Blockbuster soon to be down to one US store (1 Viewer)

[Thomas Newton]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/13/us/last-blockbuster-america-trnd/index.html

From thousands upon thousands of locations down to one. Seems that streaming services, video-on-demand, and RedBox really did a number on them.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I honestly thought they closed all their stores years ago.

 

[Cranston37+]

And there is one Mr. Movies location in South Dakota!

I think it’s downfall Netflix’s disc by mail membership and Redbox. They were pretty gone by the time streaming came around.

 

[Malcolm R]

What's the point in running one store for a chain that used to have 9000?

 

[Tony Bensley]

What's the point in running one store for a chain that used to have 9000?

My guess is that the few remaining Blockbuster outlets were independently owned, which would explain why they didn't immediately close along with the rest of the chain.

CHEERS!

 

[John Dirk]

I admire persistence in most cases but this is laughable. Blockbusters disc by mail service couldn't even compete with Netflix. For their sake, I hope the store is actually a front for some sort of Mob activity.

 

[Bryan^H]

It boggles my mind that any video rental stores are left.

I mean they have to have a manager, and a handful of employees.
Plus the lease and utilities for the building. How on earth do they make a profit? My local video store chain is still going with 2 locations.

With streaming, On Demand, Netflix etc. this is one trend I do find archaic.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I admire persistence in most cases but this is laughable. Blockbusters disc by mail service couldn't even compete with Netflix. For their sake, I hope the store is actually a front for some sort of Mob activity.

It might be a hint if you walked into the store, and all of the titles that you saw were things like The Godfather, The Sopranos, Goodfellas, Public Enemy, White Heat, Scarface, The Untouchables, and The Departed.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I honestly thought they closed all their stores years ago.

Same here. I didn't know there were any left.

There is still a Family Video rental store about 5 miles from us, but we haven't been there in years. It's just far enough away to be inconvenient versus renting via streaming. We had a Blockbuster about a mile from us, but it closed many years ago.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Our last local video store (Hastings) closed last year. They have since reopened as EntertainMart but they no longer rent videos, they just sell them.

 

[Thomas Newton]

The only video rental "stores" that I know about here are the automated RedBox kiosks. Those are all over. But then, I haven't looked too hard.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Yeah, we’re lousy with Redboxes that I, and I’m not ashamed to say, frequent very often. Since there’s no local rental store to give my business to, and the quality of a blu-ray is orders of magnitude better than the quality of highly compressed streaming content on my internet (not to mention it’s more reliable), I have become a serious Redbox user for new release movies. I still use iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu for other content.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I've never rented from Redbox, although there is a kiosk in the Kroger grocery store about a mile from our house (in the same complex where the Blockbuster used to be years ago). Our Internet connection is quite good, and I find the quality of rented films more than acceptable via streaming. I often opt for Amazon's delayed shipping option in order to get credits towards digital purchases, which I then apply to film rentals. I've been able to rent several films at no cost that way.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

That last Blockbuster is independently owned by someone who licensed the name. If I owned a store I certainly wouldn't want to be associated with Blockbuster. I've hardly ever rented movies since DVDs came out though, as they've mostly been reasonably priced enough to buy.

 

[Bryan^H]

That last Blockbuster is independently owned by someone who licensed the name.

Probably trying to appeal to people that loved Blockbuster and were sad to see it go. Like the guy who brought back Showbiz Pizza all by himself, complete with the animatronic animals. But that failed after a couple years.

 

[Chip_HT]

Think about all of the free publicity that last store will get, though. "Hey, the last Blockbuster is still open!" That alone will probably get a story written once a year, or anytime there's a change in the video industry.

Compared to "hey, some random video rental store is over here...meh, who cares?"

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Having followed home video practically since it first started, I’ve had zero “love” for Blockbuster.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I find this sad.

Netflix and its ilk are incredibly convenient and I like them, but there's something cool about going to a store and actually looking at physical tapes and having to make a considered choice about what you want to watch, as opposed to just clicking a button.