The LA Times says:
The price cuts are welcome news for movie studios because it could spur demand in a year of flagging DVD sales. The wholesale price paid by Walmart and its competitors remains unchanged at about $18, meaning studios will make the same profit despite the discounting.
It's normal for retailers like Walmart to price DVDs below their wholesale cost at stores and online to draw customers who often spend more money on other items.
Although discounting is not unusual for Walmart and Target, the new $10 price means the retailers will incur a big loss on each sale.
It comes as the two companies and Amazon engage in a price war over books that has driven down the price of some hardcovers to $9.
Will these new unsustainably low prices get you to skip Redbox or Netflix and actually buy a DVD?
Walmart, Target slash online prices of popular DVDs [LA Times]
]]>I have tripled my DVD collection so far and it's still growing, plus I have saved so much money, and it's so easy to use [...]
I suppose MailAndRipAndMailaDVD.com is a bit wordy for a domain name.
]]>@suburbancowboy: predatory yes, unethical no. My wife and I had this argument last night. Yes, walmart sucks, yes walmart lowers prices to drive out competition, yes walmarts goods are of low quality, yes walmart does not pay thier employee's enough, yes there are instances of walmart managers (individual person) making employees work overtime without pay.
Yes, we all know that walmart sucks but at the same time we cannot ignore that walmart is a business (and a successful one) and will continue to do what is best for business.
]]>@nstonep:
For the movie studios, yes, they do. Maybe they pay a smidge less (i.e. if Bob's Video is paying $18, Walmart is paying $16.50-17), but they're paying essentially the same price as Amazon, Target, Best Buy, etc.
]]>my uncle still has two, one he uses, he has the machines stacked on his tv in the following order, VCR - BETA - DVD PLAYER. He just got the dvd player like 3-4 years ago, he actually still has Star Trek 3 on beta in his basement. He has this thing where he is like stuck in decades it he just got out of the 70's - 80's and slowly getting into the 90's .....
]]>@H3ion:
$9.99 for the tape, $100 trillion to build the time machine to go back and find a machine that will play it.
]]>@xl22k:
"the cost of production is already covered by the theater gross."
Basically, never. A movie that does very very well in the theaters will come close to covering its production costs through box office, but most don't. DVDs are where the studios, overall, actually make a profit.
]]>@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already:
I was about to disagree with you citing the costs of production; however for any movie that does reasonably well in the theaters, the cost of production is already covered by the theater gross. Therefore, yeah, these things probably do cost about $1 to produce; however I'm sure that Target and Walmart will still be losing money on them.
Business School Term: "Loss Leader"
]]>Not that I think none of these people should be paid ... just pointing out that they have to be, which is why the DVD you buy costs so much more than just the disc itself. Compared to all of that the disc is trivial.
]]>@tonsilpool: It takes you an hour and a half to get to Wal-Mart?! Wow. Target is about 7 minutes from me.
]]>I prefer amazon because it goes straight to my mailbox with no shipping charges or sales tax.
Figure the gas and the time (at least 1.5 hours) to go to Wally World and you loose in the long run.
@americangame:
It's $10 now for Harry Potter non-BR DVD
[www.amazon.com]
@HalOfBorg: If there's still a Blockbuster near you, go check out their used DVD's. They always have 3/$20 or 4/$20 deals going on. And for very recent movies. I bought a used Dark Knight for $5 about a month after it came out on DVD.
]]>@AHepburnGuy: I fear for the day when Comcast/Verizon/whoever start throttling bandwidth, or create tiered prices, or start charging for bandwidth.
]]>[/starting trouble]
]]>Buy it at Walmart, and make sure that they lose the 8 bucks.
]]>If Walmart buys something for 18 dollars, and sells it for $10, it's a loss. No matter what producing the item cost.
]]>@suburbancowboy: i love it when people say that because walmart started as a Mom & Pop, they just grew, alot.
]]>@frank64: Surprisingly, you can get some really, really great deals at Best Buy and Target for shows that the network needs to generate buzz for. I got the first season of True Blood for $25. Best Buy was offering a $5 gift card, but they were advertising True Blood for $35. I got them to reduce the price to match Target and I still got the gift card.
]]>Hmmm...moral vs. financial quandary...wife works at Target, get 10% off all purchases, which makes movie only $9, but Target loses money. Do I spend the extra $1 to buy it from Walmart just so they lose? Or will the $1 expense hurt me more than it hurts them?
Screw it...I'm getting it at Walmart. Hate those bastards.
]]>Streaming ends up costing much more than Netflix, if I were to just watch shows streaming, one a night would cost me over $60 a month.
]]>It's free and great.
]]>Or I just use SwapaDVD.com - it's free and great.
]]>True, $2-$3 less might be closer to the value of watching a movie for me.
]]>I don't think Wally world is paying $.13 to their distributors for those movies. Yes the manufacturing may have cost that much in materials but I doubt that walmart went direct to the stamping plants, everyone in the middle will take a cut plus management, etc..
so saying .13 is a big unrealistic and over dramatic.
]]>@chocobo: The electro-mages that etherically imbue the disks with the movie-essence charge like $30 an hour, though.
]]>@Starfury: Same here. I rarely, if ever, buy any movie. Only those that I plan on watching again. And Star Trek will definitely be watched more than once. It already has. :-)
]]>Most successful mom & pop businesses (the ones that have been around for a very long time) here deal in a certain type of food, like italian or asian, or products you can't find at a B&M store like comic books or high end bicycles.
The rest were gone years and years ago so its not like its having an effect on the current economy since its been this way for 10-15 years or more over here.
]]>@suburbancowboy: I'm not aware of any mom and pop stores that sell DVDs. We're talking non-bootlegs, no pr0n, and establishments that are not on the alleys of Chinatown.
]]>If you are fastidiously cheap, you and a friend can see the movies for as little as $2.10, if you manage to combine enough offers. My local theatres (more than one!) charge $4.20 on Tuesday, and one of them accepts a 2-for-1 coupon on that day.
It's about time, too, because a couple of years ago movies were over $13 a person 'round these parts, and the theatres would be, literally, empty apart from yourself. Now they're pretty much packed and the people going have some $$$ left to buy (overpriced, but understandably so) snacks. Also discounted to about half price on tuesday.
Why bother to buy the movies? Just watch them as they were meant to be seen!
]]>Most people watch a movie and then aren't going to watch it 3x or more in the same month. I know that when I watch a movie I most likely never want to watch it again simply because there isn't enough time when I could be playing a game or watching another movie. I would rather not see a shelf of DVD's that I spent a lot of money on collecting dust and not being used.
]]>@suburbancowboy: Um, where have you been for the last...30 years?
]]>@Loias: You would be helping walmart as it's always their goal to eliminate whatever competition they can. Since 99% of consumers only care about price, they know they can vastly undercut everyone else, eliminate all competition then charge whatever they want a few years down the road.
]]>Yeah Amazon had slashed prices on all of these DVDs to $10 as of several hours ago.
]]>@Loias: I know, I'm in the same boat. If spending at Wal-Mart makes them lose money, hurray - but I'm still giving them money, so what's the right decision here?
I suspect that the best course of action is to not buy from Wal-Mart because a ton of people will, and they'll probably eventually make more profit anyway. Target is priced low as well, and I'd be more willing to buy from them because Star Trek wouldn't be the only thing I ever buy from them. They'll get more of my money by getting me in the door cause I'll browse the seasonal aisles and buy way too much Christmas stuff.
]]>@Loias: Yes, if you only buy the DVD from them then they will lose money, but if you buy the movie they are hoping that all of the other things you may buy while your in the store (toilet paper, deodorant, popcorn, candy, pop) will make up the difference.
The only thing newsworthy about the story is that Star Trek DVD is going to be ridiculously cheap, stores do it all the time. Milk, eggs, bread all discounted really cheap hoping that you'll buy steak, chocolate syrup, ceral, fruit to make up the difference.
]]>Even if Walmart is losing money SOMEONE is making a killing selling them way over their actual value at wholesale.
]]>@americangame: I noticed that last night - it is cheaper to get teh BR/DVD pack than it is to get just the DVD ($21)
]]>Amazon had Star Trek for 10 bucks yesterday.
]]>I could host my own "I-bought-each-of-these-movies-so-Walmart-could-take-an-eight-dollar-loss" movie party.
]]>So, if Walmart spends $18/each to buy and sells back to me for $10/each, am I hurting Walmart or helping them by buying from them? Seems like if we all bought those DVDs from them and nothing else, they'd losing a lot of money.
I'd rather shop at Target, but not if by doing so makes Target lose money!
]]>@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: My understanding is that Walmart is actually paying $18 for these and selling at $10, so they will lose money. They try to make it back with the assumption that if you buy a DVD there you will buy other things, too.
]]>walmart.torrents coming soon
]]>@lmarconi: Since the Blu-Ray version of Star Trek is $21.99 right now, I'd say that the studio is looking at recouping much of the cost from the sheer quantity they expect to sell. I'm going to check out the circulars for Target and Best Buy to see whether the deals are any better. Sometimes Target offers a $5 gift card for things.
]]>@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: Hm.. Indeed. Maybe Wal*Mart will work out a lower price for them to purchase at as well.
There are few movies that I actually buy to own.. Most are just good to Netflix. Allthough I'm getting disapointed with Netflix because they seem to be favoring "rental only" versions of DVDs that are suverely lacking in extras, and I'm a nerd who loves DVD extras.
This price drop might actually get me back to buying some DVDs.
]]>I've planned on buying Star Trek on Blu-Ray since the day I saw it in theaters and demanded to see it again right away. It was my favorite movie of the year.
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