Forum - View topicNEWS: Blockbuster Prepares for Bankruptcy in September
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
enurtsol
 Posts: 14813 |
|
||
|
Ah, I remember the days when a boring night's situation (like family's friends' families' gatherings, heheh) could be solved by a quick drive-by to the local Blockbuster....
(And my bro used to work P/T there in high school, so we got free rentals - employee's privilege.) It's a sign of the further erosion of physical media. Nowadays, people could just get stuff on-demand on cable/satellite/internet. They don't need no DVDs just to watch. |
|||
|
|||
poonk
 Posts: 1490 Location: In the Library with Philip |
|
||
|
I have to say, though I don't really rent movies anymore myself (I tend to just buy something if I like it that much), I feel bad for communities losing their only DVD rental source, even if it is a big chain store. It's unfortunate because not everyone either: A.) Has a computer/feels comfortable subscribing to Netflix (not meaning to stereotype but I'm thinking of senior citizens here); or B.) Watches enough movies to make Netflix worthwhile. After the Movie Gallery chain store closed earlier this year, my parents' hometown is left with all of 2 Redbox-thingies from which to choose. Having perused their offerings, I'm less than impressed. Granted, the chain store did mostly consist of a billion copies of the latest schlock but they also had a few single copies of more interesting fare tucked within. Not so with Redbox.
|
|||
|
|||
The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
|
||
|
I am reminded of this news report from the near future..
http://www.theonion.com/video/historic-blockbuster-store-offers-glimpse-of-how-m,14233/ |
|||
|
|||
Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23904 |
|
||
|
This is a bummer for me as a consumer because, for the last few years, most of my non-anime movie DVD purchases have been from Blockbuster's "previously viewed" section. I would wait until the titles I wanted hit the $5 or less price point and then snap them up.
|
|||
|
|||
_V_
 Posts: 619 |
|
||
|
what I heard was that Blockbuster got bought by a born-again Christian type, who was actually forcing Blockbuster to rent EDITED movies; "remastered" means "we cut out all the parts we didn't like before we rented it out"....if this is true, they deserve to go bankrupt.
|
|||
|
|||
|
AkiraKaneda
Posts: 61 |
|
||
|
Blockbuster only rented edited movies that were NC-17 on their release and got around it with the whole "unrated" thing for many of them. That was true for the better part of 20 years and was not caused by some Christian just buying out the company recently. I worked for about six weeks at a Blockbuster that was on the south side of Indianapolis in the early '90s. Lots of exploitation crap, most of it "unrated," all essentially pandering. I can't tell you how awful it was to work there as somebody who appreciated film. Very little in the way of choice, and the job mainly consisted of dusting off VHS tapes, not actually helping people. Got a job at a radio station that summer and quit BB as soon as possible. I will not miss them.
|
|||
|
|||
|
TJ_Kat
Posts: 371 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
|
||
|
i never used blockbuster. they totally put me off when they went through that phase where they refused to give you a membership if you wouldn't give them your credit card number to put on file so they could automatically charge your late fees to it.
would it be considered rude to go into the local blockbuster stores and ask the staff when the bankruptcy sale starts? |
|||
|
|||
Flame-G102
 Posts: 104 |
|
||
|
Wow. I like blockbuster. I was never a big digital distribution fan. And I grew up with Blockbuster. I remember always browsing the anime section back in the 90's
nowadays its still largely the same, but with DVD anime, but Blockbuster in the 2000's had gotten much better than it was before. |
|||
|
|||
Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
|
||
|
Blockbuster went out of business for me back in 2000 when they removed all their anime from stock.
Last edited by Mohawk52 on Sat Aug 28, 2010 12:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
|
||
Wasn't there an episode on the Jetsons or Futurama where tourists took a trip to a theme park that showed what life was like in the late 20th century? |
|||
|
|||
agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
|
||
|
|||
|
|||
|
Onizuka666
Posts: 266 Location: U.K |
|
||
|
Well, I won't miss them or their awful late fees. Its their own fault really. Like someone else said, years ago, the idea of Net Flix (not Red Box which came later) was pitched to Blockbuster, and Blockbuster said refused it. Their worst decsion ever.
Luckily the creators of Net Flix stuck to their guns, and went solo with their idea, offering much better value to the customer, and thus have destroyed Blockbuster. It must feel great to be them right now, and how sweet revenge can be, while no one likes putting people out of work (now more than ever). Only a matter of time before this filters to the U.K where I am, I better get ready to grab some games and anime cheaply. |
|||
|
|||
Mr. Anobe
 Posts: 47 Location: Canada |
|
||
|
It's funny how things go bad south and yet seems like not much has affected in my area (Canada). Hell, I remember RadioShack had problems in the past down south that it seems it didn't bother as much in Canada...but actually renamed "The Source" done by Circuit City and things got ugly afterwards.
So, I wonder if this is the same thing happens to BB in my area because it's seems to be doing fine here. After all, most of the anime DVDs were in Rogers Video, which now got relocated to further ends of the city those traitors. I still rent movies at BB; pretty good stuff there so far I think other than the lack of anime DVDs there. EDIT: Oh, I just realized that Netflix is coming to my area this fall so it's going to get ugly with BB pretty soon. |
|||
|
|||
|
dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
|
||
|
A lot of the problems that Blockbuster has now are not entirely of their own making. Their business model should have started changing back when they were still part of Viacom. But also owning a Hollywood studio, Viacom had incentive to keep drastic changes from happening. The special dividend Blockbuster had to pay Viacom shareholders when it was "spun out" certainly didn't help and accounts for most of the companie's debt today.
The B&M stores are the drag on the company right now. A bankruptcy filing will allow it to rid itself of underperforming stores and avoid costly lease breaking penalties that have been a big drag on its finances. A bankruptcy in this case doesn't mean they are going out of business and as the article says, they plan to only be in the process for five months. They are simply using it to restructure their business as many comapny have done in the past. I don't want to see them go out of business as I use their online service over Netflix because they get new releases sooner, they ship to me quicker than Netflix did, and they don't charge extra for blurays. I also tend to use their kiosks more than Redbox because they get most new releases on day one, instead of having to wait a month. Last edited by dragonrider_cody on Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
R315r4z0r
 Posts: 717 |
|
||
|
I saw this coming years ago when Cablevision's 'On Demand' started to take shape. It's a wonder how they lasted this long.
|
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group