Sainsbury's ejects CDs and DVDs from its supermarket shelves

Sainsbury's is calling time on optical disc sales and will soon stop stocking CDs and DVDs on its supermarket shelves.

The retailer has already begun to phase out the shiny round media but will continue apace with records while the vinyl resurgence continues.

A spokesperson from Sainsbury's told the BBC that the decision has come due to the increasing popularity of streaming services among its customers for both music and films.

"Our customers increasingly go online for entertainment, so earlier this year we took the decision to gradually phase out the sale of DVDs and CDs so that we can dedicate extra space to food and popular products like clothing and homewares," they said.

There have been no similar announcements from other UK supermarket chains.

Profits from CD sales have already slipped behind vinyl in the US and are on course to do the same in the UK this year too, according to the British Phonographic Industry.

While this is, of course, a loss to hi-fi fans, CD sales still totalled £115m in 2020, which is far from inconsiderable. Even if that's not impressive enough for a shop with a range as wide as modern day supermarkets, there seems little danger that specialist music shops will follow suit any time soon.

It's arguably more of an issue for home cinema. Although unconfirmed, it seems likely that the ceasing of DVD sales will include Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray discs too.

There are high-bitrate music streaming services that can match CDs but it's still far from a given that streaming video services will out-perform discs in terms of ultimate picture and sound. It's a good time to support your local independent music and video retailer...

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