Blockbuster video in trouble?

[furcalchick]

http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13506_1-9809950-17.html

i think it's a bit alarmist of an article, but it's possible blockbuster video could be in big trouble in the next few years, with the closures of over 500 stores. i used to like blockbuster, but they suck for the most part now, they never have good games to rent and the rental fee is like 8 bucks around here. and i'm hearing that you have to have a credit card to rent new gen games? i may just skip the rental altogether and just buy the games instead.

your thoughts?

 

[iRachel]

Gosh, I haven't set foot in a blockbuster in years. I prefer netflix, or just borrowing things from friends.

I have heard previously that they were in trouble, though. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

 

[iHerzeleid]

its gonna be a sad day when they go under.

 

[yg17]

good riddance

 

[Stampyhead]

good riddance

Exactly. I haven't been to one in years and don't plan on going back anytime soon. Once iTunes has movie rentals available online it will be just another nail in Blockbuster's coffin.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Once iTunes has movie rentals available online it will be just another nail in Blockbuster's coffin.

I think that it will go beyond that. Clearly, once movie downloads take off, it will be the death knell for Blockbuster and other video stores.

 

[jng]

old news. blockbuster started dying a long time ago when netflix first came out. even though blockbuster now offers a similar service, it still pales in comparison to netflix. and besides, who really wants to set foot in a video store nowadays anyway?

 

[furcalchick]

i don't really watch movies, but their game selection has sucked as of late and their renting polices for current gen games are really dumb. like you have to have a major credit card to rent them, and it's 9 bucks for 5 days. i guess i'll be waiting for the game prices to drop instead of renting, alot less hassle.

 

[BigPrince]

Maybe they would buy or merge with netflix.

 

[it5five]

Maybe they would buy or merge with netflix.

1. Blockbuster wouldn't be able to buy Netflix, especially in their current state.
2. Netflix wouldn't want to merge with a sinking ship.

Good riddance, Blockbuster. Haven't stepped foot in one of your awful stores in years.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

i've seen 3 blockbuster shops close down around me. They were crap anyway. All their DVDs were scratched to buggery, and they didn't do anything about it.

Now i'm just going to the indie stores. They have a limited selection, and no games, but for $1 for a weekly rental, who cares?

 

[leekohler]

Blockbuster blows. They once accused me of not returning a video that I'd returned on time. It was "Fried Green Tomatoes" for god's sake. I certainly didn't want it for my collection.

They went so far as to get a collection agency after me, weeks after they told me they had cleared up the problem and found the video. Needless to say I made a phone call and the situation was cleared up again. But I never went back.

 

[furcalchick]

i've seen 3 blockbuster shops close down around me. They were crap anyway. All their DVDs were scratched to buggery, and they didn't do anything about it.

i had a scratched game disc a few months back, and they just gave me a new one no charge and i got to keep it for another week. but the scratched game discs make me think that was the last time i rent a game from bb. i'll just hit youtube and watch gameplay as a substitute to renting. worse yet, you had to wait until the weekend to rent new games, while you could rent movies that tuesday...what the heck was that all about?

and i had one close down here as well.

 

[Lau]

Every time I ever went to a Blockbuster in the UK it would have 350 copies of the latest moronic release, and 250 copies of the slightly older moronic release, and a handful of good, but fairly mainstream offerings. By the time you'd been a couple of times you'd watched them, and as you didn't want to watch any of the hundreds of copies of the moronic releases, that was it. In the various cities I've lived in over the last few years, there was always a smaller shop with a much more interesting selection.

It's got to be a tough time to be a video rental shop (partly because you can buy a DVD for £6), but I don't think Blockbuster really helped themselves.

I do think there's something to be said for renting or borrowing from the library though – everyone likes to own favourites, but if you buy DVDs just because it's almost as cheap as borrowing, you end up with a load of DVDs cluttering up the place that you'd never watch again and it's a stressful way to live.

 

[calculus]

but if you buy DVDs just because it's almost as cheap as borrowing, you end up with a load of DVDs cluttering up the place that you'd never watch again and it's a stressful way to live.

You just described my life ...

 

[paddy]

$9 for weeks rental?! We pay €5 ($7.20something) for a one night rental.

 

[FrankBlack]

I had an account at the local Blockbuster, back in the VHS tape days. I had the account for about a year and a half. Why I opted out: Well, I got a little tired of tapes that were so badly beaten they simply would not play at all, or else they made that hideous scraping noise, indicating something was amiss. A few tapes I rented bore signs of having been given a nice bath of Orange Crush, which, interestingly enough, was sold at this particular Blockbuster outlet, along with popcorn and huge candy bars. One tape had what I'm pretty sure were cigarette burn marks on the tape case itself, and on the plastic package. Don't think I want to know what happened there.

I'm told that when the switch to DVD happened, things didn't improve.

Netflix, at least for me, has proven to be much better. I've been a member for over a year now, and I've only had one disc that was damaged enough to render it unwatchable. I made the necessary entried on-line, mailed it back, and had a replacement in a few days. Easy enough.

 

[Abstract]

Blockbuster blows. They once accused me of not returning a video that I'd returned on time. It was "Fried Green Tomatoes" for god's sake. I certainly didn't want it for my collection.

The perfect excuse: Steal a movie that nobody else wants, then ask, "Who the heck would steal this movie? That's preposterous!"

 

[GoCubsGo]

old news. blockbuster started dying a long time ago when netflix first came out. even though blockbuster now offers a similar service, it still pales in comparison to netflix. and besides, who really wants to set foot in a video store nowadays anyway?

I'm not quite sure, aside from download on demand, how Blockbuster pales in comparison to Netflix. I was a very loyal long-time Netflix customer until I got throttled. There is nothing worse than having a company control what my per rental diem is. I switched to Blockbuster as they were slightly cheaper and offered everything I needed at the time. To date I certainly cannot see why I'd return to Netflix with the exception of the download on demand.

I will say that when Netflix worked they worked well.

The days of Blockbuster were numbered when they faced the class action lawsuit for their late fees. Their scare tactics of sending you to collections over a late fee is absurd and borderline predatory under most "lending" laws. Blockbuster has attempted to get people back into the store by allowing you to turn in online rentals to the store for a new one. A novel idea at best but there is a point to online rentals and that is so you do not get pulled into their store in hopes that you'll pick up an over-sized bucket of popcorn and two over-priced sodas along the way. It is unfortunate but as film moved towards digital and we saw labs closing one by one, we will see b&m video rental stores close down. Download on-demand, Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster online, and iTunes, have pretty much given almost every consumer everything they need to stay at home and never move further than their mailbox.

 

[SkyBell]

I hope they don't close, because in this little town of 10,000, that's all we have. One Blockbuster store. It's always busy, so I bet this location will be one of the last to close if they do go out of bussiness.

Still, there will be many a dissappointed kids and movie buffs in this town if that happens.

 

[ErikCLDR]

There is one that I go to when I am at my RI house. It costs over $5 to rent a movie. Sure you get it for a week but I don't need it for that long.

At a local place in my hometown it costs $2.85 or something like that.

 

[Counterfit]

Hollywood >>>>>>>>>>>> Blockbuster anyway. No loss.

 

[papadopolis1024]

good riddance

100% agree damn late fees.

 

[QuarterSwede]

The problem isn't Blockbuster. It's that there are almost no movies worth renting anymore. There maybe 1 or 2 movies a year that's worth my time.

 

[jng]

I'm not quite sure, aside from download on demand, how Blockbuster pales in comparison to Netflix. I was a very loyal long-time Netflix customer until I got throttled. There is nothing worse than having a company control what my per rental diem is. I switched to Blockbuster as they were slightly cheaper and offered everything I needed at the time. To date I certainly cannot see why I'd return to Netflix with the exception of the download on demand.

Do you mean rental per diem? Netflix has an unlimited account if that's what you want. Blockbuster only lowered prices to compete with Netflix though.

Honestly I never had a netflix subscription, just bummed off a friend and it worked great. What I really miss actually is redbox. They had them in all the supermarkets, so I often picked up a DVD for $1/night while running errands and returned it the next day. That was the best deal.

Now I'm in Germany, where some video stores charge you by the HOUR!