Blockbuster plans to part with 960 retail stores by end of 2010
By Ross Miller 
posted September 15th 2009 8:32PM
posted September 15th 2009 8:32PM
[Via CNET]
posted September 15th 2009 8:32PM
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Blockbuster has no chance.
Cmon, were talking about a company who considered acquiring Circuit City. That tells you right there that they have no direction.
but just think of all the real estate that can be scrapped off and reclaimed when they are reduced to "Bluebox"
But CircuitCity founded CarMax which looks fine and stays afloat. Go figure...
I nevertheless agree that Blockbuster has no chance until they drop their on demand service and launch unlimited online subscription. Even then they will be late in the game.
@John L
But CircuitCity founded CarMax which looks fine and stays afloat. Go figure...
I nevertheless agree that Blockbuster has no chance until they drop their on demand service and launch unlimited online subscription. Even then they will be late in the game.
P.S. Engadget's comments system is still full of bugs
That sucks. I liked their food.
I know, the Junior Mints from Netflix taste like mailman butt.
DanielT: your comment made me laugh harder than any other comment on Engadget or Joystiq ever. i tip my hat to you
Nice job Netflix with your instant play movies, streamlined video rentals services, and integrated device support that's always expanding.
^ Read that very sarcastically and it works. Forgot the "/s"
^ Sarcasm is great when you point it out!!!!
@DanielT, yea on second read it was probably obvious enough. :facepalm:
Yeah, nice job Netflix...But
Blockbuster has retail stores that you are able to switch out your Mail movies with for free, 5x a month.
Blockbuster has online movie streaming, albeit at stupid prices. But, they are movies you actually want to see. Not Magnum P.I. re-runs
Blockbuster is the same price as Netflix, but cheaper if you have Blu-Ray because they dont charge a Blu Ray convenience fee.
Blockbuster does not slow down orders because you are a frequent renter of movies like Netflix does:
"If you watch lots of DVDs from Netflix every month, it may also take longer for you to get to the top of the waiting list for extremely popular movies. According to Netflix, this is to give the best possible service to all customers. However, critics of the practice refer to it as throttling and say that it puts Netflix’s best customers at a disadvantage. Although Netflix claims it has always given its least-frequent renters the highest priority for new titles, it didn’t always disclose this fact in its terms of use. For this reason, the throttling debate led to a class-action lawsuit - Frank Chavez v. Netflix Inc. - by users who accused the company of wrongdoing. Netflix settled the suit in 2006, but the settlement is currently in appeals."
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/netflix3.htm
Oh, and they actually have retail stores to switch out movies right away if you so choose!!!
@ Smitty. There's one thing you left off your list:
Blockbuster is dead.
Not dead yet, but definitely gasping for a little air. Thats what happens when you have a terrible marketing department. How many people knew about the things is mentioned? Maybe some here, not many people elsewhere. If they die, its marketing fault. The rest of their company is THAT competitive with Netflix, but too stupid to show it.
@Smitty,
Trust me, Blockbuster throttles their online rentals at least as much as netflix does.
Blockbuster also laid off all of their staff that were actually capable of implementing all these "innovative" products they keep issuing press releases about but never releasing.
They are now relying 100% on a 3rd party, offshore IT provider for all their R&D needs. Their kiosks, set-top boxes, connected devices, etc. will never see the light of day.
I didn't know that Blockbuster had vending machines like Redbox. I wonder if Blockbuster's machines have Blu-ray...
They're going down for sure. Another name that will be added to the list of failures, like CompUSA, and Circuit City.
Eh, I'm thinking restructuring and much smaller market share. Bankrupt not so much.
I thought they were still around just in Florida and a few other states.
CompUSA is actually making a comeback right now.
@Matt, I think BlockBuster is headed down the path towards bankruptcy. Reason why I say this is because both CompUSA and Circuit City shed a significant amount of stores, then restructured and then eventually went belly up. BlockBuster appears to be following the same downward spiral pattern that the other two companies went through. It may take a year or two, but again, I think they're going down for sure.
@Josh, it's not the original CompUSA -- it's actually owned by a company called SystemMax (they also own the Circuit City name as well.) Which, I do know that they now have a strong web presence and they reopened some CompUSA brick and mortar stores in select areas. I actually do hope that SystemMax does bring back fully the CompUSA chain of stores (sans the bad management and poor customer service) -- because it would put some competitive heat on Best Buy.
SystemMax 'owns' CircuitCity, CompUSA and TigerDirect, with the last 2 having B&M stores as well.
They sell products under the Systemax™ and Ultra™ brands. In Europe, they are known as MISCO.
And if that wasn't enough, they also own InfoTel USA distributors, ComputerTV (com.puter.tv), Global Computer Supplies / Global Government & Education., SYX Distribution, and SYX Services. In Europe, they are known as MISCO. Also Global Industrial Equipment and Nexel Industries
So, while the original CompUSA (formerly known as SoftWarehouse before the original Softwarehouse sued them) is gone, as is Circuit City, the names live on.
This is kinda like what Packard Bell did in the 80s. Bought a name that had some branding behind it (heck, everyone in the 60s owned at least one PB radio) and used the brand to create familiarity.
While BlockBuster is THE name in B&M video stores, for via mail NetFlix is still the leader, and for the most part RedBox has become the name for kiosks (mainly because of their ownership by CoinStar) With 7-Eleven looking to possibly expand their RedBox installations I think ti will create a different marketplace in the B&M world. If BlockBuster can gain that level of kiosk installations it could change the marketplace, but then again, it is really all controlled by the studios.
I guess that's what happens when in your short-sighted quest for profits you forget about the customer.
good riddance!
Agreed. I managed a Blockbuster store years ago, and I can say they have a really crappy attitude toward customer satisfaction. On top of that, they do little to make the job a satisfying one and they're slow to reward good effort by team members. They cater to the lowest common denominator in terms of which titles they carry, and they practice censorship as a company standard-- They force producers to create "Blockbuster safe" versions of their controversial films, and they refuse to carry anything with an NC17 or old-school X-rating (not the porn X, but the real theatrical X which was often for violence, startling subjects, and other non-sexual content).
They stifle creativity, shovel crap at their customers, and do their damnedest to avoid carrying anything with any real artistic weight if the alternative is to stock three walls full of "Waterworld" or "Transformers II" or something equally inane and mass-appeal.
Just try to find an uncut, theatrical version of John Waters' "A Dirty Shame" in a Blockbuster store. You won't. You'll find the Blockbuster edit of the movie (called "The Neuter Version"). Try to find a non-blockbuster classic from the 50s, 60s, 70s, or early 80s. The selection is terrible. Black & white movies? They purged a lot of those from their selection years ago because market research determined that young, hip customers don't like movies that aren't in color.
They shun cult films, except those that are widespread in their popularity (which sort of takes them out of true "cult" status) and they absolutely despise dedicating much space to foreign films, unless it's cheap anime (gag. L.C.D. indeed.) or major foreign hits. Want to watch a classic film in the original French? You're probably not going to find it in Blockbuster, but you might find a dubbed, colorized version-- Or maybe just the American remake.
They resisted widescreen versions like they were the plague; Even when the filmmaker did not intend to release full-screen version on videotape, Blockbuster insisted and drove the industry standard of completely screwing up aspect ratios so the people renting videos wouldn't have black bars on their TVs. When DVD and widescreen TVs came along, they still made every effort to resist proper aspect ratio, insisting that studios release a "widescreen" version that was in 16:9 so that there were no black bars.
In short, Blockbuster decided about 15 years ago that they wanted the dumbest, most shallow, least-informed people as their primary customers. They decided that the stupid filmgoer was more lucrative than the film buffs and hobbyists. They chose to cater to the future Wal*Mart customer base rather than please the studios and directors whose movies they were renting.
Blockbuster did EVERYTHING wrong, including killing the mom & pop video stores along the way, and they deserve to go down in flames.
My condolences to those people who will lose jobs over this (and you know it won't be anyone in the corporate office; It will be the hard-working people who keep their stores running who are sacked).
@zerocorpse
You're right. It makes a lot of sense for any business to cater to a non-profitable group. Why cater to 200,000 people with money by using stupid movies (i.e. anything made by tyler perry) when they could cater to 150 people with "artistic" movies? Should they carry both? Yes, it'd be nice, but it doesn't make any business sense, and - news flash! - they're a business. Also, yeah, they should definitely have kept around the mom-and-pop stores. It makes sense to create competition for yourselves. If anyone wanted those shitty mom and pop stores, they would've gone to them instead of blockbuster.
Also, most people don't like those big black bars on their screen. The whole idea was to remove those bars. If people didn't like that, they'd never rent from blockbuster, but they did. The only reason BB is failing is because the last CEO kept f-ing up. They were slow to adapt to new things because they figured renting movies in stores as a family outing would never go out of style, but people today would much rather chill at home, download movies, and get fat.
Is there a big market for X-Rated movies that are not porn? Do directors really feel pressure from Blockbuster or is that no one will play their movies in theaters?
@ZeroCorpse:
Well written. It isn't often when I come across intelligent posts on Engadget.
They're going to bring Total Access from its current state (Profitable) to the future state (Highly Profitable). Brilliant strategy.
Hmmmm maybe the underpants gnomes are being hired to manage the restructuring?
It was bound to happen. Netflix has been killing them for years.
I recall getting a voicemail from Blockbuster saying I was $1.07 overdue and if I didn't pay it in the next week, I would be reported to a credit agency. What I didn't understand was why they couldn't tell me sooner. In other words, if I turned the movie in a day late, why not just call me about a week later or so instead of 45 days later? I didn't even know I turned it in a day late.
Meh! Good riddance!
My friend is a part time manager at one of the stores in my area, and they're closing this week. He now has the choice of transferring to a different store and commuting a half hour or being unemployed. He's been leaning towards the latter
I've been saying they were gonna go out of business ever since I worked there two years ago and it looks like I might be right, I feel bad for all the employees though. You know it's bad when you see two Blockbuster employees standing in line at the Redbox lol. Oh shit! where the hell am I gonna get those huge packs of watermelon candies!!!
hey whatever happened to Hollywood Video? im not even sure if the one by my house still exists. it might be a regional chain
We have two Hollywood Video stores in my town (in Southeast TN). Both see a fair amount of business, but here movie rentals have always been quite popular.
I haven't been to a Blockbuster since they still carried VHS tapes.
it's sad when blockbuster is more innovative than the entire music industry.
rename all stores bitTORRENT and then pretend you are making money.
Die, Die, Die
Blockbuster is up there with some of the most hated companies - Kaiser HMO, Monsanto, Haliburton, and SCO
Lets remember what Blockbuster did:
* Moved in with multi-million dollar stores and killed mom-and-pop video rental shops by aggressively undercutting them on pricing only to turn around and raise the prices once the competition was gone.
* Sanitized selection to remove any family unfriendly titles (NC-17 wtf)
* Homogenized selection which ignored local population's tastes (ethnic, etc.)
* Plastered the walls end to end with the latest boring releases and buried small budget, indie flicks.
* Killed porno dead and relegated skin flicks to perv shops (whereas in the past you could rent them at any video rental place behind the curtain)
* Screwed customers with late fees to a point where people chose not to rent than to get stuck with bullshit charges.
Thank god Netflix came along and put these clowns on the path to irrelevancy. Stock price as of today is somewhere in the junk territory. I doubt in 10 years anyone is going to even remember Blockbuster. Their business model is unsustainable and their online presence is a joke compared to competition.
you forgot monster cables in your list of most hated companies
lol
Hmmm most of that came down to running a business.
"Moved in with multi-million dollar stores and killed mom-and-pop video rental shops by aggressively undercutting them on pricing only to turn around and raise the prices once the competition was gone."
Sorry this is also bullshit. They raised the prices because studios were catching on to how much money was being made. If you had ANY idea how much each copy of a VHS tape cost Blockbuster you would shit bricks. In some cases it was 3 figures.
"Sanitized selection to remove any family unfriendly titles (NC-17 wtf)"
This I agree with. They did some colorful editing back in the 90's. However I've seen NOTHING in the last 7 years to suggest they are still doing it.
"Killed porno dead and relegated skin flicks to perv shops (whereas in the past you could rent them at any video rental place behind the curtain)"
This is the choice of any company. Porn has ALWAYS been a controversial topic. I'm not saying it was right, nor am I saying it was wrong. It was a decision and a company isn't "evil" for choosing either way.
"Plastered the walls end to end with the latest boring releases and buried small budget, indie flicks."
They plastered the wall with what people want to see. And to be blunt...your boring is another person's entertainment. And you have NO idea of the economics of a video store. Those 200 titles cost half the price of the some of those other titles that they only purchased 50 of. Then there is the fact that movie studios give only X number of titles to a company and they have to figure out what market it will sell best in. Finally they need to try and figure out how many average rentals a movie is going to get to make a return on that individual copy. You make it out as if its black and white. Its a damn complicated business.
"Homogenized selection which ignored local population's tastes (ethnic, etc.)"
Bullshit.
The BS late fee charges.
I'm sorry but as a former BB CSR from back in '98 the horseshit that came in with excuses was beyond funny, it could have become a TV series. Here's a thought. How about people taking fooking responsibility for when something is due back. Then there were the arguments on when Thursday was. When the store opened or at midnight when the store closed. Bitch what part of midnight don't you get? Sorry but I wanted to decapitate some of these class A losers.
I'm not defending all their practices, but you make this out as if its any worse then Hollywood Video or any other the other former chains out there. And they weren't.
PS- You missed one thing. blockbuster is a purveyor of Pan and Scan. Instead of biting the bullet and explaining why letterbox is better and making the transition BB kept enabling the studios and to this day I still encounter people who don't get what Letterbox is.
My blockbuster card is rapidly becoming more and more useless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtCJAN9JCfs
I'd have less of an issue with this if it weren't for Netflix throttling the disks they send you when your turn around time is too good. At least with Blockbuster I can walk into a store and hand them a movie and its electronically checked in.
Just me here who thinks Blockbuster are fantastic then? lol, maybe it's because here in the UK we have nowhere else to go to rent our films, it's Blockbuster or try to find a small local video shop (these are very rare and only stock old DVD's anyway)
I'm here with ya! ha, maybe it's because I work at one, but we get letters from our customers all the time explaining how great we're doing at giving our customers a great experience, helping them find things, remember titles, etc. I'm quitting soon because I'm almost done with college, and it's time for a real job, but I really hope they make it through this somehow..
Im going to miss interfacing with people, but hey that what happens when you have bullshit business practices for so long.
Has anyone noticed that lots of Blockbuster stores have started to look more and more like garage sales?
I hate to admit that the Total Access program actually works out to be a great deal for me, since I like to rent Blu Ray and have a store nearby where I can do trade-ins.
I keep noticing more and more plastic bins of clearance movies, and other junk like posters, cheap digital cameras, and other random stuff. I keep thinking that they're going to close because it looks like they're liquidating.
I think the retail video store as a whole is dead, and Blockbuster knows it's only a matter of time. Soon enough, everyone will either get their movies by mail or some kind of download or streaming format.
My dream would be to have a monthly subscription that would allow HD downloads, like a 3-at-a-time plan, but on a hard drive. It's the best of all worlds!
I heard Blockbuster total access is bring Game for online rental by mail.
Use the stores! Fight the machines! Keep jobs alive!
I only used Netflix for rare shit. We should all be going to Blockbuster, etc. for as much as possible. We should all use the checkers instead of the self checkout kiosks.
I'm not talking about spending money going to Starbucks just to help with jobs, even though you hate coffee. I'm talking about using as many humans as possible for something you already want to buy.
Don't let skynet gain power! They're going to Netflix us all razor-edged DVDs that come apart in the machines half way through the movie and decapitate us and our precious families!
"Profitability enhanced by product distribution synergies with stores." Wow this reads like it was written by the asshat at MY job.
It's very interesting for me to watch when the public has a chance to uphold or dispose of a long standing company. An example in the opposite direction is GM, where citizens seem to rally to buy American cars, for better or worse, for the sake of a company they owe no loyalty. Many companies are now being replaced by one's own computer, or by services provided by means we hadn't thought of a while ago, like VOIP for phone, email for postage, and in this case, home video. There would be, in my opinion, a loud public campaign to keep companies like Blockbuster alive if Blockbuster had made any moves in it's long career to garner real loyalty, to do something inherently good or selfless. The general opinion is that Blockbuster wasn't all that nice, unfair at times, and now that opinion allows people to watch happily while they thrash around before drowning. Let's hope banks are next.