Blockbuster Bankruptcy Looms

[Mataro]

2050 - RedBox becomes self-aware. From our renting habits, it spontaneously generated a gestalt consciousness whose personality drew upon every action movie, comedy and horror film released in 2048. It proceeded to penalize the entire world for late submission, regardless of whether the discs had been returned or not.

That was when the first nukes were launched.

Actually.. Just last month exactly that happened. Everyone who rented on Monday the 19th and returned their movie on Tuesday the 20th was charged $25. No joke. We got calls for weeks saying "Yo, I got charged $25, what's up?"

Their billing summary for a given transaction would literally look like this; Customer was authorized for a dollar. Customer was charged a dollar for initial night rental. No additional charges pending as all discs returned after one night. Customer was charged twenty-five dollars for unreturned discs.

It was awesome. Pretty soon corporate caught wind of it and the head billing department had their nose in everyone's rentals before lunch was through. Within a day we had issued a full refund for the $25 and the initial dollar (because god damn). We were even refunding all overdraft fees related to the incident for anyone who called in and let us know about it.

 

[squid5580]

actually, in canada they are doing quite good. they reports profits every quarter.

I dont know how it work in the US, but here, they have plenty copies of games and movies, it cost 10$ for renting a game for a week, and you can keep it for 3 other weeks (total a month) for 8$ fees, so 18$ total. also when i rent 5 new movies in the same month i get a free movie, but each movies rented on wednesday worth 2, so rent 3 movie on a wednesday, you get a free rental (that you take for a game if you wish). they have the no late fees policy, plus the new system where you pay 10$ per month and have unlimited rental of classic movies per month (just one at the time), and the same thing with games for 30$.

so here they are the best rental company...

of course netflix is not available here...

i read on here(i think) that may change soon the netflix thing

Ya Netflix is coming. Been all over the news lately. That is why BB has started the unlimited movie rental program.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

They were doing well? Really? Are you from London? Because I live in London and haven't seen a BlockBuster Video for years (literally both stores near me closed down without a word). At least they were around somewhere.

No I'm not, I'm one of the ninety percent of people not from London, hooray for me!

There's a Blockbuster or two in just about every town (except for London apparently) and they always have people in them. Although, for the last six months I've been living in the countryside, so no Blockbuster here.

That was an interesting video, but I want my ten minutes back now.

Well congrats on being one of the 90 percent!

And I was just told today that Blockbuster UK is a separate entity. So you were right, they are doing well over here (except for London).

 

[sabercrusader]

My local blockbuster was changed into a kebab shop.

The BlockBuster that I was going to apply at got turned into a public art gallery. Or somthing. Nothing I'd be intrested in working at, that's for sure.
But this DOES kind of bite the big one. I'm not one to trust RedBox after what it did to my father, but I DID use them to get cheapo previewed B-movies.
Now I actually have to look for them.
I mean, they arn't bad stores, but.... stagnation and all.

what happened to your father??? im just asking becuase i was thinking of using trying out redbox soon and i'd like some info on it.

OT:YEAH SUCK IT BLOCKBUSTER!!

EDIT: i just read some more posts and thats okay if you don't want to talk about it then.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Really dumb question time.

Are Blockbuster US and Blockbuster UK registered as separate companies? Blockbuster in the UK always seems to have done quite well, they reported a supposedly 'best year ever' last year.

If Blockbuster US is anything like Blockbuster UK, the sentiment of their deserving to fail is at least on the cards. Them and their horrifically over-priced products...

Horrifically over priced products? Sure if you are talking about candy (they charge at least double) but check out their used games bins. Those things are an absolute goldmine of cheap decent titles. Usually cheaper than the same used game at GS or EB.

"Used games bins"? My local Blockbuster does not have one. I can get pre-owned games from the shelves, which usually cost more money than their badly-scratched natures suggest they should. Plus, they give you pittances if you sell these games to them. I've been given less than a pound for games I later see on the shelf for £15 (I understand that you shouldn't begrudge a business a profit, but really, I'm sure they can cough up more than a few pennies for games that are in better condition than most of the pre-owneds). The rent prices were the only decent ones I ever saw.

 

[Brain_Cleanser]

My local blockbuster was changed into a kebab shop.

The BlockBuster that I was going to apply at got turned into a public art gallery. Or somthing. Nothing I'd be intrested in working at, that's for sure.
But this DOES kind of bite the big one. I'm not one to trust RedBox after what it did to my father, but I DID use them to get cheapo previewed B-movies.
Now I actually have to look for them.
I mean, they arn't bad stores, but.... stagnation and all.

what happened to your father??? im just asking becuase i was thinking of using trying out redbox soon and i'd like some info on it.

OT:YEAH SUCK IT BLOCKBUSTER!!

EDIT: i just read some more posts and thats okay if you don't want to talk about it then.

It was terrible. There was blood everywhere...
Nothing happened to my father, it's a joke, relax. Redbox works just fine.

 

[wulfy42]

I've used blockbuster online for years. I prefer it greatly over Netflix (which I had previously) for 2 reasons.

First I had too many movies that I received from Netflix that were scratched and/or unplayable. I'd say something like 5-6x as many as I have received from blockbuster. That was my reason for ditching netflix in fact.

Second you can turn in Blockbuster movies to the store and get another one right away. For $20 a month I basically get 3 movies (or tv shows etc) during the week in the mail, and then can trade them in for 3 movies to watch on the weekend. 6 movies/shows per week is often more then I can fit into my schedule...but it's very nice to have the option.

Finally for the last year or two I have recieved a free video game rental every month as well. I used to have gamefly to try out games I was not sure about, but now I just use my free game rental a month.

Over all I have been very pleased with Blockbuster after switching to the online program. The old late fee's etc were rediculous I agree, but that changed quite along time ago now.

Redbox is tempting to try though and honestly 20 movies per month is plenty. I would be very interested in the $2 a day video game rentals as well as usually the games I'm not sure about....well they blow. I have a ratio of something like 10 bad games to 1 good game that I play more then a few hours lately (sad but true). IF redbox does start renting games that way they will probably quickly become the place most people BUY their games....but keeping em more then 25 days if they really enjoy them. I know it would be my #1 method (as long as the games are available on release date).

Seriously though, this is bad, really bad. Blockbuster is huge almost on the starbucks level of movie rentals. There was often more then one blockbuster per town and if they all close a TON of people are going to lose their jobs. Yes, it's not the best jobs I agree, but it's not a great time to be jobless and with Gamecrazy etc going poof lately there are quite a few people looking for work right now in that field.

I know everyone who works at my local blockbuster. They are all friendly people and I hate to think about them losing their jobs. I get advice from them on movies all the time (I'm married and have no clue about romantic comidies, many drama movies etc that my wife likes). The people at my blockbuster well.....they watch alot of movies and are happy to recommend good ones when I have been totally out of anything worthwhile.

Old blockbuster may have had some serious greed problems I agree, and they certainly did cause many small movie rental stores to go poof, but recently I think the company has changed. I certainly will miss my blockbuster (and my blockbuster online) if it goes poof. Please, please don't make me have to use netflix again. Nothing like ordering 3 movies on friday, recieving them next thursday in your mail and finding out that 2 of the 3 movies won't play (which is what caused me to cancel). I've been very happy with blockbuster and hope to keep using them for years. Even with the lower prices of redbox blockbuster is worth the extra price right now.


Of course if redbox starts renting games........and starts having more kiosks (seriously I don't use them yet but the line at my safeway is blocking the enterances lately) I may have to change my mind.

 

[Krasis]

"Not affected personally, but I guess teenagers will have to look for someplace else to get an easy job"

It's not only teenagers, it people that need jobs, and in this market jobs are a rarity.