WAL-MART ABANDONS VHS!!

[Robin Hood]

That's Good News That They Are Still Selling Them.

[DaveWadding]

What Wal-Mart are you going to? I cant remeber the last time I have even seen a audio cassette beening sold.

Well, every single Wal-Mart in my area has a very tiny section of audio cassettes of the latest releases, as well as discount cassettes.

Everyone should take a look next time they hit their local one and report back! I'm really curious about this now; I swear I'm not crazy!

My Wal-Mart still has cassettes. You're not out of your mind...

also, I LOVE my DVD/VCR combo.

[Nala]

My Wal Mart up here discontinued the audio cassettes over a year ago. Every Wal Mart I've been to doesn't have audio cassettes. They still have a nice selection of VHS though.

[Jake Lipson]

People can't afford DVDs so they still buy VHS? Huh?

When you can go into a store and get a new DVD for $15-$20 and absolutely topping out at $30 unless it's a bigger-than-normal release such as the 4-disc Lord of the Rings sets, I find that kind of hard to believe. What little VHS tapes are still around here are priced the same, or sometimes higher, than the DVD counterpart.

Now if you mean people can't afford a DVD *PLAYER*, then that, maybe, I can understand. But DVDs have become so mass-marketed now that theargument that they are more expensive than DVDs is just rediclious.

Further proof of this is seen in the Home Media Retailing article about home entertainment sales for the month of May 2005 that Luke posted on the front page. Quoting from that article (http://www.homemediaretailing.com/news/ ... le_ID=7681):

DVD sales rang up $912.46 million, 3.2 percent more than in May 2004. But those gains weren’t enough to offset a 54.5 percent decline in videocassette sales.

54.5% decline and people still buy VHS because they're cheaper than DVDs? Sorry, those don't seem to add up.

[MinnieMe]

The way I see it is that those who purchase movies often are also those who would switch over to DVD. It's a better format: better quality, more extras, etc. Those who don't buy a lot of movies (my parents for example) have those VHS's from years ago that I got as a kid and will sometimes rent or buy movies sporadically but don't have that much of a reason to buy a dvd player when they will use it so infrequently.

The ones still using VCR's are those who weren't big movie-buyers to begin with. True movie fans will have switched over to DVD by now. Eventually VCR's will become obsolete but for the time being there are a few who still use them. I guess Walmart is now just trying to be fair to those few people.

And price isn't really a good excuse for not buying a DVD player. My DVD player cost $30 and I've been using it for over a year and a half with no problems (knock on wood).

[SofaKing381222]

I only buy VHS for my favorite Collector's Videos. Ive bought each LOTR film, on VHS for $5 from Wal-Mart. Same with all the Harry Potters. I only buy them to collect, I watch my DVDs.

[RJKD23]

Who would still buy VHS movies?

The elderly, kids and poor people.

Well, yea what Henski said.

Not everyone's rich you know and people gotta work hard.

The kids I tutor only have a VHS player, but they rent VHS free in their neighborhood.
The senior citizen care center that I volunteer at only has a VHS player and refuse to adopt the DVD player since the residents didn't grow up with that technology.

And plus, some VHS have sentimental value to the owner. Like Escapay said, they DO remind me of my youth.

And I should also point out (because I've volunteered and tutored in the low income areas because it's called "being nice, having a heart, giving back" or something like that) that it's not nice to look down upon them for buying VHS. They work hard to get their money and they don't spend it on anything they want. I mean, I'm sure they desire DVDs and whatnot, but geez...criticizing something such as VHS and VHS Players because some people can't afford the newer technology.



Why complain about something if you're NOT going to buy it?
Just ignore the VHS section and move on to the DVD section.

[DaveWadding]

The senior citizen care center that I volunteer at only has a VHS player and refuse to adopt the DVD player since the residents didn't grow up with that technology.

I hate to sound like I'm picking at you (when I'm totally not), but that's kind of dumb reasoning (and it's not your reasoning, I know) considering that they didnt grow up with VHS either.

[Little Red Henski]

Well VHS is easier to use than DVD for seniors. Yes, these seniors grew up with 16mm film projectors instead of VHS but I think the VHS is easier for them to use. Also 16mm films are pretty rare now.

[MickeyMousePal]

Costco, Circuit Ciy, Best Buy and now Wal Mart are getting rid of VHS Tapes.... yeah... destory VHS bring on DVD's !!!!

[Disney Guru]

The elderly, kids and poor people.

Well, yea what Henski said.

Not everyone's rich you know and people gotta work hard.

The kids I tutor only have a VHS player, but they rent VHS free in their neighborhood.
The senior citizen care center that I volunteer at only has a VHS player and refuse to adopt the DVD player since the residents didn't grow up with that technology.

And plus, some VHS have sentimental value to the owner. Like Escapay said, they DO remind me of my youth.

And I should also point out (because I've volunteered and tutored in the low income areas because it's called "being nice, having a heart, giving back" or something like that) that it's not nice to look down upon them for buying VHS. They work hard to get their money and they don't spend it on anything they want. I mean, I'm sure they desire DVDs and whatnot, but geez...criticizing something such as VHS and VHS Players because some people can't afford the newer technology.



Why complain about something if you're NOT going to buy it?
Just ignore the VHS section and move on to the DVD section.

Krystal,

Thank you for that post. That is my point precisely on the subject. Not everyone can afford to upgrade to dvd, so they stick with VHS. Sure it's fine for those of us who can afford it, but you have to think of everybody. But that's just my opinion. And I wanted to thank you again for your post Krystal.

[Disney Villain]

Who would still buy VHS movies?

Alot of people still do, it suprises me. I would go crazy without DVD's. My younger cousins who have T.V. in their bedrooms do not have DVD players they only have VHS players. So when my aunts and uncles go shopping for Disney films they only buy VHS tapes. If they want a movie for themselves they buy it on DVD. This just stopped recently. Now my little cousins ALL ( There are 8 of them) have those Disney Princess DVD/T.V. combo things.

[anger is pointless]

im saving up for a tv/vcr and i went to walmart to choose the model i wanted to buy

but there wernt any tv/vcrs there but there were several tv/dvd players

i have several disney movies on tape but im gonna buy them on widescreen dvd soon and when i do ill try selling my tapes on ebay

[Nala]

We've got a VHS/DVD combo as I need the VHS for home videos as I like doing home videos and need the VHS. Recently we bought a digital video camera with a D.S.C.

[Sunset Girl]

My Wal-Mart still has cassettes. You're not out of your mind...

also, I LOVE my DVD/VCR combo.

Yay, I'm not crazy!

I love my combo unit, too. I've actually been thinking about buying another combo unit since I only have a VCR upstairs, athough I should probably take the cheaper route and just get another DVD player. That combo unit was bought for my upstairs, actually, but ended up having to replace my downstairs DVD player in a matter of days when it died on me. I had to switch everything around since most of our movie watching is downstairs with the bigger tv.

I actually bought two VHS's last week! I love browsing the video section of the dollar store. . . you never know what you'll find. I bought a volume of Earthworm Jim and a volume of the Back to the Future cartoons that have long been out of print!

Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of older people cling to VHS. There's nothing wrong with that. And yeah, in many cases VHS is a heck of a lot cheaper, even though DVD players themselves have gone down in price considerably in the past few years.

[shr_fan]

I love DVDs, but I wont be happy to see VHS's go, whenever they actually do go away . I've bought a lot of VHS tapes just because they're cheaper, if I didn't like the movie enough to pay the DVD price for it.

[RJKD23]

The senior citizen care center that I volunteer at only has a VHS player and refuse to adopt the DVD player since the residents didn't grow up with that technology.

I hate to sound like I'm picking at you (when I'm totally not), but that's kind of dumb reasoning (and it's not your reasoning, I know) considering that they didnt grow up with VHS either.

Yea, man. I wanted to see one of the 16mm film projectors that Henski mentioned.

-----------

Thanks Guru. Just had to shove a little reality into that post & open the minds of others.

[Sunset Girl]

Makes me think of being at my parents' friends' house and watching home movies like 15 years ago.

It was odd but cool to see my dad in his early twenties. Their friends had a 16mm camera going at a party of theirs back in the 1950's. Heh, I could have seen my mom as well but she was all ticked off at my dad for talking to some pretty girl in German there and was out in the car pouting!

My boyfriend loves that story since he says it sounds like something I would do. Eh, he's probably right.

But to get back on topic, my dad never touched my DVD player, so it really surprised me that he'd go out and buy a combo unit as soon as I moved out! I was really happy about it; I finally knew what I could buy him for birthday and Christmas presents and it was nice to know that he was getting some enjoyment when he became less mobile.

He started to rent movies after that, usually DVD's, but he usually chose VHS's over DVD's when he actually bought a movie. I remember there was a certain title he was looking for at Wal-Mart, and he found it for about $20. He asked one of the employees if they happened to have the same title on VHS. He happily walked out out without the bonus features for a mere $7.

Of course, it wasn't nearly as shocking as when he finally broke down and joined the rest of the world when he bought a CD player a few years before. I told my brother, and he was like, "Dad? Dad bought a CD player? Are you sure? You're not serious, are you? A CD player? Dad?!!!" (You have to realize that our dad was in his sixties by then and was extremely set in his ways; the last thing we could picture him doing was buying a CD player.)

[anger is pointless]

this is slightly off topic but

i tried to find some disney soundtracks at my local walmart but couldnt find them

guess im gonna have to start buying them on cd or getting the soundtracks on ebay

i have a laptop computer and the good thing about cds is i can rip them to my laptop

oh im trying to find oliver and company on cd were can i get disney soundtracks on tape besides ebay

[memnv]

I have noticed for over a year that my local wal-marts have only carried one or 2 VCR models and Cost-co has had one, they both have the combos though. As for not being able to afford dvd players I dont go for that,since you can get a player for 30 and 20 at the holidays. DVDs are cheaper when they come out and it is very hard to find anything on video now. Your cheapest VCRS are around 50.00 and they dont last long.