DVDs are the next target of the “price war”

November 7, 2009 – 2:20 pm – No Comment

DVD discs

A week or so ago, there was a story about how Walmart, Amazon, and Target were in a price war over books. Best sellers were getting the most attention and were selling for a lot off of the cover price of the book. While this price war between the retailers is still going strong, there is a new price war that is heating up.

Now the retailers (the exact same three: Walmart, Target, and Amazon) are trying to find out how low can they go on DVD prices.

Target started by lowering the price on 10 DVDs which include the newest Star Trek movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood, Prince, and Julie & Julia, all for $10. These were some of the summer’s hottest movies that are now well under what everyone was paying for the same movies just a few weeks ago.

Walmart followed suit by lowering prices on the same highly-anticipated movies to $9.98. Amazon is also offering the movies for $10.

Of course, the prices are simply promotional prices rather than actual long-term prices. The retailers are certainly paying more than $10 for each DVD (new releases anyway). Typically a new release DVD costs between $15 and $20.

At these prices I would be more willing to pick up the movies that I really want. I always shy away from DVD purchases because I don’t watch them often enough to justify paying $20 for a DVD when I can rent it at RedBox for $1 per night.