BryanS Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 I knew this was coming. Soon, BlockBuster will be history.What I Hated About YouIs that you did not trust your own stores. Why in the hell did I have to get a different card... from each of three locations in Houston?!? All the cards looked the same. You'd think ONE CARD would have worked in ALL STORES! You idiots. Now the game is up. BlockBuster will cease all operations in ~12 months. My prediction.DALLAS — Blockbuster is planning to close as many as 960 stores by the end of next year. That would shrink the video rental chain by more than 20 percent as it struggles against stiff competition from Netflix and Redbox.The store closures disclosed in documents filed today shows Blockbuster is having to cut much deeper than it anticipated to save money and keep its lenders happy.Blockbuster now expects to close between 810 and 960 of its U.S. stores through 2010, up from its the 380 to 425 stores that normally would be closed. If Blockbuster hits the high end of the new target for store closures, it will represent 22 percent of its 4,356 U.S. stores.The Dallas-based company has closed 276 stores so far this year.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/6619898.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yay!Another bottom feeder will die their rightful death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolBuddy06 Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 If I remember correctly, Blockbuster attempted to buy Circuit City less two years ago in a marriage of strange bedfellows. See how they all ended up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Blockbuster was a necessary evil. I was listening to a Yale University podcast recently and part of it explained how Blockbuster is the reason we have cheap DVDs now. Back when Blockbuster started (and those of us old enough to remember will affirm), VHS movies cost between $80 and $120 each. Blockbuster convinced the Hollywood studios that there was more money to be made in moving a large volume of cheaper movies rather than a smaller volume of expensive movies.That said, I haven't rented anything from Blockbuster in probably five years.Netflix and AppleTV FTW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Weird, a little while back it looked like Blockbuster was going to kill Netflix and now its the reverse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 My wife checked out a couple of movies this past weekend at blockbuster. She got the daily rental and it was $2.99 per day. What a rip considering there are redboxes all over the place. Last time we rented from blockbuster it was $1.99 for first run movies (still too expensive) and $0.99 for older titles. With pricing decisions like that, it's no wonder they're having trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20thStDad Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Wait, so I can rent a movie for $1.99 and pay just that, or order it on demand for $5.99? What's the problem here? I'm not sure where the bad feelings are coming from, unless all of you were just incapable of returning movies and had to deal with fees. We rent a movie 3 times a year, not going to bother with Netflix because it would be a waste.By the way, the card I have from when I lived in Baton Rouge worked here just fine, at all of their stores. Are you talking about back in 1992? They progressed since then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Wait, so I can rent a movie for $1.99 and pay just that, or order it on demand for $5.99? What's the problem here? I'm not sure where the bad feelings are coming from, unless all of you were just incapable of returning movies and had to deal with fees. We rent a movie 3 times a year, not going to bother with Netflix because it would be a waste.By the way, the card I have from when I lived in Baton Rouge worked here just fine, at all of their stores. Are you talking about back in 1992? They progressed since then.^^^This.You gotta be pretty addicted to your TV to make Netflix worth it. And, isn't editor the one that screams so loud about monthly contracts (I agree)? Being tethered to a monthly movie contract sounds like the same thing, which is why I do not subscribe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Wait, so I can rent a movie for $1.99 and pay just that, or order it on demand for $5.99? What's the problem here? I'm not sure where the bad feelings are coming from, unless all of you were just incapable of returning movies and had to deal with fees. We rent a movie 3 times a year, not going to bother with Netflix because it would be a waste.By the way, the card I have from when I lived in Baton Rouge worked here just fine, at all of their stores. Are you talking about back in 1992? They progressed since then.Why pay $1.99. Just go to redbox and get it for $0.99. To bad the on-demand feature is still so expensive vs rentals since it really doesn't cost the cable provider much of anything to deliver to your home. I wonder if there are high licensing fees involved or maybe it's just a huge margin producer for the ccomcast, et al.I used my card from Atlanta when I moved here 10 years ago, but I had to register it at each store I wanted to check out from. Not sure why blockbuster insisted on that hassle. Plus, you always have to return movies to the same store. When we go on trips, we get movies for the kids from a nearby redbox and then drop them off wherever we happen to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 My wife checked out a couple of movies this past weekend at blockbuster. She got the daily rental and it was $2.99 per day. What a rip considering there are redboxes all over the place. Last time we rented from blockbuster it was $1.99 for first run movies (still too expensive) and $0.99 for older titles. With pricing decisions like that, it's no wonder they're having trouble.It was some summer promo with the $2/$1 pricing.I think they lost money on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 It was some summer promo with the $2/$1 pricing.I think they lost money on that.Yeah...they probably did. Too bad. I've always enjoyed browsing through the racks and finding movies I intended to see but never got around to or discovering new movies I'd never heard about. Seems like those days are numbered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 I just pirate all the movies I want to watch. Stealing someone's intellectual property is fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 I went to Blockbuster for the first time in ages last month and got a non-new release for $1/day. They did, however, have to make me a new laminated card for that store since I had never been to that one.I have visited a Red Box a couple times and never saw anything available I wanted to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yeah, I'm with 20thSt and Red. I rent a few times a year. Netflix would be a waste, and besides, usually it's a spur of the moment decision to watch a movie. I honestly don't understand why Netflix is so big now. I usually find that Hollywood Video has a better selection of movies, but I have not been able to successfully play a rental DVD in the last several attempts. Either from BB or HV. I know it's not my player because it plays all the movies I own on DVD just fine. I guess it's too much to expect that people won't treat the rental DVD's like coasters or frisbees or something.And, I gotta say it here: Support your local Audio-Video Plus! One of the last, great, unique stores in Houston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yeah, I'm with 20thSt and Red. I rent a few times a year. Netflix would be a waste, and besides, usually it's a spur of the moment decision to watch a movie. I honestly don't understand why Netflix is so big now.Because there's a lot of people out there that like to watch more DVDs than a few a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanS Posted September 16, 2009 Author Share Posted September 16, 2009 Are you talking about back in 1992? They progressed since then.Yes, somewhere around in there. I kid you not. I had to fill out the same "application"... three different times...In fact... now that I think about it... I was still renting VHS for a while from them... Anyway, screw it. They crossed me once. Never again.I went to Blockbuster for the first time in ages last month and got a non-new release for $1/day. They did, however, have to make me a new laminated card for that store since I had never been to that one.I have visited a Red Box a couple times and never saw anything available I wanted to see.That's what I am talking about! Makes no sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTAWACS Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 I find netflix has a much better selection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtticaFlinch Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yes, somewhere around in there. I kid you not. I had to fill out the same "application"... three different times...In fact... now that I think about it... I was still renting VHS for a while from them... Anyway, screw it. They crossed me once. Never again.That's what I am talking about! Makes no sense.Odd. I've used my Blockbuster card in not only Houston where it was issued, but also in Austin and Memphis, Tennessee. I wonder if some locations are corporate and others are franchises. That could explain the disconnect. I don't rent enough movies to justify Netflix, and Redbox's avaliable selection blows. It's too bad they're closing, but it's their own fault for not diversifying as the market began to change. It means their upper-level management was too content raking in the dough to even bother with projecting the course of their specific market niche. Frankly, it's astounding they didn't foresee the internet's potential impact on their business fifteen years ago and start putting plans in place to counteract it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Just noticed that are few more are closing now.Hardly any left along Westheimer now.Any luck with this you think?It uses SD cards instead of DVD's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Just noticed that are few more are closing now.Hardly any left along Westheimer now.Any luck with this you think?It uses SD cards instead of DVD's.The one on Westheimer west of Kirkwood is closing, but several others in the area are still open.On the SD cards...didn't someone try the same sort of thing a few years ago with dvds? They would play for a given amount of time and then lock up. I wonder if the SD card is still usable after the movie has been deleted. I also wonder how long it will take someone to create a hack to preserve the movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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