Block Buster Going Out of Business
 

They made a statement today to investors that they don't think they will be able to stay in business.

was only a matter of time. People need to embrace technology and not turn away from it.

sources....?

Block Buster

That sucks. I still use them

Darn.....they asked me about a domain i have last year bigmoviestore....hope they stay in biz and come back for another bite :(

ouch.. link?

Technology has nadda to do with it. Even netflix admits that if blockbuster was not burdened with its debt when they turned their radar onto netflix - odds are netflix would of just been a blip and have been defeated in no time.

Blockbuster was just fucked by debt - nothing more and sure in the hell not because of embracing technology.

Yeah...I'm sure they'd love to by a name associated with porn. :1orglaugh

BB said it on CNBC, no link unless someone posted it online.

That was before I pointed it silly :1orglaugh although i do have PornbusterVideo too :thumbsup

Here is one story about it I found through google...

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/...f-Company.html

Im surprised they lasted this long,with the internet and cable ppv must be a tough market for them now. :(

Can't say I feel sorry for them.

Sorry but I have to ask, did you pick A1 for a domain so it would show up first in the Yellow Pages (Phone Book)

That is the only legitimate reason people ever had to name a company or venture that way, and it kills me everytime I see it. :1orglaugh Baddog has one I think too, cracks me up.

No the reason was its just so easy to remember...not many forget such a simple name , :thumbsup

I disagree, and think it has something to do with it. What caused them to be in debt?

Blockbuster has not really changed in the last 10-15 years, but the movie/rental business sure has. I don't think I've been in a block buster in 15 years.

Video games you can download online legitly, the same goes for movies.

Either adapt or sink.

I don't like them, they killed a lot of mom and pop stores... they deserve this.

I know in Brazil, they have had issues. They sold the whole thing in Brazil for a song to get out. People just pirate or buy on the street around here. The company that bought them is sort of like a small walmart and mostly wanted the locations. As they cut the movie area to 10% of the store.

The small country worth of real estate they own or are making payments on is main source of debt.

They have changed a great deal over the past 10-15 years. They make changes constantly. Yet you also mention not being in one in the past 10-15 years either.

Fuck them, they've been screwing customers from day 1 in my country... they started by buying up all the smaller corner video stores then killing all sorts of categories that didn't suit their "family" format, and once they had market share they hiked up the prices.

Yeah that old story.

What you said.

Right, they have to pay rent which comes from the profit selling their service(s), which people have been using less and less over the years partly because of technology.

:2 cents:

aGREED.

Same as Sirius, and many other companies who fail. They simply take on more debt, and smoke a pipe dream on revenue projections. It has happened time and time again.

Maybe if they'd been less prissy about stocking X-rated movies and porn, they'd be doing better?

I thought they owned or were in the process of owning most of the property their stores are in.
If that's the case I'm sure the current real estate market has hurt their bottom line.

My local Block Buster recently dropped their prices and renting practice so now I can rent a movie for one night for $2.
Sure it's not the cheapest option available but it's acceptable to me.

As for the inconvenience of having to go to the store to rent, I actually like that part. I don't mind hopping on my bicycle and getting outside for some exercise and being around other people. One thing I'll fight to the end is getting to a point where I don't go outside and everything is delivered to my house :upsidedow

they should have sold porn

I was mentioning that part earlier and yes they own or are still paying for most locations. They usually bought the lots they used or at least the store. Hence a lot of the debt.

a while ago I emailed them with an idea that would of worked and pretty much really taken back business netflix took from them, but since they are run by old farts they thought that selling prune juice in the stores was a better idea.

basically my idea was that they offer local delivery of movies within half hour, especially now that within 2 years US mail will only deliver mail 3 times a week (my guess) this would of really worked.

bb fucked themselves counting on late fees as a profit center. that was part of what they could not let go of.

Nah you can't rent out x rated porn and be as big as they are/were in Australia.

They simply undercut and bought out their competitors, then once they had regional domination, they hiked up their prices at a time when internet was making headway.

Not to mention they also have that "One Hour Photo with Robin Williams" feel to them... I think it's way too cookie cutter corporate America for Aussies.

According to the company's third-quarter results released Thursday, Blockbuster's revenue slid 5.7 percent and the company harbored a net loss of $35 million. Worse, it has closed 526 stores in the past year, and the number of employees will be reduced to offset high overhead costs to the tune of $45 million. Blockbuster's injured stock price continues to fall and was priced at $5.06 at Thursday's close.

it was only time before they went under...netflix vod and others like thatt put them out quick

I have always heard about that but never really bought into it because I have always thought that Blockbuster did very well regarding sales from their rentals. How in the heck are they going out of business but yet a video rental chain such as Move Gallery is not going under? The only reason why I ask is because it seems like Blockbuster would have done better than Movie Gallery.

I am shocked they have lasted this long. They made a ton of money off of late fees, but gave all that up. I think they needed to, but it hurt them and with all that debt they were in trouble. Plus they aren't just competing with netflix, they are competing with Hollywood video. In my town the two are only about a mile apart. I think there is still a market for movie rentals, but the competition makes it harder for them and they need to streamline. Hollywood Video is probably loving this news.

On a slight different note, im surprised "toys r us" are still in biz ,huge stores and they always seem empty of customers ????? ......:(

That place was filled when I was a kid.

I agree :thumbsup but does anyone shop there anymore ? i think wal-mart and others took all thier biz ? if they had small stores you could maybe expect them to keep going but all the locations seem to be huge.

Maybe time to add them to the dead pool list soon :2 cents:

Saw a RedBox Rental machine outside Wal-Mart.. fucking line of people waiting to rent from it....

fuck Blockbuster, they used to screw me back in the day with late fees

who wants to go to BB when you can hit a red box machine in the supermarket

end of an era :/

Not like I didn't see it coming...

I was actually thinking they'd do well with Bluray and beyond, because it's to the point where they're too big for the average person to download. Some of them push 16-18gb per movie, even without the extras. A blank bluray disk is prohibitively expensive too, I think at least $15 each.

But I suppose Netflix fills that gap nicely.

This is going to hurt vacation spot movie rentals for sure.

do I still have to return my videos ?

yep, my friends and I were just talking about that. The end of April every year we take a weekend and go to this big seafood and wine festival. At least one night during that weekend we rent a movie and take it back to the resort we are staying at. They will probably still be there where we go here in a few weeks, but next year probably not.

Also, I used to have Netflix but canceled it. I still watch a movie every now and then and it is nice to be able to go down and rent something. At least I still have Hollywood Video near me.

I think it was time BB was out dated . It reminds me that circut city just went out of business sad thing about them they could not beat best buy even when they where closing there doors . Things change if you dont change you get ran over

You mean you didn't enjoy getting late fees that equals the amount you paid for the movie?

SO.. lets sum this up... DVD costs $20 bucks (yeah yeah... just work with me here) vs. Blockbuster charging $5 bucks to have it for ONE night, and oopsie, I kept it an extra day.. that's an EXTRA $5 bucks....

So I just paid for half a DVD that I could of OWNED, and I still got nothing to show for it.

Fuck em. They Can't adapt to the times and spend their money wisely then why do they deserve to survive? They don't, just like a lot of companies out there. Time will tell.

VOD through internet and digital videos in general will be the wave of the future anyways. Just like CDs are slowly but surely becoming extinct to the likes of iPods, DVDs will too as people will be able to stream whatever movie they want to see when they want to see it (and with Tivo/DVR there's already some of that). As it was, the delivery rental model that Netflix started had been the next wave after brick and mortar stores and Blockbuster just took waaay too long to adapt. By the time they had their similar service running, it wasn't a matter of gaining customers that way or keeping customers they had but efforts to try and take Netflix customers including customers Netflix had already taken from them - not the position you want to be in.