Why can't I buy a DVD player?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Friday night, Danny wasn't feel particularly well, so the boy-os and I decided upon an easy evening at home. The plan was for them to come over to my place where we'd get a pizza, rent and watch a DVD and maybe have a single cocktail.

We choose my home because I've got a connector to hook my MacBook up to my television making it a makeshift DVD player. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and forgot said connector at school.

Unwilling to admit defeat, I offered to go out and buy a new DVD player; I justified it as a worthy investment should a similar situation arise again in the next 10 months.

Here's where the story gets strange. I walked from one electronics store in my neighborhood to another, and each turned me away. Not only did they viscerally deny they had DVD players for sale, they would rush me to the exit after my request. Keep in mind, DVDs aren't novel here. You can buy them on any street, in subway stops and rent them in any neighborhood. Where then do people get these players?

I called my Korean friend who lives in the area for advice. He replied, "Oh... you will have to travel very far." What? I thought, I'm not asking to buy Egyptian spices.

It gets stranger.

In at least three of the stores I walked into, I actually found DVD players sitting on the shelves. When I would bring them to the store owner, he/she would get the same uncomfortable look and send me out the door. A Korean friend later suggested perhaps these were all DVD players that were being repaired at the store and weren't for sale. That could have been the case at two of the stores (the players were just sitting out on the shelf without much care to their display) but in one store the player I looked at was still in the package.

In the end I settled on buying a VHS tape player that was literally sitting on top of a DVD player. When I asked in Korean, "How much for this one," and pointed to the DVD player, the owner simply replied, "No, no. Bad." He continued wrapping up my new old VHS player and sent me on my way.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's...suspicious. What sort of store doesn't want to sell things?

Have you considered looking online? Like the Samsung site? or another Korean DVD maker? You might need to read it in Korean (or find a translator), but it might save you from having to travel far and wide.

Sam Kelly said...

okay, you really need to get to the bottom of this. please keep us posted! it sounds bizarre as hell.