Video Business, the mainstream retail journal, recently reported that Hollywood studios “are putting a few more nails in VHS’ coffin — and many retailers appear ready for the funeral.”
Adult video retailers, like their mainstream counterparts, are showing little reluctance to hear the bell toll for VHS. The demise of the format seems to be coming a lot faster than anyone anticipated.
“Up until a year ago, I would have said VHS had a future, but not now,” said Donna Tietz of Video Dimensions in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, Illinois. “I still have customers who want it, but they’re getting fewer. It’s going to go a lot faster than I thought it would.
“Our stock is probably, at this moment, about 30 percent VHS, but I haven’t been getting any new stuff. I only get in DVDs, so whatever [VHS] I have is left over. That just changed within the past six months.”
Ellen Barnard of A Woman’s Touch in Madison, Wisconsin, agrees that “the death of VHS [is] coming really fast, faster than I expected.”
Her stock, she said, is “probably two to one, DVD to VHS, but as of three months ago it was 50-50 — really recently. We’re finally starting to see it turn, and more and more people are asking for DVDs.”
For some of the big chains it’s no longer an issue. All Hustler Hollywood stores, for instance, are totally DVD, according to Creighton Emrick, Central DVD Buyer for Larry Flynt’s retail empire.
“We had a big blowout a few months ago and got rid of all our VHS,” Emrick said, adding that there was some initial resistance at stores in Ohio and other parts of the Midwest, but elsewhere, especially on the West Coast, going all-DVD was eagerly approved.
Individual stores, however, still cover all bases.
“There are always going to be people who want VHS,” said Alan Altman, owner of Secret Desires, which has outlets in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles County. “The question is, is it financially prudent to stock it?
“We stock a few VHS titles, but VHS for the most part is strictly a throwaway, a loss leader. We went this way when we opened the stores, which was about a year and three-quarters ago. And we did not show any VHS. We brought in maybe three or four percent just to have something in case someone wants it.”
“VHS is not moving as it used to,” said Frank Espinoza, owner of Fun Zone gifts, with four locations in Southern California. “We’re in a different era. Everyone’s converting to DVDs. They have more variety for the customer.” His stock will soon show a mere five percent of the VHS format.
Kim Airs, owner of Boston’s Grand Opening, an adult superstore with a largely female clientele, said she finds that “VHS rentals are still pretty strong. Sales of VHS are more sluggish. DVD is definitely taking over. We’ll probably go all DVD in about a year. We don’t order VHS unless that’s the only [format] it’s available in.”
She expects that VHS rentals will continue indefinitely until the format is “totally petered out.”
The reasons for the demise of VHS are many, and fairly familiar. One is availability, since many adult studios aren’t manufacturing VHS due to decreased demand.
Barnard said that for smaller companies making VHS tapes is no longer cost-effective. “Not worth it to make the boxes, not worth it to make the tapes. They can make so much more money on the DVD.”
Another reason, fairly obvious according to Airs, is “the space thing. It’s amazing how many DVDs you can put in the same space as a dozen VHS tapes.”
Barnard said she sees the rush to DVD as “a generational thing. The young folks — certainly 30s and under — they’re all totally DVD. But I’m still getting a lot of requests for VHS from the people in their 50s and 60s and 70s, the ones with the older televisions. That’s the problem, most of the DVD players won’t work with the older televisions, so you have to upgrade your TV at the same time.”
But, she said, the writing’s on the wall. “Basically, I’m going to have a bunch of people being dragged kicking and screaming to the store to buy a new TV.”
