Forum - View topicDo you still shop for anime in-store?
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Sushi-chan
Posts: 1 |
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Is online shopping the main method you guys use to buy your DVDs, or do you still find yourself going to a local video store in order to buy anime?
I have only recently found the convenience of shopping for anime online. Before that, I would often buy my DVDs at a local Best Buy, which for me being an occasional anime-buyer at the time, was the most convenient way of getting my anime on the same day. The deals online, however, can be quite tempting, and I might soon find myself shifting buying my anime in bulk online and sacrificing the quick fix of buying in-store. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24568 |
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I may as well post in this thread before it gets moved to the retail section. I almost never buy in store any more because I can get much better prices online, especially from Right Stuf. The Hairy Tarantula in Toronto has a pretty good anime selection and I was able to snag a new copy of Planetes there for a good price, but that's relatively rare. I can normally get a better price online for new sets than I can get for used sets in Toronto, sad to say.
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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My last purchase in store was DVD 5 of Kanon, because the online store didn't carry it.
If there's a sale, I'm there. Otherwise, it's online shopping for me. |
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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Most of my shopping is done online. This is simply because they tend to have better deals and a larger selection on the online shops. But this is not always the case. I still find myself pointlessly going to the local Best Buy's anime section and picking up something random. I think this is for a few reason. One is that the best buy is within walking distance for me, so it's not really out of the way. Two, when you buy online you have to wait for shipping. And finally, I like the idea of being able to pay the money, and then just walking out with it. No middle man, or long shipping time, or even the hassle of filling out the shipping info. But in the end, online stores win me over with an endless selection and low, low prices.
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kyokun703
 Posts: 2505 Location: Orgrimmar |
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Almost all of my anime is bought online (from TRSI). Occasionally, they will be out of something, and I'll switch to Amazon Marketplace, or as a last resort, Deep Discount. The only time I buy anime anymore that's not online is at a convention, and that's because... I like buying things at conventions. Which is dumb, since if I'm patient, I can just order it online for cheaper, but I still will usually buy one or two DVDs in the dealers' room.
But places like Best Buy, etc., just don't do it for me anymore since discovering the magic of TRSI vendor sales. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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I do rarely, and it's usually just to see what the store has and for what prices. I'm not going to shop for a specific title, because that's pretty much guaranteed to be cheaper and more available online. I usually shop in-store to see if they had any titles I wouldn't have thought about, for cheap. I got Giant Robo and Area 88 OVA that way, as well as a few others, but I'd never buy new releases from a store.
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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At this point, I've gravitated pretty much entirely to online shopping for anime... cheaper prices, free shipping offers, and no sales tax make it almost pointless to buy in-store.
I tried to keep buying manga in-store for a long time... yes, it cost more, but I wanted to contribute to the local economy in some way or another... but after many instances of not being able to get the titles I wanted becuase it wasn't in-stock, I gave up. I still look in-stores, sometime you can find things long out of print- but it's not often I actually buy anything. |
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TheTheory
 Posts: 1029 Location: Central PA |
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I'm a bargain hunter... so B&M purchases of new anime is rare. In fact, off hand, I can only think of one title within the past year that I bought new in a store. In years past I picked up a number of Hayo Miyazaki titles in-store.
I do tend to do a fair bit of used shopping at the various used venues in the area (namely CD Warehouse, Coconuts, FYE, Suncoast). But that is kind of a different beast from new shopping. It just doesn't make much sense to shop new when I can hop on dvdpacific.com and get most available titles for ~35-45% off MFRP. Or TRSI (whom I prefer dealing with) with their publisher specials (usually ~40% off MFRP) and weekly and daily specials. Or ebay, where I can get some great, great deals just by shopping smart. |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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When I buy from TRSI or DD or Amazon they all know my shipping information already so there's nothing to fill out, but Best Buy seems to have no clue who I am and they ask me to sign up for magazines that have nothing to do with anime or anything else I'm interested in.
Vendor sales? Are you referring to setting up your own sales link and then creating your own orders through your own affiliate account so you can save and extra few percent off?
I wonder how long it's going to take before they close the sales tax loophole. It's already gone on a lot longer than I ever expected it to. I keep wondering if somebody is ever going to show up with a list of all the things I've purchased online asking for the sales tax I never paid. |
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kyokun703
Posts: 2505 Location: Orgrimmar |
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I'm not quite sure what you're saying here, but I meant the specific distributors or whatever. Bandai, Funi, etc. Cut me some slack, I've had a really bad day. Make that, "week." |
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daxomni
Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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Ah, for some reason it just didn't click that way in my head. I've honestly considered signing up for their affiliate link thing before, until I realized that you'd have to buy a lot more anime than I do to make it work. My apologies if it seemed I was trying to pick on you. Hopefully tomorrow will turn out better. |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2094 |
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Occasionally, sometimes I'll see something at Best Buy and want it immediately instead of waiting for it to arrive, and FYE sometimes has sales/mark-downs. However, with deepdiscount's good prices, Amazon's occasional mark-downs, and Rightstuf's weekly sales/Bargain Bin, I'm doing most of my shopping online now. It also didn't help to have my consumer confidence lost in Best Buy when they failed to get Hunter x Hunter set 1 or One Piece 3rd Voyage (but then got the sets after that, which makes no sense) or Gurren Lagann dub/sub sets 2-3, and did not get Baccano or Darker than Black (which apparently they're not getting any future volumes anyway) on the release date. I'm fine with how FYE does things, they seem to be a "get what we can, and if we don't have something, you can have us ship a copy to the store for you specifically" policy, but Best Buy has been disappointing.
Cuts are expected in this economy, but only getting some DVDs for specific series instead of the whole set or not putting them on shelves until a good deal past the release date just shouldn't be acceptable. I can take my business elsewhere, and have for the most part. Like I said, I'll still have the occasional "see it in-store, impulse buy desire kicks in" moment and I know buying it in-store will probably help the industry a teeny bit more, but online is my main shopping area for now. Last edited by doctordoom85 on Wed May 20, 2009 8:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DieHardBleachFan
Posts: 277 |
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Almost all my anime shopping is done online nowadays. I will pop into my local Best Buy, sometimes, just to see if they have anything I want, but for the most part, I use Amazon for all my purchases
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eyeresist
 Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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I still check JB HiFi (Australian equivalent of Best Buy, I think) for specials and bargains, plus occasionally you find OOP items not held by mainstream online retailers. I recently rushed out after work to pick up some anime as a present for a friend, and got Jubei-chan for $30 and Macross for $40, which is an excellent bargain, I think you'll agree (especially as prices are in Australian dollars).
There's also a stall in the local shopping centre where I've picked up a bunch of singles for $10 each, plus both season collections of Shuffle for $25 and $30 respectively. But yes, online is the default way to buy anime now. But my case is slightly different from most people here because (a) I have to consider shipping costs and travel time to Australia, and, on the other hand, (b) stuff gets released in the US before Australia (usually), and sometimes never gets released here at all. I think most people will have "mixed" purchase habits, until hard format anime is defunct, because you can still find bargains and rarities on store shelves, you also get to examine the packaging IRL, and you can have the item in your hand immediately upon payment. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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It may be a while before online stores charge tax (unless buyer is resident of online store "locale"). I read an article about a month ago discussing the problems with taxing online goods. The article discussed candy. One would think candy would be easy, but it was interesting reading how each state defines "candy". Taking this to online tax, and it's not feasible for each store to maintain tax information of the other 49 states, especially when the store is doing the buying to place items within its "store". |
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