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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

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

Oh, I do sometimes go the the nearest BB and see what they have on sale cheap. I guess I will miss that part.

A little.

Not really.

[frau kaleun]

My biggest complaint with BB was that, on the few occasions that I bothered to stop there because I had some movie in mind that I wanted to see, they would not have it. And I don't mean new releases, of which they would always have plenty, altho on occasion I'd want one of those and all 8 dozen copies would be out. But even with other stuff, older movies - either they only kept one copy in stock and it was gone, or it would be something that they didn't bother to stock at all because it wouldn't have a wide enough appeal given the local customer base.

And then when the one particular thing I wanted to see wasn't available, I'd plod around in there for who knows how long trying to find something else of immediate interest so I didn't feel like I'd wasted a trip.

Then to top it off they closed the one that was most convenient for me on the weekends, so I went to Netflix and never looked back.

[SteamWake]

I do subscribe to netflix 10 bucks a month.

There awsome with a 2 day turn around on disks, live streaming of shows I like. Currently going through "My name is Earl" and laughing my butt off.

I have also been going through Battlestar Gallactica only available on disk but in the third season now and I'm losing interest in it. My wife calls it "All my Cylons"

[frau kaleun]

Waiting two days for the movie I want and knowing I will get it is much better than trudging down to the store today only to find the movie I want isn't and maybe never will be available there, and if it is I'll have to trudge back down there and try again another time. Plus trudge back there to return it.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

I do subscribe to netflix 10 bucks a month.

There awsome with a 2 day turn around on disks, live streaming of shows I like. Currently going through "My name is Earl" and laughing my butt off.

I have also been going through Battlestar Gallactica only available on disk but in the third season now and I'm losing interest in it. My wife calls it "All my Cylons"

Oh we love netflix. My family (dad especially) got hooked on 24 and we went through 7 seasons in a couple months with instant play. Waiting for season 8 is the worst kind of torture I'm gonna miss that when I move outta the house...

[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.