Chartbusters or Xtra Vision??

Leaderbored

Sorry for ressurecting an old thread, but I googled Chartbusters looking for idle gossip that would answer my question, and I found this site & didnt want to start a new thread and be told that there was a similar one already arounnd...:)

Before I went away at the start of the year, I used Chartbusters for years primarily cos of the Fabulous selection of weirdo stuff (You were always guaranteed a good spread of both Mainstream and kinda leftfield New releases and more importantly a few new Asian Action, European War movies & Dramas or Mad Horror films that Xtravision seemed to consider were 'beneath them' on the shelves every month. (Xtrav seemed to give the impression that if a movie didnt make one hundred MEEELION dollars at the box office, or if they couldnt screwover smaller vidshops like Laser & Movie magic by having a film as a big exclusive, it wasnt worth stocking)

But having just come back from spending 6 months in Germany a few weeks ago, It seems like Chartbusters was more concerned with turning into PC world, and hasnt had anything other than Megabucks Mainstream rubbish on the dvd shelves in ages (and not very much of it either - Went in last week to my local 'superstore' to see just 8 of the new Harry P, all rented out by lunchtime on friday....The last time a Harry was out on DVD, my local had about 30 - & Im not a gamer, but a mate has told me that as well as having no new World stuff, they've cut out doing Xbox360 games in his local branch in Meath too)

The store staff had all changed too, in the main, nice freindly folk now replaced with surly emo kids who find it objectionable to hafta turn down their blaring copy of 'Grace' and answer a bloody question, or or over-made-up and underdressed self crowned beauty queens who think they're too pretty to have to serve you, or give you the correct change, but thats neither here nor there.

The previous staff could tell me on a thursday what was coming out next day because they used to get a huge email from their head office (which was not just a crit list, but apparently a major pee-take of the whole system, as the shop staff actually looked forward to receiving them) but the 3 different guys in the last few weeks that I asked said they'd never seen one, and didnt know what was coming in until their delivery arrived....

So, my question (finally) :

Is it just my experience, or have they stopped doing the World Cinema stuff countrywide? and more disturbingly, since I've got no Laser near me and after several bad experiences I'd rather eat my own arm before I'd give Xtrav any money again; Is Chartbusters working it's way towards being some kinda weirdo Tanning/Internet/Phone Credit place (and hiring staff who know more about Tanning and PCs than movies accordingly) and stopping dvd and game rentals entirely?

Big rant over:D

projectmayhem

i worked in xtra-vision and our shop had a world cinema section, still does. i would assume they didn't print headers for just one shop so most big stores have the world cinema sections, and they are starting to get their act together and securing exclusives in that section ("screwing" laser etc. etc.... it's business folks, get over it).

a mate of mine worked in chartbusters for 6 months and said the reason staff are kind of crap (not that you can hold xv staff up in high regard though) is because the managers are absolutely awful, and there's no focus on products because the stores are tanning beds, internet café's and rental stores whereas xv dedicates something like 80% of the floor to rentals, and the rest to retail and videogames.

MikeHoncho

Rental market is dying and Chartbusters have had to find ways to stay in business. Unfortuantly this has meant expanding into tanning beds and internet cafe territory with their stores. They only seem to be buying in rental stock at a level they can gaurantee a return on and this has meant not getting in all those interesting and quirky movies they used to. Xtravision have gone the other route of trying to become a retail powerhouse and seem to subsidising the rental market through this.

I would much prefer a rental system like Blockbusters in the states. 20 euro a month and you can rent up to 3 DVD'd at a time. I have tried Moviestar.ie and found it crap but really think this could work as a system for Chartbusters.

DVD killed the video store.;)

Leaderbored

Thanks for the replies, I had no idea the Irish market was in such a state. I have seen an Xtravision world cinema section jammed into a corner when I was down in Cork. It was 20 or so grey covered Artificial Eye Russian & Spanish dramas. (The kind of film where its a two hour shot of a Chechen farmer looking over a potato field. In black and white. And silent - You know, 2 for €7.00 on Play cos they cant shift them. That sort of thing.) and about 36 copies of Pan's labyrinth. Most of which still had the Xclusive stickers on them 3 months after it went on general release. Oh , and a copy of Enemy at the Gates .

Possibly not representative of the company as a whole, but not really what I was after.

projectmayhem wrote: »

and they are starting to get their act together and securing exclusives in that section ("screwing" laser etc. etc.... it's business folks, get over it)..

ha ha! The Xtravision party line! Once indoctrined, always quoting...I've had this discussion in the flesh before with other people...

I do agree that at the start, with Xtravisions announcement that they would be heavily investing in Irish film , that it was business, & very helpful to the Irish film industry, cos Xtrav investing in Irish film at script level helped films in the vein of "Intermission" "Crushproof" , "The Craic" and "Sweety Barrett" get made & distributed, but in fairness, an exclusive on something like "Little Miss Sunshine" or particularly a $100 million dollar bugeted movie like "Devil wears Prada" does bugger all for the Irish film industry at all, and in fact is specifically designed to lure customers from Irish owned independent stores, and effectively close them down. The knock on effects of an X monopoly on the video industry would be horrendous (and not just for the businesses it would eradicate) - Customers would have no place else to shop, so X could charge whatever extortionate rate they liked, & the video distributors would have no place else to sell to, so X could pay whatever little they liked.. "Who ya gonna buy from if you don't buy from us? - Who ya gonna sell to if we don't buy from you?"

Perhaps it is business, but tbh, it smacks of an attempt at creating a monopoly, & ranks slightly lower morally than the actions of Tony Montana.
I'd 'get over it', but if everyone just blythely 'got over it' without objection, that would probably result in Xtravision being the only place to rent videos in the country (for the short time that that is still a viable option), and going on their legendary customer service ,that would be very very horrible indeed.

projectmayhem wrote: »

a mate of mine worked in chartbusters for 6 months and said the reason staff are kind of crap (not that you can hold xv staff up in high regard though) is because the managers are absolutely awful, and there's no focus on products because the stores are tanning beds, internet café's and rental stores.

Now that, sadly, I agree with. The folks I happily dealt with in Chartbusters in the past were a long term manager and her assistant, their replacements (seemingly placed in the last few months while I was abroad - Dammit you'd think they'd consult me on these things, eh? ) are new, and have no idea what the hell is going on, nor, seemingly, any interest in finding out. That is down to motivation and training, both of which seem to be lacking.

MikeHoncho wrote:

Rental market is dying and Chartbusters have had to find ways to stay in business. Unfortuantly this has meant expanding into tanning beds and internet cafe territory with their stores. They only seem to be buying in rental stock at a level they can gaurantee a return on and this has meant not getting in all those interesting and quirky movies they used to..

As I said at the start, I really had no idea the market was in such a state. Pity it's always the interesting stuff that has to suffer first. I did hear this morning in the course of my quest for answers (I rang their office. Im kinda tenacious like that. Plus Im really bored.) that some key "movie" people there had jumped ship a while ago though (not their exact phrasing) ....maybe now that the focus is on Telephones, Interwebs and chargrilling yourself, they have someone who just doesnt like films buying their movies now...

Oh well....

irishthump

Leaderbored wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I had no idea the Irish market was in such a state. I have seen an Xtravision world cinema section jammed into a corner when I was down in Cork. It was 20 or so grey covered Artificial Eye Russian & Spanish dramas. (The kind of film where its a two hour shot of a Chechen farmer looking over a potato field. In black and white. And silent - You know, 2 for €7.00 on Play cos they cant shift them. That sort of thing.) and about 36 copies of Pan's labyrinth. Most of which still had the Xclusive stickers on them 3 months after it went on general release. Oh , and a copy of Enemy at the Gates .

Possibly not representative of the company as a whole, but not really what I was after.

I've hardly set foot in an Xtra-Vision since I stopped working for them. And that was nearly 10 years ago.
Believe it or not, when I worked there the World Cinema section was huge and was always a good seller. Unfortunately when they were bought out by Blockbuster Video all that changed. Most of the older stock was torn out, including the World Cinema section in nearly every store, to make way for larger New Release sections and Playstation Games.

projectmayhem

Leaderbored wrote: »

but in fairness, an exclusive on something like "Little Miss Sunshine" or particularly a $100 million dollar bugeted movie like "Devil wears Prada" does bugger all for the Irish film industry at all, and in fact is specifically designed to lure customers from Irish owned independent stores, and effectively close them down. The knock on effects of an X monopoly on the video industry would be horrendous (and not just for the businesses it would eradicate) - Customers would have no place else to shop, so X could charge whatever extortionate rate they liked, & the video distributors would have no place else to sell to, so X could pay whatever little they liked.. "Who ya gonna buy from if you don't buy from us? - Who ya gonna sell to if we don't buy from you?"

Perhaps it is business, but tbh, it smacks of an attempt at creating a monopoly, & ranks slightly lower morally than the actions of Tony Montana.
I'd 'get over it', but if everyone just blythely 'got over it' without objection, that would probably result in Xtravision being the only place to rent videos in the country (for the short time that that is still a viable option), and going on their legendary customer service ,that would be very very horrible indeed.

this discussion was done to death here before, but here we go, i'll wade in on the side of XV here. it's business. if you're an indie store, you have to expect the big american-owned company to wade in and try to ruin you. you, as an indie retailer, have to do something different, and advertise that. however, the vast majority of people just want to rent the big movies, as cheap as possible.

Leaderbored

projectmayhem wrote:

if you're an indie store, you have to expect the big american-owned company to wade in and try to ruin you. you, as an indie retailer, have to do something different, and advertise that..

Like laser developing a pretty good niche in the World cinema market?

projectmayhem wrote:

i worked in xtra-vision and our shop had a world cinema section, still does (.......) and they are starting to get their act together and securing exclusives in that section .

So what do the indies do when the big American-owned company starts dabbling in things it has no interest in , simply to put you out of business? Do they change their independent business plan only to have Blockbuster.ie follow them around in dark glasses taking sketches again?

Your wading is admirable, but you're right, this has probably been done to death elsewhere, so My apologies, I'll let it go. I just wanted to know whether Chartbusters had changed, and whether the original 'left field' movie buyers who were there up to a few months ago had left the building, and I've found out one has, hence the change. More's the pity.

doctor evil

I used to work in chartbusters, our shop had a very good World Cinema Section. Worked there for over a year and really got to appreciate that section.

bolddoyler

eh.. hello? They're all the same company, all tentacles of US video giant blockbuster video. Seems they're throwing xtra-vision to the lions now due to the gaping abyss of debt they've accumulated. Meh... The future is in downloads anyway.

Pigman II

bolddoyler wrote: »

Hello?

Hello.

Running Bing

What the hells a "chartbuster"? or an "xtravision" for that matter?

doonothing

http://www.google.com/search?q=chartbusters&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=Ryx&q=xtravision&btnG=Search

Nolanger

This post is irrelevant because Chartbusters are going out of the charts and bust.
Everyone here should rent out as many DVDs from them as possible and don't bother returning because they'll be gone soon.

Shacklebolt

Die zombie thread!



Anyway I dont usually rent DVDS I just buy them when the price goes down after a few weeks.

Pigman II

It's true what nolangers say btw.

Running Bing

doonothing wrote: »

http://www.google.com/search?q=chartbusters&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=Ryx&q=xtravision&btnG=Search

Wow, thanks for that.


















:rolleyes:

Bondvillain

bolddoyler wrote: »

eh.. hello? They're all the same company, all tentacles of US video giant blockbuster video. Seems they're throwing xtra-vision to the lions now due to the gaping abyss of debt they've accumulated. Meh... The future is in downloads anyway.

Hello yourself. Thats incredibly wrong by the way. Xtravision are owned by US company Blockbuster, but Irish Company Chartbusters are not.

Pigman II wrote: »

It's true what nolangers say btw.

No, it isn't really. There will be cutbacks & consolidation, but while it's possible, it's extremely doubtful the entire company will disappear.

And as for ripping off the outlets that may disappear, sure, go mad and spend your cash on renting dvds with the express intention of not returning them, but bearing in mind that most of what you rent can be bought new for about €6 to €10 in music retailers such as Zavvi & HMV or onlline within days of release; and the in-store computer which contains your details will be sold on to whatever financial agency takes up the slack, is it really worth going onto a bad credit list for a cheap copy of Epic Movie or Space Monkeys?

Hank_Jones

Got to go with Chartbusters.

Can get a new enough rental for €2 in Chartbusters, while Xtravision are charging nearly €5.

Was searching for chartbusters and found this thread, so...

candy-gal1

Well for selection of movies it would be Xtra-vision, but for cheap dvds to buy then chartbusters.

johndoe99

i spend quite a lot of time in both, i voted for Chartbusters mainly because I like a lot of foreign language movies and my local CB gets plenty.

MagicMarker

Neither, I illegally download.

mrgardener

MagicMarker wrote: »

Neither, I illegally download.

I think most people do this....Probably why rental companies will be gone the way of the dodo soon.

Roar

mrgardener wrote: »

I think most people do this....Probably why rental companies will be gone the way of the dodo soon.

rental companies are going the way of the dodo because of 5 quid rentals!

Sanjuro

I've worked for both. And after serious consideration, I'd say... download movies.


In seriousness though, Chartbusters are hands-down the worst employers I've ever had the misfortune of working for. I was once held-up in the shop and when I rang the manager and the DM once I'd freed myself from the handcuffs, their first reply was 'did they steal much?'

PWEI

I voted for Chartbusters three years ago because of their World Cinema dvds but I'd vote for Xtra Vision now because they stock blu-rays and Chartbusters don't.

Skerries

Sanjuro wrote: »

once I'd freed myself from the handcuffs,

you've had much experience of doing this?

Sanjuro

Skerries wrote: »

you've had much experience of doing this?

Usually I want to stay in the cuffs!

thenakedanddead

Neither are very adequate. Pretty limiting collection

PWEI

Paid a visit to chartbusters in Swords the other day to find it was closed.
I was even more surprised to find out that they've closed all their stores.
I wonder will Xtravision try and take advantage of this by putting up their prices?


http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1029/chartbusters.html

Phony Scott

PWEI wrote: »

I wonder will Xtravision try and take advantage of this by putting up their prices?

Even if they do, still won't stop me from renting from Laser.