Home Media Magazine - Hollywood Goes High-Def - June 2008 - (Page 8)

retail insider » Continued from page 7 that the chain introduced Blu-ray in 1,700 of its stores in July 2007, recently began offering Blu-ray Disc titles for sale and rental in all its corporately owned stores in the United States and Canada, as well as select franchise locations. The initiative is driven by the installation of Blu-ray kiosks in the center of its stores with a 42-inch HDTV displaying movies playing on a PlayStation 3. The retailer also recently began offering its online subscribers a Blu-ray preference setting so they can automatically indicate that they want to receive all available movies in high-def. “Our mission at Blockbuster is to provide consumers with convenient access to media entertainment — whether that’s with Bluray or standard DVDs, retail or rental, through our stores, by mail and through new technologies,” Podeschi said. Mass Merchants Tip-Toe In That’s the company line at WalMart too. “We continually align inventory and prices in our stores to match consumer buying preferences,” merchandise spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said in late April. In its Feb. 15 announcement, the nation’s largest retailer said it MIKE VITELLI, BEST BUY Electronics Stores Lead the Way would spend several months phasing out HD DVD and reorganizing Best Buy and Circuit City have shelf space to focus high-def offerthe biggest displays and selection ings exclusively on Blu-ray movies of Blu-ray products among the bigand machines in Wal-Mart stores gest national retail chains. and Sam’s Clubs by June. And both stores regularly include The Bentonville, Ark.-based behethe equivalent of a full-page ad moth of 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam’s in Sunday newspaper inserts for Clubs locations promised that “in less than 30 days cus- Blu-ray hardware and a promotion for Sony software tomers will see a more predominant move toward Blu-ray (for instance, offers of three discs for the price of two at — stores, clubs and online.” Circuit City and a $10 gift card with the purchase of two As of early May, there was little evidence of much, if titles at Best Buy). any, change yet at several Wal-Mart stores in the Los In stores spot-checked, Best Buy featured nine racks Angeles area. There were no Blu-ray titles on display of slots for about 500 Blu-ray titles next to the DVD secanywhere despite an extensive Blu-ray demo promo reel tion and another 40 or so in a rack on rollers in another playing on a prominent high-def display. DVD bins filled department. with hundreds of titles marked at $5 and additional racks Circuit City has about 200 titles on two racks. of DVDs selling for $7.50 were still the dominant fixtures “We think [Blu-ray] will be a milestone in home in the department. Continued on page 10 » WE BELIEVE OUR MOVE TO FEATURE BLU-RAY SHOULD HELP CONSUMERS FEEL CONFIDENT IN THEIR HIGH-DEF CONTENT CHOICES. 8 “ ” There also were no Blu-ray players for sale, only a Sony demo machine for which Wal-Mart staff said there were no players to purchase. They noted, however, that the PlayStation 3 video game console plays Blu-ray movies, and they did have PS3s for customers to purchase. (In response to reports of Blu-ray product shortages, hardware manufacturers said in early May that they were having a hard time meeting consumer demand.) Customers will find a similar experience at Target stores with no sign of any players and employees also advising customers that the PS3 is a Blu-ray player. But Target stores spot-checked do feature wall racks with 90 slots for Blu-ray titles. O’Brien said Wal-Mart expected that “great supply, display and signage would come to all Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores later in May upon the arrival of new product.” Noting that Wal-Mart has been continuing to add more Blu-ray product in some stores over the past few months, O’Brien said last month, “There certainly is more marketing, training and plans for a great in-store experience with Blu-ray product. We are excited about new products and values we will be able to offer in early summer, and believe our customers will be too.” HOLLYWOOD goes HIGH-DEF June 2008

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Home Media Magazine - Hollywood Goes High-Def - June 2008 Contents Retail Insider From the Blogosphere High-Def Data Tables Blu-Ray Disc Listings

Home Media Magazine - Hollywood Goes High-Def - June 2008

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