Best Buy lowers Blu-Ray movie prices

[TheMoose]

Best Buy lowers Blu-Ray movie prices

From Bloggingstocks.com

Best Buy cuts select Blu-ray movie titles to $19.99

Posted Mar 27th 2008 12:58PM by Brian White
Filed under: Products and services, Amazon.com (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY)
Not only is Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) moving swiftly to kick out the dead HD DVD format from its store shelves, but now the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. is starting to aggressively price the victor format of the next-generation DVD -- Blu-ray.

Although there is now just one next-generation DVD format available, consumers still haven't ponied up tons of cash to buy Blu-ray hardware players and accompanying $29,99 Blu-ray movie titles. Why? Standard DVD is good enough for most of us.

That is, until the prices come down on the players and the movies themselves. Blu-ray players are still pricey at $399 and up in most cases, but Best Buy is taking the sting out of some movie prices by cutting many popular titles to $19.99 each. Psychologically, that gets Blu-ray pricing on some level of parity with normal $14.99 and $16.99 DVD prices. Even some new releases on standard DVD start at $19.99 as well.

And not only that, online competitor Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) started offering more than 100 Blu-ray titles this week at up to 47% off. Is this the start of aggressive Blu-ray movie pricing meant to finally spur sales of the new DVD format? Now that the competing HD DVD format is out of the way, the path becomes much easier for retailers. Perhaps aggressive movie titles will actually cause the more expensive hardware to move faster off shelves.

I don't mind paying a buck or 2 to be able to pick up a movie on the day it's released or just get it now but when Best Buy had Blu-Ray movies from $5 to $10 more than Amazon I bought most of my movies online.

As an example,
I am Legend at Amazon $18.95
I am Legend at Best Buy $34.99!!!!

I'm glad to see more aggressive pricing.

[timbre4]

Samsung BD-P1400 NEW $279 total
Blu-Ray discs from $8 - $20 on specials most of the time

Just shop harder people

[Ken S]

Spencer F. Katt, eWeek - March 24, 2008...

[TheMoose]

I haven't seen any lower pricing at BB yet, I was there Tues (4/8/08) picking up the Planet Earth box set which was on sale for $59.99 (& I had $20 worth of reward zone coupons to cash in) & pricing looked the same as always.

[wes]

Best Buy has the worst customer service ever, incompetent sales people + obnoxious prices. Same as Circuit City!

Amazon rules, outstanding customer service and knowledgeable, I understand why the chains are doomed, First Good Guys, then Tweeter, soon Circuit City and then Best Buy.

[TheMoose]

I had never did much online buying before I got my PS3 in November of 06, the high priced Blu-Ray movies at the B&M stores have drove me to buy online.
I have over 100 Blu-Ray movies & maybe 6 of them came from a B&M!

I've gotten so used to buying online that I check online stores for a lot of stuff I'd have never thought of before.

The B&M stores can probably never compete with online stores but they have to do a lot better than they are now.
I'll pay a couple of bucks more to get it now at a B&M but when the price of Blu-Ray movies are $5-$10 less online I'll wait a few days to have them shipped to me & save the $$.