Blockbuster Video to Close Its Last 300 U.S. stores

[Fat Freddy]

Like record/CD stores before them, brick-and-mortar video stores appear to be going the way of the dodo bird. The former video-rental giant Blockbuster announced last week that their 300 remaining video stores in the U.S. will all be closed by the end of the year.

 

Reaction to this news from movie buffs was immediate: "Wait... Blockbuster was still a thing? Really?"

Honestly, I don't think I'll miss Blockbuster very much (they came into my home town about twelve years ago and killed the only really GOOD independent video store we had!!), but its passing certainly does mark the end of an era. Blockbuster once boasted 9000 (!) stores around the world, it shows how quickly people's movie-watching habits have changed, from renting a video or DVD at a brick-and-mortar store, to services like Netflix and On Demand streaming.

In a fit of nostalgia, I wrote a quick blog entry about the end of Blockbuster...

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Farewell-to-Blockbuster-Video

[Dark Star]

Something interesting about this?? Apparently the very LAST Movie to be rented?? Was This is the End... Seems fitting, no???

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Something interesting about this?? Apparently the very LAST Movie to be rented?? Was This is the End... Seems fitting, no???

I don't know if I actually believe that, but it is fitting. A shit film, from a shit rental store.

[Jacob M.]

Back in the day when Blockbuster was still relevant I refused to rent anything there. I saw the prices and thought it was a complete rip off. Why should I pay $5 to rent a new movie from them when I can go across the street and get the same thing from the grocery store for $3.

[Fat Freddy]

Back in the day when Blockbuster was still relevant I refused to rent anything there. I saw the prices and thought it was a complete rip off. Why should I pay $5 to rent a new movie from them when I can go across the street and get the same thing from the grocery store for $3.

 

I think their fate was officially sealed when RedBox machines started popping up. Their rental price was cheaper and obviously they're a win-win for the retailers/franchisees, who don't need a building or employees.

[JamesEagle]

In a way this feels sad ... another chapter in the death of the High Street ... but then again, they put all the small video rental shops out of business years ago, including my beloved Video Inn, so what comes around goes around.

[The Rocker]

 

Back in the day when Blockbuster was still relevant I refused to rent anything there. I saw the prices and thought it was a complete rip off. Why should I pay $5 to rent a new movie from them when I can go across the street and get the same thing from the grocery store for $3.

 

I think their fate was officially sealed when RedBox machines started popping up. Their rental price was cheaper and obviously they're a win-win for the retailers/franchisees, who don't need a building or employees.

 

I get what you're saying, but the machines don't refill themselves.

[Fat Freddy]

I get what you're saying, but the machines don't refill themselves.

 

 

Maintaining a couple of RedBox machines is way less overhead than running a full scale video store. You just gotta show up once a week to rotate out the old DVDs and put some new releases in, that's about it. Otherwise it pretty much runs itself.

 

.. .wish I'd had an opportunity to invest in RedBox when it was getting off the ground. They're everywhere now, and they're practically a license to print money.

[Captain Howdy]

People say that the likes of Netflix etc are the reason for the downfall of the likes of Blockbuster, but I disagree. While it does factor in, Blockbuster started losing ground years ago when prices of new DVD's started dropping to the point that you could buy a film for not much more than what it cost to rent. What made it worse was when they started to put things up as ex-rental for sale, they were barely cheaper than new prices elsewhere. Their new retail DVDs were also overpriced.

By the time streaming services like Netflix came along, Blockbuster was already in the crapper and it just drove the final nail in its coffin.

 

The only thing that I know people were still renting from them in recent years was console games, but even that started to die out when the likes of Lovefilm started doing rental via mail.