dvd kiosks = dumb idea
Posted on Saturday, June 03, 2006
In an effort to save shelf space and boost the sales of dvds, stores like Walmart, Target and Best Buy are looking at options to install kiosks in their electronics departments for downloading and burning dvd movies. This would help them compete with the likes of Itunes, which now offers video downloads, as well as Netflix and Blockbuster Online which with a subscription will send dvds to your mailbox. An article on Yahoo News claims that "Retailers are concerned that digital downloads might spell an end to the sale of DVDs, and see the download-to-burn kiosks as a way to keep them in the DVD business." Major retailers are looking to roll out the kiosks in 2007, but will face many licensing and technology difficulties in the next year if they plan to do so.
While this might seem like an okay idea (think more variety, larger film databases, maybe lower prices), I can think of a few drawbacks. First off, it will be at least a year before the kiosks are in place ... which leaves a lot of time for movie download sites to offer this services to me at home. Why would I want to drive to Walmart when I could download movies and burn them on my home PC? ...If you've ever waited in line at one of those photo printing kiosks, behind an E Coli infected, drooling, dirty moron at Walmart who's trying to figure out how to use a scanner, you'll see my point. You buy a photo printer prettttty fast so you never have to experience that again. I'm also wondering how these kiosk-dvds will be packaged. If you have (self-diagnosed) OCD like me, you like your dvds alphabetically organized on a bookcase ... and some cheesy blue and white WALMART DVD sleeve that houses Peter Jackson's 2008 release of The Hobbit (Hey, I can dream, can't I?) would look pretty lame next to my 2-inch thick Lord of the Rings extended edition dvds. Then again, that probably wouldn't be alphabetical, so it would probably never happen anyway...
PS... Sorry to my (average) 6 visitors a day for the long absence ... hopefully I'll get my act together and start posting more frequently. But what can I say? I'm a busy guy!
link |
0 comments
|
|
|
|
