CriterionCast

Best Buy Scaling Back On Space For DVDs This Holiday Season

With Blockbuster announcing their filing for bankruptcy, it looks like the world of selling DVDs and other physical media formats is doing just about as well as the world of renting them.

Daily Finance is reporting that Best Buy is set to cut back on space given to CDs and DVDs, making room for tablet PCs, video games, and net books.

Now, while this is far from shocking, I do have to say, this may be a wave for the future, as physical media goes the way of the dinosaurs.   I don’t know the last time I’ve purchased a DVD from Best Buy, and while their deals are rather impressive, particularly their weekly or monthly 5$ sales, they just don’t have the variety or the prices that people currently want for physical media.   Downloads and streaming are only becoming more and more popular, and it doesn’t seem to be a trend that will be stopping anytime soon.

Where does this leave their Criterion selection? Never ones to have the most varied of Criterion selections, besides store staples like Days Of Heaven, the Wes Anderson films, and The Last Emperor, I wouldn’t be shocked if we see even fewer Criterion releases at Best Buy stores.   I know locally it is like pulling teeth trying to find a Best Buy with anything other than the aforementioned discs, which is why this news doesn’t make me think that will be changing anytime soon, if ever.

That all said, this doesn’t mean the company is going out of business or anything like that.   What it does mean may end up being something far worse. DVD may be on the way out, and this may be the first step towards the door.

Source: Daily Finance

Joshua Brunsting

Josh is a critic, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, a wrestling nerd, a hip-hop head, a father, a cinephile and a man looking to make his stamp on the world, one word at a time.

1 comment

  • In related news, I will also be scaling back the amount of space I take up in Best Buy; my local indie record store now has a better movie selection than they do.