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Wal-Mart Threatens Studios Over iTunes Sales
Y-Crate writes "It seems Wal-Mart is threatening retaliation against studios who decide to offer movies on iTunes. The Bentonville, AR retailer seems a bit miffed that someone would dare to undercut their prices. This wouldn't be the first time they've turned on a supplier for dealing with Apple." From the article: "Last year when Disney announced it would begin offering episodes of the hit shows 'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives' on Apple's iTunes, the reaction of the world's largest retailer sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. Wal-Mart, worried that offering the shows for viewing on iPods would cut into DVD sales at its stores, sent 'cases and cases' of DVDs back to Disney, according to a source familiar with the matter."
Another business whose primary "value added" is their distribution channel (record labels come to mind) trying to fight technological changes that make their business model obsolete. Methinks we've seen this before, and we'll see it again.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
So studios that sell movies through iTunes get boycotted by the 500lb Retailer but studios that sell movies through Amazon's Unbox are fine.
Either they aren't particularly worried about Amazon being a threat or they have it in for Apple.
This seems to me that Wal-mart is using its position as a major distributor to strong arm against its would be competitors. It's not quite a monopoly (read Target, K-Mart, etc...) so is there any legal avenue to take against Wal-mart for this kind of action (other than consumer action which doesn't work so well when dealing with lower prices)?
Mr. Universe: "They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."
Walmart got where it is today by pressuring suppliers (often right out of business) and if anyone can break the will of the MPAA on something, it's Walmart. Considering that Walmart can't (currently) handle this kind of digital distribution model, and that they are often fueled by impulse/other buying when someone goes to purchase electronics and entertainment, it's in their best interest to stamp down a more convenient distribution system.
I think it's a good move for Walmart (but not for us) because everyone knows that Walmart is "evil" (read: more able to use power in a negative fashion than most companies, which are relative lightweights) and most people don't give a damn because that's how they afford all their stuff. I doubt there will be serious backlash, come monday everyone will still be going to fill up their big boxes at Walmart.
Any organization whose stated mission is to take over the world shouldn't arouse suspicion or surprise when they use leverage to win over those who are weaker than they.
sometimes..?
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
from everything I've read, Walmart has a lot of cutting edge large system/enterprise technology and it staff,
Why can't they handle this kind of distribution model? they have a music store, they have a on-line photo gifts store- they have-- gosh -every feature amazon has except panache...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Nothing like watching a couple 500 lb. gorillas wrestle each other. Except of course if you're the consumer. Either way, they're sure to get screwed out of a possible format for viewing movies. Now that studios are finally coming around to digital distribution, Wal-Mart has to rain on everybody's parade.
Way to go Wal-Mart! With all that positive propoganda coming out of Bentonville, some people were actually starting to like you again. Thanks for reinforcing negative images of your company.
I can't help feeling that the studios should call the Wal-Mart bluff here.
Wal-Mart may hate the idea and threaten and moan, but if all the studios jump onto the iTMS then Wal-Mart will buckle. They can't drop their entire DVD line unless they want to drop a whole market.
The power rests with the studios here, but they're scared.
The article conspicuously fails to state whether Wal-Mart was correct or not.
The article assumes that Wal-Mart sent DVDs back to Disney out of spite, but what if Wal-Mart merely made an accurate assessment of the situation? Did Wal-Mart sell out of the whatever titles they returned? Were there customer complaints about lack of these titles? Or was Wal-Mart correct in its assessment that the demand would be lower?
I don't know if it's right or wrong, but from what I've read Wal-Mart requires its vendors to agree that they'll take back overstock if demand is less than expected. If Wal-Mart can send back "cases and cases" of DVDs and still keep the titles on the shelves than they're simply behaving sensibly.
If they can't keep the titles on the shelves then this seems to be a classic case of "cut off your nose to spite your face". We're talking purchase here, right? Not rental? If you're renting a DVD and they don't have the one you want you might rent a different one. If you're shopping to buy a specific DVD, I can't imagine that you'd simply buy something else if the store doesn't have the one you're looking for.
We're not talking about interchangeable products here. If you want "Lost" on DVD and Wal-Mart doesn't have it you'll go elsewhere. Personally I find deepdiscountdvd.com to be a great source, but there are countless others. What percentage of the US is really so cut off from civilization that if Wal-Mart doesn't carry "Lost" they can't get it some other way?
I wouldn't mind seeing Wal-Mart suffer a little - after all, most of its merchandise comes from COMMUNIST CHINA! Is *THIS* the new American Way?!!! I think NOT!
Boycott Wal-Mart!
Boycott Sam's Club!
Girlcotting is not the same thing!
Whoever said it was accurate? Reuters has anotherr story. http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.asp x?view=CN&storyID=2006-09-22T233423Z_01_N22181208_ RTRIDST_0_MEDIA-WALMART-STUDIOS-UPDATE-2.XML&rpc=6 6&type=qcna
This is completely offtopic
That's odd, all the stories after Microsoft Vista User Interface Guidelines Published don't show the comment count...
Summation 2
burn down wallmart, its evil! just ask rubbermaid. i hope it will be soon that everybody will buy movies online and skip another part in the chain of greediness.
If they run around threatening suppliers like this, they should be shut down for improper business practices, or at the least boycotted by america for being jerks..
Yes, i realize that until they are declared a monopoly that they have a right to choose who they do business with, but it doesnt make it right.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
.... On this topic called the Wal-Mart Effect:
a nsforming-American/dp/1594200769
http://www.amazon.com/Wal-Mart-Effect-Powerful-Tr
Basically, the author looks at Wal-Mart's tactics in terms of squeezing it's suppliers to get the absolute lowest price and figures that while consumers benefit from this (even if they don't shop there), it doesn't exactly make Wal-Mart "evil." But there are troubling aspects to their behaviour that gives one cause to pause so to speak (like how they treat offshore workers for example).
Having said that, I think they'll find that Apple may be a different sort of challenge. I don't think studios will cave the same way that Wal-Mart's suppliers usually do.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Anyone remember the days when Sam Walton was alive? MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA! You used to see that all over the store... there was an entire movement based on this, it wasn't just a Wal-Mart thing. My father's textile manufacturing company was part of this as well. Don't need to tell you that his business went under a few years back. Anyway, go through Wal-Mart today. Made with pride in the USA? What a joke! Poor Sam must be rolling over in his last-ever-made-in-America pine box. Wal-Mart has gone so China that as an entity Wal-Mart is China's #4 buyer of goods... Wal-Mart, in a top ten list of COUNTRIES, comes in at #4. And if you think Wal-Mart plays hardball with suppliers here... In China the labor movement doesn't exist; workers rights, workers comp (ha!) and such don't exist. Lose an arm... so sorry, no job for you. Given those conditions one can only imagine what factories, suppliers to Wal-Mart, do when Wal-Mart says lower prices. If there were two factories that made plastic bowls and both wanted to sell to Wal-Mart. The cost cutting, the near slave labor conditions that would emerge to give one factory an "edge" can't paint a pretty picture. To think that Wal-Mart actually influences working conditions and helps to suppress rights and compensation for workers in China is dreadful. Made with pride in the USA? Hardly.
Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.
Wal-Mart says they didn't say that...
p e=domesticNews&storyid=2006-09-22T185622Z_01_WEN58 36_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-WALMART-STUDIOS.xml&src=rss& rpc=22
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?ty
Wal-mart are worried that they'll sell less DVDs, so they counter this by pulling DVDs off the shelves...
Good one Wal-mart.
Walmart wants attention or something else they aren't telling the general public. Neither side wants to stop selling disney stuff. Disney could easy turn around and go somewhere else and exploit all other retailers, but that would require work Disney doesn't want to do, and ost them money they don't want to spend, and Walmart doesn't want to get rid of ~20% of their media sales just because they don't like the iTunes store. Disney would come out on top of a silly thing like this if they actually wanted to fight it out in the market, but not without losing a little share price.
My bet is someone at Walmart asked to talk with the Board of directors at Disney, and the board snubbed them. So Walmart punched them in the arm with this little stunt like a petulant child and is demanding attention. The real life answer to this is to ignore it, but I'm sure they'll have a meeting now and work something out.
Personally I hope they eat each other alive but whatever, that won't happen.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Wal-Mart, for once, has no leverage here. If customers can't get The Little Mermaid super platinum eternal edition from Wal-Mart, they'll go down the street to Target or Kmart or Amazon.
I can't imagine studios would lose money if Wal-mart didn't carry their albums, especially if they replace physical sales revenue with digital. Of course the studios would like to keep physical and digital revenue flowing, but steady revenues are better than declining revenues.
If the studios did cave to this threat they are short sighted and craven.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
do you know of which you speak?
have you seen the per track prices in their online music store?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
That's what they call it anyway. Entire industries are closing in the US because of the walmart effect, and becoming just importers or almost entirely just importers. The alleged boon to the consumer will eventually backlash to a major recession. There's only so much of a perpetual balance of trade deficit any nation can handle, even the US.
As to the filing of complaints, some local governments have found they have a way to fight back-just not allowing them to build stores with zoning regs. Granted, not a perfect solution, but it's something that can be done. Say some area does it, some of the people local will still travel to the next town over. But if THAT town does the same, eventually the distance travelled means the consumers will stay put locally and use the smaller stores.
The globalist-bent economists (the ones only loyal to money and making billionaires out of millionaires) like to talk the cheaper prices, etc, but they always conveniently forget (even though they were taught this early on in biz school) that the monetary unit stays more valuable the more times it changes hands locally-in this case inside the local community then up to the national level. Over the past two decades in particular we have been swapping a number of good paying manufacturing jobs (some millions, a large number) per single lower paying retail sales job-that is unsustainable long term and rather..lame, it's just lame.
Sorry, but it looks like Wal-Mart is the more apparent threat to your freedoms than Google. I don't and WON'T shop at Wal-Mart unless they succeed at infiltrating my neck of the woods. But I doubt it. I live in an inner-ring suburb (probably too many black and poor people for their tastes) of a mid-sized city. And IF they do put one of their monstrous stores in the neighborhood, I'll bet they'll do what I've seen in other areas where there aren't more white folk than black folk... They'll put cops in the store (you don't see that in the burbs) and make sure the stock is of a lower quality compared to their suburban or boonie branches. Amazing that people rail on about the evils of Google while very few actually talk about the cancer that is Wal-Mart. Just like one of my high school classmates said back in the 90s, "Stop the 'Mart Bart"! Wal-Mart IS evil.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Sure you can say such expensives aren't really translated to entertainment or electronics. I mean, when you're poor and shoping for house hold items, medicine etc that brand new DVD isn't a top priority. But some people can't really afford to boycott it. Not all towns/cities have other discount stores that are cheaper or equal to Walmart, and those that do often aren't as cheap as Walmart for some items.
For example, a family doctor recommended some over the counter vitamins and supplements for my grandparents. At a pharmacy they cost around $10 a bottle. At a grocery store it's slightly less. And then at places like Target, K-Mart, it's again slightly less than the pharmacy. Now Walmart? That same $10 bottle of vitamins is now like $2.50 or $3.00 at most. Name brand. They end up saving like 2/3 the cost. That's just medicine that's not crucial for day to day living too. Imagine how much you save on every day stuff like pet food, paper towels, etc
People on fixed incomes, low income jobs, and people living pay check to pay check depend on Walmart. People think it's silly that you buy groceries at Walmart/Super Walmart but hey, when it's cheaper on bread, eggs, soda etc at Walmart than it is at a grocery store, you buy there.
Aw Frell this
.... people boycott wal-mart dvd stands ? Huh ?
One has to think thrice before taking a stance against 'the people', in which case, 'the people' are the internet.
Read radical news here
Uh yeah, I do. My wife's theisis was on Walmart's Distribution. Regardless of their prices on digital ditributed products, they don't make the same margin from that as they do physically distributed products. They would much rather compete on the physical end and will "encourage" manufacturers to continue to push forward more so int he physical areana for now.
Anne? Charlie? Brian? Diane? Martin? Cynthia? Terry? Bob here. Good of you to join me for this quick, impromptu teleconference. I wanted to encourage you to do one investigative report on WalMart's employment and business practices EVERY DAY. That's right, every single day. For how long? Until the effers go under, that's how long! Eff with a media outlet will they . . .
I'm sorry... but this article is drivel. I mean, this is bad for slashdot. It's a month old story, from a joke of a newspaper source.
This is a bit of an old story... CNN.com allready has a story about how Wal-Mart is looking into opening its own movie downloads. It makes sense, seeing as they allready have a working music download service.
The article posted is a bit... Let's just say that the Businesweek article covering this has a much less "Wal-Mart is EEEEVIL" ring to it. I know it feels good to pat yourself on the back with the Coorporate hate feelings, but this NY Post article has a pretty blatant and nasty slant that shouldn't have make it to the slashdot front page.
...for a mod point.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
losers.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
For such a large and apparently savvy company they did everything wrong, according to The Economist. For starters: They instated a country manager, who couldn't speak a word German and insisted that all communication is in English.
While it's true that the corporate language of major companies from the German speaking world (Deutsche Post - DHL, UBS, Zurich Financial Services, etc) is English and for good reasons too, it's a bad idea to cowboy your way in and allienate just about everybody. Especially in retail, which traditionally has a lot of regional idiosyncrcies.
While this may go through in Switzerland, which is more internationally oriented, this is a bad mistake in Germany, and bloody arrogant to boot.
Then again, Walmart was never famous for modesty. Now they payed the price in Germany.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
WalMart is threatening to hurt a competitor by reducing the amount of business they do in specific ways. This is pretty much a clear admission of monopolistic practices, because only in a monopoly situation does this sort of behavior lead to a better financial outcome.
I can't stand how walmart is destroying small town america, but I can't believe the idiots here that think that Walmart should keep thousands of DVD's they bought yet don't think they will sell due to less demand. It's not like Walmart said, hey you sell to those on itunes, we won't sell any of your stuff. They just sent back their overstock.
Perhaps Disney should have played 'hardball" and supplied those "cases and cases" to competing stores near Wall-Marts, under the condition that they sell them at steeply discounted prices and with heavy advertising as loss leaders, particularly around Christmas.
Wall-Mart wouldn't be in such a dither over this if the Internet didn't offer some serious competition to their particular marketing channel, so that should be a clue to Hollywood that they can use iTunes to squeeze back.
And if everyone in Hollywood ends up having to accept lower prices, so much the better. It'd be payday for circa 1998, when Hollywood bought an absurd 20-year extention of copyright from Congress. Those movie monguls want to get rich off the creativity and labor of people who're long dead. A cut in their more-than-ample paychecks would seem to be in order.
Are you sure they're 'threatening?' Are you sure they are trying to 'use their muscle.' Are you sure they aren't just reading the market?
If I was a retailer and I saw 'supply' magically expanded at a HUGE rate while demand stayed mostly the same, I would want to get rid of some of my inventory quick. If I had the option of giving it back to someone else I'd do that. I might be a little angry at the lost revenue, but it doesn't mean I'm using dirty tactics or, 'trying to send a message.' I'm just evaluating the market and adjusting supplies.
Saying "Selling movies online will cut into DVD sales" is like saying, "If you open another McDonalds across the street, the existing McDonalds won't have as much business." That's not a threat.
They could have put a little heat on it. "Excuse me, we had a deal, you sent me this amount of product under false pretenses." That still seems complete reasonable, rational, and not in the least bit 'monopolistic' or 'threatening.'
After reading the article, I'm even more sure that Wal-mart wasn't trying to force them into anything. It was just letting them know that demand for DVD's would drop if they started selling music online. It sounds like Wal-Mart is thinking clearly, and Hollywood is wanting their cake and to eat it to.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
... is because we've shrunk our manufacturing base to rock bottom.
It certainly has nothing to do with not being able to compete at the cheap end because of labour costs (as it used to), because automated robot plants can produce things even cheaper for the huge global market than the old Chinese sweat shops. And anyway Chinese products have been encroaching at the mid and high end end for some years now too.
But notice that we have enormous numbers of lawyers, because despite producing no actual wealth, they still produce profit parasitically from the effort of others. And that is perfectly adequate in the profit-motivated nation that we are.
So get used to seeing the label "MADE IN CHINA".
Costco's also cheap but pays their workers enough for some measure of dignity.
the enemy of my enemy is my enemy
Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
It seems that everyone has it in for apple. From the people on the street that say "Don't go ipod, buy something else" (ummm.. no one is making a public move relating to windows on that.. and there are FAR more windows users than podHeads).
To the music business that keeps wanting to raise prices because they feel they are not getting "enough" money.. (dispite the fact that they actually save money from the elimination of the distribution/packaging/shipping/retail costs.. but oh well, sure, they need another solid gold toilet)
To the movie business (ditto above, except its a solid gold dildo)
And now walmart is scared because someone might out-price them. Forgetting the simple fact that a sizable chunk of the people that shop in walmart are not heavy on-line purchasers (for other goods and services) so they loose a little money in one department but make it up in another. (it would be better for them to partner with apple, like they do now with the itunes credits) and clip a little off the top for those impulse purchases, than whine that we are not making enough money because the big bad apple (funny huh?) is taking our lunch money.
Give me a break wal-mart, so you lost a little ground in a particular market because of a different distribution channel. Big Whoop.
Its been that way all throughout history. (the milkman lost his job because of the grocery store, the news paper boy lost his job because of mailing lists, the indie bands lost their money because of the RIAA, etc...)
God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board -- Mark Twain Look for http://Thebar.steelbeachca
Too bad that it IS all about labor costs. I find it funny that so many people are naive enough to make the argument that "robot plants can make products so much faster and cheaper"... and forget that automated production plants are a) extemely expensive and b) extremely expensive. Plus maintenance costs, programming costs, etc. Automation is not the cake walk 21st century society would love you to think it is, why do you think it's rarely used and if it is, it's used by major manufacturers with HUGE economies of scale. Robots are only efficient when the average variable and fixed costs are very, very low (ie, at very high level of production). My point is that labor is WAY cheaper, especially in China, where the supply of labor dwarfs the demand for labor, so labor stays very cheap. This is why, unfortunately, China will double, at the least, U.S. GDP within 50 years.
Very true. However, Walmart is a special case because of their unprecedented ability to influence the marketplace — and their extreme lack of social ethics.
...of the Age of The Replicator.
Today, I can download a perfect image of a DVD. I can burn it to a blank DVD that will work in my DVD player, just like the storebought version.
I can also take that DVD, and, if I have the right printer, print a full color "label" right onto it, just like the storebought version.
I can also download the keepcase cover insert and print that as well, so that the keepcase from the stack of empty AOL CD keepcases in my closet will look just like the storebought version.
Tomorrow, I will be able to legally download the DVD, the DVD "Label" and the DVD case cover insert and make my own DVD with case, with the blessings of the movie studio. (They're taking the halting baby steps already, via iTunes. They'll eventually see that there's money to be made by letting the consumer do all the work of making the DVD.)
Essentially, I have a replicator that takes data and makes a product in my home at my demand. A DVD in a keepcase.
While I don't think I'll live to see a "Transmetropolitan"-esque 'maker' in every home, it IS coming. I regret that I won't be around to hear the howls of outrage from WalMart over that leap of technology.
I won't regret, however, the societal upheaval that will occur when anyone can have anything, as long as they pay the power bill and can keep the source matter bin full.
Oh, and the lawsuits over cracking the DRM for the makers will be hysterically entertaining. I'll miss following them, as well.
Seriously, though. Who neds Gap, Old Navy, Victoria's Secret, Bananna Republic or Levi as a physical place to go and buy something, when you can download the maker source code for a fee, tweak that code for yourself for size and color, and push a button to have that garment drop down the chute 30 minutes later?
Go to Apple.com, pay a fee, get the source for the new iPod, and there it is the next day, courtesy of your home maker.
What need have you for the Apple Store? And what need has Apple for factories in China?
Yeah, the world economy is going to get very sporty for a while once the maker is perfected.
And if it can make anything, why, I can have ALL THE HEROIN AND POT AND E that I want!
I can have all the prescription medicines I want!
I can have all the Coca-Cola I want!
Imagine THAT table full of lawyers. The PRC, The Taliban and Colombian govts (Opium and Cocaine), EVERY pharm hypercorps, and Coca-Cola, INC.
All trying to maintain their monopolies over atoms and molecules that have been stitched together in a particular manner and that, by tradition, belong to them and them alone.
Good luck, guys. You'll need it.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
I know its fashionably correct on /. to bash Wal-Mart. Actually it seems the domain of sites like this to bash any big company. Microsoft, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Amazaon, and now even Valve. I guess once you become successful you no longer to be lauded but instead picked on for any little thing that can be found. Better yet throw in buzzwords, hearsay, parrot what others say, and you can score big on /.
Yeah, as my subject line reads, my Cheerios must be from China too. Whats next? Claim that Wal-Mart put all the mom & pop grocery stores out of business? Sorry, I don't buy that line. I love Wal-Mart superstores. Why? Because they cut my grocery bills from 20-40% depending on what I am buying. Kroger, Publix, Ingles, and the rest can go to hell. I have seen the identical item a third less at Wal-Mart. Who are you going to claim they are exploiting by selling Cereal for less? What about orange juice and milk?
Wal-Mart leverages scale to bring prices down. They don't cater to the snobbish high end crowd with their general goods. The provides goods to people who don't have the luxury of wasting money at a coffee shop, buying PCs, and the latest hybrid-car. The grocery side is a whole 'nuther business as they sell exactly what I can buy elsewhere from the big chain supermarkets, just for a lot less.
If Wal-Mart can keep the prices of DVDs and similar down then by all means I hope they do. The first key to having money is not wasting it. If you want to pay 17-24 per DVD just so you don't have to buy it at Wal-Mart then by all means do so. I will buy it and take that extra money and use it where I want it, not just give it to ANOTHER corporate interest.
Wal-Mart isn't perfect but neither is any other retailer. Go find retailers that market American made items exclusively... I can go to Sears, Penny's, Macys, and other big chains and find items made in China as well. Why not bash them for doing what you bash Wal-Mart for?
Better yet, why not jump on the governments that deal with China as well? USA, Canada, and members of the EU all treat China with kid gloves. Yet who is held more accountable? A business? I mean, get real. Who could have a bigger influence? The world caved and gave China the 2008 Olympics. Before we start bashing a business for dealing with China maybe we should look towards our own governments and ask why its okay for them to ignore all these issues and its not okay for a business.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Wal-Mart's made with pride campaign meant that if your product was the exact same price or cheaper than the Chinese or Mexican product, it would be carried. One penny more and it was out.
Wal-Mart was forced to discontinue the campaign after a slew of state AG's sued them for misleading advertising.
Competition.
You got where you are by competing and undercutting everyone else, even going to extents such as forcing your suppliers to fire Americans and offshore manufacturing, forcing them in cases to decrease product quality and/or create "budget" models to meet your pricing strategy, and you've pretty much driven other big-box discount stores out of business.
Now you get miffed when not only are you getting undercut, but you're being undercut by an honest player who isn't bullying the suppliers to the extent that you do?
Competition. You got where you are through competition, and now that Apple is beating you at the movie game and Target is rabidly nipping at your heels by offering similar pricing and better quality, you're crying wolf? WTF?
Competition. Sucks for you, but it's good for us.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
If Wal-Mart has it in for Apple so bad, why does the Walmart SuperCenter up the street from my apartment sell
iPods? I suppose this could be another case of Right and and Left Hand politcs in the corporate top level... but still if Apple is such a competator to Wal-Mart then they should not carry those iPods.
Not that it matters to me though, I have a Creative Zen V mp3 player =D
I think the same comment could be made about iTunes. What is iTunes other than another distribution channel? Itunes doesn't create any content, they just repackage it in a faster (but somewhat less valuable format). There's no real innovation in itunes ... any more than there is in a highly efficient distribution channel. It's just that itunes is a bright and shinny object... where a distribution channel is kind of gritty and back room.
You are correct. No one forces anyone to purchase product from WalMart. However, actions like what WalMart is doing to the video suppliers is an attempt to force suppliers to sell to no one but them. If a better model does come up, rather than work out agreements, they throw a temper tantrum to try to force the new model to go away.
Too bad for WalMart, the tactic rarely seems to work.
Maybe you have different Dollar General stores where ever you are, but here in IL they cannot compete with Walmart, only other stores with "Dollar" in their name. Walmart is higher quality ( surprising to say that), more selection, more convieniet( open 24-7), and alo gives their employees benifits. I don't see how they could compete, much less slash the throat of a giant like walmart.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Hey Wal*Mart, why don't you ship back everything you put in your stores to boycott someone stealing your sales! Because a shit load of empty stores will certainly help you sell more product!
I know Wal*Mart probably sells 9 of 10 DVDs and CDs sold in the US, but whenever the entertainment industry realizes that in reality THEY'RE the ones that can make demands of Wal*Mart once they embrace digital downloads, I don't think Disney will be getting case loads of anything back.
At some point I'm sure most entertainment will be all digital, music, movies, even books and magazines will probably end up being nothing but 1's and 0's. Then Wal*Mart will be back to shoveling crappy trinkets and C-List celebrity clothing lines.
If they weren't busy being stupid, they'd launch Wal*Mart Online Store and sell downloads. But no using time and money to pitch a fit is way more profitable.
No sig for you!!
Instead of pissing and moaning, how about you offer your own movie download service?
This is the same company that has the "integrity" to take a guitar, and where it flat-out says on the box "Suggested Retail Price $99" and mark it up to $129. They have no reason to bitch about other companies beating their "low prices" when they can't even hide the fact they're over-charging you. Fuck Wal-Mart and anyone associated with them.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
...if Wal-Mart started being less evil, then other large retailers would become more evil to take up the slack.
I would like to recommend the fine book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" which talks about how many Republicans long for an idealized prior image of American, and yet ironically it has been largely the Republican / big business agenda that has been slowly destroying that.
- TWR
retort. You claimed his logic is flawed. You also claimed he was rude and insulting. You then failed to elaborate on his illogic, and proceded to be rude and inconsiderate. Words like poser and hypocrite come to mind, but I'll settle on lame. Your response was lame.
zealot.
Retards. Their comparing apples to oranges and crying like a baby about it. DRM'ed digital downloads that art tied to your computer, at least for now, can not be taken as a serious competitor to the bagged and boxed market. This sounds more like a case of the stupid, oversized bully over reacting to something his pea-brain can't fully take in. Who should be concerned is the video rental martket. They are the one's that are being circumvented.
If I want to OWN something. As in be able to watch it. Lend it to a friend. Take it with me when I move. Etc. I go online to Amazon or drive down to Wallmart. If I want to WATCH something, like Battlestar Galactica before its available or without having to trundle accross the street (sure, when I'm sick I can be lazy) I iTunes something. Do I consider those Battlestar episodes something *I* really own? No, Apple *owns* them. They are just letting them reside on my computer.
So Wallmart can get all pissed off if it wants, but for now, they are seriously barking up the wrong tree. Apple is selling Music. Music I can burn to CD. Music I then don't/won't buy from Wallmart, Amazon or any other retailer. But they are lending me their videos.
Quack, quack.
Every economic indicator shows that globalism and offshoring has hurt the economy. The proof is in the stats, and we have many years to look at now. And they even have to keep fudging them to make it look better than what it really is, I mean really, having to call burger flipping *manufacturing*? c'mon! that's a clue. We are now the largest debtor nation when before the largest creditor nation. that's a clue. The dollar keeps dropping in international value. that's a clue. We have a huge rate of bankruptcy and people staring at losing their pensions.that's a clue. Largest trade deficit ever and growing, sets new records about every quarter. That's a clue. The numbers of people with better paying jobs with benefits keeps dropping, not rising. That's a clue. Savings rates are the worst for more than a full generation. That's a clue. Ya, it started back then, and a lot of us "back then" warned that this is exactly what would happen, and it has. And that's because some of us really *had a clue*. "Back then" I warned folks-anyone who would listen-that the combination of crap built and being too greedy would bork the auto industry (I was in the UAW then). I got laughed at, ridiculed, got told in person and by proxie in print from all the "economic experts" that "it will never happen, no one will buy them cheap little cars". They were wrong, I was right. Yes, it started back then, listening to the coke addled and drunk economic experts and following the captains of industry advice as a nation. Rubbish, and it was *clear* to see, abundantly clear to anyone who can think more than two steps ahead or some years ahead and run some common sense extrapolation scenarios.. Both management and labor needed several good bashes with the clue stick back then, but they kept dodging, about the only thing they are good at.
You make money by manufacturing wealth, and having it be good quality and fair priced, not over priced ridiculous stupid crap or the cheapest possibly falling apart crap. Wealth is grown, mined, manufactured or a combination of that, everything else is wealth re arrangement or wealth service.
We have swapped making wealth to trying to just manage it and service it. Nuts! Insanity! It will not work for the long run. It can for the short run,then you'll see it starting to crumble in the medium run (now, today) and it will eventually collapse in the long run. They can run their printing presses all they want, it won't matter. It's been tried before, it doesn't matter.
We have forgotten the middle ground, the middle ground which at one time had the strongest middle class with real wealth ownership in the world, now we have the largest class of debtors ever. Only took one generation to pull that off. BUT, we sure do have a lot more billionaires now! Damn funny how that worked out....
Yep, you can show a ton of paper profit by being a tradesman and selling off your tools friday night,and getting a loan on your work truck and handing over the keys and parking it at the lot, but come monday morning you are going to be hurting. Sure, you'll seem "rich" over the weekend,you can go out and buy all sortsa stuff with that flush cash, but it won't last.
That's all we have been doing for a long time now and they are running out of options, and I don't care how much the goons at the Fed try to tweak things, eventually we won't have a dang thing that other folks want and then they'll even stop buying up your grandkids debt. Aren't you just a teeny bit ashamed that little babies not even born yet will be born into debt? Just a little?
And walmartization is a big part of it. When they first started, and I remember it clearly as well, it was buy american there, keep you and your neighbor working, and it was fine. then..well, he passed on and now it is FU america, we are gonna milk this baby out and retire multibillionaires and go pound sand. sure, they got cheap crap now, and people with some money to buy it, but it won't last. It just can't
As a /. reader, I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about all of this. I mean, it's Wal-Mart vs. the movie studios. That's like taking sides in a battle between Microsoft and SCO.
I was talking about Wendy's. I was saying that Wendy's uses microwaves, in response to the person who said Wendy's didn't. I don't know anything about In-n-Out.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
With that kind of shafting, I'd be pissed off too!
As for me, I've found that the local Bi-Mart here has DVD movies for half that amount normally, and occasionally has sales on popular DVDs for like $6.99.
Moral of the story - shop around.
Heard any good sigs lately?
I was talking to a company that supplies equipment for Wal-Mart and Target stores (e.g., the stuff that goes into building a store, not the items they sell.) Here's how a meeting with Wal-Mart went:
Company: Hello! Wal-Mart buyer: You fucked us in June. You fucked us in July. You ain't fucking us in August.
And this was a supplier they liked.
Not really Walmart in particular. It has far more to do with oversupply.
Ok so the US farmer is concerned about competing against the EU farmer for corn, he goes to his representative and demands a subsidy to make things fair, which he gets, EU farmer goes to his representative and gets a similar subsidy, both farmers are now producing corn at below the true market value. It gets worse, in order to obtain the maximum subsidy, the US and EU farmer maximise their yields of corn, in addition, seeing large subsidies, lots of other farmers begin producing corn to take advantage of subsidies. The result is huge oversupply and with that a lower and lower market value. Eventually the unwanted corn mountain is dumped on the third world as aid and decimates the agricultural markets there as well causing famine, civil war and millions of deaths.
Walmart, as sociopathic as their organisation may or may not be has relatively little to do with the problem, they just take advantage of it. The solution to low prices for farmers is for subsidies to be removed and for a significant proportion of them to stop farming and do something else instead.
Deleted
..the wal-mart shills that will inevitably try and whitewash anything bad that appears under this topic.
Walmart, unlike the RIAA/MPAA is NOT in any danger whatsoever.
Walmart, worst case, will just stop selling movies if (when?) the 'digital download thing' takes off and surpasses retail sales. Big flipping deal. What' the real issue here? Walmart frees up a few hundred square feet in a 100,000 sq foot store which they can fill with:
Q-tips, Toothpicks, Bathroom scales, Can-openers, Kids shoes, String, Universal Remote Controls, Watering Cans, Aspirin, Spoons, USB cable, Coca-Cola, Ker-Plunk, Pregnancy Test Kits, Bicycles, and ten billion other items that will never be delivered as digital downloads...
I don't know why anyone hasn't said it, but anti-competetive moves like this, where you modify your buying habbits by who's dealing with your competition, is clearly a violation of rules that I believe are terms anti-trust rules.
With that kind of shafting, I'd be pissed off too!
What shafting?
Walmart is getting a physical object that the studios have to package for DVD, produce, warehouse, distribute, and take back if defective. Walmart is getting extra content specially produced for DVD sales. Walmart is getting free standups and other advertising material.
Apple is getting a right-to-copy, they're taking on the costs of format conversion and QC, and they're not getting any extra content or marketing support.
I don't know whether $3.50 is a good or bad price for all that extra material, but I'm sure that if Walmart wants to take on the production, marketing, and distribution they'll be welcome to a cut rate.
A few years ago Walmart forced Rubbermaid to close down US plants and begin manufacturing overseas. Now this wasn't because people were not buying Rubbermaid goods. They did this at a time when Rubbermaid was extremely profitable and people were more then willing to buy their products as priced.
However, Rubbermaid became reliant on Walmart for distribution, and Walmart wanted cheeper supply. At first Rubbermaid wouldn't fold, but then Walmart stopped carrying Rubbermaid products. By doing that Walmart almost crushed an incredibly successful company. Rubbermaid has since outsource manufacturing and, as I recall, now have products back in Walmart stores.
Among other things, they've done also done this with "tipper stickers" and "clean" CDs.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
-1, reading comprehension problem.
No one was blaming the off-shoring of manufacturing on Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is blamed for grossly accelerating it. There's a major difference there.
-1, worst example EVER
Wait, people are going to pay shipping and wait x days to purchase a drill & batteries online (which they may need today) instead of going to Ace Hardware/Home Depot/Lowe's? Exactly what planet is this version of Santa Cruz located on?
-1, tunnel vision
It also brings down the wages, too. And cheaper gasoline & groceries mean nothing when you're out of a job because your store closed down. Also, Mom & Pop music stores had employees who knew their product; ever asked a Wal Mart employee where the industrial rock/pop/hip hop/country/etc. section is, or who's the new up&coming artist in that genre? Try it sometime.
Also, consolidated shopping is even more fun for superior products that Wal Mart decides they don't want to carry. So instead of you getting your favorite brand that you want, now you're railroaded into buying whatever Wal Mart dictates is okay to sell, because no one else is around to compete and sell other brands. So much for consumer choice there.
Also, so much for employee choice. The old adage, "if you don't like the working conditions here, QUIT!!! and find another job" doesn't work as well in a city with a Wal Mart store. By the time they're done, there's not many other places to work, except Burger King.
Oh, and Wal Mart stores are also known to close down from time to time; leaving an entire town without a department store at all. You want to talk about driving times?
And another thing: Wal Mart is also known for refusing to sell some artists' music because it's "objectionable". Where do you go to get those artists, then? Cue this article. Now, Wal Mart wants to cut out your online alternatives to preserve their outdated business model. And the consumer gets hurt if Wally World gets their way.
-1, Theory conflicts with reality
Yes, but few stores can survive just on selling the things that Wal Mart doesn't. Wal Mart's strategy is to sell the lowest common denominator products at the lowest common denominator prices, to maximize foot traffic (and sales). There simply isn't enough profit to sell other products to uphold a store.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking... if there isn't enough profit to uphold a store selling product B, C and D, then product B, C and D don't deserve to exist. That's the worst lo
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
it's Wal-Mart vs. the movie studios
Walmart vs Apple, Shirley.
It's also there for people that want stuff they can't get elsewhere, or at the same hours. I'm not a huge fan of Wal-Mart either, but short of ordering on ebay (which can have its own evils, and there's shipping delays etc) sometimes there are just things I can't easily find in other places, especially not at later hours (WalMart here closes at 10pm, in many USA locations it 24-hour).
Sure why not? Let them continue to adopt monopolistic and anti-competitive practices that got Microsoft in so much trouble a few years back. A couple more maneuvers like this (threatening their suppliers for dealing with others) on a scale that large, and they WILL attract attention from the Justice Department, republican-controlled, or not. Or so I'd like to think.
I don't really buy the "wal-mart is evil" mentality on the surface, but I sure don't side with them when they pull stunts like this.
I had a sucky sig.
Free market competition criticized!
Oh wait, we don't have a free market or competition. Never mind.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
but the fact remains that they would have done so eventually anyway to make a greater profit.
Companies do this to avoid going out of business entirely, because if they competition does it and they don't, they can't compete.
And this is a GOOD thing. We have been shipping jobs overseas for decades. We have shipper far more jobs overseas than we even have people living in this country.
IF you believed the Unions, everybody would be unemployed - but this obviously isn't the case. Unemployment has remained relatively constant for decades. Everytime we ship a job overseas, *WE* get more stuff, for less money, and we get new jobs to replace those old jobs.
I like more stuff, so bring offshore labor on.
paintball
Oh, yeah, that'll stop the march of technology, eh? What a stupid move. So if General Electric sells lightbulbs online or Sherwin Williams sells paint online, are they going to send all that merchandise back as well? Close it up now in that case. Hey, if Wal-Mart wants to put themselves out of business faster, that's their prerogative. Luddites.
Most of the stuff on
Should the more risky classes not be cared for at all if the family cannot afford it? Without life, there is no chance for liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
Wouldn't it be great if Disney wasn't just a media whore and would respond to walmarts action by offering their entire library of movies on iTunes?
We don't live in an age where people stand up to companies like Walmart. No one is willing to lose a few dollars for a principle. And maybe thats the effect of being a public company and being accountable to people who only think about money, your stockholders. I hate the commercial world we live in.
I applaud Wal-Mart for making medication affordable in general, but grandparent has a point about cancer and antibiotics in particular. Cutting prices on generic antibiotics won't help victims of a Staphylococcus aureus infection, as a few strains of staph have become resistant to all the cillins, some even to vancomycin. And have the cancer drugs gone generic yet? How do Wal-Mart's prices on newer prescription drugs compare to those of Walgreens and CVS? Besides, can Wal-Mart associates[1] easily afford cancer treatments other than prescription drugs, such as surgery and radiotherapy?
[1] Couldn't bring myself to use the staff==staph pun.
Never mind that the members of the "labor cartel" are the actual consumers buying products. What happens to our society when everyone gets paid Wal-Mart level wages and receives Wal-Mart level benefits? Who's going to be buying iPods and DVDs then?
-- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
"Trends look good for this year's new iPod femto with an estimated sale of 7 units, a 16% increase over 2022's record figures."
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Hadn't heard that they'd made decerebrating into such a quick procedure!
The Wal-Mart managers?
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
Funny, that's exactly what small retailers said in the 1920's and 1930's when big retail merchandise stores started to open up shop all over the country. And yet most American's make above the low wages these places pay.
When will you idiots stop repeating this tired line?
There is this new thing called the combustion engine, WalMart might want to look into it...
Oh, and CD / DVD sales are so 1900's - forget about trying to stuff the genie back in the bottle.
It's done, stick a fork in it.
There is another new fangled thingy called the 'intranets' connected to some sort of computational adding machine,
the retail giant might want to look into that too. (It uses electricity to make moving words, pictures, and sounds!)
The only economy that matters to investors is their own bottom line.
In that sense, WalMart is good for the economy.
Sure, all you blokes will be out of job, homeless, and hungry
- because the USA is rapidly deteriorating into a 3rd world nation of debtors.
Record foreclosures, bankruptcy, and businesses going out of business...
But for the top 10% of capital holders, the sky is the limit!
Power to the (wealthy) People, Brother!
Do you understand capitalism yet, or do I needs to draws you a picture?