Retailers stocking limited amounts of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles
by Matt Burns, posted Sep 28th 2006 at 11:53AM

HD DVD and Blu-ray are now here and there is no one denying that but retailers are wondering what the heck to do with 'em. Do they market the discs with the players, on an end-cap by themselves or in the normal DVD section? Retailers aren't that concerned where they put 'em to tell you the truth as the make up such a small part of the overall inventory of media with a total percentage of around the 5% mark according to one wholesaler and not a lot of people are asking for new discs. Best Buy is starting to opt for product placement with the normal DVDs, as that's where consumers go to find movies, not in the video department. Hopefully these retailers understand that they are something special and make room for the formats all by themselves and not mix the titles in with the rest of its genre. If these formats are to survive the test of time, they are going to require retailers to highlight them in some sort of way.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jade @ Sep 28th 2006 12:47PM
A friend of mine just bought a Samsung DLP TV at Best Buy. He asked about an HD-DVD player and the sales rep said he wouldn't recommend using an HD-DVD player with a Samsung TV.
*sigh*
That's the worst Best Buy idiocy I've heard since I overheard a rep tell a laptop shopper that a Celeron is a Pentium "with the 3D removed".
Erick @ Sep 28th 2006 1:33PM
When I went to my Best Buy, here in Colorado Springs, I didn't look hard, because I just wanted to see if I could find a player...and Nope, never saw one. Looked for the HD-DVD and BluRay titles and they were in card-board standups in the main aisles adjacent to the TV section. They didn't just leap out at me though, as there are so many standalone cardboards things, I tend to just walk by them all. Didn't seem like they were pimping them as all that special, not near the movies, nor near the players... The cardboard displays did have the HD-DVD and BluRay branding, but it was easily missable.
Scott K @ Sep 29th 2006 2:00AM
My local Best Buy had them near the dvd players a few weeks ago. Now they've moved to a new store location so I'll have to go check out where they are hiding now.
MikeS @ Sep 29th 2006 5:55AM
Any idea which format is selling more?
HiDef @ Sep 29th 2006 9:06AM
@MikeS
If the sales on Amazon are any indication:
http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm