R.I.P Blockbuster

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by PKerr, Nov 6, 2013.

  1. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    What book? Outland was an original screenplay by Peter Hyams, although it was loosely inspired by High Noon.

    And although Stanley Kramer bought the rights to "The Tin Star" (a short story) to protect High Noon from potential legal action, that movie was basically an original, too.
     
  2. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Outland was novelized, written, I believe, by Alan Dean Foster.
     
  3. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

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    There are still a ton of mom n' pop video rental stores in most big North American cities, if you look around; Toronto still has a lot of those ever since Rogers Communications exited the retailing of physical media last year (mostly in the downtown sections of Old Toronto.) My favourite store is Queen Video, which has three locations in downtown Toronto alone (we also have RedBox kiosks in grocery stores.)
     
  4. TemporalFlux

    TemporalFlux Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    My Blockbuster also bought out the previous rental store - Alfalfa video. I was always amused by the story that the actor who played Spanky on Our Gang founded the business and named it in honor of his friend's alter ego Alfalfa. I never tried to confirm it; it made enough sense to me.
     
  5. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, yeah, I miss Suncoast. We only had one, and it was 25 miles from where I lived, but on the ultra rare occasions when we would go there, you could find almost anything there. I found a copy of "Spaceballs" the VHS Tape, for something like $13. I snapped that up tout suite.
     
  6. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    You could always find stuff at Suncoast because they cost like 25-75% more than at other stores. :p

    Stores in the mall that sell movies and music are still like that. I peeked into and FYE recently and they were selling a Blu-ray movie for like $45 that you could get off Amazon for $15.
     
  7. Random_Spock

    Random_Spock Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Generally try to get movies on sale from Wal-Mart for the most part, but now and then I go to Family Video and rent something from there, just to give them some business. Not everyone likes to get videos from Red box. Not to mention there's more selection in store.
     
  8. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

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    True, and in my area, the stuff you could find at Suncoast often wasn't available any place else.

    Suncoast liked it that way.

    It doesn't matter now though, the last Suncoast in our area closed almost a year ago.
     
  9. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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  10. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^ That reminds me of another reason people hated Blockbuster, for years while they still had the pull to make it happen they wouldn't carry unrated movies which sounds kind of laughable now.
     
  11. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    Netflix and iTunes etc aren't available in New Zealand so I still rent DVDs from time to time, although for the topic of Blockbuster they all left NZ about two years ago.
     
  12. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, one can't generalize. I often found that Blockbuster had new releases available before I could get them from Netflix. Indeed, isn't there usually a 1-month delay between when a DVD goes on sale and when Netflix gets it? At least there used to be.

    And yes, the majority of the time, Netflix had anything Blockbuster did and more, but there were some cases where BB had things I couldn't find on Netflix. And as I said, I could rent them immediately rather than having to wait days for them to come in the mail. Not to mention that I only pay for the one-DVD-at-a-time tier of Netflix, while BB let me rent multiple DVDs at once.

    So yes, for me, it was useful to have both options available. They complemented each other. Diversity is good. Monopoly is bad.
     
  13. SeerSGB

    SeerSGB Admiral Admiral

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    I thought the company was long ago dead and dusted.

    That said--having worked for them--I was never happier to quit a job than I was when I quit there. It was a miserable experience; not just at the store level, but at every level of the company that I had an experience with.

    I worked at a Blockbuster for a few weeks in '03 ('04?). We'd get Hollywood Video's rentals all the time. Our stuff had a habit of ending up in the Library's night-drop.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2013
  14. doubleohfive

    doubleohfive Fleet Admiral

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  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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  16. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It wouldn't be Blockbuster if he didn't have to return it. Probably force him to buy it because he can't return it because the store is closed.

    In all seriousness, it took a month or two for the stores here to close after they stopped renting. They were selling off all the inventory (and not at great discounts) before closing for good.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Come to think of it, I remember that happening when my local Blockbuster closed last year. Although they didn't close due to their business declining, but because the neighboring supermarket bought out the stores behind it so that it could expand -- something it still hasn't begun doing, even though all those stores were torn down. I guess they ran out of money for the project or something.
     
  18. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    There are lots of dead malls all over the place. The big thing now is to force you to walk outside in the elements. We used to have Eastwoodmall, with an Alladin's Castle game room, people would jog indoors--a real community atmosphere, like what I see in Birmingham Post Offices, which will be the next victims of i-crap.

    I don't mind kids having their wireless nonsense--just don't take what is close to me willya? Almost makes me want an EMP just to see teenage girls spaz out from no service with me saying "I can live this way, can you?"
     
  19. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    A local developer is trying to revitalize the nearby Towne mall. It's still used by older folks who want to go jogging outside in the elements (Mall technically opens at 9 AM, but joggers can come in around 8), but most of the stores are gone. I would love to see it brought up to date, with lots of stores, and shoppers, because it was a great mall in its heyday. Back in the mid to late 1990s, everyone was at the mall. They had an arcade, a food court, tons of shops (including the best shop, WaldenBooks), and around Christmas the decorations were arranged all around the fountain, which was 2 stories high.

    Now, 3/4 of the shops are gone, and what's left are places you could find at a flea market. The fountain is gone. It was removed about 7 years ago, and the place looks sadder for its removal. There are virtually no people there. Even in the evening, when it should be bustling, you'll find perhaps 10, maybe 20, people there. It's all but abandoned.

    So I hope this new developer makes it all work.
     
  20. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Went into my local Blockbuster a couple days ago to see their sale prices.

    They were worse than before they were having their going out of business sale.

    Good riddance.