Practice of shelving DVDs facing out in stores
 

I recently when on a trip to Circuit City to find season 2 of Scrubs, but gave up after entirely too much time flipping through semi-alphebatized, overstuffed racks of product with the covers facing out. GameStop stores do this as well (with the added insult of having metal separaters that are too narrow for box sets or snapper cases, thus crunching the boxes).

I understand the thinking behind this, that seeing the covers will help move some of the product, albeit at the expense of people being able to easily find what they are looking for. My question to you guys (and ladygals) is do you think this trend will continue and spread? Is there any relevant data that stores that stock their shelves this way sell more than those that don't, or use a combination (i.e. Best Buy, Fry's).

On a semi-related note, stores that keep box sets behind locked glass cases seem to be doing themselves a similar disservice (Hastings, Movie Trading Company, Blockbuster). Especially when prices aren't visible. I like to be able to hold a set in my hands and read the back for more info before deciding on a purchase.

Anyway, apologies if this sort of thing has been brought up before, but I just thought I could fuel a discussion. Cheers.

I hate both of the practices that you mention. The racks at Gamestop destroy the most of the cases and they are so tight that it makes them very hard to look around. Suncoast and Specs have the same stupid reasoning of putting DVDs in high racks and facing foward. And K-Mart seems that they don't want to sell you the DVDs since they keep them inside glass locked cases like they are jewerely. Since all this places I mentioned, except Gamestop, price their DVDs at MSRP, I rarely buy from them.

Even worse... stores that place their USED discs that way. I like to scan through a store's used stock, and it is just about impossible. I don't understand how they sell a damn thing...

They also do this at Target.

I too hate these practices. It's ok if they have them facing out and its just a stack of the same movie. Its way easier to see that way. As for boxsets being locked up, thats just retarded. I don't want to have to track down an employee and have him/her go find a key and come unlock the case, just so i can see the price.

Just a few of the reasons why I'm pretty much getting everything on-line. It's fun to browse, yes....but I'm really into avoiding the cattle call to retail stores for dvds. Just a few new ones on Super Tuesday since those are easy to snag.

90% of the DVDs have the title on top as well, so it doesnt really bother me much. though at CC, the whole row tends to fall completely forward like dominos.

The GameStop's around here only have their top rows with dividers, and the rest are spined. All the pawn shops spine them out, and Pawn America uses KwikCases for their movies.

http://www.gresscoltd.com/kwikcase/images/kcMain.jpg

CD racks have been this way for years and I never had a problem with it... so I won't now either

I have been informed from a co-worker (well.. from a company that works on our dvds at our store) that he has been told that faced out titles do sell more than spined titles.

That is why you will go into a store and some really bad movies are faced out... the company wants you to buy it...

CC likes them that way since they think they are more visual and encourage browsing. When we used to have fixtures that allowed for shelving like BB and Borders, I got in trouble for having them in the same style as those stores. I was told by the district manager to have everything facing outwards, even though that would cause DVDs to topple and fall as customers browsed them, as there was no lip on these shelves. Alot of customers also though we only had the front facing titles too and didn't realize there were different titles behind, since that is how Target and Walmart shelve their product.

It's so much easier to browse the selection at Best Buy, but I suppose it's also easier to just walk in, grab what you came for, and head to the checkout without browsing. I understand the reasoning behind it. However, it does make browsing quite the chore at times, especially if the DVDs are out of alpha order. Trying to find a box set at CC is almost always a hassle.

It doesn't both me all that much at CC because they've got the ID separaters that make it somewhat easier to navigate. I loathe GameStop's method of doing it, as it's almost impossible to browse anything below the first level of shelving. It's even worse when they're packed since you can't even flip through the DVDs. I usually need to take a few out of whatever row I'm going through, just so I can look.

The only GS here does this and I don't have the energy for it anymore. Maybe if they had better titles, I'd go through it, but considering their lousy stock rarely changes, it's a waste of time. My GS of choice (which isn't even in the same state) has three or full racks that are filled front and back with titles arranged with the spine out. Makes looking so much easier and guess what? I rarely walk out empty handed.

It's not retarded if they want to keep shrink down. At my blockbuster store, if we didn't lock up the boxsets, they'd be gone within an hour.

Well, at least Blockbuster has them displayed where you can see the price. Stores such as Hastings and Movie Trading Company don't, and since most of their stock is used product, I have no idea what the price could be. To me, that's counter-productive.

The problem with BB locking up boxsets is that its just not boxsets, but anything that is 2-discs. Well at least in Queens anyways.

I enjoy browsing my Best Buy's selection. Very organized. I just don't like those annoying nats with blue shirts always flying around.

Wow, I wonder how stores such as Best Buy do it. None of their DVDs are locked up and yet they seem to do just fine.

I've never bought a DVD that was locked up... it's just too much of a hassle. Plus it seems like the stores that do lock up DVDs have the worst prices anyway.

Thats one of the main reasons I don't buy dvds at CC. It makes browsing too much of a chore. My local Gamestop went from spine out to face out recently. About a week later they switched back.

Good post.

I don't shop at Circuit City due to the hassle of trying to find a DVD. Half the time you have to spend 10 minutes finding it and then half the time you spend those 10 minutes to find out that they did not get any in. What a joke.

I think those knuckheads at CC need to complete another larger focus group.

I like how one of my Best Buy's have it. They made their once incredibly narrow aisles alot wider and have the sides of the DVDs all showing, making for easy find. The other BB's near me have such crammed aisles, I can't stand it.

Yep, the one nearest to my house has nice wide aisles for walking. I've been in others that are very crammed.

great post.

i too find this extremely annoying. i much prefer having titles spine out, that way i can just look at everything at once instead of having to flip through each dvd. most of the time i go dvd shopping i don't actually have a clear idea of what i want. so its much faster to have them spine out so i can look at the whole selection.

i get really annoyed at stores that dont take care of their boxsets. there is one particular store here in new zealand that always has their boxsets in bad condition. i actually prefer them to be in a display case, that way they are usually still shrinkwrapped and undamaged by little brat kids.

but i hate it when the display case is behind the pay counter. how are you supposed to see whats in there when there are cashiers and cash registers blocking you. plus i always feel like a tool when i stand in front of the pay counter looking at the display case.

Because since each Best Buy does $50,000-$100,000 in sales per day, they can afford to take a hit on losing some box sets. My blockbuster does $2,000 a day on a good day, so losing box sets is a huge deal.

It does seem that way doesn't it.