Forgive me if I start with Best Buy’s competitor. I recently walked into Target to buy a replacement remote control. While figuring out the best option, I ended up talking to a guy in their electronics department.
As we looked over the remotes he told me, “You know, I had to fight to keep these. The company wanted us to stop carrying universal remotes. But they don’t understand that this is what people come here for in the first place.”
Companies don’t understand what people show up to buy.
People might come in for something small, a remote or a DVD, but while they’re there they’re more likely to start thinking about the big ticket items that the store makes the most money selling.
The Digital Bits recently broke the news that Best Buy will stop carrying physical media, and expects to have completely phased out blu-rays, 4K UHD blu-rays, and the rare DVD by the end of next year’s first quarter.
They don’t understand their niche in the market. They don’t understand what customers want.
Most of all, they don’t understand what people show up to buy.
Best Buy was at its healthiest when they were “the DVD store,” with endless rows of movies dominating the center of their store. If a movie was on DVD, you could get it there. I found rare or out of print DVDs on the rack. And wouldn’t you know it, you come in to find something small and you walk out with a TV, or a dishwasher, or any of the big ticket items that Best Buy makes the most profit from.
As Best Buy has shrunk their physical media sections, their video game sections, every section that someone may come in to pick up if needed (even tablets are progressively harder to find in stock), the worse the state of their company.
The only real item they still had to generate foot traffic were their steelbook blu-rays, but with that gone, why go to Best Buy? What do you gain over going to a local hardware store? Higher prices. Worse service. Nothing.
What does this mean for the future of physical media? It depends on who you ask. The Digital Bits‘ Bill Hunt thinks this will be the start of a slow slide into physical media being a specialist product, and then possibly disappearing.
But I think we’re in for a different future. I think physical media will be the only true survivor of the medium wars. Streaming seems audience friendly, but successes are rare and margins are thin. Even Disney cannot make their streaming service profitable, and they lose an unimaginable amount of money month after month. Theatres rarely show a variety of movies, are doing only a little better than life support. Even with decaying profits, physical media is the only format showing just that – a profit.
And profit is the one thing Best Buy won’t be seeing after this change. Because after all, companies don’t understand what people show up to buy.
Featured Image: Julian Bracero
The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network
The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord.
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