Well thanks for the information guys. Since it seems to be like this at other stores, I went ahead and bought it at WalMart. I can't put into words how much this irks me, it's not THAT f'n hard for a clerk to simply slide the DVD up just a little bit to scan the actual DVD.

This is one of the most ridiculous pratices that I've ever heard of.

Fumanstan must work in some form of retail. It's all about shortening transaction time. Let's say it's the day after Thanksgiving, and everyone is buying a copy of the last 3 Pixar movies because they're all on sale, and everyone of them has to be pushed out of it's slipcase to be scanned. Add 5 seconds per disc to each transaction. All of a sudden each transaction is taking 10-15 seconds longer to process. 100 people are in line. The 100th person will wait an extra 25 minutes because of this. granted these are very rough estimations, but you see the point. Every second a customer waits in line is another second closer to them dumping their stuff and leaving, or not even getting in line if it's too long.

My personal opinion the slipcases are unnecesary when redundant.

Probably because that makes too much sense...
The big studios should follow Tartan Films design: just got "A Tale of Two Sisters" this week, and the amaray DVD case is housed in a cardboard slipcase. This slipcase is the kind that has 5 sides, and the DVD case slips out sideways. The slipcase is shrinkwrapped, and it does not take anything away from the foil letters on the slipcover, it's very eye catching.
Why don't the big studios do this? They're probably saving 1/100th of a cent by putting the DVD case in a 4 sided slipcase....

actually, shrinkwrapping the slip cover makes no sense. the slipcover is to attract the eye a bit more as a piece of paper aswell as keeping the dvd secured enough to not be opened and stolen without going the WB cardboard case way.

I don't see how this is an issue? Don't like the slip cover hole? throw it away. It's the same cover as the case. What are you exactly missing?

Not currently, but i did work at Target for over a year when i was still in college. But that's exactly right, transaction times mean a lot. It may not seem like the few seconds are much of a difference now, but wait until you're standing behind a fellow buying 20 Full Screen DVD's with the cashier fumbling to move the slipcover to scan each one. I can see the rage building up in some of you already

I am not to fond of that hole: It is cut to the edge of the spine and looks that it could be ripped easily (at least my copy does).

That's my main concern. I wouldn't be as worried about it if it was in the middle of the case or something. Where it's at now, it's just asking to be torn apart. As a matter of fact, when looking through all of them at WalMart, I saw about five or six that were already torn.

Loved the slipcover on this one too. It was hard as a bitch to get it off the amaray case though...That was probably just my copy...i thought i was going to have to get plyers out.

I don't buy that logic. There's a layer of sealed plastic, and anywhere from 1-3 stickers that (as I'm sure we all know) can be a pain in the ass to get off, a strip that'll set off an alarm at the doors...to think that adding an open slipcover which one can easily slip off will in any way deter somebody who has their mind set on stealing a DVD is just plain foolish. The slipcovers are mainly there for display purposes (even though some may decide to throw them away). When you cut a hole in them, they become less attractive.

-JP

Nope. I got mine yesterday, and same thing occurred. I had a bitch of a time getting it out of the slipcase, and figured once I got it out once, it'd slide in and out more easily. After tugging it out, I looked at it a bit, and then slid the amaray back in the slipcase. Then I tried to get it out again, and it was just as tight, so I decided not to mess with it until I go to watch it later this week.

Just picked it up today, spent five minutes looking for a good slip-cover. I don't like the look of this either, hope it isn't a new trend emerging. I normally keep everything that comes with a DVD, but in this case, I may just toss out the slipcase because it actually makes the entire package look worse.

The mentality is simple in this case. You make sure that the bar code being scanned is actually the one of the dvd and of the slipcover. Anyone can slip it over any other dvd and get the price of the slipcover for any other dvd.

If someone is going to rip open the dvd, they'll continue to do that even with a slip cover shrink wrapped. But the whole point of the slipcover is to attract the person with a paper cover that isn't plastic wrapped.

I still disagree with you -- the slipcover is just as eye catching inside the clear shrinkwrap as out of it, and the unshrinkwrapped slipcovers can be taken off a dvd in about a second.

It's only an issue to collectors like myself, who actually enjoy the slipcases. Not so much the ones that are the same as the actual DVD cover, because you're right about that -- I care about the creative ones that are different than the DVD cover: for example, the clear covers for Fargo and The Usual Suspects, and the slipcases for Thelma and Louise and AVP which again are different than the DVD covers. Even in my example, A Tale of Two Sisters, the cardboard slipcase has red foil letters, while the regular DVD does not.

So for people like myself who enjoy the slipcases, it's not very aesthetically pleasing to have holes cut in them. Plus, it seems a lot more trouble and much less secure to manufacture a case with a hole cut in it rather than just shrinkwrapping the whole damn thing.

(Suddenly Jackskeleton is shaking his head in wonder that there are DVD slipcase psycho collectors out there! )

Well I understand the reasoning behind cutting the holes (so that the proper barcode is being scanned). However, if the entire thing was shrinkwrapped, this wouldn't be necessary. Currently, "anyone can slip it over any other DVD and get the price of the slipcover." However, if the entire thing, slipcover and all, was shrinkwrapped...they wouldn't be able to. If a person walked up to the register with a DVD/slipcover combo that wasn't shrinkwrapped, you'd immediately have a red flag that something wasn't right. I just don't see how slipcovers are, in any way, there for security measures (which, I believe, you implied in your first post).

Simply put, it would be a lot more logical (for security's sake as well as presentation's sake) if the entire package, slipcover, DVD and all...was shrinkwrapped. I highly doubt the shrinkwrapping of the slipcover would turn off as many buyers as a slipcover that's been taken under the knife...plus you'd have no more of this 'slipping one DVD into another DVD's slipcover.'

-JP

Well here's a coincidence, and a bit of overkill...
I just got "Three Extremes" (Chinese edition) (I'm a Park Chan-wook / Takashi Miike fan) today in the mail.
Opened it now, and it's a Double Amaray slimcase, housed in a 5 sided cardboard slipcase, which is surrounded by a paper band (like the early Disney Treasures) and all that is shrinkwrapped. At that point, do you really need the band?
(But yes, I admit I like it anyway....)

This movie sucks now.

I didn't imply that, I'm not sure what you are reading into. What I ment was that cutting a hole into it is now a security measure to make sure they don't swap slips. The slip is also just a marketing gimmick to have it be a different non-glossy plastic looking box that is more eye catching than what everything else on the shelf is made from. So shrinking wrapping the slip would go against the vary benefits that come out of using a slip cover.

Because of the slipcover?

For tight slipcovers, I've always wondered if sticking the case in the fridge till it gets colder might help ...... You know, what with warm material expanding and cold material contracting ......

I don't mean to attack you Jack, but I have to say that's the most RIDICULOUS thing I've ever heard. Anything that ISN'T shrinkwrapped automatically TURNS ME OFF! I don't buy used discs because I want all my stuff in perfect condition, but with these stupid slipcovers not only do I have to avoid buying them at places that put price and alarm tags on them, but they also get banged-up after being on the shelves for a while! Look at the "Die Another Day" covers that are still on the shelves, you can tell which ones have been around for a while. I just bought "Farenheit 9/11" at Target and all the slipcovers were a little dinged, but since it was $10 and didn't have any price tags stuck on it I bought it anyway.
I know Jack works for Fox, and the "I Robot" package is a PERFECT example of why this is a stupid practice- it's a nice clear-plastic slipcover with a picture of Will Smith that blends into the picture on the keepcase, but since there's no fucking shrinkwrap on it, most stores put their price tags right on the damned case, AND it will probably get scratched up if it stays in the store for a long time! Again, I wouldn't buy a used one with price tags stuck on it, why would I pay full price for a new one like that???
In short- all studios that are reading this, SHRINKWRAP THE DAMN CASES NOW!!!

Funny, i ususally have no issues taking stickers off my slipcases. For the glossy ones, they often come off just fine. For everything else, a little Goo Gone. Besides, if there was shrinkwrap around the slipcover, i'm sure you'd see 8 corners bent in.

agreed, if they are going to shrinkwrap the slipcovers, then why bother with paper slipcovers at all? why not go with just the keepcase like the rest of the stuff on the shelf? i guess some sort of marketing research shows slipcovered product sells better.

but if you take a look at the slipcover with the gaping hole on the back, it simply defeats the purpose of the "nice" touch that the slipcover "offers". that slipcover looks even more flimsy and useless than before. oh well.

As darmok pointed out, why bother with a slip case in films like this when the keepcase has the same art as the slipcase? In most cases it's like a PC game, it's cardboard exterior attract some. Obviously it doesn't attract you to the product, alan. That's totally understandable. not everything is for everyone.

But for the most part the whole paper cover that you can feel provides something for some folks that will attract them. Especially when it sticks out in a sea of glossy plastic covers, your eye will see the paper one and grab it.

Disney actually does some cool things with this, offering it to be opened like a book with the velcro so you can read more about it. It's all marketing gimmicks and the hole is there to simply make sure no one is swapping out the disc underneath. Besides that, the slips are more often than not added later on, so factory sealing that wouldn't be much of an option anyways.

"(...) aswell as keeping the dvd secured enough to not be opened and stolen without going the WB cardboard case way." -Jackskeleton

Is that not what you were implying with the above quote?

I'm still not buying into this line of thinking. Every new release these days comes with a slipcover...so they no longer "stick out in a sea of glossy plastic covers." Instead, they fit right into the sea of less-than-glossy paper slipcovers.

I just don't think you're giving consumers enough credit. Your posts seem to support the notion that people will react to a slipcover with, "ooohhh paper that I can touch! I. Must. Buy. This. NOW!" Just seems to me that you're underestimating consumers a tad. Even if this is the case...does this initial appeal not go away when the consumer realizes that somebody has taken a knife or pair of scissors to the fancy little slipcase that originally caught their attention? I know I, for one, intend to shop around until I manage to find a Sideways slipcover that hasn't yet gone under the blade...

Even if we accept your notion that slipcovers would lose their appeal by being shrinkwrapped, I don't see how you can argue against the fact that the appeal is shredded, burned, fed to a rabid animal, and thrown off a cliff by cutting holes in the slipcovers. It's just a bit surprising for me to hear somebody say that a slipcover which has been torn into with a pair of scissors is more appealing to a buyer than one with a layer of shrinkwrap over it.

-JP

Most of the slip sleeves are like that now. I noticed it with Fat Albert and Elektra was the same way