAA card rent 2 get 1 free. So 3 rentals for $2.

When LOTR TT EE came out I saw some guy buying it for $34.99 from wherehouse. I just shook my head.

?!?!? wow....Well, for every one of us who will pricematch for a buck or order from DDD to save 2.00 + shipping, there are probably 5-10 people who either stick with a retailer, for whatever reason they originally found them, or don't really want to hassle with price comparison. Of course, 35$ sounds awfully high to me, seeing as how I got LotR TT EE for seven bucks

The dominance of rap has also crippled the music industry. Many people do not even consider rap to be music and loathe it. I certainly feel that way. Despite this, media emphasize rap above all other music. MTV was destroyed by rap. It now hardly ever plays music. Yet, it has not learned from its mistakes. This has caused pop music to die with the possible exception of the bubble gum drivel sung by the likes of Britney.

That is a good point. I personally despise what passes for 'rap/hip/hop' nowadays [although I can deal with some old RunDMC, Biz Markie, or even the 'fun' rappers, Fresh Prince and Young MC], but yes, nowadays there's basically two kinds of music--rap/hip, and bubblegum. Commercials, mtv, mtv2, it's really everywhere. And not to sound like my father, but it all sounds the same to me, [and this comes from someone who can tell the difference between Carcass and Cannibal Corpse], and the videos are all alike--the 'rappers' shaking their 'bling bling' and doing that thing with their hands. Oh, and women doing/showing stuff that used to not be allowed on late-night tv, but now can be seen on MTV at 4 pm.
One of the things I've enjoyed most about being forced to get cable, is that now I get VH1 Classic. They are quite annoying with their station bug, but hey, yesterday I saw videos by Bryan Ferry, Black Sabbath [the Ozzy years], Judas Priest, and Debbie Gibson. Say what you will about them, they were all *different*. How many times can we, or the kids, buy MC Mixing Joe's Greatest Hits, featuring Smak em UP, Smak em UP Part 2, and Hate the Playa, F*** the Rest.

You and EPKJ both sound like your father . . .

Let's go back a few years, shall we . . .It also amazes me how quickly almost every Scarface post turns a thread into an "I Hate Rap" rant.


Now . . . to bring thing back on track . . . as long as I have DDD and CH, I have no need for B&M's . . . their prices just can't compete.

Never seen Scarface, so I can't rant on that.
And yes, music is somewhat cyclical, 'the more things change, the more they stay the same', but even given that, there is a sort of insularity to today's generation of music listeners. I wasn't around when Bill Haley and Buddy Holly were, but I can recognize and enjoy their music [and know who they are], listening to a variety of stuff, both stuff from my youth, and that of youth before me [funny you mention Benny Goodman, I've got a CD of his stuff in the player now].
Anyway--I do still shop occasionally at the B&M's [most notably Best Buy or whoever has the best price at release week], and sometimes I just like to check something out 'live' before ordering it. I will sometimes pay a little extra to avoid the shipping wait, or to ensure quality condition [of certain items]. But I definitely do a lot of online shopping if I can get a better price--I'm planning to knock out a lot of stuff from the Christmas lists today with DDD's coupon code.