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Blockbuster Will Close Up to 960 Stores

RedTomato said:
I took out a ScreenSelect (=NetFlix) subscription for a few months, then stopped as I became a papa = no time to watch movies.

<snip>

But with a second sprog on the way, I never ever have time to go on.

Welcome to the club. I'm 5 years down the line. And no, things never become "normal" again...
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:) Congratulations on #2 in the oven! Yeah, "normal' probably isn't ever coming back. And even with the few movies we've been able to watch, it's not like I can enjoy it in all it's (audio) glory. "You're gonna wake the baby!"

Ah well, watching my little girl is much better than watching some of the craptacular films being put out of late. We haven't started watching any kid shows just yet, but she can't take her eyes off the screen when "Veggie Tales" (?) comes on weekend mornings. Makes me miss Bugs Bunny all over again.:D
 
dmr727 said:
My wife does the online Blockbuster subscription thing. Every once in awhile she'll exchange a move she has (via the mail) with another in the store. It allows her to get a hold of something immediately without her having to wait for it to arrive. That's the only advantage to the brick and mortar store that I can think of, and even then it's really not a big deal.
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Almost two years ago, I switched from Netflix to Blockbuster simply because of the in-store exchanges. I really enjoyed it, but then they decided to raise the monthly price and drop the number of exchanges from unlimited, to just two per month.

Just last month, I switched back to Netflix. I can watch so many movies and TV shows instantly and it's cheaper (Netflix is $8.99 per month, Blockbuster was $11.99 per month).
 
There's one Blockbuster in my city of 50,000 and it still appears to do a booming business. Busy all the time. We must remember that those of us who hang-out on MacRumors are not "average" Blockbuster customers. This may seem stereotypical, but most of the people I see going into Blockbuster probably don't even own a computer of any kind. Nor have they likely heard of NetFlix, or AppleTV, or buying/renting movies from iTunes, or even BitTorrent. Not to mention movies-on-demand from cable or satellite services -- many Blockbuster customers in my town probably don't have a credit card. From what I can tell, Blockbuster customers are generally simple people who literally can't afford any entertainment other than renting DVD's when they happen to have enough money in their pocket to do it. When our Blockbuster closes these people will be very, very bored.
 
yg17 said:
No kidding? Rolla? I lived there for 4 years while at UMR. Yeah, Family Video definitely doesn't look like anything suspicious. Not that I've ever been in a porn store, but it doesn't scream "Porn sold here!" when you drive by it.

Yeah, I also can imagine the uptight morons in that town getting upset over it too.
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No, it doesn't. It didn't take long after it opened that people realized it was far from a porn shop. I smile every time i go in and see the jar full of chopped up block buster cards.
 
If only redbox would rent out console video games out for $1/day. Then I wouldn't mind not having a blockbuster.
 
Tilpots said:
We haven't started watching any kid shows just yet, but she can't take her eyes off the screen when "Veggie Tales" (?) comes on weekend mornings. Makes me miss Bugs Bunny all over again.:D
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Just wait. You'll be renewing that Netflix account sooner than you realize to get all of those kiddie movies and shows for her to watch. It's so much easier to pop in a DVD rather than try to save those special shows on your DVR or go back to living according to what time a show actually airs.
 
mscriv said:
Just wait. You'll be renewing that Netflix account sooner than you realize to get all of those kiddie movies and shows for her to watch. It's so much easier to pop in a DVD rather than try to save those special shows on your DVR or go back to living according to what time a show actually airs.
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Couldn't live without the DVR. Wouldn't live without the DVR. That's why I want the AppleTV to get one so bad, but I digress... that's another topic for another forum.

You parents out there have any movies/shows I should look for at the Blockbuster "Going Out Of Business Sale?"
 
awesome, I opened the thread and at the bottom - a NetFlix ad! Well played google, well played.

It's unfortunate but kind of expected with our economy.
 
yg17 said:
They did what? Which movies did they edit?
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Lots of movies, the sad thing is if you didn't know the original, you may not have known. I think it was "Meet the Flockers" where he has him up on a ploygraph asking questions, and then asks, "Did you have sex with my daughter?" That WHOLE scene was cut, no polygraph at all. I mean they showed most of that scene in the commercials, and Block Buster cut it out!

Broke Back Mountain, yeah, made a horribly dull movie even WORSE. Not even gay sex in the dark in it, they cut that all out.
 
CylonGlitch said:
Lots of movies, the sad thing is if you didn't know the original, you may not have known. I think it was "Meet the Flockers" where he has him up on a ploygraph asking questions, and then asks, "Did you have sex with my daughter?" That WHOLE scene was cut, no polygraph at all. I mean they showed most of that scene in the commercials, and Block Buster cut it out!

Broke Back Mountain, yeah, made a horribly dull movie even WORSE. Not even gay sex in the dark in it, they cut that all out.
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Yeah, I heard several years ago that Blockbuster was doing this.
 
You mean they haven't gone out of business already? All the Blockbusters - and indeed any video/DVD rental stores - I know have already been closed anyway, and I'm getting along just fine. In fact, I'll probably be aquiring a Apple TV soon for my rental and purchase needs.
 
My biggest gripe with Blockbuster was their constantly changing return policy and the fact that they were not really clear about it. I still like going to a video store to rent movies, but I think they'll all be extinct pretty soon.
 
The day Blockbuster and every other physical rental store goes away is the same day that Best Buy, Target, Walmart and every other physcial retailer stops carrying DVD's, CD's and Blu-ray's. That's not going to happen for a very long time.

A lot of you seem forget that there are many people in the United States (upwards of 40% of the population) who still don't like using/don't know how to use computers very well...thus don't have access to Netflix or Blockbuster Online. Therefore, there will always be physical rental stores in business (including Blockbuster) until those people die off.

Also, you can't do spur of the moment rentals with Netflix or Blockbuster Online. Forget digital downloads. If you want a movie...now....a physical rental place is your only option.

As for RedBox, my company actually has a partnership with them. I'm actually surprised with how much use those machines are getting...

-----------
Also, the Blockbuster "editing movies" thing is a myth. Does anyone have an article or press release that proves it? That may have been something that happened in the 1980's...but defintely not in the last 2 decades....and defintley not with DVD's (which would be pretty much impossible given that the discs are usually identical to retail copies).
 
Antares said:
The day Blockbuster and every other physical rental store goes away is the same day that Best Buy, Target, Walmart and every other physcial retailer stops carrying DVD's, CD's and Blu-ray's. That's not going to happen for a very long time.

A lot of you seem forget that there are many people in the United States (upwards of 40% of the population) who still don't like using/don't know how to use computers very well...thus don't have access to Netflix or Blockbuster Online. Therefore, there will always be physical rental stores in business (including Blockbuster) until those people die off.

Also, you can't do spur of the moment rentals with Netflix or Blockbuster Online. Forget digital downloads. If you want a movie...now....a physical rental place is your only option.

As for RedBox, my company actually has a partnership with them. I'm actually surprised with how much use those machines are getting...

-----------
Also, the Blockbuster "editing movies" thing is a myth. Does anyone have an article or press release that proves it? That may have been something that happened in the 1980's...but defintely not in the last 2 decades....and defintley not with DVD's (which would be pretty much impossible given that the discs are usually identical to retail copies).
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Of course you can do spur of the moment rentals with digital downloads, if anything you can do it better than with shops. You can be in your house, decide to watch something, then instantly rent it from your sofa.
 
iPhone 62S said:
Of course you can do spur of the moment rentals with digital downloads, if anything you can do it better than with shops. You can be in your house, decide to watch something, then instantly rent it from your sofa.
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Not for the majority of the people in this country. Someday...but not just yet. Pay Per view is limited and On-Demand still doesn't have enough content. Plus, not everyone has cable. Also, most people still don't have computers hooked up to TV's. Even if you do, speed is often still a problem.

Again, I'm talking about the average masses, not "us" who visit technology boards and think things like this are simple.

If physical stores close, what I think we will see happen is that groups of people will just simply stop renting movies altogether.
 
Antares said:
Not for the majority of the people in this country. Someday...but not just yet. Pay Per view is limited and On-Demand still doesn't have enough content. Plus, not everyone has cable. Also, most people still don't have computers hooked up to TV's. Even if you do, speed is often still a problem.

Again, I'm talking about the average masses, not "us" who visit technology boards and think things like this are simple.

If physical stores close, what I think we will see happen is that groups of people will just simply stop renting movies altogether.
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That's what the Apple TV is for. You can decide you want to watch a film, then search for a specific one or look at the top 25, latest released, highest rated, etc. then rent it right there.

It's not just us geeks who have Apple TVs and it's not just us geeks who use the iTunes Store.
 
iPhone 62S said:
That's what the Apple TV is for. You can decide you want to watch a film, then search for a specific one or look at the top 25, latest released, highest rated, etc. then rent it right there.

It's not just us geeks who have Apple TVs and it's not just us geeks who use the iTunes Store.[/QUOTE]

No but I agree with the other posters... a good majority of people do not have access to the things one would need to do this. Almost everyone has a dvd/vhs player. Not everyone has a computer and a network connection. A lot of people still use dial up. Hard to imagine but it is true. A lot of people don't have cable... hence the reason for the digital television switch over delay. You think these same people will pay for cable, fios/dsl. I highly doubt it.

I don't for see going away with media anytime soon.
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iPhone 62S said:
It's not just us geeks who have Apple TVs and it's not just us geeks who use the iTunes Store.
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Actually, as a geek, I won't be wasting any money on an ATV until the picture quality is as good as Blu Ray. Your average user may not care about the poor quality of the HD content on iTunes, but I do.
 
iPhone 62S said:
You mean they haven't gone out of business already? All the Blockbusters - and indeed any video/DVD rental stores - I know have already been closed anyway, and I'm getting along just fine. In fact, I'll probably be aquiring a Apple TV soon for my rental and purchase needs.
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Very good choice. That's what I do now, and it's so much better.

yg17 said:
Actually, as a geek, I won't be wasting any money on an ATV until the picture quality is as good as Blu Ray. Your average user may not care about the poor quality of the HD content on iTunes, but I do.
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I still don't care for Blu-Ray. Everyone looks like they're made of plastic. It's weird and creepy-looking, and one tech thing I'll be skipping.
 
leekohler said:
Very good choice. That's what I do now, and it's so much better.



I still don't care for Blu-Ray. Everyone looks like they're made of plastic. It's weird and creepy-looking, and one tech thing I'll be skipping.
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I love Blu-Ray and now going back to watching things on ordinary DVD seems pretty drab....
 
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