Why is Blockbuster going bankrupt?

[Arielle22]

We have Netflix. We just got an upgraded Tivo box and can stream Netflix through that (before we used the Wii). We can also rent via Tivo from Amazon.

I stopped going to Blockbuster because if I wanted a new movie I had to go in the day it came out to rent it, otherwise it would be weeks.

 

[NMAmy]

I don't know--we have a lot of Family Video stores around here and the parking lots are always full. I haven't been to a Blockbuster in years but we go to Family Video all the time. The prices are lower than On Demand movies and I don't have the patience for Netflix.

 

[DBL101]

Blockbuster is the best of both worlds.

I have the stantard ON-LINE package and a queue that sends me new movies whenever I finsh one. When I do finish the movie, however, I have another option that NetFlix doesn't. I can return it to a Blockbuster store and exchange it for any movie in the store. I have to return that one within 3 days or so, but it gives the instant gratification option. They also allow me to log on and print two coupons a month for a free rental.

 

[MIGrandma]

I've been a Netflix member for probably 7 or 8 years now. I can't remember the last time I went to an actual video store. The biggest one here went out of business a year ago, Chart Hits Video, and all we have left is a Mom 'n Pop video store that's been here 20 years or more.

I never minded renting movies from the video store when I was in town, but hated to have to make a special trip back to town to return them. It's a 12-mile drive into town, so 24-miles round trip, that's about a gallon of gas. And if it was a day or two late, the late fees got added on. Just not worth it.

I have a l-o-n-g list of movies on Netflix and I don't have to have the new releases the very day they come out. $18.01 gets charged to my credit card each month and most weeks we watch 3 movies so it's pretty cheap, and no late fees ever. Love it.

We never get a pay-per-view movie from DirecTV. Not at $4.99 per movie and higher. Ridiculous.

 

[pixiewings71]

It's all about expenses--most people don't mind if it isn't the best digital quality as long as they can save a few bucks. We get Netflix streaming for $9 a month, unlimited movies and tv shows. I used to rent at Blockbuster for a few days for $4 or $5 a movie. Plus having to bring the movies back on time or else incur late fees.

Also, a lot of people I know are cancelling their cable/satellite service because of the expense. They are using Netflix as a cheaper entertainment option.

Sure, Netflix doesn't always have the movies I want, but I am willing to put up with it for the savings.

this is it exactly. I lost my job, the first thing we did was cancel our cable, we signed up for Netflix which is $9 a month, we get 1 DVD at a time at home and we have unlimited streaming thru our Wii or thru our computers. Our computers are hooked up to the TV so we can stream right from the website. I haven't had any problems getting movies from Netflix, sure there can be a wait for new releases (we are waiting for the new Tink movie right now, it's got a very long wait) but that's OK with us, we don't mind waiting at all.

Again, correct me if I am wrong, On-Demand does not provide 1080p yet, or it's extremely limited.

This is important, as our home theater is a 1080p projector on a 120" screen.

Well we don't have a home theater nor do we know anyone who watches TV this way so this makes no difference to us at all. Sorry but I don't think many people do have this type of set up right now. As far as I can remember no, our Comcast On Demand did not offer 1080p.

I can see how Blockbuster is going out of business, we had an account with them and they treated us like garbage. We would drop off movies in the drop box (after hours drop) and they would let them sit there for days until they checked them in, that resulted in us getting tons of fees added to our account, it became a he said/she said type of thing to try to get the fees removed. We went in once to rent movies on a Thursday or Friday, we picked our movies and went to the counter, they pulled up our account and said "you have $50 (or some huge number) in late fees on your account" we said "WHAT?!?!?!" they repeated what they said, we asked for what movies because we'd turned in the ones we'd rented the previous weekend, they named all the movies we had put in the night drop and that's what we said....the employee walked over to the night drop and opened it, probably 100 movies fell out of the box (the drop was a small slot in the window, the movies fell into a large box inside the store, the box was completely enclosed and was pretty big, you couldn't see into it until you opened the door inside the store), the employee said "huh, guess no one has been checking that". REALLY???????? The shift supervisor (no manager on duty) came over to the employee's call and started to look for the movies we'd returned the Monday before, she pulled out all the copies of the 3 movies we'd rented the previous weekend and started checking them, ours were there for sure but then she said "we have no proof of when you dropped them off, they could have been dropped off last night blah blah" so we got mad and just walked away. Customer service at that place had been going downhill but that was the last straw. I called later and talked to the manager of the location, he said the same thing as the shift manager so I contacted corporate, we got a letter from corporate saying our account had been cleared and the store was "undergoing retraining on proper procedures" but we never went back. it was out of our way anyway so we just stopped going. We did On Demand while we had it but when RedBox came out we started using that a lot. We rent a movie, watch it, return it, it's $1.00, the RedBoxs near us now have BluRay DVD's for $2 a night, if there's something we feel we HAVE to watch on BR we will do that. We do have some BR movies (my laptop is our BR player) and some movies look better in BR so we use the RedBox option for that.

 

[tvguy]

I don't have any movie channels, but when I scroll thru the program guide, all I see are movies I've never heard of.

Blockbuster was the last man standing in traditional video rentals, so as awful as they are, they did things better, but customer preferences have changed. And frankly, there aren't that many good movies out there.

Don't get me started on On Demand, WAY WAY WAY overpriced.

 

[browneyes106]

I don't know--we have a lot of Family Video stores around here and the parking lots are always full. I haven't been to a Blockbuster in years but we go to Family Video all the time. The prices are lower than On Demand movies and I don't have the patience for Netflix.

There aren't any Family Video stores in my state but in my state the Hollywood Video stores were doing ok until a year ago and in the past few years I would see the parking lots almost full they offered better pricing than Blockbuster. Sadly those stores have closed and there are still a few mom and pop/indepedent rental places that are still around and are doing ok.

I remember many years grocery store video rental sections in my area were pretty popular because there were a lot cheaper than Hollywood Video or Blockbuster. Growing up almost every time my mom went grocery shopping she would usually pick up a couple of rental movies. By 2003 grocery store chains closed down their rental sections.

 

[browneyes106]

I've been a Netflix member for probably 7 or 8 years now. I can't remember the last time I went to an actual video store. The biggest one here went out of business a year ago, Chart Hits Video, and all we have left is a Mom 'n Pop video store that's been here 20 years or more.

I never minded renting movies from the video store when I was in town, but hated to have to make a special trip back to town to return them. It's a 12-mile drive into town, so 24-miles round trip, that's about a gallon of gas. And if it was a day or two late, the late fees got added on. Just not worth it.

I have a l-o-n-g list of movies on Netflix and I don't have to have the new releases the very day they come out. $18.01 gets charged to my credit card each month and most weeks we watch 3 movies so it's pretty cheap, and no late fees ever. Love it.

We never get a pay-per-view movie from DirecTV. Not at $4.99 per movie and higher. Ridiculous.

I used to get pay-per-view movies from DirecTV years ago when the pricing was lower. I agree $4.99 is too much.

 

[browneyes106]

Coverage is factor, I think - for a long time there was a video store practically on every corner in suburbia, but none out here in Small Town USA. There were, at the peak of brick & mortar rental places, 6 different locations within 2 miles of my mother's house, but only one small independant place with a so-so selection in the town we live in. Blockbuster just kept building in suburbia and ignoring the opportunities out here. They'd have done better, particularly when Netflix came on the scene, to look at places where technology is slower to catch on and there is less competition. We lived our first few years out here on dialup because there was no broadband available, and in parts of our area that's still true. Netflix isn't a thrilling option when you can't use the streaming and you have to use dialup to edit your queue! But there isn't a Blockbuster within 20 miles.

Also, and this might be store-specific, I've never been impressed with Blockbuster's selection. They're great if you want to rent the latest hit comedy, but not so much if you're interested in older, obscure, or arty movies. I swear the one my brother goes to has a whole Will Farrell department but they never seem to have the indie/artsy movies I recommend to my mom, so she ended up subscribing to Netflix for the better selection even though Blockbuster is just down the road.

I agree coverage is a factor too. I mentioned in another post of mine about how grocery store chains used to have rental sections in stores. In the town I grew up in my family and a lot of people used to go the grocery stores to rent movies because they had better selections than a couple of the independent places. My aunt and uncle live in rural area and they have Netflix subscription but they don't use streaming because they have satellite internet which has a strict bandwidth cap. They have the 2 discs out at time subscription and they like it. They have satellite TV but they like a lot of documenatries and older movies which rarely air on satellite/cable.

 

[love2disney]

For 1080p there is all these online services like Cinemanow Vudu where I get all the new releases right on my TV thru my Blu ray player. Then netflix and on demand take care of the rest

 

[Best Aunt]

Well, OP, if you really want to know, here's what the Wall Street Journal has to say on the subject:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704082104575515933391663168.html?KEYWORDS=blockbuster

 

[cm8]

Well, OP, if you really want to know, here's what the Wall Street Journal has to say on the subject:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704082104575515933391663168.html?KEYWORDS=blockbuster

what an article, thanks for posting it

 

[sunnyday123]

What if Blockbuster is out of the movie you want? I know when I did go there, they never, ever had enough copies of anything-and it wasn't a small store. If you weren't there by 4 on Friday, you got stuck watching 80's b-movies.

I mush rather go through on-demand or Redbox.

 

[Shutterbug]

I was just in a BlockBuster the other night, I left with out anything.

They had titles that had been out for months and months still sitting in the recently released section and charging new release prices for them.

If you wanted something that wasnt a new release..good luck. Hard to tell what is what because its just the blockbuster cases sitting on the shelves. No actual typical DVD case. You have to turn your head and try to read whats on the binder to see the title of the DVD. The whole place really looked just one step away from a going out of business place.

I get Red Box and our local Red Box also now is carrying Blue Ray discs as well.

 

[arminnie]

I can't be the only one who wants the movie "NOW". When I get an idea to watch a movie, I do not want to wait 2 days.

Now to me means NOW - like 30 seconds from now. Not get dressed, drive to the store, try to find something, hope it is in stock, stand in line, etc. and then have to return it on time.

Also, and this might be store-specific, I've never been impressed with Blockbuster's selection. They're great if you want to rent the latest hit comedy, but not so much if you're interested in older, obscure, or arty movies.

True. 90% of Blockbuster's movies you would have to pay me to watch them.

Honestly I'd rather buy a movie from Sam's than pay blockbuster for a few hours.

 

[IFLOSIRI]

Blockbuster is going bankrupt because of net flex and being able to rent movies right off your cable box. Video s are a dying business

 

[nile455]

Blockbuster is going bankrupt because of net flex and being able to rent movies right off your cable box.

I understand that, but the quality is garbage. At least it is on a big screen.

I do like the Redbox idea, and wasn't aware they rent Blu-ray, so that is definitely a viable option for now.

 

[Big Cuddly Bear]

We have Netflix, and Hulu PLUS... total cost is about $27 a month with taxes....

I use FIOS for my TV and Internet. I also have Verizon for cell phones. I plan to cancel my regular phone, and keep only the required stuff for getting internet TV.

I can wait for True Blood and Weeds to be downloadable if it saves me a ton of cash.

I have ALWAYS hated Blockbuster... ALWAYS.

 

[bicker]

Well I know why. I just mean how? And it's not just Blockbuster, it's the entire brick and mortar video store industry as we know it. I can't be the only one who wants the movie "NOW".

You're not... you're just among the few willing to pay extra for the ability to have choice from a vast array of physical disc choices "NOW".

When I get an idea to watch a movie, I do not want to wait 2 days. I want to watch it now. Movie watching at home is usually done on a whim isn't it? This rules out Netflix for me.

Not really. Netflix offers online streaming - you can't get any closer to "NOW" than that.

Also I rent primarily Blu-ray now, as I love the highest possible quality, so Netflix streaming services aren't an option as they are not providing that yet.

True, and Redbox is only just rolling BD out, and even then, it'll be a small number of discs per kiosk. However, you're again distinguishing yourself from the Average Joe who governs what will and will not be offered in our mass-marketplace.

 

[bicker]

they screwed themselves: the utmost in crappy customer service

Actually, Blockbuster "screwed themselves" by offering superior customer service. They consistently offered premium services, such as unlimited in-store exchanges, at one point, and no 28 day delay after disc release, instead of capitalizing on cost-savings (or subsidies) that the could have derived from providing service at the same (lower) level as their competitors. They simply provided too high of a level of service, and their customers didn't reward them for doing so.