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Blockbuster Files For Bankruptcy
Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, calling into question the futures of over 5,600 stores worldwide. The company will be evaluating each location on a case-by-case basis, and seeks to cut costs after reporting a $558 million net loss last year. Newsweek credits the company's slow adoption of new media distribution methods as a big reason for the company's decline. "... while Blockbuster discussed creating its own subscription service to rival Netflix, it wasn't until August 2004 that its online DVD rental program actually started in the US. And when, in 2004, Coinstar entered the market with its Redbox DVD kiosks, Blockbuster didn't begin installing similar devices until 2008." CNET suggests that "Leaders of pay TV services might be wise to start doing the business equivalent of digging foxholes and manning the battlements or the same thing could happen to them."
And conveniently these days you can borrow movies from most local libraries.... free.
Guess I'm just a library kinda guy.
Then go to the library. I haven't needed Netflix nor Blockbuster for a good long time. My library is part of a rather large network of libraries. I can go to the library itself and browse available titles and I can also put a hold online for pretty much any movie I want. Yes, I have to wait a bit longer for recent releases compared to a pay service, but I'm patient and there are plenty of older good movies that have zero wait that you can watch in the interim. Now, if you live somewhere where there aren't any good libraries, well, I guess you are SOL. I've never had this problem, but I guess if you live in the boonies it affects you.
Don't forget their end of latefees-- which ended up the king of late fees. Apparently, if you kept the DVD, no late fees occurred, because they just charged your credit card for the purchase of the movie.. (I actually wrote about this in 2005.. End of Late Fees)
Or what about the "always in stock guarantee!" That was my favorite. Apparently, if the new release you were looking for wasn't in stock, they'd give you a little paper rain check that says "You can rent this dvd at a future date for exactly the same price it is today, no questions asked!" Which would be just awesome, except.. their prices didn't really change often.. It was the same as not getting a rain check at all. They didn't hold a copy for you or anything. It was a disingenuous marketing ploy.. each and every one of them.
Every time they changed something, it was an insult to their customers. My $17.99 3-dvd at a time account transformed one night to $24.99. I was a little peeved, but at the time, I was enjoying the number of discs I could rent. So then they upped it one more time (about a month later) to $34.99. I dropped it like it was hot. F-that. Netflix it is. They literally couldn't have done a worse job at customer retention. It was like they were chasing me off with a big stick.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
This post needs some perspective I think. Let me qualify my post by saying:
1) I am a former Blockbuster employee (5 years ago while I was in college).
2) I am a current Netflix subscriber and occasional Redbox user. I can not recall the last time I walked into a Blockbuster. I think their business model is archaic.
Which only occurred after you didn't return it for a week! Did you think they were just going to let you keep the movie forever?
Unless this changed since I worked there, this is out and out wrong. The rain check was for a FREE copy of that title on your next visit.
I was quoted out of context in my autobiography...