Hopes are vaporizing for 48 hour DVD-they're too expensive


Well as the old saying goes; "Will it play in Peoria?" In this case the answer is not only no but hell no. Customers have been staying away in droves, at least a four state test market has indicated such in several retail locations around the US. The product is vacuum-packed; once opened, the disc will play for two days before a resin on the DVD reacts with the atmosphere, rendering it unplayable. The idea being that you could watch the movie and not have to rush back to the store in order to avoid late fees. But at seven dollars a pop shoppers are saying they are happy to rent and return for 2 dollars a film.

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Even when the disks are presented at the dreaded checkout stand displays, normally a place where temptation wins out over good sense, resulting in a buying frenzy of lurid magazines and belt popping snacks. The hermetically sealed disks have simply languished-their mysterious resins longing for air.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, a division of Disney, is testing the market for the format in Illinois, Texas, South Carolina and Kansas at grocery and convenience stores and electronics retailers.

A Buena Vista official had no comment on sales of EZ-Ds, but a survey of stores that sell the new product reveals that the EZ-Ds are not appealing to many customers.

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"They haven't sold very well yet," said Tom Mullen, the store manager for Cub Foods in Peoria, Illinois. "We've got them up front in a prime location right by the check-out lanes."

In more than one month's time, the store has sold around 15 to 20 of the EZ-Ds, he said.

"I think the biggest reason is the price. It's a tad bit too high," he said.

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Cub Foods sells the EZ-Ds for and offers about 10 titles, including Sweet Home Alabama, The Hot Chick and Shanghai Knights.

In Charleston, South Carolina, one Winn-Dixie store has also had trouble getting customers to buy the disposable movies.

"They think it's ridiculous," said Joseph Pellegrino Jr., manager of the Rivers Avenue store in Charleston. "They won't pay that type of money for something that's going to vaporize."

Pellegrino said the company made a mistake when it chose to sell EZ-Ds at his store because it's located in a low-income, inner-city area, and his customers are very price-conscious.

Recycling
incentives exist but even so, environmental groups are appalled with the EZ-D concept. In August, volunteers staged a phone protest and dialed Disney CEO Michael Eisner to complain about the product. Another group stated catagorically: "We want to send a clear message from our organization to the community that this is a product that is wasteful and we don't want it in our community," said Eleanor Whitmore, a spokeswoman for the Texas Campaign for the Environment. Ouch!

Of course in every cloud there is a silver lining, at least once the criminal element is made aware of the EZ-D products self destruct capability. Joseph Pellegrino Jr., manager of the Rivers Avenue store in Charleston said he hasn't seen one customer purchase an EZ-D, though some of them have been shoplifted out of the store. "The good thing is that they tear them out of the packages and they don't realize that they've started (the EZ-D's) disintegration." 

Source: wired.com

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