Blockbuster goes bust...

[SteamWake]

The huge Blockbuster chain of video rental stores files chapter 11.

They intend to keep some outlets open after the re-structuring. Why? I'm not sure.

I have some advice for BB.... its really hard to compete with vending machines and internet streaming. Call it a day and cash it in.

The end of an era.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/23...est=latestnews

[AVGWarhawk]

Just a matter of time...

Red Box
Verizon On Demand
NetFlix

The writing was on the wall as it were.....

[mookiemookie]

Good riddance. I'll never forget them trying to nickel and dime you at every opportunity. I haven't seen the inside of a Blockbuster in years.

[SteamWake]

Oh there is no question that their 'buisness practices' lead to their early fall off. They have been hemmoraging money for years.

But the aforementioned services rang the death knell.

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Oh there is no question that their 'buisness practices' lead to their early fall off. They have been hemmoraging money for years.

But the aforementioned services rang the death knell.

Absolutely. An outdated service combined with a poor business model.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Good riddance. I'll never forget them trying to nickel and dime you at every opportunity. I haven't seen the inside of a Blockbuster in years.

Ditto... my wife and I stopped renting movies altogether back in 2003.

seemed like every time we went in there we had a late fee of some sort.

we recognized it as the scam it was.

One time we had rented a few movies, had a death in the family and we were out of town for 7 or 8 days.

when we came back the first thing we realized is that we still had the movies, we took them in and paid the late fee.

it was at this point that i told my wife. "You know... for as much as we paid to rent the movies and then pay the late fee on top of that, we could have just gone to walmart or best buy and bought all three of the movies outright!"

other blockbuster problems were that i would go great lengths of times occasionally between rentals and my membership would expire... this would require me to reapply and pay a fee of $XXX to rejoin etc.

Mookie... you nailed it man, they nickle and dime you at every turn

from that point on we have purchased every single movie we may have otherwise rented.

Blockbuster's problem is that they failed to adapt.

technology changed. they did not adapt.

they managed to adapt from VHS to DVD but they never made the next leap from DVD to mailing or any other digital delivery etc.

i think that if blockbuster had more aggressively attacked the angle of digital and snail mail movie deliveris in the way that netflix did... they might still be a popular movie rental option.

[Sailor Steve]

I have also not rented a movie in years. I had a roommate who had NetFlix, but I won't even do that. I can by movies at Wal-Mart for $5. I can buy movies online for the same. Smallville is a show I kind of wanted to watch, but not so much I would buy or rent it. I found a used copy of the entire first season on Amazon for $2.51 (that's right - two dollars and fifty-one cents). My Amazon Prime free two-day shipping didn't count as it was through an outside vendor, but with shipping the total was still only $5.50, and contrary to my expectations (I thought I'd get a trashed copy but still watchable) it is in almost-new condition.

It would have cost me more to rent it.

p.s. These days if I even think the word "Amazon" I come to Subsim first, so Neal gets a piece of the action.

[TLAM Strike]

I bought a few used DVDs from them a couple of years back and that's it.

I don't mess around with pay for memberships and stuff. I'll go to the library or use Redbox if I want to rent a movie.

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Good riddance. I'll never forget them trying to nickel and dime you at every opportunity. I haven't seen the inside of a Blockbuster in years.

You said it, brother. Heh, last time I went to a Blockbuster I rented a movie under the concept of "no late fees". I didn't read the fine print, and when I got back to town 10 days later and tried to return it they told me they were going to charge me a "restocking fee".

A wha?

So wait - I'm getting charged a fee? Because I'm late in returning the movie?

How is that not a late fee?

It's just too bad about the people who are losing their jobs.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Aramike

You said it, brother. Heh, last time I went to a Blockbuster I rented a movie under the concept of "no late fees". I didn't read the fine print, and when I got back to town 10 days later and tried to return it they told me they were going to charge me a "restocking fee".

A wha?

So wait - I'm getting charged a fee? Because I'm late in returning the movie?

How is that not a late fee?

It's just too bad about the people who are losing their jobs.

That's exactly what did it for me. The "no late fees" scam that still charged you late fees, or even better, charged your account for the full price of the movie if you took long enough to get it back to them.

As I recall, they were sued by some AG for it. Ah well. They're a buggy whip company now. I'm lovin my Blu-ray player with the Netflix subscription that streams stuff right to my living room.

[Task Force]

Hmm, never used these people... (mainly because I dont really watch alot of movies, well other than on TV ever once in a while.)

[Platapus]

I also like my Netflix. They have a good selection of some of the old stuff that I mostly want.

Have not been to a BB in years and frankly won't miss it.

For what they charged, the service provided was not worth it. I hope other businesses are paying attention.

[Onkel Neal]

This is a bad thing. I've already felt the effects. Although I use Netflix, I do enjoy the spontaneous pop-into-Hollywood video to get a classic film, usually after a vibrant discussion about it with friends. Well, a couple weeks ago, my daughter and I were talking about films and she has never seen Eye of the Needle. I said, "Cool! Let's drop by Hollywood and grab it." Instant gratification denied, Hollywood is gone. Went by BB and they only have recent releases now...

... and now they are gone. Sucks.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

... and now they are gone. Sucks.

Not quite. They're under Chapter 11 bankruptcy which means they'll still operate while they restructure. That's the difference between Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy - chapter 7 is gone, liquidate everything, its no longer a going concern. 11 means "hey we screwed up and we can't pay everyone, but let us figure some things out and we'll at least get some money to some of you all and then we'll restart good as new later."

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Not quite. They're under Chapter 11 bankruptcy which means they'll still operate while they restructure. That's the difference between Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy - chapter 7 is gone, liquidate everything, its no longer a going concern. 11 means "hey we screwed up and we can't pay everyone, but let us figure some things out and we'll at least get some money to some of you all and then we'll restart good as new later."

That's basically what I heard as well. It's a move to protect the company from going completely under so they can try to restructure and reorganize.

Unfortunately though, I think they got on the digital/internet bandwagon too late, and alienated too many customers over the years to make a big comeback. But it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

And I wish I could've used our local video stores for instant gratification... in years and years of membership at various places I can probably count on my fingers the number of times I walked in and got what I came for. Instant gratification for me now would be streaming something from Netflix - can't beam it to my TV, but I wouldn't mind watching on the PC monitor if I was that determined to see something right away.

It probably helps if one lives in an area where businesses like video stores have to cater to a larger and more diverse population. But around there, the selection sucked in terms of things I was actually willing to drive to the store to get.