Disfans

Please excuse this little side tangent, I will resume telling you about my trip to Disney tomorrow. I’m putting together a Top Ten list for California Adventure, and then we’ll move on to the story of my visit to Disneyland, which I know all 12 of you readers are dying to get to.

Well finally… The Jungle Book is out on DVD, in a 2 Disc 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition, no less. I want to purchase this movie, because I’m certain my son will love it, I will love it, and my daughter actually read Kipling’s Jungle Book this past summer, so she may get something from it as well. Since the Disney version covers just a very small part of Kipling’s work, and in true Disney fashion, isn’t all that true to the book, all she’ll probably get from the movie is entertainment. However, I’m totally fine with that.

All of that is aside from the fact that it’s a Disney movie that I don’t currently have, and must possess. It’s an annoying fact that my children are continuing to grow up and leave me with fewer and fewer “real” excuses to buy the movies. I’ll finally have to fess up that I enjoy watching Disney movies and Mickey cartoons, won’t I?

Now, I’m not an idiot, I want to get the best price for the thing. I saw that my local SuperTarget has the DVD, of course… at $16.99, and I get a $5 gift card with my purchase. Tempting. Walmart Online tells me that I can have this item for $14.87 plus shipping, and… I get a free … bookmark. What? A book..mark? They realize that this is a Movie, not a book, despite the word “book” in the title? Wow. That hurts, it really, really does. I grabbed a screenshot of this, in case you don’t believe me.

The bookmark reads: “Bloomin’ In The Jungle, Help Plant the Seeds to Beautify the Environment. Brought to You By Walmart and Disney, Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book: 40th Anniversary Edition, Avilable on DVD, October 2.” Sorry, that’s lame. I’m so not paying shipping to get a free bookmark, that reads like it was supposed to be a pre-sale promotional giveaway.

But the price is good. I’m not making a special trip to Walmart to save $2.12, even if it does come with a free bookmark, but I might grab it while I’m there doing my food shopping. (which the hungry, and constantly eating monsters that I live with tell me should be soon)

I checked out Amazon, just to make sure they weren’t running some super awesome deal. Nope. $14.99 seems to be the price there, and I’d have to pay shipping, because this item only “eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.” If I buy it with the pre-release of Ratatouille, the price is $30.99. Hm… I’m tempted, but decide I’ll drive to the store I have to visit anyway, and pick up the movie. I’ll have it in my hands right away, and chances are, when Ratatouille comes out, there will be some good deals on it as well.

Now I notice that all of these places have claimed a pretty hefty discount percentage, saying 50% off “List Price” of $29.99. I wonder if any place is selling the DVD for $29.99. After a little clicking around on the internet the most expensive price for the same DVD is $23.99 on Blockbuster’s site. Everyone seems to have marked this down from the original “list price”.

I thought, surely Disney must be selling it for the “List Price” of $29.99, they must have set that price for some reason. But no. Check it out. Disney has this item for sale at $19.99 on it’s Disney shopping.com. It doesn’t look like it comes with any free bookmarks either, but it does say Free Shipping on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. wahoo. I think I’ll go to Walmart and do some food shopping and pick up my DVD, or I just may run out for milk and bread at Target and get the DVD withthat $5 gift card.

My words of advice here are, don’t believe that SALE!! 50% off List Price!!! sticker you see everywhere. If you shop around, you’ll see the same item for practically the same price everywhere. Its my personal opinion that List Price is for rich folk, and suckers who don’t pay attention. If you happened to be in Blockbuster to return some rentals, and purchased a movie for $23, when you could have purchased the movie at Walmart for $14, then you are either a)Paris Hilton, who doesn’t shop at Walmart (does she know there are Walmarts out there?) or b) you don’t pay attention to small details like where your money is going. (you know there are Walmarts don’t you?)

I understand that some people are opposed to Walmart. You can still shop at Target or even barring that, shop online at Amazon or Disney’s own site, can’t ya? There’s no reason to just throw money away, even Disney doesn’t expect anyone to pay anywhere near that list price for this movie.