The end of an era -- Blockbuster is really closed (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

Here's one guy who isn't sad at all about Blockbuster closing....
http://news.yahoo.com/blockbuster-closing-buh-bye-205039449.html

As you may have read, the word has come down that Blockbuster, the one-time giant of video and DVD rental, will close the last of its remaining 300 or so company-owned stores. Does that make you nostalgic?
Not me. I always hated Blockbuster. In fact if I’m nostalgic for anything, it’s for what Blockbuster destroyed: The idiosyncratic, independent video-rental shops of the 1980s and 1990s.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I never liked to rent their blurays because they were usually "rental only" editions without the extras.

 

[Citizen87645]

The Blockbuster in my town closed down about a week before the national announcement. I didn't get a chance to check out the clearance sale though, but I'm not weeping over it.

I still rent optical Blu-ray via Netflix and occasionally Redbox.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I quit being a regular renter once DVDs came out and I could get most new movies for under $20, which sure beat the $40 average for laserdiscs. Always hated Blockbuster because of their ban on NC-17 rated movies, which was one of the main reasons a lot of movies were cut to get an R instead- hopefully with them out of the picture, studios won't be so afraid to release movies with that rating.

Forgiving that however, Blockbuster still could have changed a few things to cater to real movie fans. With stores like Tower and Borders gone, they could have stepped up their inventory of movies for sale (I NEVER buy used!) Instead they wasted store space on junk that had no business being in a video store, like as-seen-on-TV kitchen gadgets and what-not, and kept clinging to the rental model that was irrelevant to me.

Just goes to show however what goes around comes around- if they hadn't done so much to piss off people like me, they might still be in business. Instead they catered to the sheep, who left them when the next big thing came along.

 

[Traveling Matt]

Good riddance to the behemoth that forced all my favorite mom-and-pop video stores out of business.

This. Exactly.

 

[TravisR]

I loved mom and pop video stores for carrying offbeat titles but I hated them for carrying about 5 copies of new releases while Blockbuster would carry 200. I worked at a mom and pop and even as an employee, I had to go to Blockbuster to rent something if it was new.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Moderator's Note:

I just realized today that we have had two concurrent threads on the same subject running in different forums.

I have just merged posts from those two separate threads into this one thread.

Carry on!

 

[The Drifter]

Bumping an old thread (I'm a new poster that just joined recently) to post my thoughts on the closing of Blockbuster. I have not-so-fond memories of renting VHS tapes from video stores like Blockbuster in the '80's & '90's, and DVD's from there in the 200X's.

Thankfully, I don't think I've walked into a video rental store since around 2010. The Blockbusters & Hollywood Videos near me closed around that time.

I will say that I strongly prefer streaming (or getting DVD's/Blu's for good prices) to renting videos from stores. The DVD's I used to rent from Blockbuster were scratched & unwatchable half the time, and when I complained the staff there had an attitude about it. Also, I hated those stupid Blockbuster late fees - you always had to rush back to the store to return DVD's/VHS tapes by a certain time or you would get charged. Towards the end, Blockbuster changed this - but you would still end up getting charged for something else if you returned the video late.

Plus, at least twice my local store told me I hadn't returned something, when I knew I had. Idiots.

In addition, Blockbuster especially didn't have that much of a selection. They would typically have 50-60 copies of "new" movies, and then a pi$$-poor selection of older/foreign/obscure movies.

Obviously, I don't miss these video rental stores

 

[Jeffrey D]

Yeah I used to rent a lot of DVDs, from the big stores like Blockbuster, and a little mom & pop
store that used to be on US202 north of Wilmington DE (can’t remember the name of the place). The guy who owned and ran the store
would stock stuff that the big chains wouldn’t have (lots of indie films). These days, I just blind-buy stuff I am interested in- I don’t do streaming.

 

[MatthewA]

I'm in the "I don't miss Blockbuster but I miss the independent, local video stores they ran out of business" camp. One in Carmel, CA closed down a few months ago; it outlived the last remaining Blockbuster in nearby Seaside by about four or five years or so.

 

[ahollis]

It’s done, it’s over. They missed the boat and went down like Kodak, Bell & Howell, Castle Films, Remington, and others that could not see the future. How many of us would have signed up for Blockbuster Streaming. Hand raised!!!

 

[Jeffrey D]

When Netflix started as a mail exchange DVD service, I watched a bunch of films that way. I don’t know- maybe I should look into their streaming now. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I only stream older films that I don’t own and can’t rent from a Redbox kiosk. Any new release I want to see is always a physical rental.

Before the collapse of the rental stores, I rented vhs tapes from four local mom & pop stores or Hastings if I was close by. Then when dvds first came out, I rented them from Blockbuster because no other video store would carry them. About a year in, Hastings realized that DVD was a runaway hit and started renting discs. I immediately switched back to them because I wasn’t fond of Blockbuster and I rented exclusively from Hastings until they went out of business and became Entertainmart a year or so ago. I would still rent from them but they no longer have movies for rent.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Blockbuster was the most convenient rental store from our home, so we rented VHS, DVD and even some BD discs -- the latter towards the end of their time here. The only other rental store in our area is Family Video, and it's just far enough away that we only tried the store a couple of times. The Blockbuster store has been gone for quite a few years now, but we did rent a lot from them back in the day.

Streaming has become my rental mechanism now. We do have a Redbox kiosk in our local Kroger grocery store that I have never tried, as streaming is much more convenient. I am an Amazon Prime member, and will accumulate digital credits by using their "no rush" shipping option. That gives me quite a few free rentals a year.

 

[Ruz-El]

I kind of miss wandering the racks of the old rental stores, but I really miss buying dirt cheap previously viewed discs. I get by now via other means for the stuff I don't want to fully invest in.

 

[BobO'Link]

I only stream older films that I don’t own and can’t rent from a Redbox kiosk. Any new release I want to see is always a physical rental.

Before the collapse of the rental stores, I rented vhs tapes from four local mom & pop stores or Hastings if I was close by. Then when dvds first came out, I rented them from Blockbuster because no other video store would carry them. About a year in, Hastings realized that DVD was a runaway hit and started renting discs. I immediately switched back to them because I wasn’t fond of Blockbuster and I rented exclusively from Hastings until they went out of business and became Entertainmart a year or so ago. I would still rent from them but they no longer have movies for rent.

I, too, frequented Hastings for rentals. The last 5 or so years of their existence I did more purchasing from them than renting (their online store was a super good resource for inexpensive used discs - far superior in both price and selection to the local store).

Once I could start purchasing for the same price, or not much more, than a rental that stopped. My thinking runs along the line of "Why rent when I can own." If it turns out I just don't like the movie I used to be able to sell it for about what I paid. Now I just gift 'em. That said, I *do* use those Amazon "digital credits" on select movies that never seem to drop in price. I'll usually rent those to see if I like it enough to purchase a copy.

 

[bigshot]

I never liked Blockbuster. They would have a very underwhelming selection of old movies, foreign films and cult titles... and a gazillion copies of whatever new release was popular. Here in LA, we had a lot of video stores that curated their selection better.

 

[JQuintana]

I remember how exciting it was to see DVD rentals hit the streets. Here it wasn't BB or other big box store rentals places that was first to rent, for us it was a mom and pop store that had 2 locations in town. Even though it was miles across town, I always made it a point to visit on weekends to see what new disc was out to "test" my home theater set up. Fun times!

 

[Angelo Colombus]

The biggest reason I went to Blockbuster back then was to check out laserdiscs. At that time they had a nice selection and some sale prices. Sill remember the first laserdisc I ever rented was the Criterion release of Blade Runner and buying my first one McCabe & Mrs. Miller letterboxed.

 

[Gary Seven]

Before Blockbuster, there was Erol's. Before that, small stores that had to rent their movies from studios, which then rented to consumers. The price of rental at that time was expensive... like 10 dollars if memory serves. Of course, X-Rated movies at that time was getting big business via rentals. Some people would copy the movies and open the cassette, swap the tape, and give back the copy to the store. When you rented one of those, it was pretty obvious. Copy protection later helped. It was one of the catalysts that made me switch to LD.