If you were distributing DVDs, would you forgo 10-20% of your sales instead of complying with their demands?

 

Don't blame Wal-Mart for on-going production of full-screen videos. Blame the consumers that contnue to buy them.

Wal-Mart knows its customers. It knows what percentage of its customers prefers full-screen. It makes sense that they would "demand" that studios continue to provide that format.

I would hope that studios know that consumers would just buy their product at a differnt retailer.

 

Target, BestBuy, CircuitCity and a bunch of other retailers would love to see Wal-Mart stop selling DVDs.

 

Blame who you want, but they wouldn't be able to manipulate the studios without their market position.

 

 

And I don't think this is a case of Walmart knowing what's best for its' consumers. They don't have to think about that. If they really were educated on home video, they'd know it's better to educate people on the fact that they are giving up ~22% of the picture when buying 4:3 DVDs.

 

As hard as it may be to believe, there are people that actually know the difference between full and widescreen yet still prefer full-screen. They just can't tolerate the black bars.

Wal-Mart is doing nothing more than providing a format some of their customers want regardless of why they want it (out of ignorance or of informed preference). Besides, all the other retailers I know also sell full-screen DVDs.