Article about how Blockbuster Video went out of business

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by PaulKTF, Oct 19, 2016.

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  1. ky658

    ky658 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ft Myers, Florida
    I liked them and wish they were still around. What was once a Blockbuster store by me is now a restaurant, sad...
     
  2. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    We had a mom and pop store locally, he had 2 stores actually, 1 in town and one in the next town, Video Country. The owner and his son and daughter were usually there or at the other one and they all were very knowledgeable on movies. It was always a good time going into their stores as you could find some lesser known movies to rent and have a good conversation about them if so inclined, when tapes went out they still thrived with DVD's for several years until it just wasn't profitable, they finally closed their doors about 6 or so years ago. I still run into the daughter occasionally at the local Walmart and she still remembers my name and always stops to chat for a minute.

    We did have a Blockbuster in the next town, but it had nothing more to offer for rentals so I never bothered going there much.

    My very first tape rental place actually was the local gas station, when rental was just in it's infancy the owner was a very early adopter, he got 4 carousels and filled 2 with VHS and 2 with Beta, he also had several VHS/BETA decks for rent. We used that place for the occasional weekend movie rental until I finally bought a VHS deck.
     
    jpelg, No Static and rebellovw like this.
  3. cboldman

    cboldman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hamilton, OH USA
    A favorite Twitter account that I follow is 'The Last Blockbuster' ( @loneblockbuster ). Very obscure but funny posts from a video store that time forgot; holding the line against progress.

    In my neighborhood there's a little video store in a strip shopping center that has somehow stayed open all these years against all logic and economic reason. I eventually came to assume that it must be a front for some drug operation.
     
    izgoblin and Vidiot like this.
  4. Boo Rad

    Boo Rad His horse was fast as polished steel

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Alamo Drafthouse (a cool cinema chain that started here in Austin) is opening a video rental store in their Raleigh, NC location. Here's a blurb:

    "Alamo has been raiding the shelves of going-out-of-business video rental shops the world over, snatching up films that date largely from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. For the new rental shop, it plans to curate a rotating selection of those cassette tapes themed to whatever’s playing in the theater. There’s a logistical component at play: Alamo’s VHS catalog now includes tens of thousands of titles. Put together, they’re a remnant of a deeply influential film era you may not know even existed."
     
    hubertfarnsworth and Vidiot like this.
  5. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    That is an interesting Twitter account! Thanks for sharing. :)
     
  6. brimuchmuze

    brimuchmuze Forum Resident

    I don't really miss the disc rental experience at all. Heading over to the video store, only to find the new release you want to see is out of stock?

    We are better off with current alternatives on many fronts.
     
    helter likes this.
  7. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Not to mention too often they were damaged and would freeze up mid play. I didn't do much DVD rental, but too often that was an issue with them when I did. The local mom pop shop had a disc resurfacing machine, not sure how well that worked.

    I'm currently debating finally tossing my hi fi stereo flying erase head Sony VHS deck as I think I've got every rare thing I want that was on tape now on either DVD or blu ray. I still have 2 big totes of VHS tapes that will go to the trash too likely. A final end to that era for me.
     
  8. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Put the tapes up on eBay- some people collect them (yes, really).
     
  9. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I thought about it, but all the trouble for a few bucks does not appeal.
     
  10. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    We had a mom and pop that we were willing to drive 15 minutes for (2 min for Blockbuster), selection was huge, but they faded out early by hiring kids who had no knowledge and cared about nothing other than sci fi. They also appeared to be getting looted, as there were many times we found that the boxes on the shelf had no movie behind the counter. next trip, box is still out, still no movie behind the counter. Employee shrugs. Then someone in charge must have told them to find out what was actually in inventory vs what boxes were on the shelves. That visit the shelves were literally half empty in spots, that was how many movies had been ripped off them.

    End of our visits. going out of business signs less than a month later.
     
  11. hubertfarnsworth

    hubertfarnsworth Forum Resident

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC, USA
    I'm going to live close enough to this place to check it out, but not close enough for it to be convenient to rent and return stuff on a regular basis. It'll be about a 25 minute drive through terrible traffic both ways. Still, can't wait for the Alamo to open.
     
    Boo Rad likes this.
  12. Boo Rad

    Boo Rad His horse was fast as polished steel

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Nice! Would love to hear your thoughts about it once it opens.
     
  13. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    I think it’s because of their backroom with instructional movies on how to make a family .....
     
    numer9 likes this.
  14. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    I'd say they're delusional can't see anyone I know going to rent a DVD, on a par with their market assessments, which led to their crash.
     
  15. hubertfarnsworth

    hubertfarnsworth Forum Resident

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC, USA
    Of course! I have no idea when the opening date is though.
     
  16. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Maybe they've learned from their mistakes. Rental stores still can and do thrive and Blockbuster could as a chain once again if managed better.
     
  17. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    Geography may be significant but when I rented DVDs, where I live many local newsagent and small shops would loan along with Blockbuster. I've not seen such sellers in the last 10 years, seems to be a Dodo here.
     
  18. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    I was gonna link this. It's a great channel.
     
    Karnak likes this.
  19. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Yeah, he makes really informative, interesting videos! I need to check out more of them.
     
    OldSoul likes this.
  20. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    It's mostly Disney related stuff, at lesst originally. There's a lot of videos about retail too, which are interesting. It's crazy to see how many places closed because they just refused to keep with the times.
    He's only 19 or 20, so the oldest videos are pretty sloppy (though they have their charm), but the new ones are fantastic.
     
  21. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    My first experiences with Blockbuster was in the late 1980s when I was a few years out of high school. Some friends wanted to go there to "rent a movie," which usually meant some new release I often wasn't interested in. But they had all kinds of stuff in there. This was my introduction to Shokus Video, and I rented the three volumes of old commercials. They had two volumes of something called "Favorite Cartoon Series" -- one was World War II stuff and the other's emphasis was stereotypes. I thought from the name that they would have current movies and nothing more. But it was a really cool and eclectic selection. At least back then, now 30 years ago.
     
    Texastoyz and Benno123 like this.
  22. Spruce

    Spruce Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brigg, England
    Not sure but I don't think think I have seen illegal copying/pirating mentioned. I would have thought that would have had a palpable effect on them, everybody else in the industry was complaining about it, if I recall correctly.
     
  23. Texastoyz

    Texastoyz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Texas, USA
  24. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    That's a sad story. It must have been hard for the owners to realise they were done. I can only imagine it happened all over.
     
  25. Karnak

    Karnak "81, 82, 83, 84..."

    Yes, their video on Target Canada highlighted the Target store here in my hometown-located just a couple of minutes down from the now closed 'Family Video'.:sigh:
     
    OldSoul likes this.
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