The Frost Heaves? Come on, even the Syrup Taps would be more exciting than that.
My impression is that the local stores that survived the invasion of the big chains are now nigh indestructible. The crappy ones with high prices, no selection, or unfriendly management are all dead, and those that remain are the real cream of the crop–and are, oddly, now outperforming the chains. Blockbuster is strictly worse than NetFlix in just about every way possible, but a good local store with friendly, knowledgeable clerks still has a place in the world.
I was just going to post that this is the case in my town. There is a local shop and a Blockbuster. The Blockbuster is weird and skeevy. Bare walls, bare shelves, everything in bad repair. It feels like it’s going out of business but it’s been that way for years. We mostly use the local store (though their prices are about the same and their late fee structure sucks, they have a great selection, helpful staff and recently renovated so it feels very up to date and hospitible) but my fiance went to Blockbuster to get something for her daughter the other day and found that they have restructured their late fees yet again. New releases are now a dollar a day for each day late. (Maybe they’re trying to copy the redbox model except the initial rental fee is still like $5.) What ever happened to their no late fees policy?
In general, I use Netflix and avoid both of them but my fiance prefers to pick up movies on impulse. That said, after the latest change to Blockbuster’s late fee policy, she asked me to up my Netflix subscription to three at a time so we can get kids movies as well. So, in attempting to stem their losses, Blockbuster continues to hasten their own demise.
I think it depends on where you live. Those “red box” stores aren’t anywhere where I live , which I think are designed for higher demand markets, and the video rental stores are still going strong. It helps that one of those rental stores is a local chain too. And there’s the fact that internet rentals like Netflix haven’t really taken off in Canada.
Netflix problem is going to revolve around whether or not they can actually get streaming rights. It’ll be interesting to see what happens once their Starz end-run expires.
It sounds like Blockbuster is about to declare Chapter 11 as well:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/blockbuster-bankruptcy-wa_n_503083.html
Starz end-run?
My local video store has a great selection of candy. And seems to be doing decent business, still. Has had several chain store name-changes recently, though.
Isn’t South Burlington technically bigger? I think it was around 60,000 when we lived there.
It’s never been 60,000, to my knowledge. Maybe if you combine it with Burlington… The city (so-called not because of its size but its charter) itself says they’ve currently 16,500 residents.
The reason Netflix even has the limited selection of decent movies for streaming that it does is they signed a deal with the Starz network to be able to stream their lineup. This allowed them to bypass the studios. The studios don’t necessarily want netflix to be successful.
If the studios were smart they’d start grouping together to create their own streaming services (assuming the FTC would allow that anyway). They’ve become dependent on video sales and don’t quite know how the streaming/on demand model will work in comparison from a profit standpoint. So they are making moves that are designed to inhibit 3rd party innovators like Netflix and RedBox in order to try and prop up their traditional revenue sources of direct retail sales and traditional rental. It will be interesting to see what they do as both continue to decline.
This. In fact they should have started doing it 3+ years ago. What still doesn’t seem to have fully sunk in is they’re not competing with dvd sales or rentals. They’re competing with high speed broadband and the pirate bay (or whatever takes over from them once they’ve been sued out of existence)
This seemed like an appropriate thread to necro with this news tidbit: Blockbuster is closing a store in Alaska. Yep, you read that correctly, there’s still a Blockbuster store in the wild. Five, in fact, after this one closes. One in Oregon, four in Alaska.
I guess Netflix doesn’t ship to Alaska then?
Netflix ships here, we also have Redbox on every corner at every gas station and store here too. I think that leaves one Blockbuster left in Anchorage and the other three are in other communities/cities.
By next week, there will be only one Blockbuster left.
Does that mean I have to drive all the way to Bend, Oregon to return my VHS copy of Turner & Hooch?
edit - Hey that sounds like an idea for a Kevin Smith movie…
Please don’t do this thing.
Yeah I just read about it!