Do you relish having a physical copy of a movie, knowing that even if the studio yanks it from their streaming service, it’ll still be sitting on your shelf? If Best Buy is your go-to for Blu-Rays and DVDs, those days could be coming to an end.
Movie site The Digital Bits has reported that Best Buy will no longer be stocking physical movies, both online and in their 1000+ stores. They’ll be ditching Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD so you’ll have to go elsewhere if you’re after a tangible copy of a film.
Best Buy hasn’t made any kind of statement to this effect, but The Digital Bits claim they’ve “confirmed it with multiple sources now”. We wouldn’t be surprised to see stores dropping DVD, given that they’re slowly going to the way of VHS. But Blu-Rays and 4K Ultra HD? That is a bit of a shocker.
It’s also slightly worrying. Digital may be convenient but shows and movies can be gone in a heartbeat. Disney, for example, deleted the Willow series just six months after it aired. But, barring the occasional case of DVD rot, physical copies are forever.
You can read The Digital Bits’ report here. It doesn’t say why Best Buy would be deleting their stock, though it does note that they’ve been scaling down their DVD/Blu-Ray sections of late. The retailer has seen a decline in revenue and if Blu-Rays are a low profit area it’s understandable that they’d choose to drop them.
For now, this isn’t the end of physical media but if other retailers follow suit it could become a little harder to get your hands on Blu-Ray, Ultra HD and their ilk.
