Forum - View topicNaruto spotted for cheap-BM doesn't stand for bowel movement
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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Well I saw the Naruto 3rd and 4th box uncut seasons at Wal-Mart for $24.67 each. Assuming a 5% sales tax that is 48% off MSRP, and you even get to bring it home the same day.
I checked Wal-Mart's web site and it is not offered there, so it's in-store only. Might be worth checking out. I did a search and the cheapest I found* for V.3 was at Deep Discount for $33.54, and $33 after shipping for V.4 at DVD Pacific. *Search engine brought up an Amazon price for V.3 at $20.34, however when you go to the Amazon product page it is $39. |
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eyesopen0791
 Posts: 108 Location: A Sleepy Town in California |
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I saw those boxsets too about a week ago and was surprised. I didn't know that Walmart sold much anime. I also saw I think a box set of Dragonball.
However, I'm not going to buy anime at Walmart because it is a big box retailer that in order to give the customer the lowest prices it ends up paying the producers/creators/companies much less. In other words, drastic less profit for the creators. Buying anime from Walmart and thus encouraging them into the anime retail market will drive independent and small retail outlets like TRSI out of business fast. |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7413 Location: Maine |
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The local Walmarts had volumes 1 and 2, yours probably did too, you just didn't notice. I haven't checked recently, but all Walmarts recently did an electronics department reset so it's likely they've switched 1 and 2 for 3 and 4. You can get the first Naruto Movie there too (I'm sure you saw that though).
Recently I've also seen the last two Inuyasha box sets and the movie box set there along with the first three Voltron box sets (all in tins) among other things that I can't quite remember. Emerje |
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Hon'ya-chan
 Posts: 973 |
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I've seen the Third Season Inu-Yasha DVD box sets for 1/3rd what Borders and B&N have them at. |
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Dargonxtc
Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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While I admire your efforts to look out for the industry, and I can certainly undertstand that you do with respect to recent events. However I can assure you that the events you describe would not happen in regards to the anime DVD industry. I could write a very long explanation for this, but I will try to keep it short and to not bore you. Keep in mind(even though I used to work there when I was younger) that I am not trying to promote shopping at Wal-Mart, some people have some very good reasons as to why they don't shop there(or at least buy certain goods), and I respect that, I just don't think this is one of them. So in an effort to keep this short I will offer some key points. --Wal-Mart will never have a large anime selection(even though they have been selling anime for years now), the way the electronics section is set up, just to add one more aisle of DVDs would require an entire redesign of the GM section of the store. So currently they only have 1 to 1 and a 1/2 aisles of DVDs which must account for all the different types DVDs, including the newly growing number of spanish discs. --They will never have many niche titles. The very fact that a show has been chosen to take up valuable shelf space means that they think the show will in fact sell. So you are going to get big movers like Dragon Ball, Naruto, Inu Yasha, or Adult Swim shows like Trinity Blood and movies like Appleseed. --Even though they do discount heavily, they would make it up in sales quantity. So if a niche title does make it to the shelves I am sure the respective companies would be giggling. Lets take Right Stufs's To Heart(which I don't think we will ever see at Wal-Mart). If that title made it to Wal-Mart and only sold one of each of the four volumes per each store, with the overstock being returned, that would mean 4,000 sales per voulme, or 16,000 total. And thats just the sales volume produced by one retailer selling one disc per volume per store, not including everyone elses sales, and there own online store sales. Given the fact that Right Stuf only created 1500 of it's box edition, they don't expect anything even approaching that kind of sales volume. True it will never end up at Wal-Mart, but if it did, don't you think they would be happy, and in the end make a lot more money on the deal, and in turn return more royalties to the original creators. And more money means more shows(which Right Stuf/Nozomi does an excellent job with), which is the goal of every avid anime fan. --There discounts are not that much more, or even better than many other places. For instance the price of Naruto is only 4% better than the recent Right Stuf Viz sale(before taxes), or about $2. I myself bought ADV's Neon Genesis Evangelion platinum thinkpack at Wal-Mart for $55, which is $6 more than Right Stuf's sale price of $48.98(which is excellent marketing on their part because you have to buy another item to qualify for free shipping) --Anyway, point is that if you see it in Wal-Mart it is because it is a title that will sell well, and has been a proven seller(or if it is in any danger, then the pure impulse buying that occurs in the stores such as Wal-Mart should rescue it just do to the fact of them picking it up), not to mention great advertising. Also keep in mind that Best Buy is considered a big box store as well, one which has an awesome selction of anime, and one which you can also find heavily discounted items. Like the limited Edition Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society for $13  . And I for one don't want them to reduce the amount of anime they have.
Again I want to state that store preference is your choice and your right, I just want to clarify that perhaps the damage done by buying anime titles at these stores is not as great as you may think, and in some cases can even be a good thing. |
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Emerje
Posts: 7413 Location: Maine |
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Well, this has already been disproved as shows that weren't already proven money makers (and some that never have been) like Gantz, Mouse, Noein, RahXephon, and many others could be found at Walmart in the past. Most likely these get into the store through a deal with the respective distributors, not out of interest in these particular titles on Walmart's part. But yeah, the biggest reason behind Walmart's low DVD prices is their bulk orders. They're far from being a threat to other anime retailers, even their back catalog doesn't compare to dedicated video stores (though that's not to say they haven't had an effect on them). It's the same reason that stores like Deep Discount can offer huge price cuts. Emerje |
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Hon'ya-chan
Posts: 973 |
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Yeah, but a nearly 66% off price discrepancy from their competitors? I don't buy the bulk order theory to a point. The best idea I can muster is this: Viz Media overprinted a shitload of titles. Got stuck with alot of stock. Wal-Mart comes and offers them a deal of sorts. Viz takes a loss, and Wal-mart sells titles. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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I'm sure we'll see Bleach boxsets in Wal-Mart when they come out. Also, I have a small question. Wal-Mart sells things at a low price. Fansubbers complain that they have no money to buy anime and thus must download. Perhaps if more anime were sold at Wal-Mart, everyone claiming to be dirt poor might actually buy something for a change? At the very least, the potential for impulse buying would be fantastically increased. |
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Emerje
Posts: 7413 Location: Maine |
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Problem I've had with Walmart is that their ordering is sporadic. They released all but one volume of Samurai 7 (six I believe) which kinda screwed me up, I still haven't picked up the last couple DVDs.
Richard, the problem is that a lot of the people that claim it's all too expensive are also the ones that claim it should all be free, uncut, sub only, and on TV. In other words, there's no making them happy. It could be a perfect situation and they'd still try to get more out of it. I think there would be more impulse buys, but I don't think we'll see an end to downloading that easily. Besides, Target at one time did have a dedicated anime section and they found it to be non-lucrative. Now they just do sporadic releases like Walmart. Emerje |
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eyesopen0791
Posts: 108 Location: A Sleepy Town in California |
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Dargonxtc, you made me less worried now. I truly was concerned about Walmart competing with other retailers on anime. I guess now I might buy a few titles from them, like that Naruto boxset. I like Walmart, I shop there regularly, but only for household stuff, like cleaning supplies and toothpaste. They really do and can drive smaller businesses out of business. As my suburban town grew, Walmart came and added stores and every time, small businesses in the area protested very loudly. The reason why is that Walmart (and other big boxers like Best Buy you mentioned and even Borders) can buy at such a tremendous volume that it can get lowest bulk vendor price. A mom and pop business can't compete with that kind of purchasing power. For example, a small photography business buys film for 50 cents and sells to the customers for $2. Walmart buys film for 25 cents and sells to the customer for $1. Guess which store the customer usually ends up going regularly. As scary as Walmart is, the superWalmarts are even scarier because they have even more, including groceries, which means they can now compete with grocery stores, even the medium size chains. Competition is good, but this is unfair competition in a way, and can lead to a monopoly benefiting one company.
After reading people's posts around here at ANN, I'm coming to the theory that there are some truly stupid and ignorant people out there thinking the way to have anime is only to download off the internet for free. They truly think and believe anime is a free product that magically appears on the internet for their enjoyment. But let's not belabor the point that these people are stupid and ignorant, maybe what we as conscientious fans should do, is to point out to them that downloading is wrong, a person should buy anime or get it from other legitimate sources (ex. netflixing) and if they buy anime, there are tons of ways to get it at reasonable prices (TSRI sales, Amazon, DD, and yes Walmart). Yes, there will be some anime fans who still have lots of excuses why they're too poor to buy, but I think at the same time, there are some other anime fans who are just ignorant and need to be informed otherwise. |
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