Arghhhh

Thank you for your feedback regarding our decision to expand our Blu
ray
inventory in more than 1,700 corporate owned stores nationwide. Please
note that this expansion will not impact the current inventory of HD
DVD
titles in store or online. Blockbuster continues to carry HD DVD in
about
250 stores and also offers HD DVD titles online.
We are not endorsing either format and have no desire to lead customers
to
a certain format choice. Our goal is to offer customers the most
convenient access to the movies they want and that means giving them
the
best availability and the best selection possible in the formats they
prefer.
Blu ray rentals have been outpacing HD DVD rentals in our stores where
we’ve been offering the high definition format 70 to 30 percent in
2007.
Additionally, because more studios support the Blu ray product, there’s
a
wider selection of titles available on this format to offer to our
customers.
While it is still too early to say which high definition format will
become the industry standard, we will continue to closely monitor
customer
rental patterns both at our stores and online, so we can adjust our
inventory mix accordingly and ensure that Blockbuster is offering
customers the most convenient access to the movies they want, in the
format they want. That may mean in the future that we will add HD DVD
titles to additional stores.

If you have any additional concerns, you may contact the BLOCKBUSTER
Rewards Member Service Center at 1-800-406-6843 or by e-mail at
BlockbusterRewards@blockbuster.qrs1.net.

Sincerely,
Crystal
BLOCKBUSTER

I wrote a nice email back to Crystal thanking her for the response, but that my original question had to do with the location of the 1,700 stores and if the one near me will carry Blu-ray.

Hey, at least I know they’ll eventually answer my email.

After a moment, she handed my call off to her manager who, thank goodness, knows what Blu-ray is, knew about the Blockbuster announcement, and then tried to answer my questions.

He stated that to the best of his knowledge, Blockbuster didn’t mention which of their stores would start carrying Blu-ray discs and that he hasn’t been informed that his store would be carrying them. Also, he doubted that any of the stores in our area would be carrying them either since, as of now, Blu-ray seems to be a “niche market” and not yet mainstream. This was a bit disheartening to say the least.

Not to be deterred, I wrote an email to Blockbuster Corporate asking if they had a list of stores that’ll be carrying Blu-ray disks next month. Aside from the initial reply of “I’ll send this on to the appropriate department”, I haven’t heard back. That was a week ago.

I think it’s time to write again…

God how far have we come from VHS, even so Beta Max was better.

Fox