^You have to have a membership card, not a credit card.
Is Blockbuster going out of business?
- Thread starter PKerr
- Start date
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
As a rule, Redbox only stocks the "1 disc" version of the film. The most "special features" you're likely to get are a director's commentary track and MAYBE one of the short featurettes.
Let's assume though they DO keep it for four days. That's within spitting distance of the Blockbuster rental price and they do it without the salary and benefits overhead.
Long story short, Redbox would go out of business if it's basic business model wasn't sound.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
To sign up for the membership, you either have to have a credit card or a debit card.
To rent games, the account needs to have a valid credit or debit card on file.
Same could be said of BBOL. They just log into the parents online account. Also, not to burst you're bubble, but a lot of teens in the 14 to 17 year old age range who do not have an ability to drive, but do have debit cards, rent games but still require rids from parents.
Anyway, this is further expansion of the companies new "hub and spoke" model. Where areas are covered by one or two larger brick and mortar stores who focus primarily on retail and game rentals over movie rentals, with the rest of the area covered at strategic locations with the new BB Kiosks and BBOL filling in the rest. Not sure how it will work out in practice, but it seems like logical thinking on paper.
For them, I suppose. FUCK Blockbuster.
A
Amaris
Guest
Yeah, I'm definitely not a fan, either.
J.
J.
Both Bockbuster and Hollywood/Movie Gallery sat and watched the industry change while thinking they didnt need to adapt because people will always rent at the brick&mortar. Now they are trying to catch up to Netflix, Amazon and Redbox hoping that their "brand" will give them business. Not sure thats going to work. Partially because they don't have the cash flow anymore. Ten years ago when the writing was appearing on the wall was when they should have been looking into new technology and business models. Very shortsighted. Also they're still tryin to appeal to a generation that has outgrown their dated business model while driving away the customers that might still be willing to use it.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
B&M stores DO have an advantage that kiosks can't touch: bredth of stock. There's only so many titles (and so many copies OF those titles) that you can fit into one of those boxes.
The same for Download on Demand, really. There's always going to be someone looking for an older, or otherwise obscure movie that would not be profitable to stock in a kiosk and/or no one bothered to upload to a server.
Movie outlets are going to have to adopt a "combined forces" approach: kiosks for the "best renters", and b&m stores in conjunction with subscription services for the rest.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
It's not outdated, just in need of a tune up. For all the talk about "automatic" this, and "walk through/drive through" that, we still have b&m bookstores, music stores, resteraunts, etc.
Cosby, BB corporate stores don't have late fees.
The large mega Bookstores and music stores are in a similar situation. The music store has pretty much died already. Many bookstores are on shakey ground. I spent over twenty years in retail books and video. The playing field has changed. The big boxs killed the independents. Now "mail order" and downloading is killing the big boxes. Its a digital age and entertainment media is going digital. Music, movies and even books downloaded right to your home or portable device. A hamburger, not so much.
Impulse shoppers, those without creditcards, older people and those leary of sharing "personal information" are among those left fot brick and mortars.
only because of netflix they dont, they charged us late fee's up the whazoo for years and years though.
oh yea, and those pesky "rewind fees"... dont miss them much at all
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
Great if you're a tech-head. For everyone else, not so much. We've been lectured since the late 90s about how everything was "going cyber" and "eCommerce". It's STILL niche. A sizeable niche, but a niche nontheless. Try browsing a book online, for example. For that matter, I remember being told that by now there wouldn't BE any new printed books, that everyone would have a "book pad" that stored chipped or dl'd manuscripts. That didn't happen either.
Not that they didn't try. There have been coin op "automat" cafeterias since the 40s, but they never took off. There is and always will be a considerable number of people who want to conduct business with ACTUAL other people involved.
Like mom and pops didn't do that?
The tech for downloading books is just getting off the ground. The kindle and nook are just the tip of the iceberg. Being a tech-head will no longer be a requirement. No more than being a gear-head is needed to drive a car. Its a cultural shift. Like form the horse to automobiles. Soon the niche will be "hardcopy media"
