Dear WalMart:
I am looking at your recent decision to remove HD DVD products from your shelves with a great deal of suspicion. On top of giving your stores a monopolistic stand, this being a massive step toward strangling competition, but your reasoning reeks of insincerity and dishonesty. So your chain is too lame to handle more than one type of product at a time? Then let's be at least consistent about it, and take it across the board:
1.) The SONY PSP: Presently, there have been more than 45 mil units of Nintendo's DS game system sold. Despite having been around some months longer than the DS, the SONY PSP has sold less than 25 mil., according to Gizmodo. The public has clearly spoken on this matter: All SONY PSP products should be removed from your stores.
2.) The SONY PS3. Still running a lackluster 3rd place behind the Nintendo wii and the MS Xbox 360, the PS3 has at least been able to outsell the PS2 in recent weeks. But that doesn't matter. The public has clearly spoken, here, and they do not want the PS3. It should be removed from your stores.
3.) All 1080p HDTVs. Public confusion is slowing the adoption of the HD format. A lot of this confusion has to do with scan rates. Most consumers think that 1080p must be better than 720p, but they don't understand why. So they buy the cheaper sets. By the thousands, in fact. In fact, US broadcast standards don't even support 1080p. a fact you don't ever advertise to your customers. Still, it doesn't matter. In order to speed up the adoption of HD standards, there must be only one format available, and the public has spoken. 1080p must go.
4.) All Sony TVs. While we're on the subject: Sony vs. Visio? Forgetaboutit. Just follow what the public has told you and ditch the SONY sets.
So it follows that, to pursue your reasoning involving your decision to refuse service to customers like myself and over a million others who, like me, have chosen HD DVD for at least part of their home entertainment systems, you need to remove any SONY products from your shelves. Anything else smacks of duplicity and deceit.
A few years ago, Kmart was the nation's number one retailer. But they became arrogant and started stocking what they wanted to sell, rather than what consumers wanted to buy. As a result, the chain is still trying to dig itself out of decades of continual decline as a retail chain and the public perception that it is a joke.
This decision reeks of that kind of corporate incompetence. You say you listened to consumers? What consumers? Because you sure as hell didn't listen to any of us.
