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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

I'm a little surprised they wouldn't continue to sell the obvious bestsellers but doing so would probably be a rounding error for them and someone like Walmart in particular is certainly a lot better positioned to capitalize on DVD impulse purchases when people are in the store for something else.

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Shelf space is valuable. They probably ran some numbers and figured it was more profitable to stock USB cables or shampoos over DVDs.

It is valuable, but what are folks going there for, nowadays?

I mainly go there for DVDs and adapter cables...

TVs, appliances, computers and accessories, smarthome and fitness stuff, phones...

Although it looked like they were toast at one point, they're at least somewhat profitable and have something like $40B in annual revenue--although that's declined somewhat year over year.

I think a TV is about the only thing there I would consider buying from them. Fitness stuff seems far better to get from the manufacturer, or a sporting goods store. Phones seem best from carrier, or Apple. Is that not the case?

Not sure on the rest of the appliances. Is an odd listing.

By fitness stuff, I meant Fitbits and that kind of thing.

Personally, I very rarely go into a Best Buy. Yes, I might buy a TV or a major appliance there but those are very rare purchases. I might browse once a year to see what the latest wearable and Internet of Crap stuff is out there but I literally can't remember the last time I bought something at a Best Buy.

My gut was that most of what they sold were "giftable" things. But, taking away games, music, and movies feels very against that.

> Phones seem best from carrier, or Apple

That is a very specific tradeoff; I would personally avoid getting a phone through a carrier if I can help it.

Mostly fair. My gut is that most people need the promotions that carriers offer to afford a phone.

Literally everything they sell. You have to remember that the majority of Americans still don't shop online.

I don't actually know what they sell. Back when I did go, it was to get games and movies.

Last time I visited because I needed a replacement mouse immediately, most of the floorspace was dedicated to TVs and sound systems, the next biggest section was smart home / IoT stuff, next biggest was computers which was mostly chromebooks and those terrible $400 windows laptoos, and a couple aisles for video games. There was one rack of blu-rays in a section of the store that felt like you had wandered into an employee-only area.

I also tried to get a new surge protector in the same visit and they only had 2 choices in-store, both of them were over $50 for no obvious benefit over a $15 one from target.

Maybe not with just a single regular disc, since those require hardware owned by a shrinking group of people who might impulse buy a DVD. But I wonder if it would be worth it if they were "collector sets" or something, maybe with a digital download, and some extra stuff in a box. (Art books, posters, etc) I feel like you'll actually get a few people impulse buying a 100$ set, vs a 12$ DVD.

Most 4k Blurays already come with a digital code, via MoviesAnywhere.

I would bet that the numbers on even DVD impulse purchases are pretty low

I don't know but my local Walmart seems to give them pretty good placement to catch someone's eye if they're wandering through the store. I'm sure sales overall are still way down but they certainly don't hide the discs in the back.

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