Black Friday Deals Abound

27 Nov, 2009 By: Staff Reports

---

 

Retailers pulled out all the stops for entertainment hardware and software sales this holiday season, with Blu-ray Disc prices hitting lows of $7.99 each and catalog DVDs as low as $2 each in Black Friday sales circulars.

Best Buy circulars touted Blu-ray new releases, such as Monsters Vs. Aliens, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Fast & Furious, at $9.99 each and catalog Blu-rays for as low as $7.99 each, including such titles as The Departed, V for Vendetta, Live Free and Die Hard, The Terminator, The Silence of the Lambs, I Am Legend, Goodfellas, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: The Voyage Home and Dirty Dancing. Other catalog Blu-rays were priced at $12.99 each. DVDs hit lows of $3.99 each at Best Buy with others at $6.99 each. The chain offered TV DVD seasons at $9.99 and $14.99 each.

Best Buy stores visited by the Home Media Magazine staff on Friday were packed, with long lines at the checkstand extending all the way back to the appliance section. A random check of carts at the Oceanside, Calif. Best Buy found virtually everyone of them had an HDTV, often accompanied by a Blu-ray Disc player.

Wal-Mart ads offered more than 30 Blu-rays at $10 each, including the "Harry Potter" movies, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Wanted, Fast & Furious, Gladiator, Braveheart, The Boondock Saints, Spider-man 3, The Dark Knight and Terminator 3. The retail goliath offered new release DVDs at $9 each, including the new Star Trek, G.I. Joe, Monsters Vs. Aliens and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The chain advertised catalog DVDs at $2 and $5 each.

Blu-ray Disc players, meanwhile, were stacked down the main aisle outside the electronics section, including $78 models from Magnavox. At an Oceanside, Calif. Wal-Mart, there was a big space in the floor by 8 a.m. where a stack of players had been. In what must have been a merchandising snafu, however, empty cardboard Blu-ray merchandisers were used as DVD dump bins, while Blu-ray Discs remained behind locked glass doors, just like video games.

Target had DVDs of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment new releases Up and TinkerBell and the Lost Treasure at $13 each and catalog DVD releases as low as $3.99 each. TV DVDs and Blu-rays hit as low as $8.99 each at Target, with the recently released Wizard of Oz Blu-ray at $12.99.

On the hardware front, Fry's Electronics undercut Wal-Mart's $78 player price price by $1, offering what it touted as a "major name brand" Blu-ray player with BD Live connectivity at $77. Wal-Mart also offered a Sony Blu-ray player with connectivity at $148; the PlayStation 3 at $299 with games Infamous and Batman: Arkham Asylum and the Blu-ray movie The Dark Knight; and the Xbox 360 Arcade at $199 with the game Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa and two "Madagascar" DVDs.

Best Buy had a PlayStation 3 bundle at $299 with the games Little Big Planet: Game of the Year Edition and Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time; the Xbox 360 Elite 120 GB with six games at $299; a Sony Blu-ray player at $149 with one of two Blu-ray movies, Beetlejuice and Superman Returns; and Samsung players as low as $149.

Target also offered a Sony Blu-ray player at $149.99 with a free $20 Target gift card and an Xbox Elite 120 GB at $299.99 with two games and a $50 gift card.

Bookmark it: