Best Buy Was Serious About The “No More Physical Movies” Thing

Last October the news broke that nationwide chain Best Buy was planning to get rid of the main reason people originally went there in the first place. A rep from the company confirmed that, come January of 2024, they planned to stop selling movies and TV shows on DVD and Blu-Ray. In fact, the departure is complete — they wouldn’t even offer them online. It’s 2024 now, so was Best Buy serious? Early reports suggest that….they were. Bleah.

I took a trip to my local Best Buy today to see if the change had affected it yet, and…not yet. The DVD and Blu-Ray racks were still hanging around in the left side of the store, and though they were sparsely filled and disorganized, they’ve been that way for years. Others have posted online, though, that their racks have vanished (some even disappeared in 2023). If you want one last disc from them, time is running out, but depending on what your local store did, it’s still possible. It is also still possible to order DVDs and Blus online, though this depends on how long their current inventory lasts and no new titles after January 1 will be added.

Best Buy was once famous for its immense DVD library. Since the store specialized in electronics, they would carry a larger selection of titles (at least until recently, anyway) than anyone else. Target and Wal-Mart carry physical media as a small part of everything else they do. They get what they get and they sell what they sell, usually what is popular at the moment and nothing else. It’s not their focus. The loss of Best Buy means most smaller releases will have no brick and mortar source to sell copies.

Note that this move does not affect video games, which will still be for sale at Best Buy for now and into the future…though how far into the future is anyone’s guess.