Best Buy To Exit Physical Media Business In 2024 (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

@Mike Frezon I still miss the days of getting you the inside scoop on the upcoming Target deals! I can’t believe that was almost 18 years ago.

Those were the days, Eric!

Coming up in a couple months, I "celebrate" my 20th anniversary of posting up the Weekly RoundUp. THAT is hard to believe. Started the first week of January 2004.

 

[Robert Crawford]

They have pretty well been out of the physical movie disc business for years. Their disc selection is pathetic. Best Buy management thinks selling LEGO Bonsai trees is a.much better fit for.an electronics/appliance store than movies on disc.

I beg to differ because I bought 22 different 4K/UHD/Blu-ray releases from them since January. They will be missed by me because it's one less source of purchasing physical media.

 

[ahollis]

Tuesday was a fun day to visit Best Buy, Tower Records and Virgin. What great good old days those were.

 

[Edwin-S]

I

I beg to differ because I bought 22 different 4K/UHD/Blu-ray releases from them since January. They will be missed by me because it's one less source of purchasing physical media.

I'm only going by what is available in my local Best Buy and the selection is minimal: limited to a few.of the most recent releases and not necessarily all UHD releases. Maybe it varies.Store to.Store, but where I'm at.the selection is sparse.

The last one I bought was.the 2.disc UHD releases of.Spiderman: Across.the Spiderverse.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I

I'm only going by what is available in my local Best Buy and the selection is minimal: limited to a few.of the most recent releases and not necessarily all UHD releases. Maybe it varies.Store to.Store, but where I'm at.the selection is sparse.

The last one I bought was.the 2.disc UHD releases of.Spiderman: Across.the Spiderverse.

About 95% of my purchases were on-line with free shipping and not at my local store. That's why it's going to hurt because Hunt's article states Best Buy won't sell any product on-line too.

 

[Thomas T]

For streaming to be profitable, similar numbers must be reached or underwritten by advertising. If either happens, most subscribers will moderate the added cost by dropping in & out after a month of binging. The higher the subscription pricing, the more frequent cancelations will likewise occur.

Also, streaming is a bone of contention in the current SAG AFTRA strike (as it was in the WGA strike). They want (justifiably) their fair share of the revenue. This will be passed on to the consumers.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Sad, but my disc purchasing has dramatically dropped off anyway. Like others have posted on this thread- I went to the BB in the Hamburg shopping complex, just south of Lexington KY recently, to look for possibly a new laptop, or an external CD player. The fact that no laptop on display had a CD player, and the store didn’t have any external players is an obvious sign that physical media is gasping for its few last breaths. The store only had 1 display shelf, for their exclusive UHD titles. I recently bought a couple of UHD players as backups, so I can continue to enjoy my current collection- who knows how long players will be available? You’d think they’re not going to disappear, but nothing is a given.

 

[TravisR]

I've started going to Best Buy more often lately as I noticed that they stock a lot of Shout/Scream Factory discs slightly cheaper than Amazon. While picking those discs up, I've grabbed a couple more studio releases from Best Buy. Unless I need a microwave or something, I doubt I'll ever go back in a Best Buy once they get rid of physical media.

 

[yamato72]

I avoid buying from Amazon so BB has been my go-to for discs for a while. If they are dropping online disc sales that will suck for me. My local store has mostly had only new releases for a while, though I have picked up clearance titles.

Since I'm cheap and wait for sales I've definitely not been helping them stay in the physical disc business.

 

[cineMANIAC]

I was just in Best Buy last night picking up a couple of online orders. Funny how EVERY time I'm in there, I'm always the only person in line with a movie lol.

I used to LOVE shopping for movies at Brick and Mortars. Shopping online is more convenient but nothing beats walking out of a shop with an armful of movies. Haven't had that thrill since J&R Music World shut down shortly after 9/11. Best Buy was OK but I would often not find what I was looking for even when they had a decent selection. Tons of copies of mainstream Hollywood movies but the indy stuff was touch and go.

Best Buy today is a sorry sight. No one's gonna lament their exit from physical media because no one goes in there to buy movies. Need a washing machine? check. Need some A/V cables? check but good luck finding a good selection or something that isn't stratospherically priced. Need a TV? You're in the right place. I don't visit them often these days but each time I go I see the same old stock on sparse and unkempt shelves. A handful of Shout Factory or Criterion titles (at MSRP prices) among tons of overpriced copies of Fast X nobody wants. Lots of DTV garbage, ugly steelbooks (some damaged) and plenty of TV-on-DVD. The only thing BB is good for is the occasional discounted Blu-ray or 4K during Holidays but those are for cheapskates who never buy anything day one.

If people didn't need a place to buy a hair dryer in an emergency or some phone accessory, BB would go the way of Circuit City. Didn't they almost?

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Man, I remember ages ago when a huge profile movie release came out on DVD, you would go to Best Buy Tuesday morning, before they opened and there would be a big crowd already there waiting for the doors to open. They open the door and there would be a mad dash to the DVD section.

Soo long ago.

 

[albert_m2]

It's the online thing that is surprising. I know that they have made various shifts to their model since the pandemic, but still. Then again, when they stopped selling CDs, they stopped online as well. It's important to support various physical stores where possible, as well as online stores that are not Amazon. I'm not suggesting not buying from Amazon, but if that's all that people do, then there will be little alternatives and prices will be particularly bad.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

BestBuy, as a walk-in store, has become far less important to me than it once was. I am surprise it's still in business.

I find it only convenient if I need to buy an AirPod Pro or other electronic item THAT DAY. Otherwise, Amazon is far more convenient

As far as discs are concerned, I only used them for the occasional SteelBook purchase which I either picked up at the store or had mailed to me (if shipping was free which it usually was).

I can understand BestBuy not carrying discs in stores anymore. I am a bit surprised they are going to stop selling them online as I would have presumed they were making money off of the SteelBook exclusives they offered. However, as with everything else, if there isn't money to be made, there's no reason to offer it.

 

[TLones1060]

It has been years since I bought physical media from Best Buy. I always thought they were a bit expensive, compared to other stores or online, which was just starting to be a "Thing."

 

[Jesse Skeen]

On Black Friday 2001 I waited outside Best Buy for an hour just to get their free Fox demo DVD. I’m going to watch that tonight and cry.

 

[Alex...]

Best Buy has confirmed it will stop selling physical media in 2024, but will continue to sell video games.

Best Buy to End DVD, Blu-ray Disc Sales

Best Buy plans to phase out sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs both in-store and online by early 2024, the company said.

variety.com

 

[The Drifter]

This doesn't surprise me in the least. Physical media has been niche for a long time & has definitely been on the way out @ brick & mortar retail stores for years. And, as we all know - many physical media fans make their purchases almost exclusively online.

That being said, I do miss the heyday of Best Buy. Back in the 200X's, I used to collect a lot of TV series (and some movies) on DVD, and I used to go to places like BB & Target to buy seasons of TV series on DVD on the first day of release. BB especially sometimes had cool extras that came exclusively with their TV series sets, i.e. exclusive T-shirts, etc.

 

[Dick]

BUT...there is always the possibility of an eventual comeback, a la vinyl records. We, the public, are a fickle beast.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I was just in Best Buy last night picking up a couple of online orders. Funny how EVERY time I'm in there, I'm always the only person in line with a movie lol.

I used to LOVE shopping for movies at Brick and Mortars. Shopping online is more convenient but nothing beats walking out of a shop with an armful of movies. Haven't had that thrill since J&R Music World shut down shortly after 9/11. Best Buy was OK but I would often not find what I was looking for even when they had a decent selection. Tons of copies of mainstream Hollywood movies but the indy stuff was touch and go.

Best Buy today is a sorry sight. No one's gonna lament their exit from physical media because no one goes in there to buy movies. Need a washing machine? check. Need some A/V cables? check but good luck finding a good selection or something that isn't stratospherically priced. Need a TV? You're in the right place. I don't visit them often these days but each time I go I see the same old stock on sparse and unkempt shelves. A handful of Shout Factory or Criterion titles (at MSRP prices) among tons of overpriced copies of Fast X nobody wants. Lots of DTV garbage, ugly steelbooks (some damaged) and plenty of TV-on-DVD. The only thing BB is good for is the occasional discounted Blu-ray or 4K during Holidays but those are for cheapskates who never buy anything day one.

If people didn't need a place to buy a hair dryer in an emergency or some phone accessory, BB would go the way of Circuit City. Didn't they almost?

I definitely miss J&R (and also Tower mainly for CDs), including the occasional concerts, etc they sponsored in the area. I used to work (for well over a decade starting soon after 9/11) just down the street in the old AT&T HQ building (not for AT&T of course) next to St Paul's (and back-to-back of The Millennium Hotel) -- also worked in other parts of the area for a few years in the early-90's.

BB's basically overpriced for just about everything unless there's some particular sale for whatever it is -- never try to buy (pretty much always overpriced) A/V cables and similar from them... as I swear the sale priced DVDs and BDs (and sometimes disc players) are loss leaders partly to get you in the store to buy those overpriced items (amongst many others of course) that the avg consumer doesn't have much reference for good pricing and/or quality, LOL.

I will miss BB for physical media mostly for their contribution to competition and help in keeping prices often reasonable-to-great (at least when they're on oft-recurring sales). Without them and others like them (even if it's just mostly their online presence), we'll probably be at Amazon's mercy and not see much, if any, discounting of media prices...

But for myself, I've already amassed such a huge disc collection already, so if the end is indeed here, I should be fine enough (and just cut back on purchases or whatever as may be needed)... but in the meantime, I just placed a large order (~2x as large as my original expectation based on my prior wishlist) w/ Kino's just-ended sale early this morning (even after debating for some while, exercising a little discipline and returning a few items to my wishlist, LOL), so I'm way more than "good" for the foreseeable future (though I might need a bigger apt in this super-expensive NYC RE landscape to house my still growing collection, LOL)...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

It's the online thing that is surprising. I know that they have made various shifts to their model since the pandemic, but still. Then again, when they stopped selling CDs, they stopped online as well. It's important to support various physical stores where possible, as well as online stores that are not Amazon. I'm not suggesting not buying from Amazon, but if that's all that people do, then there will be little alternatives and prices will be particularly bad.

I definitely do my best (w/in reason) to avoid buying everything from Amazon, especially if/when it's just Amazon PM-ing the competition -- I do my best to buy from that competitor instead... and don't usually pay for Prime service, so that's one less reason/temptation to buy those from Amazon.

I'd definitely shop in-person more if the store's well-run and well-stocked, but unfortunately, most BB stores haven't been that for a very long time, if they ever were. For instance, when I bought my copy of Ran 4K from my nearby (enough) BB back in early-June, I didn't even do order-for-pickup in large part because I wanted to make sure to pick one in excellent condition since it's a steelbook -- I just made sure online they actually had a few copies from which to choose before heading over there.

_Man_