2009-02-20, 16:38
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Link #1 |
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Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston, MA
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Bestbuy says sayonara to anime
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"461 Stores with low anime sales to cut anime inventory to top titles only (full list of stores)" ************************** ICv2 reports, and ANN has confirmed via other sources, that Best Buy will be changing their anime strategy to focus on stores where anime has performed well historically. These stores will continue to carry a full selection of anime titles, while other stores will cut their selection to only the top selling anime. The selection will be cut at approximately 800 stores out of Best Buy's just over 1,000 (1,006 as of February 19) stores in the USA. Of these, 461 stores will carry only the top-20 titles. According to ICv2 and confirmed by ANN's sources, the stores where anime is being cut account for only a very small percentage (less than 20%) of overall anime sales at Best Buy. The remaining 540 stores will carry over 100 anime skus with the top 200 of those stores continuing to carry a large selection similar to what they currently carry. Best Buy will divide their catalog into A-List titles, B-List titles and C-List titles, based on sales performance. The A-List anime titles will be the top-20 performing anime and will be carried in all Best Buy locations. The B-List titles will be carried in 500 stores nationwide, and the C-List titles will only be carried in the top 200 stores nationwide. Opinions on the news have been mixed. John Sirabella, CEO of Media Blasters, stated on Anime on DVD, "Unfortunately the ramifications of this will be bad, real bad. You are looking at a market that already lost most of the major players." However one anonymous source states that the stores where the anime selection is being cut are not profitable for anime publishers who are losing money on returns from these stores. The restructuring of Best Buy's DVD sales is not limited only to their anime products. In January Mosaic Sales Solutions informed Best Buy suppliers that they would be returning 5.5 million DVDs on behalf of Best Buy. The average number of DVDs returned per store was 5,505 across on average of 1,857 skus per store. Bandai Entertainment's Ken Iyadomi confirms that Best Buy's changes are not only to their anime business but to their entire DVD business. "This will be good for the business, but it will make it a little harder to sell the less popular titles," states Iyadomi. "This is part of the reason we're changing our operations to focus on our A-list titles." Consumers in smaller markets will be the hardest hit as they may see their local anime selection cut with no "top performing" store in their vicinity. No source has been able to inform us how much they expect Best Buy's total anime sales to diminish as a result of this move. ICv2 points out that Best Buy is the largest anime retailer in the USA for titles not carried by Walmart, and that the current news will not change this. The 461 stores that will be cutting their selection to A-List-only titles will be holding a clearance sale with their usual prices reduced a further 50%. The sale will run from March 1 to March 21. The entire list of stores is as follows: Spoiler for Store list:
(From http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...e-dvd-strategy) Last edited by gokigenyou; 2009-02-20 at 17:01. |
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2009-02-20, 16:51
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Link #3 |
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Socially Inept
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Retracing my steps.....
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I guess anime sales in Massachusetts must be pretty bad. That list had just about every best buy in Mass on it. Good news is that I'll probably be picking up some good box sets that i've been putting off buying.
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2009-02-20, 18:03
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Link #6 |
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Obey the Darkly Cute ...
 Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Meh... (not sure why people frequent Best Buy but that's not really the topic).
Its not only anime... I wander in periodically to compare with my usual sources for many types of product. Their overall DVD selection is dropping and their software section is pretty much a joke anymore (even Target beats them on selection). My overall opinion of them is that they don't have a "core business model" ... unless its "just carry smatterings of any product type with electricity; irritate the customer with your lack of selection and aggressive sales staff". Meh, I say. Last time I was in there, I thought I'd actually buy something.. a cell phone-pc cable. Not only did they not have the product (though they carried the cellphone line) but they tried to get me to switch my phone and service because "that cable is hard to find". ..... (yeah... right...)
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2009-02-20, 18:06
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Link #7 |
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ショ ン (^^)
IT Support
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Freedom Guard Ship Amaterasu
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Man there are like 3 stores in Maryland kind of near me that i could taker advatage of but i tend to order all my anime via the intra web but i might check it out. The best nearest me sells a lot of anime they expanded the section 3 times already because of the damand.
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2009-02-20, 18:50
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Link #8 |
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Aria Company
Join Date: Nov 2003
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See this is why you buy stuff online. You don't have to worry about whether or not they have what you want, cause if they don't, you just type in another url. I haven't bought any anime at Best Buy in a long time. I think the last anime dvd I bought there was was My Hime vol 1.
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2009-02-20, 23:09
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Link #11 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: PMB Headquarters
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I can't even remember when was the last time I made a purchase at Best Buy's. Their gaming section is somewhat small. Not just that the pricing is somewhat higher than other game stores, there isn't much of a variety. Aside from that, they don't have many electronic device choices either. Everytime I go there, I can't seem to find anything I was looking for. Better places would be Game Stop and Circuit City. In fact, these two places cover most of my electronic and gaming needs.
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2009-02-21, 06:39
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Banned
Join Date: Dec 2006
Age: 38
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Quote:
 I'm not sure how many people here are aware of possible repercussions. If we look at the past, when Musicland went bankrupt, what soon followed was Geneon USA closing their doors and ADVision falling into a huge mess. What enabled English dubs and the booming North American anime market were nationwide store chains willing to carry these titles. As the number of titles and number of discs increased dramatically with every season, retailers such as BestBuy expanded their shelf space. Anime licensors became dependent on it as the B&M market for casual fans is all about exposure, but as this type of consumer found its way online or lost interest in anime, no thanks to U.S. TV shows and games turning the heat up a notch, sales dramatically decreased, and not just for anime, but for niche anime specifically--the so called B and C anime titles--it will be impossible to create dubs for those shows. Sales will further decrease because no physical store except small hobby shops will be willing to carry sub-only DVDs. According to John Sirabella, online sales were never a big part of the equation, so I imagine the U.S. anime industry will drastically downsize to a point it can't really be called an industry anymore. Who's going to be hit the hardest? I predict FUNimation. I can see Nozomi Entertainment, Media Blasters, and other companies that don't have high profit expectations set up wiggle through this crisis. |
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2009-02-21, 08:18
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Then there's the matter of price. I've browsed the anime section at BB from time to time, but their prices just can't compare to places like DVDPacific or even RightStuf. Sirabella pointed to the changes at BB as part of the reason for the annoying delay in the release of the remaining Moribito episodes. It's quite puzzling to me to imagine that a show like this depends on B&M sales to be profitable, though. I'd have thought the mishandling of this show at [adult swim] was a bigger culprit. I'd also be curious to know how much of Media Blasters' revenues come from their hentai list. I wouldn't be surprised to find it's a healthy proportion of total sales volumes, and they're not being sold in BBs and Walmarts.
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2009-02-21, 09:17
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Banned
Join Date: Dec 2006
Age: 38
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Quote:
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Personally, I think the only viable business model for B and C titles at the moment is a hybrid of something like Joost x TRSI (Nozomi), in that the licensor does free simulcast previews online, followed by sales of physical media, sub-only. I'm quite certain this business model can be profitable, sustainability is the issue; how many titles can they sell simultaneously before flooding the market, how many titles must they sell to stay afloat... |
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2009-02-21, 13:38
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Link #19 |
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Why hello there!
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Canada
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It's sad to see any retailer go down. It's bad news for anime, but I think BestBuy had it all wrong to begin with. They were frequently out of early volumes, which made starting a collection pointless.
I do all my buying online, but I would love if there was a good local store to go to. Not only do you get the item right away, but it'd be a nice place to check out what's new. It would be nice to see a new chain being started, taking the place of all these falling companies. |
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