Capitalist ethics.

[Andor]

I'm kind of amazed by all the people saying "Website blah is breaking the street date? I am so there."

The point of street dates is to prevent some unethical retailer from getting extra buisiness at the expense of more ethical sellers. Am I the only one who this supporting this is a good idea?

Hell I feel guilty enough as it is that my cheapness is causeing me to buy 4e from Amazon rather than my FLGS. Switching from Amazon to website X because it means not waiting an extra week? Am I just old fashioned for not being willing to do this?

 

[DaveMage]

Well, supporting it may pay off for you as amazon lowered their price to 45% off today.

 

[Graybeard]

As someone who has worked at a video store and a bookstore in the past, I am in favor of keeping to street dates. At the video store I would have people come in asking to rent/buy a certain dvd the weekend before street date. We would have to explain why they couldn't. Then they would say that Wal-Mart (or some other store) was selling it already. The worst thing was the movie companies didn't seem to care since Wal-Mart was one of their biggest customers.

 

[billd91]

When dealing with Walmart, a real 800 lb gorilla, what else could the movie companies do? The monstrosity has such market share in some areas that it can and does manipulate the companies that make the products it sells.

 

[pogminky]

The Wal-Mart case seems to highlight the fact that whilst street dates are good in pricipal, those with an advantage press the advantage to unfair extremes - this too is capitalist ethics (after all, Wal-Mart is doing what is right for their shareholders/customers/emplyees/ economy).

Wouldn't it be fairer for there to be no street dates at all - since the street date only seems to hurt the very ones it was designed to protect????

 

[Asmor]

The worst thing was the movie companies didn't seem to care since Wal-Mart was one of their biggest customers.

It's not so much they don't care as they can't do squat.

Wal-mart doesn't get a bad rep just because there's a bunch of elitists who refuse to shop there. They routinely use their size and power to break laws and contracts and there's nothing anyone (including the American government, in practice) can do about it. But I digress.

Back on topic, I agree with street dates in principle, for the reasons stated. They help protect the little guys, the FLGS who might not even get their shipments until the day before the street date.

That said, I ordered from Amazon and if not for the fact that I used gift certificates to order them I totally would have switched my order to buy.com.

Speaking of Amazon, anyone know how long it takes them to refund the price difference? I just checked and, as DaveMage said, the price has gone down by around $5.

 

[Asmor]

The Wal-Mart case seems to highlight the fact that whilst street dates are good in pricipal, those with an advantage press the advantage to unfair extremes - this too is capitalist ethics (after all, Wal-Mart is doing what is right for their shareholders/customers/emplyees/ economy).

Wouldn't it be fairer for there to be no street dates at all - since the street date only seems to hurt the very ones it was designed to protect????

Well, the problem is not everyone gets the products at the same time. In particular, large stores likely have the books sitting in their warehouses weeks ahead of time, and little game stores might only get them the night before. Even if it's not followed completely, it's still better than just letting everyone sell right away.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Speaking of Amazon, anyone know how long it takes them to refund the price difference? I just checked and, as DaveMage said, the price has gone down by around $5.

I don't know but I noticed the same thing.

By the way, what's the deal with Buy.com? According to the site, it's still on preorder with a release date of 6-6-2008.

 

[DaveMage]

Speaking of Amazon, anyone know how long it takes them to refund the price difference? I just checked and, as DaveMage said, the price has gone down by around $5.

They don't charge you until they ship, so you probably won't see the price difference on your order until then.

 

[roguerouge]

If the big boys break the street dates, I see no reason local store owners to abide by the street dates other than sheer cussed pride. In fact, I'd have an employee go over to those stores once a day with a list of street dates to see what they had put out. And then I would complain to the distributor and if nothing happened by the next day, out they go on the shelves. I think cell phone picture documentation and phone/email records with the publisher should be sufficient to CYA.