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Wal-Mart Threatened by iTunes Movies?
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Why would you slash his tires, assuming your not exaggerating?kalisphoenix said:If it makes you feel any better, I slashed the tires of a guy the other day who was wearing a "I support single mothers" t-shirt with a silhouette of a stripper pole-dancing.
jon
This is just a business being a business. Get over it.
You don't think Apple gives special placement certain bands and/or labels on the iTunes music store? You think it's just as easy to find "Joe Smith's Indie Band" as it is to stumble upon U2's latest single?
Walmart is probably threatening these companies with diminished advertising and product placement. I doubt they have any intention of removing DVDs from their stores.
In fact, I doubt this story is even true, but that's another matter.
The sad fact of the matter is, the studios have no choice but to comply. Record labels and movie studios already fold and release special "Walmart" versions of certain items just to get them in the front door, because in this day and age, something as simple as the absence from Walmart's shelves is enough to make a CD or DVD's failure all but inevitable.
But again, this isn't David vs. Goliath, as someone amusingly said. This is a $200 billion company vs. a $65 billion company.
I won't be looking for the Kleenex.
You don't think Apple gives special placement certain bands and/or labels on the iTunes music store? You think it's just as easy to find "Joe Smith's Indie Band" as it is to stumble upon U2's latest single?
Walmart is probably threatening these companies with diminished advertising and product placement. I doubt they have any intention of removing DVDs from their stores.
In fact, I doubt this story is even true, but that's another matter.
The sad fact of the matter is, the studios have no choice but to comply. Record labels and movie studios already fold and release special "Walmart" versions of certain items just to get them in the front door, because in this day and age, something as simple as the absence from Walmart's shelves is enough to make a CD or DVD's failure all but inevitable.
But again, this isn't David vs. Goliath, as someone amusingly said. This is a $200 billion company vs. a $65 billion company.
I won't be looking for the Kleenex.
How comes Walmart control so much of the US retail market, yet everyone here hates them and refuses to shop there? They might not be ethical, they might bully suppliers, they might put small stores out of business but they keep prices down and everyone wants to pay less for everything.
Its similar with Tesco in the UK, they might not be as dominant as Walmart in the US but they aren't that far off it. The subject that normally comes up in the UK is the prices the supermarkets pay to farmers. Everyone says its shocking and that they are bullying the farmers, yet everyone is more than happy to pay less and less for farm produce.
I don't see how what Walmart does or says about this really matters. They ain't going to stop selling dvds as they won't want to lose the profit, if it gets to the point where they're not making enough profit they will just drop them on the spot. More likely is that they will use it as a bargaining chip to get better prices on dvds so they can increase profits further.
I can't see it being an issue in the UK, or the rest of the EU. The monopoly and competition rules of the EU are pretty strict and they don't give a damn how big the company is - Bill Gates will testify to this, I think Microsoft had been fined about $500million the last time I checked for breaking the rules on competition.
Its similar with Tesco in the UK, they might not be as dominant as Walmart in the US but they aren't that far off it. The subject that normally comes up in the UK is the prices the supermarkets pay to farmers. Everyone says its shocking and that they are bullying the farmers, yet everyone is more than happy to pay less and less for farm produce.
I don't see how what Walmart does or says about this really matters. They ain't going to stop selling dvds as they won't want to lose the profit, if it gets to the point where they're not making enough profit they will just drop them on the spot. More likely is that they will use it as a bargaining chip to get better prices on dvds so they can increase profits further.
I can't see it being an issue in the UK, or the rest of the EU. The monopoly and competition rules of the EU are pretty strict and they don't give a damn how big the company is - Bill Gates will testify to this, I think Microsoft had been fined about $500million the last time I checked for breaking the rules on competition.
sonnys said:
As I said in my earlier post, Walmart can easily threaten almost any consumer product in the country with the simple phrase, "...or we'll remove it from our shelves."
If your CD or DVD isn't carried by Walmart, you're blocking a HUGE amount of potential buyers.
CDs are even worse than DVDs, where a new release that isn't carried by Walmart is almost certainly prevented from entering the Top 10.
Frisco said:
I agree - for me this is what cemented my extreme aversion to going anywhere near a Walmart. If they could essentially put Rubbermaid (the Number 1 rated US company at the time) out of business, then they unfortuantely do wield too much control over the retail business. Until i saw the Frontline episode I wondered why Rubbermaid had become junk and couldn't find the selection that used to be available.
They seem to go after just about every niche there is. Just look at the latest news of selling generic prescription drugs for $4 for a 30 day supply. It looks again to be a hook to get people into their stores. They say it covers 300 different drugs, but in reality it is only 124 medicines but in a variety of doses. So they may end up with 12 out of those 300 being different versions of amoxicillin. Some popular drugs aren't included, like Zocor. But all the gullible masses will see is $4 PRESCRIPTIONS!!
There is also a lot of information at wallmartwatch.com.
I smell an unannounced partnership...
Sounds like Wal-Mart may have an as-yet-unannounced partnership with MS or Amazon (more likely the latter, as Amazon is already delivering movies).
Why else throw this much weight at the issue?
Time will tell at this point...
Oh, and I agree - F Wal-Mart!
Sounds like Wal-Mart may have an as-yet-unannounced partnership with MS or Amazon (more likely the latter, as Amazon is already delivering movies).
Why else throw this much weight at the issue?
Time will tell at this point...
Oh, and I agree - F Wal-Mart!
babyj said:
Actually, I think Tesco's share of the grocery business in the UK is much larger than Walmart's share of the retail business in the US.
And the worst thing is, it's growing at a more alarming rate than Walmart.
(And it's looking to expand to the US, from West to East, in the very near future...!)
you also got to look at people that don't have new or fast computers (i currently fall in this category) and people that don't have a fast internet connection (like people that live to far out of town where they cant get high-speed ) or people that like to have a original copy AKA a dvd to take to another house to watch. that is the people that is buying audio cd's and dvd movies from wally world. so even tho if apple got every studio for ITMS it would not affect those buyers then would it.
wally world needs to see the point, that they are going to be the retail store version of M$
i for one am for ITMS to get all it can to become what it can be. skrew wall-marts they just lost another customer for this bull crap
wally world needs to see the point, that they are going to be the retail store version of M$
i for one am for ITMS to get all it can to become what it can be. skrew wall-marts they just lost another customer for this bull crap
K12MacTech said:
Your points would mean more if it was a big secret that Walmart bullies their suppliers and sells low quality products.
As it stands, *everyone* knows they abuse their suppliers, *everyone* knows they sell the absolute lowest quality merchandise from various Asian sweatshops and *everyone* knows they aren't very good to their employees.
Yet people happily go there and spend money in droves, because as much as they dislike a large company bullying other companies (and in this case, the competition) and as much as they dislike supporting sweatshops or a bad employer, they dislike wasting their meager paycheck on markups even more.
It's the same Starbucks mentality that fills the world with hypocrisy.
Unspeaked said:
I don't have any problem with Tesco, I'm all in favour if it means lower prices - I'm sure I am paying the same for my groceries as I did 5-10 years ago. Though we are spoilt for choice where I live - within a 10-15 minute drive I've got the following big supermarkets; Asda x2, Morrisons x1, Sainsbury's x2 and Tesco x1.
Its easy to forget the lower prices that supermarkets have given us. In the UK they played a major role in pushing the prices of cds below £10 with very little effect on other high street or internet retailers.
sonnys said:
Their response to movies on iTunes was to ask studios to lower their price to WM to be the same as that of an online download despite the higher media and distribtion cost. Huh? Yes, they did. Keep in mind the online version is qualatatively different in packaging and resolution, and that many folks find added value in the artifact of a physical disc.
Wal-Mart wanted to guarantee --their-- ability to underprice the competition at the expense of the net cost of studios. WM wanted studios to SUBSIDIZE them at the rate of $1.50-$2.50 PER DISC!!
I for one wouldn't want to download the phone call between Apple and Wal-Mart. I want to see a movie of Jobs right after he hung up
Come on Steve, as an ode to rumour sites . . .
Rocketman
Unspeaked said:
I think you're giving people too much credit - I'll bet most don't know about Wal-Mart's shadyness, don't care and wouldn't care if they DID know.
It might not be David v.s. Goliath but all the suits at Wal-Mart certainly are a bunch of Philistines.
Unspeaked said:
Are Apple any different?
All their product is made in Asia, I'm sure they bully their suppliers to get the best prices and there have been question marks over the working conditions in the factories they use.
Everyone wants lower prices and better quality. A lot of people feel guilty due to the effects this has on other people, but not guilty enough to actually stop shopping at the cheapest shops.
walmart is evil!!
whether or not they did this. although with how hard the pressure all of their suppliers, i would NOT believe that they didnt exert some form of pressure on the movie studios
whether or not they did this. although with how hard the pressure all of their suppliers, i would NOT believe that they didnt exert some form of pressure on the movie studios
georgi0 said:
Wal*Mart losing 10% of their revenue would still leave them a VERY profitable company... and firing that many employees would probably cause them to close some stores... which would result in further loss of profit.
If Wal*Mart lost 10% of their revenue by movie purchases alone, they would have to concentrate harder on other things.
Something else confuses me though...
Wal*Mart caters to the lower income families... who likely don't have high-speed internet and are, thus, EXTREMELY unlikely to purchace movies from the iTS, lest they want to be downloading for 3 days straight. Those people will go to the local Wal*Mart and buy the same movie from the $5.50 bargain bin. Sleazy customers are happy; Wal*Mart is happy. What do they have to be complaining about?
Man, I love that bin. I've found so many awesome movies in there.......... like Total Recall. Okay, so maybe not THAT awesome.
-Clive
Devil's Advocate here...
Alright we have quite a few postings that are merely mindless rage being evoked out of 2 word sentences. Here are my thoughts about this whole situation without starting a sentence with "F" and ending it with "!!!!!".....
-I think people will still want to have that physical DVD before abandoning it for digital files for some time. I now that it took me about a year and a half before I stopped buying CD's since the launch of the Music Store. Granted that was fueled mostly by the albums not being on iTunes, but now that is hardly the case.
-Are or are not the quality of the iTunes movies subpar compared to the actual DVD's? This I have not heard an actual fact based answer about yet.
-Ready to crucify me? You will after this statement. Wal-Mart is a major reason that this country has not seen a full blown inflation over the course of the last 10 years. Yes, the cost of some things has risen, but when you look across the board the actual rise has not been as bad as in the past. Wal-Mart's aggressive style of pricing, while hurting manufacturers in some cases, has helped keep prices in check with other stores. Think about it, why would you go over to the chain grocery store to buy a 2 liter of Pepsi for $1.50 when you can get it for $1.00 at Wal-Mart? I have seen more and more sales at grocery stores that are matching Wal-Mart's everyday prices. That is good for my household.
Yes I know that Wal-Mart's use of labor is not the model of wholesome remotely, but the people that work at Wal-Mart are not necessarily the ones that would be lawyers, doctors or managers anyways. Society needs people to do jobs that everyone doesn't want to do. Does someone grow up saying that they WANT to be a janitor at McDonalds? Using that philosophy, does anyone grow up wanting to be that cashier at Wal-Mart? Probably not, but someone has to do it. And unfortunately, there are a lot of bad or not so nice things that come with those jobs. I personally would love to be a Wal-Mart greeter in Florida when I retire.
-I don't buy Music or Movies at Wal-Mart because of their censorship program that they have had in place for many years. I don't know if they still have it, but I remember that Wal-Mart actually made of the CD vendors make a "clean" version of the latest album because they did not want to sell it with explicit lyrics on it a few years back. No no no no.... I have enough people out there from senators to mothers groups making it harder for me to get the unedited music, movies and video games in life that I want. I don't need the store making that choice for me also.
I don't think Wal-Mart would actually pull a stunt like this with Hollywood and Apple, but if they did start throwing punches I would be very happy to go over to the competition over at Super Target. But that would then start another argument about Target's employee practices....
Alright we have quite a few postings that are merely mindless rage being evoked out of 2 word sentences. Here are my thoughts about this whole situation without starting a sentence with "F" and ending it with "!!!!!".....
-I think people will still want to have that physical DVD before abandoning it for digital files for some time. I now that it took me about a year and a half before I stopped buying CD's since the launch of the Music Store. Granted that was fueled mostly by the albums not being on iTunes, but now that is hardly the case.
-Are or are not the quality of the iTunes movies subpar compared to the actual DVD's? This I have not heard an actual fact based answer about yet.
-Ready to crucify me? You will after this statement. Wal-Mart is a major reason that this country has not seen a full blown inflation over the course of the last 10 years. Yes, the cost of some things has risen, but when you look across the board the actual rise has not been as bad as in the past. Wal-Mart's aggressive style of pricing, while hurting manufacturers in some cases, has helped keep prices in check with other stores. Think about it, why would you go over to the chain grocery store to buy a 2 liter of Pepsi for $1.50 when you can get it for $1.00 at Wal-Mart? I have seen more and more sales at grocery stores that are matching Wal-Mart's everyday prices. That is good for my household.
Yes I know that Wal-Mart's use of labor is not the model of wholesome remotely, but the people that work at Wal-Mart are not necessarily the ones that would be lawyers, doctors or managers anyways. Society needs people to do jobs that everyone doesn't want to do. Does someone grow up saying that they WANT to be a janitor at McDonalds? Using that philosophy, does anyone grow up wanting to be that cashier at Wal-Mart? Probably not, but someone has to do it. And unfortunately, there are a lot of bad or not so nice things that come with those jobs. I personally would love to be a Wal-Mart greeter in Florida when I retire.
-I don't buy Music or Movies at Wal-Mart because of their censorship program that they have had in place for many years. I don't know if they still have it, but I remember that Wal-Mart actually made of the CD vendors make a "clean" version of the latest album because they did not want to sell it with explicit lyrics on it a few years back. No no no no.... I have enough people out there from senators to mothers groups making it harder for me to get the unedited music, movies and video games in life that I want. I don't need the store making that choice for me also.
I don't think Wal-Mart would actually pull a stunt like this with Hollywood and Apple, but if they did start throwing punches I would be very happy to go over to the competition over at Super Target. But that would then start another argument about Target's employee practices....
K12MacTech said:
If it causes other pharmacies to lower prices, all the better. If it causes the big name pharmaceutical labs to lower prices, that's even better. Why should people in the U.S.A. pay the majority of the cost of medication?
This is one instance where Wal-Mart isn't really hurting people, unlike the government.
All kinds of people shop at Wal-Mart
Wow. That's an elitist statement. I think you need to travel around the country and see who really shops at Wal-Mart -- basically every socio-economic group. From poorest to the wealthiest. Even people with broadband!
I would be considered upper-middle class and my family shops there all the time. And we have friends that would be considered wealthy, perhaps even super-wealthy, and they shop there, too.
Rocketman said:
Wow. That's an elitist statement. I think you need to travel around the country and see who really shops at Wal-Mart -- basically every socio-economic group. From poorest to the wealthiest. Even people with broadband!
I would be considered upper-middle class and my family shops there all the time. And we have friends that would be considered wealthy, perhaps even super-wealthy, and they shop there, too.