Forum - View topicAnswerman - Will Anime Discs Keep Being Sold At Major Retailers?
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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After their famous ADV "Princess in the title" snub to a market that was driven at the time by overpriced 3-4 ep. single disks with little to no mainstream customer exposure and diminishing returns after the first few volumes. BB and most of the major retailers got out before the 00's Licensing Bubble popped, and weren't around to get in on the Boxset Revolution--But even boxsets would have been just as overpriced with a small volume of stock and no wide discounts such as RightStuf could offer to its core audience. Guess we didn't miss much.
Our local Best Buy closed, starting the day of that big Black Friday boycott. 
Warner, the leader in mainstream US movie titles, is already ranting paranoid about not wanting to release any catalog movie on wide-release physical disk that isn't studio-icon Harry Potter, Batman, Tolkien, or a millennially-worshipped cult film that they can repackage, since they're neurotically terrified customers won't buy anything else at traditional Target-Mart outlets. Combined with most fans going to Amazon for the physical movies they do want, and creating the self-fulfilling spiral of "Lower disk sales at B&M stores", the disks-are-dead idea is a bubble that's on the edge of popping. Netflix is still being used as a "The new source for movies!" industry catchword by those who don't actually use it, but those who do use Netflix and Amazon are starting to complain more loudly about the gradual vanishing of all mainstream Hollywood 20th-century movies from the sites, and treating them as "new TV networks" for their original programming. Those who back in '10 praised "I don't need my disks now that I have Netflix!" are starting to want their disks back, as they're not getting their movies anywhere else. It's a market that needs to readjust itself to the center after some major shakeup that's certainly coming within the next few years (I keep expecting fallout from the disastrously mis-marketed UHD to be the "shakeup"), but it's the big companies, like the studios and retailers, who Don't Really Know How This Stuff Works. Until it comes, we're going to have to deal ourselves with the disappearance of mainstream shelf sale and big-studio disk release, and go back to getting our anime disk sets online at Amazon. Which is...pretty much where we started, back in '99-'00, when nobody else would sell them. 
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Ambimunch
 Posts: 2012 |
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I remember the days when BestBuy, Blockbuster, and HMV were the places to be at if you want to get anime on DVD. The selection was fantastic.
Over the years that changed. Blockbuster went out of business, BestBuy downsized its anime section A LOT (it still has those Naruto part 1 singles and NHK singles from a decade ago), and HMV is slowly closing more and more stores. Today, I recommend buying from BestBuy online, they have most new anime (but in smaller quantities, and they don't re-stock once they sell out), Walmart typically has the mainstream anime, and finally HMV has a good selection (although overpriced). And of course Amazon/eBay. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2449 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Anecdotally, in the last few weeks, both of my local Sam's Clubs have eliminated packaged media (DVD, CD, Blu-Ray, console games) entirely. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4471 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Eh, no doubt I won't be able to say the same thing in 10 years, but I've been in Ottawa for going on 12 years now, and HMV has been remarkably stable here, only closing one store outright, albeit the one (Merivale Road) closest to where I live (due more to rent issues than failing sales from what I understand), though some other locations (Sparks St. and Rideau Centre) have moved to downsized locations.
Still lots of anime on the racks at HMV, although I'm lucky in that I also have a dedicated anime retailer (the Comic Book Shoppe's Anime Stop sub-store) within walking distance. |
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Barbobot
 Posts: 460 |
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It's been a long time since I last bought any anime at a brick and mortar store. Best Buy of course still has a small selection, but outside of Ghibli, Naruto, and Bleach they usually don't have much variety. I remember back in college that there were 2 Best Buys I would usually visit in the Boston area and both had sizable anime selections and most of my purchases during that time were from one of those two stores. Even when Best Buy decided to devote less space to anime in the most of their stores, one of those 2 Best Buys was luckily the exception and maintained its shelf space (while the other let me get some awesome 50% off deals in their clearance sales).
The only store nowadays near me that still has any nicely sized selection is Saturday Matinee, but their prices are ridiculous as they pretty much charge MSRP unless it's a used copy. It's so much simpler now to just do all my DVD/Blu-ray shopping on Rightstuf with the occasional purchase from Amazon as you can always find everything there. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I recently bought part 2 of Sailor Moon R at my local Target store because they had it when I wanted it and their price was about the same as Amazon.com, and cheaper than Right Stuf at that time.
Unfortunately the only other anime they have is some Dragon Ball and Pokemon, some of which I might buy from them because their prices are not bad, and a few Ghibli movies that I already have. At one time Target had a lot of anime, and even some manga, but they stopped carrying most of it years ago. I would buy more anime and manga locally if anybody had a good selection and decent prices, but nobody does. Do Wal-mart and K-Mart still sell anime? I used to buy from both of them but have not been in any of their stores for several years because there are none close to me. |
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DJStarstryker
 Posts: 140 |
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I still buy, but the volume has gone way down. It's not really a cost issue or an availability issue (I've been buying anime near exclusively from Right Stuf for many years now), but more of an anime quality issue. Too many anime nowadays have "to be continued in the light novel/manga" endings or other issues. I feel like the volume of anime released per season has caused a quantity over quality issue. At this point, I only blind buy things that are super, super cheap (so I can consider it throw-away if it's bad) when back in the old days I'd give things more of a chance. I mostly just buy anime that I've already seen streaming and liked so much that I know I'll want to watch it again. Streaming rights go away quickly sometimes, so by the time you get around to re-watching an anime, it may be gone already. |
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Aphasial
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Posts: 122 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Here in San Diego, CA we have a fair number of options (probably more than most), but there's clearly been a drop in overall brick-and-mortar sales for everything.
Most Best Buy's here have about 1 aisle dedicated to anime, but it varies a little bit. There are a few specialty shops around, and a few super-mainstream titles at Target. The best selection we have is Fry's, a warehouse-y electronics and everything else retailer. They've got a fairly hefty physical media selection anyway (rows of blu-rays, DVDs, music CDs, and even vinyl... so a row of anime isn't much of an issue, especially considering this is the same store you can buy random OEM hard drives, ham radio antennaes, RAM, and all your other nerd supplies. Some others have mentioned Barnes and Noble, but I don't recall actually seeing any anime media at any of the stores we have, although their manga selection is the largest in the area. |
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Lord Dcast
 Posts: 644 Location: 'Straiya |
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In Australia, JB Hi-Fi (our version of Best Buy) always stocks anime...and I mean a LOT of it. A lot of DVDs in general. Here there's the kind of thing where people stream stuff and then if they like it they buy the DVD, or they buy the DVD is they want to watch something they already know is good.
Seriously, I was able to pick up a copy of Redline the other day off the shelves on sale. They had a 30% off all DVDs this week, and it was packed. |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3453 Location: Finland |
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Well, a lot of anime these days, perhaps even the majority?, are essentially treated like adverts for the source material, be it light novel, manga, card game, visual novel, etc. |
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Lord Dcast
Posts: 644 Location: 'Straiya |
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And therein lies the problem, causing what I think is a stagnation in the industry. Too many companies just make advertisements, which diminishes the story quality and doesn't develop the characters enough, because why bother when the manga already exists?! |
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MoonPhase1
Posts: 492 |
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Wal-Mart only seems to get some Viz Media titles like Naruto and Sailor Moon with the Studio Ghibli movies, DBZ, and occasionally something else. But Wal-Mart seems to be more into Anime DVDs than Blu-rays.
Best Buy depends on which 1 I go to. The closest one to me only carries new releases since there is no Anime section. The next closest location does have an Anime section, but usually gets updated every 3-4 months. New releases don't get moved to the Anime section unless it was popular. So really need to check both sections just so you don't miss anything. Target just has DBZ, Pokemon and Ghibli movies. Barnes & Noble does have some good titles even if their selection is small, but I always thought the MSRP prices they sell them by is probably why their selection is small. Even Best Buy doesn't sell them at MSRP(but sometimes pretty close to it). But it is the only store in my area I can buy Sentai titles at. But I did see Sony Anime Blu-rays there that were like 20-30% off like Paprika and Tekkonkinkreet. Sentai titles included ones like When They Cry but only the DVD version so I didn't get it. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1231 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I remember a few years ago for a brief period of time, all the Best Buys in my state got rid of anime completely, even DBZ. From what I've seen in pictures people have sent me and from when I last visited, it's like two racks at most, and the titles on the shelves are not surprising. DBZ, DBGT, Naruto, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul, a few random new FUNi releases in RE-only form, Ghibli, Attack on Titan, etc. and that's about it. Retail anime has essentially been dead for ages.
Oh and regarding Z-Store ads, I recently got my hands on some older FUNi singles a couple years ago, and scanned the back of the Anime Sources (remember when those came in even their cour sets?), and we've got ads. http://i.imgur.com/hCgLi8P.jpg http://i.imgur.com/u6HenEh.jpg There was also the FUNimation Channel Shop, that's what FUNi had prior to opening up their own store again.
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TonyTonyChopper
Posts: 256 |
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Never actually thought about the fact that online anime sales are ruining it for stores to sell it ... i mean when i just want to check out what's what (with dvd's) i usually just get pissed of at what the avrage store sells ...
In The Netherlands you already need to be in the most huge of media stores around to even find any other dvd's then the newest hollywood movies ... let alone anime ... |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 591 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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I'm fortunate enough to still have a Suncoast with a big anime section near me.
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