Tesco to stop selling CDs and DVDs in stores as shoppers switch to streaming
Tesco is to stop selling music and films in its supermarkets by the end of this month as it reacts to changing shopping habits.
Entertainment aisles have already been cleared in some stores, with Tesco expected to replace racks of CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays with home furnishings. Computer games will continue to be sold.
The changes come amid a dramatic shift in how people buy entertainment, with the shift to streaming accelerated by the pandemic.
Last year, UK sales of physical entertainment products dived 18.5% to just over £1bn as digital revenues rose by 8.3% to £8.7bn, more than the entire market was worth just two years ago, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “As more customers move towards digital entertainment, over the last month we have begun to phase out some products in our entertainment range, focusing instead on ranges where we see the highest demand from customers such as homeware and outdoor products.”
Sainsbury’s made a similar move out of physical media last year, clearing out its final stocks of CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays over the festive period.
It comes years after the likes of Woolworths, Blockbuster, Our Price and Virgin Megastores disappeared from high streets.
HMV is now the UK’s only large-scale entertainment retailer, with more than 100 outlets after being rescued from administration in 2019, which led to the closure of about a fifth of its stores.
Asda and Morrisons both said they had no plans to stop selling CDs and DVDs.
Bryan Roberts, a retail analyst at Shopfloor Insights, said the changes were also linked to cost savings for retailers.
“People are consuming entertainment in different ways – such as through streaming,” he said. “These products are a massive faff
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