[Videos available before release] Continuing Little Mermaid thread from the DR forum

[The old man]

My account is set up to allow me to rent the movies early that's why it gives it tome for one day. We are only allowed to have 2 pre-streets out at a time.
Things sure have changed since by day. We used to put the customer first. Unless you're required to have these rentals back by street date it reduces the availablity of the title to the customers.

[cstephens]

I have heard of situations in recent years where holding to a video release date was *strictly* enforced, to the point of imposing penalties and fines.

[wardkimballfan]

Things sure have changed since by day. Do you hab a code? Hab you dried Dyquil? Here's a Gleedex. Blow yer doze.

[Vegitabeta]

Do you hab a code? Hab you dried Dyquil? Here's a Gleedex. Blow yer doze.
:confused:

[wardkimballfan]

:confused:Say it out loud.

[efoxx]

I think this is more a matter of managers being nice to employees. it falls under the concept of a "victimless crime". people look at it like speeding, or putting money into a coke machine getting the drink and the money back. where it is the managers discretion IE giving free food at a BK than there is no violation, it is within the power of the manager. this practice however goes beyond that. the distributer of the movies send them out to the dealers with the intent on a specific release. this release is designed to not only allow all dealers to get copies, but to also allow those with real reasons to review the product to do so before the general public sees the release.

BTW thanks for the nice comments about my previous posts. yes spelling is a very big weakness for me, hard to believe when you consider that I am a playwrite... usually I have my professional assistant do spell check and proof read that stuff though. just goes to show how important they are.

[Vegitabeta]

Say it out loud.
I really don't know, is that an advert for tissues, I mean Kleenex or something?

[wardkimballfan]

I really don't know, is that an advert for tissues, I mean Kleenex or something?There you go, now you're getting the hang of it. Not an advert, though, just me using a "stuffed up" voice.

[The old man]

Do you hab a code? Hab you dried Dyquil? Here's a Gleedex. Blow yer doze.
Yes, I am going to attack the messenger.

You are always are the king of sarcasm. A laff riot. Like this great response you wrote concerning dress codes--

"Reportedly an 86-year-old nun suffocated to death while trying to turn her t-shirt inside out in compliance with Disneyland's request (the t-shirt reportedly said "Tight butts drive me nuts"). The Archdiocese of San Arundel later sued, Disney settled out of court, and changed their policy on t-shirts. So now t-shirt reversal is no longer requested."

You sure can zing them in there.

Keep your day job, and go spank your kids.

[The old man]

...but to also allow those with real reasons to review the product to do so before the general public sees the release...


efoxx you've been on a roll, but the studios send out screeners for those who need to see them--usually buyers, critics, etc. There's always been an old fallacy that employees need to see these new releases so they can give the customer their opinion. But if you look at the movies they usually, not alway rent, they are the hot new releases which were going to rent out anyway. Their opinion of the movie was not going to move the meter during the first weeks.

The reason that studios ship out movies early is to give the stores time to prep them and to guarantee that they will be available on street date at store opening.

[ministrychick77]

ok. coming from someone who worked for HV for over a year, here's what our manager would do as far as pre-streets: we'd get them in the system as soon as we got them, then if an employee wanted to check them out, they could. we could only have 2 pre-streets out at a time, but the main reason we were able to do this was to answer any questions about the movie that the customers had. it was a valuable tool that we used. once the movie was able to be rented by customers, we had to wait for 21 days to go by before we could rent them for free again.

yes, it was fun telling our friends that we saw the dvd before it came out. but it was very helpful in answering questions for customers who didn't know if they wanted to rent it or not.



just my 2 cents.

[wardkimballfan]

Yes, I am going to attack the messenger.

You are always are the king of sarcasm. A laff riot. Like this great response you wrote concerning dress codes--

"Reportedly an 86-year-old nun suffocated to death while trying to turn her t-shirt inside out in compliance with Disneyland's request (the t-shirt reportedly said "Tight butts drive me nuts"). The Archdiocese of San Arundel later sued, Disney settled out of court, and changed their policy on t-shirts. So now t-shirt reversal is no longer requested."

You sure can zing them in there.

Keep your day job, and go spank your kids.At long last, sir, have you no sense of humor?

Glad your sinuses cleared up. :fez:

[cstephens]

yes, it was fun telling our friends that we saw the dvd before it came out. but it was very helpful in answering questions for customers who didn't know if they wanted to rent it or not.

Unless it's a direct-to-video, I wouldn't necessarily be all that impressed that someone saw the DVD before me if I've already seen the film itself.


Also, I think there's a difference between a rental release date and a sale release date. I don't know how strict rental release dates are, but as I said, I know in some cases, sale release dates are very strict, even for store employees.

[efoxx]

efoxx you've been on a roll, but the studios send out screeners for those who need to see them--usually buyers, critics, etc. There's always been an old fallacy that employees need to see these new releases so they can give the customer their opinion. But if you look at the movies they usually, not alway rent, they are the hot new releases which were going to rent out anyway. Their opinion of the movie was not going to move the meter during the first weeks.

The reason that studios ship out movies early is to give the stores time to prep them and to guarantee that they will be available on street date at store opening.
That's exactly what I was saying. there is no need for these guys to have the material early. there is no ligit reason for anyone to have a copy of LM early, it is a well known film. the bs story of "helping customers" is just a cover up to justify what they are doing.

The bottom line is, it is not HV, or BB, or walmarts property, it's not even the person who buys the movies property. at the beginning of every movie there is the FBI warning, this is a statment that the copyright owner is not selling you the work, only the rights to view the work. they retain the rights to the, in this case, movie always. so when they as the legal owner of the property says they do not want it released until a certain date it is within their rights. violating that right may go unpunished forever, but that doesn't make it right.

[The old man]

At long last, sir, have you no sense of humor?

Glad your sinuses cleared up. :fez:
That's better.:)

[The old man]

...Also, I think there's a difference between a rental release date and a sale release date. I don't know how strict rental release dates are, but as I said, I know in some cases, sale release dates are very strict, even for store employees.
No sale & rental date are the same.

[littlebugg]

As a Store Manager at Blockbuster Video from 1997-2001, and then subsequently a district manager until 2003 for the same company, I happen to know the exact procedures and policies on early "street dates".

The contracts that they have with the studios require them to pay tremendously high prices, to in turn receive essentially as many copies of licensed product as they need and to aquire the films several weeks early, because the individual distribution plants must prep the shipments to different stores based on that stores forecasted demand of specific title and target demographic.

NOW, the retail location also needs 1 to 4 weeks of receiving and prep time as well, especially during the "big title" months, May, July, and December.

So, yes!, they are encouraged to rent titles early to all employees at retail locations to raise awareness and knowledge of product, but the rentals must be returned in a timely manner so that the product is available for customers(in my experience this is not enforced up to spec). This is common practice as well with Hollywood Video as my good friend is over there.

Selling or renting product before shelf date to friends, family, previous employees, or customers is absolutley forbidden. period.

Buying, NOT RENTING, a title at your discounted or full price before release date is also against policy, (because it is not stipulated in the contracts, for obvious reasons) but I wouldn't go so far to say its grounds for termination, its just something that would be addressed with the store manager at the next audit. Everything, every transaction, is included in the quarterly in-store audit and the reports will show them which titles were sold/rented when.

Just thought I could bring something to the table folks....finally :)

[The old man]

The contracts that they have with the studios require them to pay tremendously high prices...,
Well I guess I'd agree with everything you said but this. DVD really changed things from the VHS days. They only pay the wholesale price for movies ranging from $9 to $18 or so. This is not a "tremendously high price".

Please see my credentials in the original thread in the DR forum.

[littlebugg]

Please see my credentials in the original thread in the DR forum.

No need to check your credentials, you seem to be a very bright and intelligent individual, and I do not doubt your credibility in any way : )

When I worked @ the retail store itself we were predominatly VHS, however we were beginning to phase out VHS, and I was a DM during the actual final phase I believe, its been a few years.
So I don't remember what we were paying for DVD's, but I do remember we were obligated to generate a certain amount of revenue for every copy, that was part of our contract agreement with the studios, and the actors, directors, etc. gained residuals off of our rentals.

Once that individual tape or disc had reached that revenue, it came up on a weekly generated report from the inventory program on our store computers to be transferred to PVT/D-previously viewed tape or disc. Which are the movies that they sell at a discounted price. I know the copy essentially became BBV's "property" for lack of a better term when we had generated that amount, which to my dismay, was already counted as revenue in our forecasted budget for that fiscal year.

When I was employed there, we payed $101.99 per copy, or at least that's what was counted against our profit for every stolen/lost tape. But maybe they pay less now, which wouldn't be fair at all because the price has gone up significantly since I left. : o I do REALLY miss those free rentals and early viewings of the movies though. :)

[Phantom2006]

ok. coming from someone who worked for HV for over a year, here's what our manager would do as far as pre-streets: we'd get them in the system as soon as we got them, then if an employee wanted to check them out, they could. we could only have 2 pre-streets out at a time, but the main reason we were able to do this was to answer any questions about the movie that the customers had. it was a valuable tool that we used. once the movie was able to be rented by customers, we had to wait for 21 days to go by before we could rent them for free again.

yes, it was fun telling our friends that we saw the dvd before it came out. but it was very helpful in answering questions for customers who didn't know if they wanted to rent it or not.



just my 2 cents.

This how my store is also. We get 2 pre-streets, I have one out right now. You only get them for one day. Though, I thought it was about 2 weeks before we can rent them again, for free.

[Vegitabeta]

There you go, now you're getting the hang of it. Not an advert, though, just me using a "stuffed up" voice.
Ah, it was late when I got all confused and wrote that! That said, I think I'll leave this thread alone now...

[Dexter]

I called the buena vista street date violation hotline this morning and spoke with one of the operators there and asked her to define a street date violation so that I could ensure I was understanding things correctly. She said that any store that rents/sells the movie before the date that it is to be released to the public is in violation.

I then asked her if I worked in a video store and I rented a copy from there as an employee if that constituted as a violation and she stated that it is a very grey area. The conditions of which were as follows. If the store handed the employee a copy and said take this home and watch so you know what to tell the customers that's ok as long as the employee doesn't share the copy with familly members to watch at their home. She also said the store should not be processing rental transactions on their computers with the tapes before it's street release date as contractually it constitutes a violation by them renting them before they are supposed to be. As long as the copy is handed out by a manager to an employee for the sole purpose of understanding the content of the video and to help create a buzz about the tape than it's fine.

[Phantom2006]

If the store handed the employee a copy and said take this home and watch so you know what to tell the customers that's ok as long as the employee doesn't share the copy with familly members to watch at their home. She also said the store should not be processing rental transactions on their computers with the tapes before it's street release date as contractually it constitutes a violation by them renting them before they are supposed to be.

We have to process them on our computer because we need to know what employee has what movie. If the movie is not returned the next day by midnight they are charged a late fee and can have the movie for 5 more days. Also, we don't have to watch a movie we don't want to. They don't tell us we have to watch anything. Most of the time I don't even rent movies because I never watch them. I even looked at our policy manual yesterday and it said the same thing that I have and other have said. That we can have 2 pre-streets out at a time, and it is due back the next day by midnight. But if we want to we can re-rent them as much as we want before the movie comes out on Tuesday. Also, renting is when you pay for it. As employees we get or movie for free. We have a due date just like other people and it is near impossible to take off our late fees, unlike with regular customer all they really have to do is throw a fit and they do.
OK, I will admit that I might not have been able to buy the movie but I asked my manager and she said it was ok. Both managers I have had before that did the same thing.