Seriously,
Blockbuster can't seem to get a break. In a recent SEC filing, the company identified 18 percent of its retail outlets it deemed unprofitable and announced plans to close up to 960 stores by the end of 2010. That's divided into up to 685 by the end of this year and the remaining 275 the year after, but the filing continues to say that up to 1,560 locations, or 22 percent of its total retail coverage, could end up falling the wayside. Another slide indicates how the company sees itself going forward, with an expansion of kiosks and its
Total Access subscriber base, and putting
OnDemand in "nearly every connected device." Of course, if this brings Blockbuster back to profitability as it expects to be, then more power to it, but it's clear that the one-time king is fighting wars
on a number of sides and has a long way to go if it
intends to stay afloat, much less reclaim its crown.
[Via
CNET]
posted Sep 15th 2009 8:32PM
Interesting, they apparently don't consider Netflix a competitor for its On Demand offering.
That is exactly why they are closing 960 stores. They just don't get it.
Reminds me of AOL. They projected a public image of incompetence and blind refusal to see the obvious.
It's because Blockbuster ondemand is a pay per view download service like Amazon, iTunes, or cable set top boxes... Netflix is unlimited streaming included in the price of their physical disc service. IMO, that means Netflix is not a competitor in that segment (I have Netflix and would never consider regularly using a pay per view service like Amazon, iTunes, BB, Xbox Live downloads, Vudu, etc. as it would cost way too much if used for more than a very occasional rental).
@kballs
You work at blockbuster? As an excutive? All the fine dancing and word-manging about terminology is great and all but Netflix still is a competition to Blockbuster's On-demand service. As long as I can stream a new movie instantly to any pc in my household, to my xbox 360 and other devices like home theatre pcs, quickly and easily, it has the potential to steal customers from Blockbuster's On-Demand service. Especially if the pricing is reasonably close.
A service or store that can steal your customers is competition. Pricing aside, netflix has already stolen many Blockbuster customers. I don't expect the trend to stop.
Blockbuster actually does "get it". Mass-market consumers, in general, don't care enough about service to justify providing it, and service (and cost) is all a big brick-and-mortar storefront offers that a Redbox-like kiosk doesn't. No human interaction; mass-market consumers don't care. Pitiful selection; mass-market consumers don't care. They just want to pay as little as possible.
Cheap cheap cheap consumers = cheap cheap cheap services offered.
well i dunno about cheap...but $10 for 5 days for a video game is absolutely redicoulous....they deserve to shut down stores for lack of business
They're still in business?
hmm, be great at one thing, or mediocre at a bunch of things. cant decide which segment to get involved in? bye bye
This is HD news? Last time I went to Blockbuster (1.5 yrs ago), they didn't rent blu-ray.
Is this really a loss?
what a slow day.... nothing new since 8pm last night.....
Big deal. I stopped being a Blockbuster member YEARS ago when they had the whole late fee fiasco. They tried charging me late fees for videos I returned on time. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Haven't rented a movie since. I just wait until the movies come to the HBOs or Starz channels on my cable since I subscribe to those.
@kballs
and to add to that, besides changing their on-demand to being a free queue service for subscribers, they should pursue a deal with putting blockbuster online on the PS3 xmb.
But, they don't seem to 'get it'.
VENGEANCE IS MINE!
-Disgruntled Ex-employee