http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blockbuster-video-files-for-bankruptcy

It’s about time. I dumped my Blockbuster subscription a while ago since there turnaround time and selection were so poor compared to Netflix and I seldom used the in store rentals. I do hope that they can continue to operate but more efficiently. If not their demise will be a good thing.

The last time I used Blockbuster for anything was many, many years ago. You never really hear people talk about using them... It is either, "hey I ran to RedBox" or "yeah, we've got Netflix"...

Instead of leading the video rental market, they sat idle with their brick & mortar stores until someone else did something better (Netflix) and then entered that game way too late.

Not that I think that the company did something wrong, illegal, or immoral and SHOULD go away (if they did, there would probably be some government bailout for them), I don't think that their business model justifies them staying in business.

Of course you know what less competition does... Possibly higher prices from others. Lets hope not.

Any time the "big player" goes down, it's a good thing! I refused to rent from them.

You're an anarchist, aren't you?

I think it's too bad they went down. I like choices, even if I choose not to use them.

On the flip side, maybe they will have a decent liquidation sale and some goods can be picked up for cheap.

I agree. Even if you're not a fan of certain companies, it's not a good thing when they go out of business for any number of reasons. Companies like AV123, Monster and Bose on the other hand....

I tried Blockbuster online before Netflix. They had a problem with it and I don't know if they ever got it resolved. Occasionally, they would mail me the wrong movie. Then when I returned it, they would tell me I returned the wrong movie, now send us the correct one. LOL. There was no option in their on-line site to account for this. I always had to call them and talk to a person in order to get this straightened out. It happened at least twice in 3 months.

In about 6 years, Netflix has never mailed me the wrong movie.

Hopefully the bankruptcy and reorganization makes them a better company, Although I use Netflix 90% of the time I like having choices, and the more competitors in the market will keep the prices of rentals down.

There are only 2 major rental stores in Calgary, Blockbuster is one of them. Our online choices are very slim, Netfilx just started up here and the catalog sucks. The only other way is On Demand movies from the local cable company or ZIP.ca through the mail. I can only see prices going up for us with one less player.

That’s my hope. Continuing to operate the way they were was useless to me, and at least here in my area they presented no competition of any kind except for their vending machines which from the article I understand is unaffected by this.

I agree with CatBrat in that I had more problems with Blockbuster despite receiving only about a tenth of the disk from them as I did from Netflix. Their website was slow, buggy, didn’t provide as useful information as Netflix and was hard to navigate.

My worst problem with them was when I would have over 50 disk queued up and listed as available only to not receive a disk for a week. When I would login my queue, still showing 50 disks available, would indicate I needed to make more selections so that they could ship something to me. IMO their online service was total crap.

Their in-store service was a mixed bag. More than once I returned a disk only to get a call that I hadn’t returned it. Only to go to the store pull it off the shelf tell them to scan it and viola it was the one I had checked out.

My one good experience with them was one employee at a store who was well versed in anime when I was first starting to get interested. He was very helpful in selecting interesting titles but for the most part their store employees were brain-dead.

I’m also with Cam in that sometimes a little revolution is a good thing.

The bankruptcy affects the US Blockbuster only if memory serves

That would be the usual situation, hadn't had a chance to look into it though. It wouldn't surprise me if the Canadian side went down too.

Yeppers, buddy .

I also like to think that MY reasoning and rationale comes into play before my core conviction .

With that said, I remember the days when my friends and family would rent movies from across town at Ted's Place (mom and pop shop). That never happens, as virtually everyone I know goes to Walletbuster. They are literally 5 minutes down the road from me and I won't deal with them; the same goes for Wally World. They're right around the corner and I won't set wheel in that place.

Viva la revolution!

I don't set foot in any rental place anymore. I let the postal service and or internet provider burn the carbon getting movies to me.

HEHE

Blockbuster US is still operating. They are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy which means that shareholders, vendors and some debt holders are going to take a bath. The new owners, who are some of the former debt holders, will be restructuring the business. After shedding most of their debt and rationalizing their stores Blockbuster US may be a viable business.
In Canada the situation is a little different (for now):
http://www.cbc.ca/fp/story/2010/09/23/3570473.html
Personally, if Blockbuster Canada were to disappear I would miss them very much. You can't get new Blu-ray releases nearly as quickly from Zip.

I'm with you on this one Michael.

This happens to a lot of leading companies in declining industries or market segments. IBM, which has pulled itself from the brink twice, is the exception.

IB who? Today, they exist, but all I've seen them produce is some expensive servers (glorified pc boxes) and a repository for almost every data base software under the sun.

IBM in 2009 had revenues of $95.8 billion and a pre-tax profit of $18.1 billion (their highest ever). Just because they don't sell consumer products...

Apparently some folks took the news very hard here in Vero...


"Car crashes into side of Vero Beach Blockbuster

* By staff report
* TCPalm
* Posted September 24, 2010 at 8:52 p.m.

VERO BEACH — Nobody was injured Friday night when a motorist crashed a car into the side of the Blockbuster Video outlet in the 1900 block of U.S. 1, police said.
Police dispatchers said they got the call about 7:45 p.m. and sent officers and emergency medical personnel to the store, and learned the driver wasn’t hurt.
The identity of the driver wasn’t available at deadline."

Errr.....it wasn't a 3/4 ton Ford Diesel by any chance, was it Rick?

Yup. They are primarily a software and services company now. Hardware is a commodity, but services generate large profits.

I'm a little out of the high tech loop these days, but IBM is probably still in the top 5 tech companies.

Interesting. According to Wikipedia IBM is the #1 golbal software company. Notice they are back out ahead of Microsoft.

I have used a number of different Blockbusters in Canada over many years, and have never had an issue. Their prices have always been competitive and fair, staff always friendly and helpful, locations were always easily accessible and store hours were great.

I can't see how this is a "good thing", another company in touble, more people out of work, less competition, etc.

Nope, wasn't me Adrian. This is just one of the many signs that the snowbirds are returning for the winter.

Kamikaze DVD return?

Looks like somebody made it a 'Cement-Blockbuster Night'!

I'll agree that it's NEVER good to have more people out of work. But, everything you mentioned that's a result of a huge chain like Blockbuster closing down, happens to the "little guy" as a result of them moving in.

I could care less if a big corporation goes out of business because it will help the mom and pop shops, if even only a little.

It's the jobs/businesses that are lost because of corporations, that should be the real concern. But, then again, I don't believe in capitalism or working for some listless voluptuary.

"The laborer who tends a garden is perhaps a truer sense it's owner, than the listless voluptuary who enjoys it's fruits." -- Wilhelm von Humboldt

Here's one vote hoping they stay around. I'm still using their subscription plan instead on Netflix. I get 4 movies a month, which is just about right for us. Two are in the mail, then I can take those to the store when I am done with them for free in store exchanges. I like not having to mail anything back and getting a movie right away by going to the store when I am done with the old one, instead of having to wait for it in the mail.

Was just there this morning doing an exchange actually. Most stuff is in the store, although occasionally there is something that I can only get online, in which case I put in at the top of my queue.

I sure don't know of any successful capitalist who could be described as listless.

And I have to say I enjoy my sensual pleasures including those provided by my Axiom speakers and the rest of my home theater.