Talk:1992

Handleman Company, Buena Vista Home Video and Kmart

According to an issue of Billboard Magazine dated March 28, 1992, Buena Vista Home Video (currently known as Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.) announced that it was deciding to take a direct sales route with Kmart, in conjunction with videocassette duplicator Technicolor Videocassette, Inc. At the time, Kmart's video and music sections were serviced by then-rackjobbing giant the Handleman Company (which itself had been the parent company for budget home entertainment label Video Treasures since 1989 and co-owned a Canadian joint venture with GoodTimes Home Video called HGV Video Productions Inc.). The video sections serviced by Handleman included Buena Vista Home Video products (including Walt Disney Home Video and Touchstone Home Video). Studios would always tell rackjobbers like Handleman that they're doing a lousy job. BVHV was also terminating its then-18-month old distribution contract with the Commtron Corporation, which Bergen Brunswig, who acquired the company in 1982, was in the process of selling to Ingram Entertainment Inc., a division of Ingram Industries, at the time.

I recently looked up factory-sealed copies of the 1992 VHS release of "101 Dalmatians" on eBay, and one of them was purchased from a Kmart store and had the Handleman-style tag sticker (with a UPC code) on the shrinkwrap. I once even looked up a factory-sealed copy of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" that appears to have been printed/pressed in 1989 and an already opened copy of "Robin Hood" printed/pressed in 1991 with the shrinkwrap still intact that both use BVHV-style tag stickers with the generic Kmart logo on the shrinkwrap.

My VHS copies of "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "Disney's Sing-Along Songs: I Love to Laugh!" were factory-sealed when I got them and they were purchased from Kmart stores and had the BVHV-style tag stickers with a generic Kmart logo on the shrinkwrap. My "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" tape was printed/pressed on May 14, 1993, whereas my "Disney's Sing-Along Songs: I Love to Laugh!" tape was printed/pressed on June 12, 1992.

I recently found a factory-sealed copy of "Sebastian's Caribbean Jamboree" on eBay that has the BVHV-style tag sticker with a generic Kmart logo on the shrinkwrap. I got that copy earlier this morning, and am expecting it to be in the mail at the end of this week.

Even though Handleman continued to service the remainder of Kmart's video and music sections until the early-mid-2000s, did BVHV began taking over services for their products in Kmart stores in May 1992, or June 1992?

Another question I have is, how can you tell if a tape from BVHV came from Commtron?

69.85.235.224 13:08, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Sebastian's Carribean Jamboree

I just got this tape yesterday in the mail (the copy with the Disney-style Kmart sticker). Mine was pressed on May 2, 1992 (a day after one of DisneyVHSMuseum's copies was pressed) and is still the 1991 VHS release. 69.85.235.224 11:55, 11 October 2023 (UTC)