Wal-Mart Signals The End Of The VCR: Will Stop Selling VHS Movies
from the death-knell dept
Only two years after DVD rentals surpassed VHS rentals and various DVD player manufacturers and retailers all left the business, the ultimate sign of the end of the VHS as a format for pre-recorded movies was sounded today when Wal-Mart announced that it was phasing out sales of pre-recorded VHS tapes. It will continue through the 2005 holiday season, but after that it's all DVDs all the time. Competitors Best Buy and Circuit City bailed out of the VHS selling business a while back, and Target just announced similar plans -- but Wal-Mart's overall domination of the retail market means that pre-recorded VHS isn't dead until Wal-Mart says it's dead, and apparently, it's now dead. Update: On second thought, the reports on the death of the VCR may have been greatly exaggerated. Wal-Mart is now denying this report.
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I can completely understand the market for VHS new movie releases going away; DVD players have inexpensively filled that need. But nothing has yet replaced the VHS's niche as a recordable media.
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