Oh, I agree, but I believe it will become harder and harder for people to find standing stores with a full selection of movies. Many people will probably find themselves driving great distances to find a video store.
Is Blockbuster going out of business?
- Thread starter PKerr
- Start date
Oh, I agree, but I believe it will become harder and harder for people to find standing stores with a full selection of movies. Many people will probably find themselves driving great distances to find a video store.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
Depending on your definition of "great distances". Data Holmes spoke of a "hub and spoke" model of market coverage. I think that is the most likely result of all this: one b&m store with a "deep" stock in a given area (either geographic or per capita), and kiosks supplementing that and online supplementing them both.
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Amaris
Guest
Monthly contract?
You can cancel at any time without any penalty whatsoever. Then, months later, when you can afford it again, you can start it right back up. Really, it's not that difficult.
J.
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Amaris
Guest
Plus, you get thousands of movies to stream free that you can watch on your computer, or, you can do what I did and buy a Roku box ($99) and watch them on your television. Currently, I've been watching a lot of the classic Saturday Night Live episodes. All free to watch, anytime, and the quality is great.
J.
Plus, you get thousands of movies to stream free that you can watch on your computer, or, you can do what I did and buy a Roku box ($99) and watch them on your television. Currently, I've been watching a lot of the classic Saturday Night Live episodes. All free to watch, anytime, and the quality is great.
J.
Yep, and now the same is available with my PS3. Amazing.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
It's still more complicated than going to the store, plunking down your money and taking home the vid to bring back when you're done.
No matter how easily "done" it's something a lot of people don't want to mess with.
Plus, you get thousands of movies to stream free that you can watch on your computer, or, you can do what I did and buy a Roku box ($99) and watch them on your television. Currently, I've been watching a lot of the classic Saturday Night Live episodes. All free to watch, anytime, and the quality is great.
J.
And it's great that you have that option. Many many other people don't want to go through all that just to watch a movie.
"E" is NOT the be-all-end-all of human existence that tech-heads make it out to be.
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Amaris
Guest
Considering the millions of Netflix subscribers and the fact that brick and mortar store chains are losing customers fast and having to cut costs to stay afloat, I'd say it's something a lot of people find no issue to mess with whatsoever.
I never said it was the be-all end-all of human existence, only that it's far easier to take the Netflix route than it is for a video store chain. Plus, if all else fails, there's RedBox, and you can even reserve movies online at RedBox's website and pick them up at the kiosk.
RoJoHen said:
It is. Honestly, ten years ago I didn't think we'd get this far so fast. I remember lofty TV commercials about "watch your favorite TV show any time you want" and I snorted "Yeah, it's called a VCR, a blank tape and the fast forward button", but now we're seeing so many advances so fast. Who would have thought a cell phone you held in your palm could play movies while you traveled on a bus across town? It is simply amazing.
J.
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darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
So what? That doesn't mean the end of the b&m store, as you people keep implying. It means that the b&m store needs to adapt itself to play to it's strengths: primarily breadth of stock and customer service.
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Amaris
Guest
No, it doesn't mean the end of the brick and mortar store, but it does validate my point that millions of people are taking advantage of this new way of renting media, and that not as many people have a problem with this as you seem to think they do. As for playing to it's strengths, Netflix has solid customer service and a humongous breadth of stock.
I think your argument would have weight if this were the mid 1990's, but when it comes to Netflix, most people already have the infrastructure to utilize it. All you need is a PC with access to the internet, and a mailbox (and of course a DVD player).
Yet I have said no such thing. As for the weight of historical evidence, you must remember that technology always moves forward, and history always moves backward. You could have said historical evidence was against the idea of people wanting to carry around a cellular phone when they have perfectly good phones at home. Now, you can watch movies on your cell phone, navigate anywhere in the world, share pictures, videos, chat with people across the globe and have live visual teleconferences between a group of people ten thousand miles apart, all in real time, using nothing more than a small device in the palm of one's hand.
Netflix has changed the game. Blockbuster can't keep up, and brick and mortar chains will need to adapt or die, and unfortunately, to adapt they'll need to sink tons of money into a rapidly changing medium.
J.
Seriously?
It's been a while. Haven't rented a film in 10 years or more. Back then, we had rewinding fees, too !
It's initial rental period, one week grace period (free) after which the movie auto sells to the credit card on file. You then have a ten day window to decide if you want to keep it or return it and get everything credited back to your CC/DC except a $1.25 restocking fee. The charge to the card is the cost of a used copy which for most (except just out run new releases, TV shows, or really hard to find special editions) ranges from 1.99 to 14.99.
This was 5 years ago but I had a friend who thought his mom returned the DVD, she didn't a month later they got a card in the mail from BB saying that their credit card will charged $48.
How the fuck did BB figure that out? It's just BB bullshit way.
So they rearranged the "deck chairs".
Seriously?
It's been a while. Haven't rented a film in 10 years or more. Back then, we had rewinding fees, too !
It's initial rental period, one week grace period (free) after which the movie auto sells to the credit card on file. You then have a ten day window to decide if you want to keep it or return it and get everything credited back to your CC/DC except a $1.25 restocking fee. The charge to the card is the cost of a used copy which for most (except just out run new releases, TV shows, or really hard to find special editions) ranges from 1.99 to 14.99.
Blockbuster is a great example of a business that tries to protect itself and the status quo while ignoring the business that steadily erodes its market share.
Blockbuster should have been at the forefront of mail order movie and game rentals, they should have bought out or pownd the hell out of Netflix ages ago. Their name was synonymous with movie rentals for more than a decade with the general public.
Instead they just hummed along with the same old status quo and watched their market slip away. I mean shit, even the new DVDs and music that you can purchase in store is sold at outrageous prices easily beaten by any music store I can think of, so if they don't have the rental component their good for nothing.
The only thing BB can occasionally be good for is buying used DVDs and games that were once rental copies, I've received a few good deals over the years.
The last time I rented a movie from BB was November of 2008. There are currently 3 blockbuster stores in the general area, one of them is in fact closing before the start of next year. Also of note, the only Rogers Video store in town closed about a year ago. Since then, they've opened three of the standard Digital Cable/Internet/Mobile kiosks and storefronts in town but they obviously saw the writing on the wall and decided to ditch the rental part of their business and the massive overhead it requires.
I rented a movie in 2006 I think, they told me my card was old and I had to argue with them that it's the last one they gave me! Only reason I rented from them was I had a free coupon.
Even my grandma goes "Why would i rent when I can buy the thing for twice as much?" and this comes from a woman who has issues with her DVD player.
Even my grandma goes "Why would i rent when I can buy the thing for twice as much?" and this comes from a woman who has issues with her DVD player.
I last rented at Blockbuster about 10 years ago. I went to check out the Science Fiction section and it was gone. I asked one of the clerks what had happened and they told me the store had been rearranged. All of the sci fi was put into the Action section. 
I asked the clerk: "So, if I want to rent 2001, it will be in the Action section?" "Yes".......so I asked "Have you ever seen 2001?" I didn't get anywhere.
I asked the clerk: "So, if I want to rent 2001, it will be in the Action section?" "Yes".......so I asked "Have you ever seen 2001?" I didn't get anywhere.
Interesting. So you blame the clerk for personally deciding to rearrange the store, perhaps just to personally spite you?I last rented at Blockbuster about 10 years ago. I went to check out the Science Fiction section and it was gone. I asked one of the clerks what had happened and they told me the store had been rearranged. All of the sci fi was put into the Action section.
I asked the clerk: "So, if I want to rent 2001, it will be in the Action section?" "Yes".......so I asked "Have you ever seen 2001?" I didn't get anywhere.
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Amaris
Guest
Interesting. So you blame the clerk for personally deciding to rearrange the store, perhaps just to personally spite you?I last rented at Blockbuster about 10 years ago. I went to check out the Science Fiction section and it was gone. I asked one of the clerks what had happened and they told me the store had been rearranged. All of the sci fi was put into the Action section.
I asked the clerk: "So, if I want to rent 2001, it will be in the Action section?" "Yes".......so I asked "Have you ever seen 2001?" I didn't get anywhere.
Where did he blame the clerk?
Where did he say the clerk rearranged the store?
Where did he say the clerk did it to spite him?
J.
Well he did ask the clerk if he had seen 2001. Which would seem to indicate that he thought the clerk had control over such maters.
Not an unusual reaction in retail. Customers need to vent and those who work the other side of the counter have to take it. (till the customer leaves)
Not an unusual reaction in retail. Customers need to vent and those who work the other side of the counter have to take it. (till the customer leaves)
Thank you J.Interesting. So you blame the clerk for personally deciding to rearrange the store, perhaps just to personally spite you?I last rented at Blockbuster about 10 years ago. I went to check out the Science Fiction section and it was gone. I asked one of the clerks what had happened and they told me the store had been rearranged. All of the sci fi was put into the Action section.
I asked the clerk: "So, if I want to rent 2001, it will be in the Action section?" "Yes".......so I asked "Have you ever seen 2001?" I didn't get anywhere.
Where did he blame the clerk?
Where did he say the clerk rearranged the store?
Where did he say the clerk did it to spite him?
J.
All I did was leave.
