Wal-Mart Closes Online Movie Download Service 136
eldavojohn writes "A year after opening its movie download service, Wal-Mart has abandoned the endeavor. They claim this is a result of HP's decision to stop supporting its video download store software. The article also notes that, unlike iTunes, Wal-Mart offered variable pricing which attracted a lot of studios. 'The world's largest retailer instead turned its rental service over to Netflix Inc. Wal-Mart still operates a music download service and continues to sell CDs and DVDs at retail stores and over the Internet for shipping by mail.' Is this evidence of the strength of unified pricing in media downloads or just another company being squished by the giant Netflix & Apple?"
Wal-Mart "squished"? (Score:4, Funny)
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I was gonna say.
You mean for once WalMart isn't the one doing the squishing? How'd that happen?
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It's hard to be all things to all people.
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Here in Austin, which is admittedly not a huge metropolis but is a good sized city, there are already several Wal-Mart stores, and I guarantee none of them are hurting for cu
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In the suburbs, you have a huge sub division with cookie cutter houses
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If that were true, then the city wouldn't have needed to pass laws to make it impossible for WM to open up.
Chicago is surrounded by 42 Wall-Marts and the city-dwellers are exceptionally eager for WM jobs and services. Witness this from George Will's column on the issue:
This suburb, contiguous with Chicago's western edge, is 88 percent white. A large majority of the customers of the Wal-Mart that sits here, less than a block outside Chicago, are from the city, and
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In the suburbs, you have a huge sub division with cookie cutter houses and 2.5 children per house. No public transportation nothing. If you have to drive somewhere, you're probably going to want to drive one place rather than 100. This is where walmart is thriving. As population density drops it makes more sense.
It's more complicated than "they win in the Suburbs" I live in Jax, Florida,we have (last time I counted) 15 Wally Worlds within 30 miles of Downtown, over half are in the city proper, and all of them have had a positive impact on commercial enterprises in the areas they are in, except for the small business owners who competed directly with them. On the other hand, small and large retail outlets the don't compete directly, (like restaurants, and specialty stores) seem to thrive in those areas, and some
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Not all Walmarts are interchangeable. They used to be but they
seem to be getting away from that. As a company they seem good
about collecting BI and actually acting on it.
There are plenty of cheap bastards in the suburbs. Even people
who otherwise have a dedication to paying good money, for good
stuff and then keeping it and using it past the time it becomes
an antique are attracted by the allure of "cheap".
There are also people that want a decent he
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I'm an urban resident, and I shop at Wal-Mart. I don't find their crap to be any less appealing than the crap at Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, Food Lion,
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Sure, they have cheap prices, but a relatively limited selection of products. For example, I can go to a real music store, and find thousands of titles, but I doubt you will find even a thousand in a Walmart. Same goes for food, books, computers, and electronics.
So if you want limited selection but cheap prices, choose Walmart. If you want selection, choose smaller stores that specialize. Going with Walmart limits your choice. With less choice comes less control ov
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New slogan. (Score:2, Funny)
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Re:Wal-Mart "squished"? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Cost and lack of extras the reason. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Compound that with the fact that there is probably a Walmart (or some other large dicount retailer) within 5 miles of your home in most major areas.
If I can get in my car, drive to the actual Walmart, buy the superior product for the same or often less than the one online, and be back at home in under 20 minutes
- Roach
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Honestly for me, irrespective of salary, a 20 minute savings would be worth at least $20 because I simply don't have much free time.
]{
Re:Cost and lack of extras the reason. (Score:4, Funny)
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There's bound to be about 5 of them along the way.
There are 3 along my commute home and another one on the other side of my particular 'burb.
Then there are the 2 Targets and the used video shop along the same route.
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I guess I should feel lucky to have a job that lets me go to the grocery store. Where they sell DVDs. Often for less than $20.
Sorry, but the "I make $X per minute" thing is just silly in almost every case. You don't work 24/7. You are not getting paid for your non-work time. My wife does not pay me $40/hr to take out the garbage, does yours?
And anyway
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Again, unless you actually don't ever go to anywhere that sells DVDs (like the grocery)... um, the logic is simply flawed.
And that's still ignoring the fact that you can buy DVDs on amazon and have them shipped to you for less money than downloading a DRM encrusted, lower-quality version
- Roach
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Online video distribution is slowly coming. They can't hold out forever. Music finally got here with itunes, video
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Well, it worked so well with the music industry with their DRM (Dumb Music Restriction) laden, lossy, buck per song downloads.
And I never bought any of them! Or rather, rented stuff. Why do they say "buy" when you pay money for something and you don't own it?
Squished? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's like saying the local burger joint is going to crush McDonalds! Sure, Netflix is a big company, but they're nothing compared to the Wally-world behemoth.
Re:Squished? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes a big company will try some new endeavor to much fanfare, but not bother to try very hard, assuming somehow that they will win because they are big. When that happens it's easy to take them out. Wal-Mart had no plan here; they just thought selling some videos at terms dictated by the studios might get them some cash. If they ran their retail stores that way, those would fail too, but they put serious effort into their retail stores.
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Actually, I can't find the source off hand but I've heard that WalMart has quite a bit of sway with their suppliers and can dictate to them how much they want things to cost or even packaging. So, what you're saying is that they ran this download store the complete OPPOSITE as their retail stores
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Another Mom and Pop store destroyed by Netflix (Score:2)
Re:Squished? (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate my local Walmart as much as the next guy. And individual stores may be inefficient or suck. But the corporation as a whole is extremely efficient. I work in the trucking industry. Walmart is one of the companies that can afford to spend $1000 on an experimental MPG increaser. Whether it be APUs for the trucks, side skirts for the trailers, single tire rears, etc. If engine company X can provide
They forced use of APUs on ALL trucks after doing a trial run. At a trucking conference they presented their savings broke even at 16 months. Now a ton of other companies are following their lead.
I thought I read on
I don't have a lot of nice things to say about walmart, but that they're inefficient isn't one of them.
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If so, we called them "generators" in th eUSAF back in the seventies. But we called Phillips screwdrivers "crosshatches" too.
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Depending on how vertically integrated the Chassis OEM is, it may be more than a generator. Sometimes the coolant is used as the heating fluid in the cab. Yes they are just generators mostly, but that's what the industry decided to call them. Because the 15L engine is the "Main Power Unit" this is the "Auxilary Power Unit"
California for 2009 has enacted STRICT Anti-Idling laws. Any more than 15 minutes idling and not in traffic, the engine must shut down. (Written into the engine
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BTW, you didn't give any examples of efficiency. Cost savings, yes, but not efficiency.
this is just wrong.....it can't stand (Score:2)
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Walmart is one of the most efficient retail operators in the world. Bar none. Efficiency in the retail space equates to managing your inventory. And Walmart are MASTERS at that. Don't you read case studies on Walmart IT? While the company does have it's problems, IT, efficiency, and inventory management are not among them. Calling them inefficient is just....well....wrong.
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I for one think that it is fair to label any company that is willingly flushing money down the drain on easily fixed problems, to be horribly inefficient. And Walmart flushes a lot of money down the drain on those types of things.
I'm not r
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and Walmart isn't a leader in anything at present.
Whether you love or hate Wal-Mart they are the world's largest single public corporation by revenue in the world according to Fortune so they are a leader in that sense.
Walmart is large, but it is horribly inefficient, led by executives which willingly painted themselves into a corner
Wal-Mart is large, but they are mostly fairly efficient, or at least more efficient than their competitors, or else they would never have become large (and they are certainly not shrinking although they have hit a few bumps in the road lately) and they are still quite profitable.
As their competition continues to catch up in their only area of strength
I think that it is true to say that Wal-Mart still has a fai
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That is only half of what Wal-mart does (Score:2)
That is only half of what Wal-mart does, they are also very good at negotiating low prices from suppliers.
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Re:Wal-mart does what it does (Score:4, Insightful)
I read somewhere that 75% of all KMarts and Sears competed with a Wal-Mart, but only 33% of Wal-Marts competed with a Sears because of this strategy. When you can beat your competitors on price, location, and convenience, you're going to do well no matter what.
Re:Wal-mart does what it does (Score:4, Funny)
It's Walmart (Score:4, Insightful)
HP Dropping support sounds like a cop out... but a believable one
Technically inclined also prefer physical (Score:2)
When digital has no significant price advantage over physical the technically inclined may also prefer physical. Rip the DVD or CD at the fidelity you choose, re-rip in the future as technology improves, consider the disc a backup as well.
I'm also hesitant to consider someone who buys digital to be technically inclined. Most kiddies can manage that.
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HP: (loudly) "WE ARE DROPPING SUPPORT."
Wal Mart: (also loudly) "OH NOES THEY DROPPED SUPPORT. We quit."
Businesses are NOT swiss army knives (Score:3, Interesting)
I think this is evidence of businesses trying to be too many things to too many people and slowly discovering that no, you can't be everything to everyone. "Jack of all trades, master of none" indeed.
Focus on a specific market and DO THAT WELL.
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anyone can sell cheap Haynes underwear, but not everyone can sell digital content
That's only true if you assume that you can get cheap Haynes underwear in the first place. The reverse is true (at least for my skill set) when you consider how easy it is to set up a website compared to how hard it is to get the physical store, negotiate price with the supplier, buy from the supplier, distribute to the individual locations and manage the employees that are required to sell those products. Wal-Mart is exceptionally skilled at all those things and their size has made them even more so.
Un
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I'll agree with you to an extent. As another poster said, they have the physical distribution model down pat. When I was getting my marketing degree several of my professors held up their supply chain management system as the best in the industry (which it is, despite my dislike for Wal-Mart on a personal level).
Gasoline is a physical good which can fit into their existing supply chain model. Plus, it has the added advantage of being something people need when they happen to already be at their stores ("sh
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Both these companies are indeed good at different things, but that's only because of their employees and management. Shifting one or both of them can yield the same expertise as another company.
Put another way: with the right people Wal-mart certainly COULD make
Outside the Core Competency (Score:4, Insightful)
While hindsight is 20/20... this is a classic example of an "Old media" company failing to adapt to the "New Media" because they didn't have any expertise in the current technology.
Wal-Mart's core competency is managing their supply chain. They make money by being the most efficient supplier of products that are in local demand. They operate their integrated technological systems marvelously. They don't know jack-shit about the internet and "download-able content". They should partner with Amazon to run their webpage... though that would probably start to enter into an anti-trust area.
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While hindsight is 20/20
Gee I wish I hadn't called that policeman dirty names...
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I was implying that it doesn't do any good to say that this was a bad idea for them after the failure occurred. I'm not sure if you took my meaning, but I agree that cops get mad when you do anything to question their authority, such as name calling or (my favorite) urinating on their squad car in the donut shop parking lot.
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Heartbreak Ridge, great flick!
Cop: I don't give any serviceman's discounts
Jarhead: Too bad, your old lady does!
Don't watch that movie on TV, the censorship ruins it.
Too many restrictions... (Score:2, Insightful)
Due to licensing restrictions, you cannot copy or transfer your video files and play them on a different computer.
What if I want to watch movies on my laptop and my desktop? What if I decide to buy a new computer and can't watch my movies anymore? Wal-Mart should realize that people can just download a movie via P2P and not have to deal with any restrictions like this. I for one and much more willing to pay money for media if I can do whatever I want with it.
All of Wal-Mart's eggs were in HP's basket (Score:4, Insightful)
It's neither (Score:2)
Trying to do a downloadable media store without taking the iPod into account is like trying to market an office productivity suite that doesn't read/write MS Office docs: You're doomed to failure from the start.
If (and this is a BIG if) the movie studios wake up to the benefits of DRM-free downloads like some record labels have, the big winner here could be Amazon.com. They're uniquely positioned to equal, if not better the success that Apple has had. They're platform agnostic
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What is seriously behind the scenes here? (Score:2)
"is like trying to market an office productivity suite that doesn't read/write MS Office docs: You're doomed to failure from the start."
As in "The file that your less informed coworker has a 4 character extension that no one has ever heard of, so you can't open it. However, you can try downloading a converter".
Wallmart's deadliest trick is Loss-Leading the undead blazes out of stuff. "Tell you what. Buy anything else in our store and we'll pay you a
No contract with HP? (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably had code escrow but... (Score:4, Interesting)
I would bet they did have a code escrow agreement - in the event HP decided to back out of doing the software (which they did) WalMart gets access and use of all the HP source.
The fact that Wal-Mart is shutting down operations shows exactly what use code escrow is - jack and squat. What is WalMart going to do with a bunch of hacked together HP code, without any of the people who worked on it?
Plus in general a problem with code escrow is that you can't look at the source before you take it over to see how feasible that proposition really is.
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Hire a team of engineers to document and maintain it? We're talking about a video download website, not kernel development. Their reason sounds more like an excuse than anything else.
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And how long would that take to ramp up? Not to mention that WalMart is not in the business of media server software development, so it's impossible to say they could actually even just maintain the software very well, much less add new features...
I agree that Wal-Mart probably wanted out anyway and this was a good excuse. But that does not negate the fairy serious challenge they would have faced going forward, more serious than I'm sure they guessed a
My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my software.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Walmart fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never buy any kind of application software from Hewlett-Packard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha...
Seriously, HP has the worst cace of attention deficit disorder of any company I've ever seen. I've spent 25 years watching them announce "the next big thing" only to completely forget about it a year later after having sold it to three big customers (who are then completely screwed of course). Anyone who buys a proprietary solution from them at this point deserves what they get.
G.
Re:My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my softwar (Score:2)
DRM is what kills it for me. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Technology changes, media formats change, which sucks, but I'm the sucker who keeps buying the newest format. I think the trick is to try and predict which format will last the longest before the next change. Ideally, your vision would be nice, to have completely sys
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to play it ANYWHERE for the duration of the rental period. That means
that you should be able to play it on your ipod in the plane going on
vacation or on your archos during lunch or on your living room TV.
Ripping it and playing it anywhere is not about "keeping it".
It's about "ripping it and playing it anywhere".
Even with perfect 4:1 re-compression you reach a point where you just
can't store stuff anymore. Even if it's free you have to c
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There is no way to prohibit (through technical measures) the things you shouldn't be allowed to do, without also prohibiting things that you should be allowed to do. The only way to prohibit certain activities, is to lock the user into using some particular software, and thereby create interoperability problems. And those problems will exist (must exist) even if the user isn't trying to do anything bad.
In the old days, prohibitions weren't enforced by technical me
Sales force (Score:3, Interesting)
However, short-term, DVD is still king. So do they cut into their current sales for an uncertain future (can they really win against the other big-players?
Another possible explanation, is perhaps they realized getting into variable-pricing was a mistake. If history gives us any lessons, the media companies are greedy bastards. They don't seem to give much thought into long-term planning. This is one case where the intelligence of Apple really comes through. They realized that unless they could control the prices, companies would try to charge more money than the physical media costs. I suspect after some grace period, in order to save face, NBC will come back to iTunes.
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Are you serious? Digital Downloads don't compete with DVDs, these are two very different customers. One uses a DVD player for entertainment the other uses their computer. Rare is it indeed, when I stick a DVD in my computer that was not made by me. I do however watch a crapload of Movies and Videos. Even Rarer is my wife using the computer to watch something instead of popping
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Perhaps your in your personal life there is a clear separation,
Bad Summary (Score:2)
The line in TFA about turning over the rental business to Netflix relates to something that happened in 2005. Nothing to do with a download service at all. No squishing involved, on anybody's part.
letting the studios set the variable pricing.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Many studios have resisted signing deals with iTunes in part because of Apple's desire to sell movies at one price. Studios prefer variable pricing such as Wal-Mart offered.
what's to note here is that films were offered between $13 and $20 a pop, with older titles at $7.5
Unified pricing is short sighted. (Score:2)
And I have a feeling with CD sales on the decline we're going to see more of the same. Especially compilations that will come in under the 10 USD watermark that will offer more than enough tracks to make it worth getting tracks you don't like for the ones that you do.
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iTunes, however, offers most of the tracks I want and with no waiting. Usually I can't get them any cheaper from Amazon. Plus there are a lot of times i don't want the w
Perhaps it's a sign of something else... (Score:2)
Nonono you got that wrong (Score:2, Funny)
Like this:
WALMART ONLINE MOVIES SUX0RZ
or if you liked the service
WALMART ONLINE MOVIES SHUTDOWN SUX0RS
See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
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I would think they could save a lot using Chinese distributors and not he studios to get their files.
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Thanks for letting us know your price for doing something you don't like.
"think I have even taken back things that I purchased at another store."
Ah, you lie and commit fraud, that explains it.
You sir,are a Dick, and the reason places like wal-mart stop being customer friendly.
You, and people like you, are the knife that is killing 'The Customer is always right.' policy.
Dick.