Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2727

Business Notes
Best Buy Suspends 2013 Forecasts Amid Sharp Q2 Income Decline
By Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline.com - Aug. 21, 2012

Best Buy reported second quarter earnings Tuesday morning with net income down 91% to $12M, widely falling short of Wall Street estimates. Revenues were $10.55B, down 3% on the same period a year ago as bricks & mortar sales continue to decline. The news was met with a share price drop of 9% in pre-market trading for the struggling consumer electronics retailer. The company said it had reduced its annual earnings expectations, due to “lowered expectations for industry wide sales and the uncertainty associated with several key product launches expected in the second half” of the year. Best Buy also said it would not provide further forecasts for 2013, having just hired a new CEO who won’t take up his post until September. The company did allow that it expects to generate free cash flows of $1.25B to $1.5B for fiscal 2013.

On Monday, Best Buy announced the appointment of turnaround specialist Hubert Joly. Investors respnded with a 10% drop in the share price at yesterday’s close. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a note on Monday, “We find Mr. Joly’s résumé unimpressive, and believe he lacks sufficient experience to engineer a turnaround at Best Buy,” according to DealBook. Joly, a Frenchman who was most recently at the head of travel and hospitality group Carlson, is lacking retail U.S. experience, Pachter contended. But Oppenheimer & Co analyst Brian Nagel told Bloomberg News that the move in the share price may not have been wholly attributable to lack of confidence in Joly. Rather, he said the downward spike is probably linked to the belief that if new management is being hired, chances of a buyout are smaller. The company has also been involved in a back-and-forth with founder Richard Schulze who has expressed interest in acquiring it, but who has thus far not advanced. Over the weekend Best Buy’s board said Schulze had declined a proposal to facilitate due diligence. Schulze responded that he was “shocked” by the announcement.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/best-buy-suspends-forecast-q2-decline/

Michael & Kelly sittin in a tree....

Wow! that is a big drop for BestBuy. They are getting close to having losses.

Although I'm buying from BestBuy more than ever. In the late 90's to the around 2007 I purchased most of my electronics online. Since 2008 I've been buying more and more from B&M for electronics and less online. So now it's the opposite. I purchase most electronics from B&M stores now, mainly BestBuy. Since many times I can now get prices close to the online price and also get instant satisfaction. Plus I get a 60 day returnb window with Best Buy and there are a few dozen in the DC area.

TV Notes
Jimmy Kimmel faces Leno and Letterman head-on in January
By Gary Levin, USA Today - Aug. 21, 2012

Jimmy Kimmel has long sought the same late-evening slot as rivals Jay Leno and David Letterman, and now he's getting his wish.

ABC today announced plans to move Jimmy Kimmel Live to 11:35 p.m. ET/PT, bumping Nightline an hour later to 12:35 a.m., starting Jan. 8.

As a consolation prize, Nightline will resume a prime-time edition Fridays at 9 starting March 1, and will expand to 30 minutes nightly. (Kimmel has aired at midnight since February 2011, shortening Nightline by about five minutes and prompting the news magazine's first prime-time run last summer.)

Kimmel's show is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year, and the comedian's profile has expanded of late: He hosted this year's White House Correspondents Dinner to generally favorable reaction, and will host his first Emmy Awards telecast on ABC Sept. 23.

"I have been quietly hoping for this," he says. "It's a thrill to go up against the big guys, and you feel like when you go up against the big guys you're hosting a real talk show and not a talk-show fantasy camp. In any job, you want to please your employer, and I think this is about as good a vote of confidence as we could get."

Even in the later time slot, Kimmel has slowly climbed in the ratings, up 3% last season, while The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and The Late Show With David Letterman both lost viewers, although they remain about twice as popular. ("The more the merrier," Letterman said in a statement. "We like Jimmy, we know he'll do a fine program, and we wish him well.")

"In the past year we've seen growth, and that's more important as other shows have lost viewers or remained flat," says Anne Sweeney, president of Disney ABC Television Group. "His viral videos are now legendary, and he's really in the zeitgeist. It does feel like the time to move him is now."

But she conceded the slot switch has more to do with making money than making Kimmel happy, and ABC's local stations agree, noting Kimmel is on the upswing. "When you give Leno and Letterman a half-hour head start, it means they've never been on equal footing," says Dave Boylan, general manager of Miami's WPLG.

The move is being delayed until January to allow Nightline to capitalize on the presidential election; cable sibling ESPN's college football championship, culminating Jan. 7, will be used to promote the switch. But Nightline, which began in 1980 as a series of specials during the Iranian hostage crisis, has morphed from a hard-news single-topic broadcast, with Ted Koppel as its host until 2005, to a softer, multi-segment show that more closely resembles prime-time newsmagazines. It had faced cancellation at least once before, when ABC attempted to hire Letterman in 2002, winning a reprieve when he opted to stay at CBS.

Rumors of the slot switch or of Nightline's demise have cropped up for years, each time Kimmel's contract talks heated up. This time it worked, and his pact, due to expire in February, has been renegotiated and extended for two years. (Despite its title, the show has been taped since midway through its first season.)

Kimmel says he's "done a good job of convincing them over a very long period of time" that he was ready to kick off the network's late-night block, though even with an expected ratings bump at the earlier hour, "it's entirely possible we'll stay in third" place. Still, at 44, he'll usher in a new generation of 11:35 hosts; NBC's Jimmy Fallon, 37, is also being groomed to eventually succeed Leno, 62.

Acknowledging his tenuous tenure at ABC, Kimmel says, "If they'd done this five years ago, it probably would have been a mistake; I probably wasn't ready for 11:30 at that time. It's hard to be patient, but in this case, I think patience paid off for both parties."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/story/2012-08-21/jimmy-kimmel-nightline/57189730/1

TV Notes
CBS, David Mamet Developing 'Have Gun - Will Travel' Reboot
By Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter - Aug. 21, 2012

CBS is looking to reboot Have Gun - Will Travel with two-time Oscar-nominated writer David Mamet at the helm.

The network has made a script deal for the CBS TV Studios-produced Western, which originally aired on CBS from 1957-63. During its six-season run, the drama starring Richard Boone as Paladin not only delivered top-five ratings but also spawned a successful radio show.

If ultimately ordered to series, Have Gun could join Vegas, an upcoming Western starring Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, on CBS' schedule. The genre generated heat last year at this time, with many of the broadcast network developing such projects as NBC's The Frontier and Fox's Wyatt Earp effort.

Mamet will serve as writer and executive producer on the project, alongside non-writing EP Elliott Webb. If the pilot is ordered, Mamet also would direct.

This marks a reunion for the network and Mamet, who served as a writer and executive producer on CBS' The Unit. Still, he is better known for his books, films and theater productions. He earned adapted screenplay Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997) and won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1984 play Glengarry Glen Ross, which he later adapted for the big screen.

Mamet is repped by ICM and Weissmann Wolff.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cbs-david-mamet-have-gun-will-travel-364445

TV Notes
'The Office' will end next season
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Aug. 21, 2012

NBC is closing The Office.

The veteran comedy — and NBC’s highest-rated scripted series (gulp!) — will conclude after the upcoming ninth season.

Despite its status as the network’s top entertainment program, the show fell to an all-time ratings low last season following the exit of Steve Carell and general sense among fans that the comedy’s best days were behind it. Now original showrunner (seasons 1-5) Greg Daniels is retaking the creative reins for one last season.

“This year feels like the last chance to really go out together and make an artistic ending for the show that pays off a lot of the stuff that matters most to fans,” Daniels announced to reporters Tuesday. “This will be the last season of The Office. And we’re planning a very big exciting last season. We’re going to have a lot of faces coming back … There are a lot of things that I’ve personally been wanting to do since season two … All questions will be answered this year. We’re going to see who’s behind the documentary … Now that we know we have an end date we can blow things up and take some chances and it will be very freeing, creatively.

The decision was partly driven by the sense that many of the actors would likely not be around for a tenth season (either due to commitments on other projects, like Mindy Kaling and Rainn Wilson, or due to the rising cost of the show’s key players, like John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer). “You have a choice — only tell the beginning of story and the middle, or allow a story to end,” Daniels said. “If we didn’t let it end this year, I don’t think we would have been able to tell the ending stories of so many characters… we couldn’t count on getting everybody back for season 10.”

That said, creatively rebooting the show was considered. “You could see a world where new people keep coming on the show,” Daniels said. “But I think [we want to] do justice to the existing characters in the most creative and explosive way and that means the show will be changed to such a degree that if anything was to continue it wouldn’t be the same show.”

The showrunner said to expect some “crazy Dwight” stories, a lot of drama in the Jim and Pam storyline, to see Roy’s wedding and David Wallace running Dunder Mifflin. But will the show’s former star, Carell, be back? “We would certainly wish for it,” Daniels said. “We’re not going to put so much pressure on Steve by writing something that would only work if he would return. He really loves how he was exited. He’s probably anxious about not messing up such a stylish exit. It’s a perfectly legitimate point. We’ll see.”

Here’s Daniels talking to EW.com about The Office a few days ago (and much more vaguely):

EntertainmentWeekly: Broadly, what can fans expect to be new/different about season 9?
Greg Daniels: We will be doing more [character] arcs, and more drama in the Jim and Pam story line. We are planning some big surprises … I’m guessing the show will feel more like Dunder-Mifflin from before the Sabre merger [when former showrunner Paul Lieberstein took over].

Given the age of the show and the spinoff plans [The Farm], are you expecting to write a series finale next season?
Daniels: Considering we are still NBC’s highest-rated scripted show, with a cast of 17 all-stars, any decision about a series finale will be made for creative reasons only. [Which, clearly, have now been made].

What can you tell us about [new hire] Jake Lacy’s character, how does he impact things?
Daniels: Jake Lacy and Clark Duke are both hired to handle the enormous number of customer service complaints that Kelly [Mindy Kaling] neglected over the years. They are pals and in their mid 20s.

How much will David Denman [Roy -- Pam's former love interest] be in the show? And Mindy Kaling will be in two episodes?
Daniels: So far, David Denman and Mindy have shot one episode each. I hope to get a few more out of them before the season is over.

Any other new characters or departures that we don’t already know about?
Daniels: All you know about the season are a couple of scraps of hiring information that we couldn’t hide. The other surprises will impact on air.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/08/21/the-office-season-9/

Where are you shopping online?

I almost never find anything at Best Buy I could get cheaper....well...pretty much anywhere else. That's if they have it in stock. Even the rare times they come up with a lower price, it's almost certain to be matched elsewhere - even at other B&M stores. I have no trouble finding cheaper online prices, either - without paying a dime on shipping, either.

On top of that, the hard sells for extended warranties and products made by Monster Cable are very annoying, yet they can't hire someone who knows where anything is or what it does. Finally, the dude on the stool near the door that always wants to check my bags and my receipt from the register I just checked out at 5 feet away make Best Buy a terrible place to shop. Heck, I'll take the weirdos at Walmart over that place.

You can tell that guy at the door wanting to check your receipt to take a hike, same with Walmart. The only place I'm aware of that can enforce that is a store at which you're a member of and have agreed to such checks in the membership agreement, Costco for example, otherwise you can tell those checkers to go pound sand.

Amazon, Newegg, etc. the normal online locations. When I buy from Best Buy they are typically on sale. And the price might be a little bit more than the online stores. Although sometimes it's a lot cheaper, like the 27" monitor I got that was at least 25% cheaper at BestBuy than anywhere online. But I also get a 60 day return period from BestBuy, and reward points to use. As well as 6 months to 3 years no financing depending on the items and the total price. My last few HDTVs I go from BestBuy as well since the price was so close to the online stores. But from 2001 to 2007 I bought all my HDTVs online. But it was more of a hassle having to waiting for a truck to deliver it and if there was an issue, returning it. With BestBuy it was easier to schedule delivery, I still have a 60 day return period(although it was 45 days before), and the price was close or equal to online pricing. especially if you factor in a 10% or 12% off coupon. Although they don't send them out as often as they used to.

Actually, while I do tell the guy where he can go, legally any store can check you at any time. It's their property.

I just hate the mindset that Best Buy thinks all their customers are criminals. At least Walmart only checks if you either set off the alarm or if you're walking out with stuff that isn't in a bag.

Nope, not in California anyway. Only if you consent to the receipt check are they allowed to do it, otherwise they would have to perform a citizen's arrest. Once you have paid for the goods with legal tender, be it credit card, cash, check, etc, they cannot legally detain you to "check your receipt" upon exiting the premises. The exception being the aforementioned membership type stores where you have agreed to such checks as a condition of membership.

Well, good luck with that, but I have a feeling if it makes it there will be a lot of Richard Boone fans running for the puke bowl. His performance created on of the great, iconic television characters. I shudder to think what modern TV will do with it.

Still, Mamet ...

Edge? I lasted maybe five minutes before the constant bleeping of even the most innocuous language forced me to switch over.

It's one thing to tone down an import or something created for another network, but why produce something that you know you will have to censor? Its pure idiocy. Either broadcast it whole or tone down the language at the script stage.

The UK version is one of my favorite sitcoms of the past decade and it was bad enough when it was ripped to pieces on BBCA. Now another network is remaking the show and neutering the jokes they've already shot. Not to mention the casting is pretty flat and that actors are completely forgettable.

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Aug. 22, 2012

GROUNDHOG DAY
AMC, 8:00 p.m. ET
When I recently made a list of “spider-web” movies, of films that ensnare me each time they’re televised, how did I forget this one? When you’re talking about entertainingly repeatable films, this 1993 Bill Murray comedy may be the ultimate article. It’s all about repetition – up to a point. What a delightful movie, and, by Murray, what a confident, clever performance. Hard to believe, but next year, this movie will be 20 years old. Groundhogs usually don’t live past 10 years, but this Groundhog, I’m sure, will be around for many, many days to come. Including yesterday and today. [/B].

THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON
Sundance, 8:00 p.m. ET
It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you – and as this 2006 documentary proves conclusively, the United States government was out to get John Lennon. Get him out of the country, that is, even though all the former Beatle wanted to do was live in New York City. Sadly, that’s where he died instead – but not before winning his battle to live there in peace.

DAMAGES
DirecTV Audience Network, 9:00 p.m. ET
The flash-aheads and teases are over – or, at least, converging. Tonight, Ellen (Rose Byrne) and Patty (Glenn Close) are so eager to face each other and duel in court that they each, independently, scuttle their respective clients’ plans for a plea bargain. These two women want to butt heads, and horns, in court – and it looks like they’re about to do precisely that.

NY MED
ABC, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES FINALE: Part 2 of 2. Terence Wrong’s strong summer series concludes with one final captivating hour, rotating among several touching medical stories – some life-and-death, others quality-of-life. Among the former: investment banker Rita Severino (pictured), mother of two, who has to calculate the risks of having a complex operation to remove a large tumor behind her liver, or sell herself short. The operation requires removing, then replacing in their proper places, all of her major abdominal organs. Hard to imagine – and, I imagine, even harder to approve as a surgical procedure on yourself.

FUTURAMA
Comedy Central, 10:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s new episode is titled “Viva Mars Vegas,” which means, for Fry and the gang, another bling-filled trip to the interplanetary vacation spot of the future. Futurama has visited Mars Vegas before, but this is the newly reopened version, which even comes with a new slogan: “What You Don’t Know About Your Bedspread Won’t Hurt You.” Yikes.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

Shopping for a new monitor (large family room HD monitor that is) a couple years ago... Comparing model A to model B, the salesman pivots to a script on cables and says, "You need all new cables for this set to work" and proceeds to show me all the cables I will need to buy. I pause and ask him "How do you know what cables I already have?" He was stopped cold, had no idea what to say, then blurts out, "If your cables are more than 3 years old, they all need to be replaced."

Asked for his manager, told him I would never spend another dime there again, and walked out. As I am leaving the store, the Manager repeats, "cables don't last more than 3 years, he's right" OK, apparently the store isn't going to last more than 3 years from this statement.

This is one major benefit of Digital - if you get a picture, it's a perfect picture. There is no questioning, by rank amateurs, or wanna-be-pro's such as us, if your cables needs replacing. if you get a signal, your cable is fine.

Caleb

Hmmm... The guy at the door at Best Buy has NEVER checked my purchases, and I purchase a lot of stuff from them in the store (as well as from other stores online).

Some managers make the guy at the door do it more than others in order to justify the job. In fact, the worst is when it is the manager sitting there. When it's the manager, I get the feeling they'd strip search you if they could.

I just walk by. If they keep insisting, I tell them to call the cops if they think I've stolen something.

It just burns me up that they clearly are on a fishing expedition because they have no idea at all about real store security. The fact is, the best stores for security with the least loss are the ones where you don't even notice the security at all.

Amazon matched best buys $17.99 on the JAWS blu but some states you pay tax on amazon purchases too so thats a wash.
But then if you use the BB reward zone card to get their $$ points it was actually cheaper at best buy than amazon.

Sure, but Amazon isn't the only online store.

For example, yesterday, the Jaws BD/DVD/DC/UV set was $16.62 with free shipping, no tax and no gas to drive to the store at Deep Discount. However, it's now over $21 there. That means you have to watch prices.

The nice thing is, you can get all the local store ads plus check online prices with just a few minutes of research. That means, there's no reason to pay too much for something that is the same product no matter where you go.

Further, there are many outside services that can help you compare prices or alert you to price drops nearly automatically. Between DVD Price Search and Camel, Camel, Camel, I get a lot of information about not just who has the lowest price now, but who likely will later.

Yes now....but during release week 17.99 was the cheapest.

---

Saturday NBC 4:00pm is the Travers "the midsummer derby" from Saratoga but what a dull field....no horse is a Grade I winner this year:

1. Speightscity (Irad Ortiz Jr., 30-1); 2. Five Sixteen (Rosie Napravnik, 15-1); 3. Golden Ticket (David Cohen, 20-1); 4. Stealcase (Shaun Bridgmohan, 15-1); 5. Street Life (Jose Lezcano, 5-1); 6. Alpha (Ramon Dominguez, 5-2); 7. Atigun (Mike Smith, 12-1); 8. Neck ’n Neck (Leandro Goncalves, 9-2), 9. Liaison (Rafael Bejarano, 8-1); 10. Nonios (John Velazquez, 4-1); 11. Fast Falcon (Junior Alvarado, 20-1).

The Pacific Classic at Del Mar on TVG sunday looks better with Game On Dude & Richard Kids both likely entries when they draw tomorrow.
Edited by dcowboy7 - 8/22/12 at 10:15am

 

When Fry's first opened I didn't like them checking receipts. Of which they hardly ever actually do... rather they simply mark the receipt as proof they did what they were supposed to I'm guessing. After a while I thought I don't see any reason to take it personal and I'm certainly not going to let it stop me from getting the best deal. For starters they match Internet prices (any authorized site). Yesterday tigerdirect.com had a 8-port Gigabit switch for $25 and a 5-port for $20. They were selling them for $40 and $30 which isn't a bad price at all. Within a few minutes I walked out with them (since they were for a client) tax deferred. I couldn't count the number of times they have price matched items for me.

 

Best Buy is to a large degree location (and personnel driven). I often shop at three locations and each of them has their own personality. At one I can return an item costing a thousand dollars or more and they won't even look in the open box to inspect the item. At another regardless of what it is... it's a trip to the geek squad to have it checked out. Complete will plugging it in to see it's not blown up!

 

Whatever policies they have in place is fine by me and just because I might not agree with every one of them I won't penalize myself because of them.

Edited by Charles R - 8/22/12 at 10:35am

TUESDAY's fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media Insight's Blog

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
‘Talent’ lifts NBC over Fox on tight night
NBC reality show averages a 2.5 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Aug. 22, 2012

"America's Got Talent" maintained its position as the No. 1 show on Tuesday night, if just barely.

"Talent" averaged a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating last night from 8 to 10 p.m., according to Nielsen, down 11 percent from the previous week.

It finished just a tenth ahead of Fox's "MasterChef," which averaged a 2.4 at 9 p.m.

But since "Talent" lasted two hours, and the rest of the networks were littered with reruns, it was enough to lift NBC to No. 1 for the night, a hair ahead of Fox.

NBC averaged a 2.0 average overnight rating and a 6 share in primetime. Fox was second at 1.9/6, Univision third at 1.3/4, CBS fourth at 1.1/3, ABC fifth at 0.8/2, Telemundo sixth at 0.5/2 and CW seventh at 0.3/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won't be available for several weeks. Forty-five percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. NBC was first with a 2.3 for "Talent," with Fox and Univision tied for second at 1.3, Fox for a repeat of "MasterChef" and Univision for "Por Ella Soy Eva." CBS was fourth with a 1.2 for a repeat of "NCIS," ABC fifth with a 0.8 for reruns of "The Middle" and "Last Man Standing," Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for "Rosa Diamante" and CW seventh with a 0.3 for a repeat of "Hart of Dixie."

NBC was first again at 9 p.m. with a 2.6 for more "Talent," followed by Fox with a 2.4 for a new "MasterChef." Univision was third with a 1.5 for "Abismo de Pasion," CBS fourth with a 1.1 for a repeat of "NCIS: Los Angeles," ABC fifth with a 0.7 for reruns of "Happy Endings" and "Don't Trust the B—- in Apartment 23," Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for "Corazon Valiente" and CW seventh with a 0.2 for "The L.A. Complex."

At 10 p.m. NBC and Univision tied for first at 1.2, NBC for repeats of "Go On" (1.4) and "Animal Practice" (1.0)and Univision for "Amor Bravio." CBS was third with a 1.1 for a repeat of "The Mentalist," ABC fourth with a 1.0 for "NY Med" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.6 for "Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal" (0.8) and "El Rostro de la Venganza" (0.5).

NBC was also first for the night among households with a 4.9 average overnight rating and an 8 share. CBS was second at 4.8/8, Fox third at 2.8/5, ABC fourth at 2.1/3, Univision fifth at 1.8/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.8/1 and CW seventh at 0.5/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/talent-lifts-nbc-over-fox-on-tight-night/

You missed the point, which was that prices change and that there's no such thing as a "goto" store. If you don't compare prices, you run the risk of paying more just because it's someplace you always shop. I never pre-order anymore because of that.

Heck, before I buy anything anywhere, I check my Amazon Gold Box and any deals other stores may have sent me directly. Sometimes, I end up with a sale, coupon or discount that gets it to me even cheaper than an advertised sale would. I won't consider buying anything Disney without checking for rewards discounts.

At any rate, back to the original topic, which was Best Buy's condition, I'd have to say that Best Buy is likely doomed to the same fate as Circuit City unless they downsize dramtically. There's no room for a big dedicated electronics store anymore when other stores like Target and Walmart carry hot ticket items like TVs and phones, plus clothes, groceries and motor oil - all without the high pressure sales pitch.
Edited by NetworkTV - 8/22/12 at 12:44pm

All the BBs in my area recently eliminated the guy at the door. It's wierd going in to do a return and not getting a sticker now.

I had never heard of that one before, thanks for the tip.

I have noticed lately that Amazon seems to be higher on BluRays than they used to be. I'm suffering from sticker shock after seeing their pre-order price for The Avengers. Amazon used to have Besy Buy beat on BR prices. They are a lot closer now.

Prices tend to drop significantly as the release date draws closer.

It's a price tracker plugin for Amazon.com. It lets you track the price of a product for the past year, gives you the highest and lowest price it's been and will let you know when a price gets below whatever price you hope it will get to.
That's why I stopped pre-ordering with them, especially on the Disney stuff. I usually have a rewards coupon and Target often has an extra coupon that make it several dollars cheaper to buy it locally - even after tax.

Oddly enough, Amazon's movie prices have crept up, yet I can have a push mower delivered with free shipping for less than it would cost to buy a clearance model at the Home Depot.