For good or bad, if there is one retailer in this country in tune with the buying habits of the general public, it is WalMart. Why would the most successful retailer dream of re-examining their target customer when they are making money fast as it is printed???

No problems here....(Cromwell, CT)

Widescreen is always readily available and the new release prices at Walmart are always cheaper that BB and CC. It's also only about a mile from where I live.

My local Wal-mart is attrocious, I never shop their period. It's dirty, disorganized, the employees are horrible, the lines are terrible, and its always filled with rude lower class people (not that all lower class people are rude, just all the rude ones in my area seem to shop at this wal-mart) :-)

There's a nicer wal-mart 20 minutes or so away, but I don't buy DVDs there either as they are locked up in glass cases (as they are at the crappy one near me) and if the clerk is busy or missing its a hassle to have to get someone page them to get what you want.

My Wal-Marts are hit and miss... There are several good ones in the area, but the nearest Super Center to me has some weird title choices to say the least.

Example- This particular Super Center got 50 copies of Angel Heart: SEs and NO copies of The Great Escape: SE or The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly SE. (All three titles were released the same week, IIRC) No other Wal Mart or Target within 25 miles even STOCKS Angel Heart: SE and the rest of the stores got both GBU and Great Escape at some point.



I tend to go to Target if I'm looking for something that offends the delicate tastes of some Wal-Mart management puke, such as Chappelle Show: Season 1 Uncensored. On "normal" titles, though, I'll swing into Wal-Mart because there's a chance they'll be $14.88 in the first few weeks they're out, which is pretty good for titles I didn't pre-order.

I agree that Walmart is hit and miss and I understand about certain titles that just don't make the cut come release day. While I did see The Good The Bad And The Ugly in my local store, I had to drive 30 miles to get a copy of Wyatt Earp the week it was released on DVD. If it's a brand new title of a very new movie, they have it, but if its a release of an older title the wait seems to be a month or longer. Also, I went in to pick up Fleetwood Mac Live In Boston, thinking for sure they'd have that....nope, it hasn't gotten to my local store yet either.

I went to pick up Along Came Polly and could not find one Widescreen copy. When I started to go through the batch looking for one the clerk got mad and told me to stop. She asked what I wanted. I said a Widescreen copy. She tried to tell me that both the Widescreen and Full Screen were on the same disc. I wasn't buying it the cover had in big red letters FULLSCREEN. After awhile she checked with another coworker and decided to help me look through the pile for a Widecreen copy. We found 1 buried all the way in the back. Well at least she was helpful.

About the only thing I go to WalMart for is staple sort of things, because their prices on such things can't be beat. I did run across The Great White Hype in the bargain bin yesterday, which was a pleasant surprise, but by and large it's stuff like Left Behind IX or Hee Haw 1978 Volume 6. And they do tend to stock the FS version of anything quicker than the legitimate version. Like several others said, they can be extremely hit and miss.

I like Walmart for new releases because they're always around $14.xx.

However, I went there two weeks ago (the last time I was there) and they didn't carry the unrated Eurotrip, didn't carry Trainspotting, and removed an entire aisle of DVDs to make room for a few folding tables with damaged crap on it that they were trying to sell for about 10% off of retail (i.e. way too much).

So I don't get it. Is DVD not selling well for Walmart? Are they phasing it out?

A lot of wal-marts won't carry any unrated versions. It's up to the manager. Many don't get "obscure" titles like Trainspotting either, and some managers might not carry a movie centered on drugs.

Not sure about the vanishing aisle though.

Hmmm, all of the WalMarts near me are just great in terms of selection.

Wal-Mart has received more than $1 billion in economic development subsidies from states while many states are making tough budget decisions because of White House tax cuts and reductions in federal grants.

Not to say that Walmart is not somewhat in tune with consumer buying habits . . . but more of their success comes from their ability to train the consumers to be in tune with what they say. Not trying to beat this dead horse again (but it illustrates a new point), but how many people were beating down the doors demanding one gallon jars of pickles?

Walmart is still learning new things that they never dreamed of (i.e., they always figured supercenters were regional draws but have found out that they can actually place several in an area previously pegged for one).

Walmart became successful through quantity and marketshare. They found out that enough clout would allow them to dictate how they were going to do business, everybody else could go along or fall by the wayside. Walmart's basest business model is no different than Blockbuster's was just a decade ago. Blockbuster's contribution was the advent of rental pricing to give them the unfair advantage. Walmart simply throws about its marketshare to force vendors to play their game. If Walmart wants to force fullscreen on its customers, it will do it.

Walmart has provided the retail industry with many benefits, but it has also had plenty of detriments. We'll see what happens in 10-20 years, it all comes full circle.

This is a slippery slope . . . yes it does give us more reason to despise Walmart as a corporate entity, but ultimatley who is to blame? Not Walmart, nor the privately owned local pro sports team that demands a new stadium paid for by tax payers, nor the privately owned airlines that demand that we pay for their security. Your government, be it state, local, or federal, is to blame. They are the ones who have set bad precedents and continue to perpetuate them.

It should work like this: the governing body gives a few concessions (be they tax breaks or development money) to get a business to come to their area. The concessions last a short time with the long term benefit coming back to the community.

What really happens is that the corporation simply closes up shop when the concessions end and go find the next municipality willing to hand out the welfare.

As somebody who is trying to start a business it does bother me that Walmart can get the city to be its sugardaddy and give it anything they want, while I am forced to toil away and find my own ways and means. I understand that I'm not going to generate millions of dollars of revenue each year (at least not immediately <grin>) and I'm not going to employ hundreds of people either. But you know what? I plan on being a fixture of my community for years to come and I plan on paying my workers (when I reach that point) a decent livable wage. So shouldn't I be just as valued?

Absolutely.

Will you be?

Probably not.

I already feared that . . . I better quit with these posts, I'm starting to sound old and crotchety again.

Since I actually used to work for wal-mart and spent a lot of time in the electronics department I can comment on this with some authority. Some stores are only going to get a small percentage of WS or FS while others will get about an equal amount of each. The reason is fairly simple supply and demand. The bad part is that for smaller stores they basically go by the national average, not what actually sells in that area. Case in point, when "waiting to exhale" came out on video I had to deliver them to several stores in the area, all of them in pretty white racist areas. One of the stores the clerk that signed for the 4 boxes of 150 copies each couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity. She said that her sister owned the local video store (only one in town) and they only had 1 copy of it on the shelf and expected it to collect dust. Sure enough few months later the dust covered boxes were sent back to the distribution center.

The super centers and larger stores for the most part actually get to order what sells, but remember that in most cases when folks go to Wally world to shop they are not going to pick up the greatest cinematic releases, they just want a good flick. So, in most cases the reason FS sells is it is what is on the shelf at the time. Of course if they aren’t carrying enough WS discs for you talk to the manager of the electronics dept so that they can put in a request or better yet get to know someone in the department so they can let you know when the new discs are coming out and put one back for you.

Actually, the sales for Widescreen releases always outsell the full screen version if both are released simultaneously.

So if Walmart was going by "national average" then they'd only stock Widescreen.

Many Walmart stores will ONLY stock FS, or at least understock WS so they run out. I believe the only reason FS discs sell as well as they do (which isn't as well as WS - EVER) is *because* of Walmart. If WM sold only the Widescreen, you would probably never see the FS discs even show up on the Top 100.

walmart rules. Although they dont put out a paper most of the time....at least here. They almost always have the best deals, better than circuit city. This weekend circuit city had 2 for $20 and i went to walmart and picked up Blow which was $10 at circuit cty. Enemy at the gates was $7 @ wal-mart, and 2 for $15 at circuit city. So I saved on both when i didnt expect to. I just wish theyd put out a paper because i have to randomly go in to see whats going on in there.

Wal-Mart will usually carry both versions of a disc when it is first released. However, after a month or even less of carrying Wide and Full the company will eliminate the Widescreen in some cases to save shelfspace in their current modular adjustments because it believes that most customers will want the Fullscreen versions.

The issue is the price on new release DVDs isn't the same at every Wal-Mart.

You see people posting different prices here all the time from different areas for the same release.

I guess the managers have some flexibility in setting price, and do so according to competition (i.e. a wal-mart in a rural town with no Best Buy or Circuit City will likely charge more for a new release than one next door to a BB).

Exactly. The department manager is the one who will usually change the price. If your local Wal-Mart has a Home Entertainment Department Manager who doesn't really care about prices, you won't see anything marked down to compete with competition. If that's the case and you know things should be marked down to compete with local competition you should send your comments to Wal-Mart via their email form or by calling 1-800-WALMART and specify the store you visit at and their store number. The store manager will hear about your concerns and WILL BE REQUIRED to fix the "problem."

walmart doesn't care about what they stock. they just figure (rightfully) that the mouthbreathers who shop there will buy whatever they throw on their shelves as long as they slap a $15.88 sticker on it on new release day. whatever they can get the best deal from with the studio is what they will stock. if the studios do not have enough presells to blow out their widescreen product, guess what big blue passes on to the consumer . . . sloppy seconds from the stores that cared enough about their customer base to select a fair and proper sampling of widescreen and fullscreen dvds.

Greatest Comment EVER! ROFL!



- LordWow