Is Blockbuster Going Out of Business?
April 9, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Movies
I was pretty shocked when I read reports yesterday that movie rental giant, Blockbuster Inc., is at risk of 
shutting its doors if they can’t get their financial problems under control. The company, which is based out of Dallas, Texas has apparently been suffering since DVD-by-mail services like Netflix (I just wrote about one of their new offers!) have become more popular.
There’s a more complex, detailed explanation of what has gone wrong but I’d like to say that I’m really surprised. I’ve heard that with the stress of the economy, people were turning towards ways of relieving some of their tension and who doesn’t like to rent a good comedy when times are tough? I hope Blockbuster finds a way to stick around but I have noticed a real dip in their offerings lately, particularly video games.
What about you – do you rent movies from stores like Blockbuster, use services like Netflix or download through torrents? I won’t tell on you, I just want to know :)
image: Blockbuster.com
i actually worked for BBI up until 4/24/09 and things were just steadily going down hill. They change there terms every 2 months and just recently a company bought all of their “new” games for sale so now they have to sale those dirt cheap. I had been there for 3 1/2 years and i was there when BBI was at it’s prime with the no late fees deal and now i have watched the fall of the giant. I must say they are still trying to fight but it doesn’t look like much longer till the doors close.
BB’s customer service and deal changing might be annoying and steer customers away, but my main problem is with accessibility. luckily I have VOD so if i decide i want to watch a movie tonight, i can watch one, but i miss going into a rental store to rent one. But I can’t do that with video games. Gamefly has a wait time of a couple of days and you can’t rent a game on demand.
The way I see is this. Big companies did what they wanted, charging ridiculous late fees, restocking fees etc because they could. Now that they are struggling, they want us to back them up after all those years of them screwing people over. I get it, there are times where I was unable to make it back to return the movies, and what do you know, a late charge. But business is business. What im saying is, huge companies should care about the customers more so when they are on the edge of defeat, they atleast have a chance to fight with their loyal customers. But thats just me.
I am a independent video store owner, we have two stores located in Oxnard, Ca. I can honestly say I am not shocked to hear of Block Busters troubles,we are also having a tuff time, but the one thing we have that Block Buster dosn’t is flexibile late fees, one on one contact, Being a small business we relate with our customers and there strugles, expecially in these tuff economical times. I believe that Block Buster pushed customers away with a cold shoulder and no compassion. If you are in the Oxnard area you should stop by A View to Video and check out our huge selection and family like atmosphear.
I LOVE NEXFLIX I CAN KEEP THE MOVIE I RENT AS LONG AS I LIKE WITH NO LATE FEES MAIL THEM BACK AND GET MY NEXT ONE BACK IN 2 DAYS. BLOCKBUSTERS IF YOUR LATE YOU PAY A LAT FEE. OR IF YOU FORGET BOOM LAT FEE. I,LL STICK WITH NETFLIX
Seriously, I love Netflix. Who would go to a brick-and-mortar store to pick out movies in this day and age? I would never waste my gas money, have to search through racks of films, stand in line, deal with nasty cashiers or pay additional fees for this service nowadays. I get four movies at a time with Netflix, keep them as long as I want, no late fees EVER. I can keep up to 500 movies in my queue. When they send me a DVD, I get an email letting me know. And it’s in my mailbox CONSISTENTLY the very next day. If I receive a defective DVD, I just let them know in a brief online form, and they send a replacement out that day. I live in a fairly wealthy area (an hour outside of D.C.), and every Blockbuster has shut it’s doors here. No surprise. I can’t even imagine how they’d keep up sales in a less-prosperous market. I called this one years ago. Stores in malls will be the next to go…