WalMart to enter ticket selling business with Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster to sell tickets at Wal-Mart, but will the service charges come down? Don't count on it.
News leaked out that "Walmart and Ticketmaster have entered into an agreement for selling event access in Walmart stores in select markets,” according to Irving Azoff at the NBA Technology Summit in Dallas late last week. Walmart shoppers will be able to buy tickets to concerts, sports and other community events at around 500 stores in the coming months. There are more than 7,000 WalMart stores and superstores, not counting Sam's Clubs.

However, just how much they will save at the big retailer is in question. Most likely nothing. The outrageous service charges extracted from ticket buyers is unlikely to change, as the monopolistic Ticketmaster and WalMart become a cartel, and will maintain uniform pricing across its phone and retail operations. And talk about opportunities to grab the best seats by the underpaid associates for their friends. I bet it will help WalMart find more low paid help who in turn could make money on the side selling to scalpers.

WalMart is only committing 500 stores initially, most likely as a test, since Ticketmaster, with one fell swoop, could have outlets in all its stores if wanted. This may be the first product sold by WalMart that is not discounted. And you will have the pleasure of having to go to the store's electronics department and have one of their "associates" pull up and print out the tickets.

The impact on the Berkshires will be minimal since most local venues handle their own ticketing operations, mindful of the effect that service charges have on attendance. The tickets will be available at WalMart's in large cities first, Chicago and Los Angeles for example. Azoff has worked with WalMart before, specifically in pushing the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden in 2008. The album was a best seller that year.

I worked with TicketMaster in its early days, and was able to watch them grow into a powerhouse that bought out the once dominant TIcketron. They have managed to become the gorilla in the room of ticket selling.

On another front, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center recently announced that they will be creating their own ticket selling operation this coming season. However, I was greeted with total silence when trying to learn if that meant there would be a reduction in service charges. Right now it is looking for SPAC, as for WalMart, as a giant new profit center.

The change is likely necessitated by the destruction of most alternative retail by monoliths like WalMart. For years, TicketMaster relied on Tower Records as its main retail outlet. Since the demise of that chain, they have had less of a presence at street level. Clearly this is about to change, and while it might work for mass market events, I am not so sure it would do the high end arts organizations much good.

Having to visit WalMart for tickets to the BSO, or Jacob's Pillow just sounds like a trip to hell and back. If they had to do a discount chain, it should have been Target.

Netflix Has a Meltdown

Netflix spoiled me. With only rare exceptions, I would mail back a DVD and receive a new one in the mail two days later. Years ago, when they first began, they were not quite as reliable. If you returned your discs too rapidly, and managed to get two turnarounds a week, they deliberately slowed down your replacements. But on the internet, you don't claim one thing and do another with impunity. Netflix subscribers compared notes and verified that such was the case. A class action suit followed, and settlement finally took place. Of course, I am still looking for my free month of one additional DVD "payback" sometime this fall, but I am patient.

Then this week happens. The week without any new discs at all for most of us.

I count my blessings that Netflix has been good for some time now, until this week when they went bad, and things could soon get ugly if the problems aren't over. Look at eBay, a totally different website today than it was when it began, and most buyers and sellers will tell you the changes have rarely been improvements. eBay proves it is possible to be both profitable and hated. Their sales in the US peaked some time ago, and it is no longer a source of growth for them, so they raise insertion fees and tighten the rules to find more profits. They are a company that has peaked, and becoming just another internet retailer.

Packing up DVDs is backbreaking work at Netflix

This week, when I didn't receive my new DVDs in the mail I was surprised but forgiving. Under Reed Hastings, Netflix has done a great deal to reinforce their customer service, and their customers have made it of the highest rated internet companies for some time now. Keeping people satisfied is no easy task, but with WalMart, then Blockbuster, and many smaller companies nipping at their heels, I believe it was a combination of superior attention to detail and a better selection of movies that has put Netflix in the lead. Despite urban legends, pricing is only part of the picture. And if you are one of the bottom feeders who is like a ravenous shark at the thought of saving a buck or two - you know who you are - you have no loyalty anyway. So screw saving pennies, it is performance, selection and reliability that counts.

The Meltdown

The short of it is that while some delayed discs were mailed sporadically last week, almost all of their eight million customers did not get their replacement discs at all, and will thus lose one week out of the month of the service they paid for. Netflix is quick to announce that all customers will get a 15% discount off of next month's service fee, but one week is 25% of a month, not 15%. Bad move, Nexflix. You should be overcompensating, not letting the bean counters run customer service. Expect more legal action, especially if things are not fully restored.

Netflix kept customers informed, sort of.

Netflix has not been very specific about their technical problems, but my best guess is that they can be laid at the feet of Microsoft with whom they have formed a strong alliance. Have you ever used Microsoft programs? You go to bed with dogs and you wake up with fleas. The worst part is that when things went south, they couldn't figure out what was causing the problems for days. Netflix has had some of the best techies in the world, and they went down for the count for almost a week. And things are still not up to speed, my DVD records say that my discs will be mailed Monday or Thursday, though their notice on site and via email says they were all caught up by Friday. Not true. Wishful thinking. The effects of the problem will be felt into next week at minimum.

The media has not done a particularly thorough job of covering the problem, as this incomplete report in Home Media Magazine - a trade publication which covers Netflix extensively for the DVD trade - shows. Home Media Magazine's only story as of 8/16. There have been lots of reports on the effect this is all having on their stock price. (Very little).

In the end we are all the problems solved? That remains to be seen. I'm anxiously watching my mailbox, and the withdrawal pangs are not all that bad. Only the lack of something new and decent to watch is making me think about going to a video store. Oh, the horror.