Best Buy builds bigger space for Blu-ray

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 3/14/2008

MARCH 14 | Best Buy is moving out the old to make room for the new, as Blu-ray Disc becomes a larger merchandising focus.

Some of the chain’s stores are using new security packaging for all single and box set BD software, affixing clear plastic casing over the original disc case.

Outlets also are making room for multiple BD hardware demos, such as one Los Angeles location that features two Samsung displays, one Sony-branded station and one Sharp section. The manufacturer areas screen a variety of BD material, with one Samsung display rolling a format tutorial.

HD DVD stock is nearly wiped out on shelves of some Best Buy stores.

At one L.A. store, one BD standee held 35 facings, and in-line racks held more than 200 BD facings combined. The store had no HD DVD standees, and in-line racks amounted to space for about 120 facings.

Many HD DVD slots were vacant, however, and featured titles were down to one or two copies apiece. All HD DVD titles are marked at 30% off.

In early January, the store’s total facings were split, with 190 for BD and 110 for HD DVD.

Best Buy spokesman Brian Lucas said the chain is just getting started emphasizing BD as the only choice for high-definition.

“The stores will be evolving a lot. When you can focus on Blu-ray, it lets you finally focus on demonstrating solutions rather than options,” said Lucas. “Rather than having an HD DVD setup and Blu-ray setups, we are now freed up to” more efficiently satisfy customers.

Lucas said the new security packaging isn’t yet a national fixture, but that certain store managers are testing the best way to offer BD product.

Compared to standard DVDs, BD is sold at a premium price and might be at a higher risk for theft. In the Los Angeles stores, when BD got the security packaging around the first of February, standard DVD and HD DVD are sold without security cases.

The next noticeable high-def push, spanning TVs and BD hardware, should hit near the Summer Olympics, said Lucas.

“One thing we talk about with high-def awareness is that the purchase decision is dictated by trigger points,” he said. “Super Bowl and certainly the Olympics fall into that category as well.”