Forum - View topicWhat happened to Blockbuster?
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marcos torres toledo
Posts: 269 |
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Its sad what happen to BLOCKBUSTER they had one of the best anime departuments especially in plaza RIO HONDQ here in Bayamon it was onederful to rent anime from them but now they hardly have eneything to rent only VIDEO AVE is still worth renting anime from i hope BLOCKBUSTER recovers soon.
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2300 Location: In front of my computer |
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Blockbuster was hit pretty hard by the recession and competition from things like Netflix and Redbox, so a lot of their stores and such went belly-up. It's very hard to stay in business when your prices are high compared to services like those.
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sommer89
 Posts: 84 |
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Redbox is killing alot of video stores including blockbuster. It killed the cool video store in the town i grew up in this year.
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EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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I still kind of find it odd that people don't want to rent older stuff.
Redbox has no options of renting stuff that is more than 1 year old. Apparently they also are starting to rent games as well. Netflix is getting more & more focused on the streaming thing, which is OK if you have high speed internet. Plus they are seriously lacking on the supply for the demand that anime watchers want. I used to rent at Hollywood Video (which had a pretty decent selection of anime), but they went away before Blockbuster will. I found it kind of amusing that they put the anime Dragon Ball Z in the "Children's Section". The selection at the local Blockbuster is a joke, especially when compared to the Hastings that was open (now they closed down) within 2 miles of where I live. Best Buy seems to be slowly getting out of the anime market, when they used to be one of the best places to go (retail store wise). They used to have at least one whole aisle, now it is condensed into 1-2 sections. Fry's is probably the best place now, but not everybody has one of those. |
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John Casey
 Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
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It asploded. Same with Hollywood Video and Starz Video.
And speaking of the latter, I remembered some jackass stole a copy of 20th Anniversary Edition of Tron. I swear, I will hunt him down and liquidate him in front of his family and pet while watching the movie. But a jackass who stoops so low wouldn't watch it - they'd prolly resell it on Amazon. At that point, I'll make him cease to exist. Anyway, most people just do everything via Netflix these days. And...it's not like it's bad or anything. It's convenient and pretty cheap - you should try it. Plenty of anime around. |
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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As others have said, Blockbuster failed because it couldn't compete. They were slow and resistant to any change in the renting industry and as a result they missed their chance. Now that people have Redbox, Nextflix, and Video on Demand there's just not much need for Blockbuster anymore. And sure they tried to get into the mailing dvd business and the redbox style thing, but by that time it was to0 little too late. In the end rental stores can't match the selection that Netflix has, or the convenience that Redbox and VoD offers.
I don't get why people complain about Netflix's anime selection. I mean sure it's not perfect, but its a hell of a lot better than most places. After all, where else can I go where I can find all the most popular titles along with forgotten ones like Golgo 13, AD Police Files, Phoenix, Otaku No Video, ext? I'm not saying thay couldn't improve at all, just that I'm not going to complain as long as they have this good of a selection for this low of a price, Im happy with it. Though my opinion might be warped because I also use Netflix to get live action films as well. And I enjoy the watch instantly system. Now that I can watch it on my PS3 I'll just spend hours going through everything in my queue. |
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Takeyo
 Posts: 736 |
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Well, speaking only for myself, my complaint is that the once spectacular anime section is now wasting away. I used to be able to rent any new anime release, but in the past few years, only a fraction of new releases have been added to the database. And most of those are given the dreaded Unknown release date, the discs are never actually acquired and added to shelves for rent. It's a toss up whether even new Funimation titles are purchased (Eden of the East comes to mind). And as for older titles, those aren't being replaced. When the discs are lost/broken/whatever, they're gone for good. I love Netflix and I'm happy with the push towards streaming (even though there's still a ways to go -- multiple audio tracks and softsubs, for example), but I hate to see the anime section, which was what originally won me over as a subscriber, fade into nothingness. As it is, I'll probably have to either start a supplemental subscription with a specialty site like rentanime.com or give up entirely on physically renting them thar Japanese cartoons. And that makes me a sad panda. 
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TheAncientOne
 Posts: 1884 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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Consider yourself speaking for me, as well, as I echo these sentiments, and am considering similar action. Renting anime via Netflix isn't what it used to be, and I too, am considering supplementing it with a rentanime.com sub. |
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Mushi-Man
Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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Sure it's not what it use to be, but it's not like the selection is bad. It's far better than most of the other options that exist. And I don't really blame them for not being quick to replace the dvds. Constantly purchasing all of the latest releases of a wide range of titles is expensive, and that's not even including the cost to buy replacements. And sadly, in the end, we anime fans are a small market. The majority of their customers would rather they replace copies of big hit movies, which is why selections of anime and indie films usually get put on the back burner. Now I'm not saying I like or support this, just that it's inevitable. But given the circumstances you have to give Netflix their props. Most rental services these days would hardly bother with anime, let alone give it a section and host a streaming service for it. And I have also considered rentanime.com, but so far I'm just not sold on it yet. It's basically the same price as netflix but with less perks and it's limited to anime and hentai. But non the less, the thought is always in mind. Maybe if I find myself with a bit of extra room in my monthly budget I'll give it a trial run and see how I like it. If anyone is out there who has experience with this website, please let me know what you thought of it. But for now I'm happy with the selection that Netflix is giving me. And call me an optimist, but I think that if we show netflix just how large of a fallowing anime has, then they'll be happy to grant our wishes of a more perfect collection. (Again, I think my opinion is altered by my enjoyment of their supply of films which apply to my other hobbies.) |
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