Forum - View topicNEWS: Fullmetal Alchemist Starter Set Exclusive to Future Shop
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Pepperidge
 Posts: 1106 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Three consecutive articles? Yikes, I hope it doesn't look like my ego congealed at the top of the news page.
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Anyway, I'm not sure that making the FMA starter set an exclusvie at Future Shop is the wisest decision on FUNimation's part. FS has burned me a lot when it comes to anime, and I can't possibly conjure the idea of them actually making the set available across the country. I mean, they couldn't even handle the second Inuyasha movie! |
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Jimmy Balls-O-Steel
Posts: 60 Location: The Great White North |
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I remember reading on your site about this earlier this week, and I thought that it smacked of total douchebaggery. My main gripe is with the principal of the whole thing, much like with Viz have these stupid exclusivity deals with that American book store chain whose name I can't remember (that alone begs the question: what about Canadian manga readers?).
There was a time in Canada when you could only find anime at comic/games shops. If you wanted anime through a chain store, then you be up the creek without a paddle, because their distibutors didn't carry it. Even if you had to place a special order, usually the one-stop-geek-shops would pull through. And what kind of appreciation do they get for all the business throughout the years? Not much, apparently. Seriously, prove me wrong if you can. And what good does this do for fans? Usually the big chain stores will have lower prices on anticipated new products, which is always expected ($20 CAN for any given standard edition volume of GitS:SAC at HMV, for example, [though I guess that has partly to do with the fact that Managa actually has proper Canadian distro]), but deliberately forcing a lack of choice is always detrimental to the consumer. What happened to the customers' ability to choose where he or she gets their product from? Exclusivity deals have always come off as monopolistic, to me. Remember that one Penny Arcade comic they did in reaction to all the exclusivity deals being penned in the video game industry? Well in this case, Future Shop could easily charge more than the competition would, but because they're the only store carrying it, tey don't have to worry about competition. |
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Pepperidge
Posts: 1106 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Anime being sold in retail stores is the most important thing that must be done in order for the anime market to expand in Canada. Opting to purchase things in a comic or specialty store, in my opinion, only discourages retailers from expanding their anime selections and lower prices. Of course, it took all of the companies so long just to get any products at all into stores up here that they've kind of trapped themselves into a corner.
But my complaint isn't about the fact that it's being made an exclusive, it's the way FUNimation is handling this whole thing. Any market outside of the US has never been a priority for them on any level, and I'm not sure that it's a very wise or considerate move on their part to be making this item an exclusive at a store with a terrible track record for effectively distributing anime in a non-random fashion. I just don't feel that they put a lot of thought into how they're doing this. If I can be assured that this exclusive deal (not to mention the four week delay!) will ensure that every Future Shop in the country is stocked with a dozen starter sets on March 8th ready to purchase on the shelf, then it wouldn't be a problem. But although that's what SHOULD be happening, I sincerely doubt that it will. And I don't think FUNimation cares one way or another. |
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silentjay
Posts: 304 |
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It was a shipping issue from the distributor that caused the issue, not Future Shop dropping the ball. A lot of the problems with anime in retail stores is that A. distribution is still spotty, and B. unlike the major studios, anime companies don't educate corporate buyers on their product, and leave it up to the local distributors... who don't. I speak regularly with reps from the big distributors, and know them on a first name basis, but the small distributors who ship the majority anime in Canada are faceless entities and rarely, if ever, send out any promotional material. (Although, I'm told that Sony's doing a decent job with Manga's releases.) As for distributing in a non-random manner, Future Shop ships product based on sales volume, and for the most part (barring distribution issues) the amount of anime a store gets is based on the volume of their sales of said product. Anime goes where it sells, period. Future Shop is a business, not a paragon of anime promotion. It's not our job to stock shelves with product that won't sell well in a given market just for the sake of promoting it. It's the production company's job to promote it. While I agree that it's important for anime to be in retail stores, it's also important to realize that just because it's in retail stores doesn't mean that it's selling well. FMA is a series that is only known in fandom circles at the moment, and it's a risk for any retailer that doesn't deal specifically with that niche to carry it. Sure it's a good series, but it's not something that a person will randomly pick up. Anime fandom is still a niche. A slowly growing one, but it's still a niche. I should point out that we're a small store, in a semi-rural area, and not one of the big A class stores, but we are the #2 store in Canada for Entertainment numbers. Our store's anime sales have been sliding since last year, despite having a decent selection (for a mainstream retailer), and as a result, we're getting less product. For example- GitS:SAC's sales have been dropping by about 50% with each volume, and this week we only recieved 4 copies of the single disc version of volume 4. This is opposed to the dozen copies (of which we still have 9) of volume 3, single disc, and of 5 copies of the special edition (which we still have 1 of.) That said, we can't keep any Inu Yasha on the shelf for long. We've probably been through 30 copies of the second movie since it's release, and the individual discs run out on a weekly basis. The demand is very high, and the Canadian supply isn't. Initial D is another hot seller for us, as is RahXephon and ADVs Kenshin releases. (Mind you, we've had problems with getting ADV product since about October.) |
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Pepperidge
Posts: 1106 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Thanks for shedding some light on that, I never thought of it from that perspective before... wht's frustrating me is that I don't fully understand this situation and can rarely find anyone who's willing to actually explain what's happening. It makes sense too. Vid Canada, who does Geneon's distribution, doesn't even have a website.
I noticed that with Evangelion Platinum, my local Future Shop got large shipments of volume 2 which was sold for $23.99. And while they got an equally large shipment of volume 3 in, almost none of them sold and to date FS hasn't stocked volumes 4 or 5 of the series in. Why? I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that, for no apparent reason, volume 3 cost $10 more than volume 2 did and had no sale price at all. Why on earth did that happen? I think Gundam SEED is suffering the same problem. The series would likely be selling near IY levels, given that demand is likely quite high. That is, if the price weren't $36.99! I know Bandai is still trying to work the bugs out of their Canadian distribution (and I am very happy to see that they're doing it themselves), but by releasing titles early with a price tag like that, they're just shooting themselves in the foot. And GitS probably WOULD be selling a little more consistently if someone would air the show on TV.
I've also noticed the decline in ADV titles. Before last October they seemed to be stocking copies of new titles right on the release dates. They even got some starter sets in! But for some reason that stopped. Don't they do their own distribution internally? Would you happen to know any other people whom I can contact on this issue? PM me if you must. |
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