R.I.P. Blockbuster

It was interesting to see the rise and fall of the video rental shop. An entire industry that more or less doesn't exist anymore (still a couple specialty shops around here, but even those are few and far between. My favorite local, Dreaming Ant, specialized in rare foreign films and pretty much the entire Critereon collection, just closed doors about 8 months ago). Fond memories of grocery store video rental sections...sure, there's Redbox now and while that does take up less space, it was great reading the backs of boxes, trying to pick what you really wanted to see, the excitement when there was one copy left of that new release you were dying to see....

That said, blockbuster itself I usually avoided. I'd rather give my money to the small shop right next door that blockbuster was trying to put under, for as long as I possibly could. Always took advantage of their clearance sales though!
 
Me too on the general nostalgia thing. Wow. Is it really over? But Blockbuster? Eh. I made a point of avoiding them, too.

The chain put many mom-and-pop stores out of business. Befitting its name, it generally catered to a blockbuster mentality: Hit releases filled shelves by the dozens, but independent and foreign-language films could be hard to come by. The stores wouldn't carry NC-17 films at all.
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Good riddance, really.

Except for any employees out a job, of course. =(
 
I'm going to miss the experience of perusing the aisles of a mega-video store, whether it be Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Virgin, Tower, etc. I guess Wal-Mart and Amazon are celebrating this.
 
Came across this via Twitter about a small shop in the Boston area.

Hollywood Express
https://vimeo.com/52259939

This is a short portrait of Hollywood Express, one of the last video stores left in Boston.
The film tries to capture and preserve the pleasures of a Saturday night at your neighborhood video store, an experience that will soon be gone forever. Video stores have only been around for 30 years or so, but it's still sad to see them go. If you miss the good old days, when you would spend hours at your favorite local video store, this film is for you.
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My wife and I met working at a local downtown independent video store, Express Video in Dover NH, so the brick & mortar shops do have a special place in my heart, Blockbuster not so much, but I did have rent there when it was the only game in town. Express Video was easily some of the most fun I've had working retail. It was during the age (circa 1996) when folks were still rocking their VCR w/ VHS tapes and DVD was just taking off, which if I remember correctly, was a very exciting time for fans of film and home entertainment. No one was glued to their iPhones or the Internet at that point, which was actually really nice.

But I haven't set foot in a video store for years as it's all Netflix, Amazon, Hulu or theaters now.

Maybe I need to pay a visit to the one nearest to me...

:pop::pop::pop:
 
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This is sad news.

In Australia Blockbuster is owned by different people to the States and so there is still a few around here, but they are slowly dwindling. You would imagine they will very soon go the same way here too. My first job was as a nervous, squeaky voiced teen working at a Blockbuster actually (the store closed down a few years back I am told).

But prior to that, one of my favourite childhood memories was getting to walk down to the local video store with my parents, and peruse the VHS films with my brothers. We'd order chips from the store next door then pick out our weeklies while they cooked. Man, a stack of weekly VHS films was nearly bigger than me in those days. Ah, those were the good ol' days. Some of my favourite films I saw in this way.

I always looked forward to getting to take my own kids to thumb through the DVD racks one day. Now, I don't know, I guess we'll just have to sit around and look through amazon together...

As long as the cinemas don't die out too though, then all is well. :)
 
I've not seen a BLockbuster in the UK for months now. I think they pulled the plug a while ago over here?
 
Inevitable wasn't it, I was surprised they were still hanging on when they closed a bunch of stores (most of them), one exists in my hometown still, although maybe not now. Last time I went in there I spoke to a nice lady who had been there since I was just a toddler, I used to go in with my mother to rent Thomas the tank Engine and such, those were the good days!

But nowadays as we all know content is readily available digitally, be it illegaly or legally, everyone knows how to get their hands on what they want in terms of media. They might of still stood a chance if they just went purely online, and put money into advertising their rentals like Lovefilm did. Who knows though, competitive market!
 
Family Video is an interesting case study - they're actually growing their business, planning to open 50 new locations next year (they have over 600 currently). If brick-and-morter rentals are really 'dying' it seems like a contradiction. The thing is B&M still makes up something like 70% of the rental business at this point, and while that percentage is dropping slowly it still represents a pretty huge market.

So how come Blockbuster & Hollywood Video are going out of business while Family is still growing? I think it comes down entirely to the corporate structure - Family is still owned and operated entirely by the original family that started it. They aren't a public company. They have managed their growth very carefully, and take on very little debt. They don't have to answer to shareholders or a large conglomerate owner like the others do. For the chains it's not enough to make small but steady profits - they have to grow steadily, year over year, a difficult position to be in when the overall market is contracting.

So I'm starting to wonder if we're reading too much into the closing of Blockbuster, and if it maybe doesn't actually represent the death of the home video store. If the market continues to drop at the rate it's dropping now, b&m video rentals will still be more than 50% of the market in a decade - and 50% of a $15+ billion market is still pretty significant. I wonder if we're just seeing the death of the national video chain, and if this could lead to a bit of a recovery for some of the independent stores that managed to survive the chain era.

In fact, this is a trend I've begun to notice elsewhere - as markets appear to 'collapse' what is really happening is that they are simply not growing enough to sustain the kind of massive multi-national conglomerate businesses that rose to prominence over the last couple decades.
 
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I think it's pretty sad. This is a definite sign of the times. You can't even rely on most people to put on a genuine pair of pants anymore. It makes you wonder what would happen if the power grid went dark for a day.
 
Sounds very plausible, insightful, IDOM. Really interesting take. Sure, now that you mention it, must be a mistake to assume or to be so sure that every or most have already switched or will be switching anytime soon to renting their movies online. And a lot of us, I'm sure, can't afford cable. And while Blockbuster and those others are gone around here, there are I don't know how many Family Video stores. That would be interesting if it meant more independent stores coming back or popping up.
 
They opened a new family video in my area, in a city that already had a family video.

I think a big part of their business relies on video-game rentals, which cost more, and you can't exactly rent online.
 
Without really knowing, or having done a lick of homework (not interested), I'll hazard a wild guess BB's closing has more to do with a failed business model as the environment changed.

If the company was financially leveraged out the wazoo little moves up or down in the environment drastically work in or out of favor for earnings or losses.
Often, once that fundamental business plan is set in motion in one direction it's financially structurally nearly impossible to change to accommodate drastic changes in the market environment, like the advent of VOD & streaming.

I think a high capital investment (low leverage), low margin, slow growth "trickle earnings" business model might be successful.
Large corporations have too much risk of trapping too many physical assets into a plan like that to satisfy all of their investors each seeking a "meaningful return" on their investments.
 
rayw said:
I'll hazard a wild guess BB's closing has more to do with a failed business model as the environment changed.
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I agree. I remember the $5 new release rentals, while Red Box put up multiple kiosks on the same corner, with dollar rentals. Netflix was also killing Blockbuster with mailbox delivery for much cheaper than drive and pick up. I was so mad, because I kept telling my wife, "Don't they understand that they have to compete?" Eventually, they dropped prices a little bit, but it was after most of the customer base switched to other avenues.
 
Bingo.
And having customer bases switching to other avenues is a horrible business loss.

In listening to business news every time a major sports league shuts down for any length of time the owners are pressured to resolve their issues immediately because they know the financial loss is great form lost customers who've found "needs" alternatives in the meantime and are loathe to return to "fickle business owners" messing up their entertainment.

Same principle here.

Business people CANNOT allow customers to find better alternatives, either in reliability or content, even if "perceived".
 
Family Video in my hometown often puts movie titles on their billboard and then emphasize "We have it, Redbox doesn't."

So, I think that might play a role in their success too. Not to mention, everything's about the same price there as Redbox (Minus the games being a dollar more expensive, but they also have more selections)
 
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