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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Topic: Blockbuster's future in question
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Pravin Ratnam
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 844
From: Atlanta, GA,USA
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 04-09-2011 12:14 AM
I got one of those Blockbuster closing sales and got a couple of used DVDs for 2 bucks each. Then I signed up for a two month 5.95 a month deal (11 per month after two months , at which I point I cancel) and for myu 12 bucks, I got a free used BluRay of my choice 12.99 or below, those 2 months of free rentals online, one at a time, with alternate store exchanges allowedm and a couple of free rentals from kiosks.
So I am getting my money's worth. I havent used BB in a long time and signed up for this only because I get to rent a lot of BluRays for what will be less than 1 buck a rental.
Oh, and if you have a GIFT CARD, BB is no longer honoring it because of the bankruptcy, at least in some stores. THe store near my house at this notice that as of 4/7, they stopped honoring gift cards.
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Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.
Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 04-23-2011 11:38 PM
quote:
Dish Keeping About 575 Blockbuster Stores
By: Erik Gruenwedel
Dish Network, new owner of bankrupt Blockbuster Inc., is keeping about 575 stores in operation while pulling the plug on another 1,100 stores, according to filings with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
Englewood, Colo.-based Dish, which acquired Blockbuster for $320 million in an auction sale April 6, didn’t disclose why the remaining stores would remain open.
In an April 16 court filing, Blockbuster submitted the addresses of about 572 stores it had attached cure amounts on outstanding lease payments due landlords and property owners. Several of the locations contacted by Home Media Magazine confirmed they were staying open.
In separate filings, Blockbuster disclosed the locations of hundreds of stores nationwide whose unexpired leases the Dallas-based rental icon rejected, effective April 17.
The decision to shutter more than 50% of its remaining stores comes just days after Blockbuster sought a three-month extension on the April 14 deadline for remedying outstanding lease agreements.
A Dish/Blockbuster representative was not immediately available for comment.
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 04-25-2011 11:46 AM
All but three stores in the Milwaukee, WI area will be closed according to an article in the local paper on 4/19/2011.
Upon hearing this news, I went to the Blockbuster location closest to me and wanted to cash in my Blockbuster gift card before the store closed.
The employees there told me that they weren't able to take gift cards right now because of the sale, but I should hold onto it, because they most likely will after everything is settled. They either did not know, or weren't going to talk about, the fact that their store wasn't long for this world, and that Blockbuster has welched on all the money that it had in outstanding debt in the gift cards they sold that had not been redeemed.
It's shady dealings like this that erodes the public's confidence in businesses. If the lights are on at a Blockbuster store, and I have a gift card that says Blockbuster on it, they should honor the commitment they made when they sold that card.
I'm just glad that it was probably only $5 lost, and not anything more substantial.
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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover
Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 04-26-2011 03:38 PM
We had two stores in my area called "Starstruck Entertainment". Both were located in major shopping malls with one actually being located in likely the busiest shopping mall in the GTA. Both stores were open for almost 20 years and both just recently closed. The stores were famous for stocking very hard to find movies as well as pretty much everything else...what was amazing was that their prices were so overpriced it wasn't funny.
Some of the laid off employees recently re-opened the store under a different name in a different location but still had the same concept. I was in the store the other day to check it out and was amazed.
-2001: A Space Odyssey 2 disc DVD was listed at $34.99
-The Essential Art House Criterion movies were listed at $24.99
Most Criterion movies were $44.99 and they were DVDs. What I noticed was that their blu-ray selection was limited.
I felt like going up to the guy at the counter and to ask him, "how can you get away with charging $34.99 for something Wal-Mart is selling for $14.99 on Blu-ray"...I figured they were older, didn't want to hear it from me....so instead I asked the older clerk about some of the laserdiscs he had on display and if they were for sale, his snarky response was "everything is for sale, let me know what you are interested in and I will let you know the price"....I said "ok"
Brick and Mortar stores and especially destination stores are done. What people forget is, when Blockbuster was thriving, they weren't selling VHS movies at sell-thru prices.
Now Walmart, and everyone has new releases on day and date.
quote: Bobby Henderson
Are Netflix and Redbox going to make up for all the revenue taken in previously by the retail video store model?
The future for renting is online. There is no doubt about this. In Canada, Netflix skipped the whole mail-in thing and went right to downloading.
Blockbuster Canada is still seperate from Blockbuster USA and the Canadian arm is still doing ok, but RedBox is coming.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-26-2011 05:44 PM
quote: Tom Petrov
The future for renting is online. There is no doubt about this. In Canada, Netflix skipped the whole mail-in thing and went right to downloading.
The "future of" or whatever is besides the point. The push for moving everything to instant downloads and all that nonsense has potentially VERY BAD consequences for the entire entertainment industry. There is a lot of traditional business models of delivering movies, TV shows, etc. that are actually under threat by viewers bypassing the mechanisms that make the business profitable and sustainable.
The "future" of movie renting may indeed be in pay per view via cable/satellite and streaming from the Internet. Unfortunately, those systems don't bring in as much revenue as the old corner video store model did. Those new systems don't provide anywhere near as many jobs. That ultimately makes the new system a negative development in overall economics. You have a net loss of jobs and net loss of money made. The video rental market got turned into something smaller.
I believe TV broadcasting as we know it is threatened in the long term. I think the problem will really become noticeable within the next 3-5 years. The local news and weather is pretty important to a lot of people. But the local TV stations need a certain amount of ad money to survive. More and more people are using DVRs to time shift and skip over commercials. It's becoming easier to bypass the local stations and watch network shows whenever it is convenient. You don't see local ads when doing this, plus there are fewer ads. If this trend continues to grow it will eventually cause local TV stations to fail. It will further reduce the footprint of networks like ABC, CBS, etc. to where they're really no different than any other cable network.
Many newspapers are already in a death spiral from this trend. It is causing a lot of job losses in the printing and journalism fields. Amateur bloggers with no credentials and no accountability are replacing professionals who were paid and contributed to a tax base.
Of course, the movie industry is under threat by the same thing. The business community's goal of squeezing all the money possible out of a movie as fast as possible may mean squeezing the movie theaters out of the picture, which will then result in the movie industry itself being put in its own death spiral. TV, or at least some strange Internet form of it, will finally beat the movie industry.
Some people joke about how so many of the videos posted on YouTube are stupid and meaningless. Here's a warning, if some of the trends I see keep going on to an extreme, those YouTube videos will be all we'll have for entertainment. That, and perhaps some movies and TV shows produced by the Chinese state government.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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