Borders, Circuit City to phase out VHS tapes
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Kevin Delaney picked through row after row of DVDs at Borders Books Music & Cafe at Ward Centre yesterday and could envision a world without VHS — a day that came a bit closer this week with Circuit City's decision to stop carrying videotape movies.
Bloomberg News Service
"I'd rather they get rid of video and make more room for DVDs," said Delaney, a Pearl Harbor-based sailor who has a collection of 75 DVD movies and almost no VHS tapes. "The picture's better. The sound's better. You get all kinds of extra stuff. There's no rewinding. And sometimes VHS tapes screw up."
In an effort to meet changing consumer demands, Blockbuster Inc. has said it plans to cut back on videotape rentals to make room for DVD movies and video games.
Like other major retailers with Hawai'i outlets, Borders has been cutting back on VHS tapes for a year to make room for the increased demand for DVDs, said Diane DeCorte, general manager for the Ward Centre store.
Borders is largely phasing out VHS tapes except for sports and exercise videos, said Ann Binkley, a spokeswoman for the book and music seller.
"For a big title, like Harry Potter, we'll bring a limited amount of VHS along with the DVD," Binkley said.
Some Circuit City stores already have cleared their shelves of all VHS movies. The company will continue to sell VHS movies on its Web site and stock blank tapes and videocassette recorders in its more than 600 stores, spokesman Jim Babb said.
"The people who are buying movie titles these days want to buy them on DVD," Babb said. "People have embraced the technology in a big way, and we're responding to that by increasing the space given to DVD titles."
The demand for DVDs means cheap prices for VHS movies at the Tower Records on Kapi'olani Boulevard.
DVDs now make up at least 70 percent of Tower's movie selection and unused VHS movies are selling for $4.95 — compared to $19.95 to $24.95 for the same titles on DVD, said manager Scott Ikei.
"We're not totally depleting our inventory like Circuit City," Ikei said, "But there is a major cutback. But by next year we'll probably not be carrying any more VHS."
Tower, Borders and Circuit City are not alone in the trend. In September, Blockbuster Inc. said it would remove 25 percent of its less-popular and older videotape rentals from stores to make room for DVD movies and video games.
Best Buy, the nation's leading consumer electronics retailer, "has no plans to stop offering VHS movies," said spokesman Jim McManus.
But the Minneapolis-based chain is expanding its DVD selection and reducing its videotape inventory, and the company's DVD titles now outnumber its VHS titles by more than 8-to-1, he said.
Consumers continue to spend more on videotapes than on DVDs, but the gap is quickly narrowing. Figures complied by the industry research firm Alexander & Associates show that DVD sales more than doubled to $4.1 billion last year while VHS sales remained flat at about $7.6 billion.
Greg Durken, an analyst for the firm, said the company is projecting 72 percent growth in the DVD market and a 10 percent decline in VHS for this year. The VHS figures include sales of previously viewed videotapes, which are booming as rental stores like Blockbuster Inc. join the DVD trend.
Despite the rapid growth of the DVD market, the president of the International Recording Media Association, a trade association based in Princeton, N.J., said Circuit City's move is premature. Charles Van Horn noted that about 90 percent of U.S. households have at least one VCR, while only about 30 percent have a DVD player.
"Circuit City will disappoint the 60 percent of consumers who have a VCR but no DVD," Van Horn said.
He said that while the DVD player is "the fastest-growing video product ever," it will take time to catch up with the VCRs. And even after it does, the two products will coexist in most homes for years to come, he said.
That's one reason some of Circuit City's major competitors are sticking with the aging but still widely used VHS format.
"At this point, DVD is nowhere near the sales of VHS in Kmart stores," said company spokesman Dave Karraker. The Troy, Mich.-based retailer does especially well with videotapes geared to children and families, he said.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, also will continue to carry VHS movies because of "strong customer interest," spokesman Tom Williams said.
Chip Eastman, manager of a Circuit City in suburban Richmond, said the store was able to expand its DVD selection by about a third after it shipped the last of its VHS movies to a company warehouse two weeks ago.
Shoppers browsing the rows of DVDs said the move makes sense.
"I haven't bought any VHS in at least two or three years," said John Reeves, 27, of Midlothian. "This is probably the way most stores will go in the next year or two."
The store has been able to significantly expand its selection of DVDs, said Mike Colvin, 31, of Chesterfield County.
"There's stuff in here I haven't seen anywhere else," he said, holding three music compact discs and a DVD of "Dune" to replace his VHS copy.
