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."

Comments

good fail!

[Anonymous Coward]

blockbusters main source of revenue was late fees. all I can say is, goodbye blockbuster don't let the door hit you in the butt.

So sad, but it's time

[Pojut]

Goodbye, Blockbuster. With news of your bankruptcy (yes, I know they aren't technically closing all their stores...yet), a bit of my childhood is officially gone.

Tell me, fellow slashdotters: was there anything better when you were a kid than going to the video store on a friday night to rent a video game or movie? My brother and I rented COUNTLESS NES and SNES games from our local video store (Olney Video)...soooo many games. Good times, good times.

I recognize how convenient and better services like Netflix and Gamefly are, but there's just something about going into a dusty old video store and browsing the shelves that convenience will never replace.

Re:So sad, but it's time

[slim]

I recognize how convenient and better services like Netflix and Gamefly are, but there's just something about going into a dusty old video store and browsing the shelves that convenience will never replace.

If we're going on a nostalgia trip, I want to mention the properly dusty video rental shops that came before the glossy multinational chains stepped in. Thinking of those places gives me a Proustian rush into the 80s almost as much as retro arcade cabinets.

Re:So sad, but it's time

[voss]

Blockbuster was the biggest meanest dinosaur you ever saw...then the asteroid hit. Suddenly being the biggest and meanest didnt matter anymore. All
the big stores that enabled them to triumph over their rental rivals suddenly became disadvantages over their newer smaller smarter competitors.

Re:So sad, but it's time

[forand]

I too have fond memories of renting video games and VHS tapes throughout my childhood. Unlike you, apparently, I hate Blockbuster. They ruined that. The rental places which used to have interesting titles and japanese import games were displaced by the behemoth that was Blockbuster. They brought nothing good to the equation other than brand recognition. Prices went up, selection went down, and rental policies became more complicated and anti-consumer. I welcome the end to the era dominated by Blockbuster. Now next to my house a new independent rental shop is doing great business and the Blockbuster down the street is closing its doors. Finally the people realized that what Blockbuster was selling wasn't worth buying.

Re:So sad, but it's time

[DerekLyons]

Wasn't it Blockbuster who ran the mom and pop video rental stores out of business with their corporate muscle?

Yes, it was Blockbuster who ran the mom and pop stores out of business - by actually having new releases available on the day of release (and in quantity, not just one or two), by actually having a deep backstock of movies (and in quantity and across a wide variety of genres), etc., etc..
 
I'm tired of hearing crocodile tears for the steam powered "mom 'n pop" stores. As Blockbuster is being taken down by services that better provide what the customer wants, so the "mom 'n pop" stores were taken down by Blockbuster.

I Won't

[Anonymous Coward]

Browsing in a browser just doesn't hold up to browsing the physical media. Guess I'm just a library kinda guy.

Getting hit with late return fees just doesn't hold up to on demand streaming of tens of thousands of titles. Guess I'm just not a Luddite.

Re:I Won't

[LordKronos]

Getting hit with late return fees just doesn't hold up to on demand streaming of tens of thousands of titles. Guess I'm just not a Luddite.

You say this like the late fee is a required part of the rental experience. I've rented a lot of movies over the last 20 years, and never once have I had a late fee. How hard is it to return something on time? Apparently pretty hard, based one how many people get them, but I just don't understand it.

Re:I Won't

[h4rr4r]

Who charges overage fee? I have TWC and even those assholes don't stoop to that level.

Re:I Won't

[LordKronos]

there's no connection between "I saw a movie last night" and "I must return the movie"

Wow, you can't even remember for 24 hours (or 2 days, or however long your rental is)? I don't know what to say. Perhaps I'd just suggest that, when you're done watching, instead of throwing the movie on top of your entertainment center or somewhere out of the way, perhaps you can set it with your car keys or something, so that it's very obvious to you. I expect your response will probably be "no thanks, I'd just prefer not to rent movies instead", but if you have that much trouble remembering things, then just take it as general advice.

I'm sure you can be anal about it and never get a late fee, but I'd rather have not go through that effort just to watch a damn movie.

Anal? WTF? You say that like I sit there all day saying "gotta return that movie, gotta return that movie", post notes all over the house reminding me, and have a daily checklist with an item labeled "returned rentals (if applicable)". Is it anal that I remember to put on pants before leaving the house, too?

Re:I'll miss them

[E IS mC(Square)]

Browsing in a browser beats browsing physical media when it contains 100000 times more choices and not only crappy hollywood 'blockbusters'. Guess I am a picky kinda guy.

Re:I'll miss them

[nizo]

Neither Netflix nor Amazon should even exist, but for the stupidity of Blockbuster and Barnes and Noble. I can see the clueless management of both companies now:

"Oh that intertooob thingy will never catch on!"

This is what happens, when...

[Bill_the_Engineer]

You spend all your time focusing on the mom-n-pop's you're putting out of business, and don't look in the rearview mirror to see RedBox or Netflix.

Seriously, Blockbuster lost its karma when it used its size to ink deals with movie studios to stock their shelves on consignment with a percentage of the rental fee going to the studios. This allow BB to stock more movies, while the small local movie rental shops still had to purchase their DVDs at the ridiculously high rental shop price.

Re:This is what happens, when...

[TheNumberless]

There are still a few of them out there, and there is still the nitch [sic] of spontaneously renting an old movie that Netflix and RedBox can't fill.

Netflix really can fill that niche, though, via instant watch. I really believe (or at least, hope) that the library of movies, especially older movies, available for instant watch will grow to the point that it's competitive with the older titles available in any local store.

Re:This is what happens, when...

[interkin3tic]

You spend all your time focusing on the mom-n-pop's you're putting out of business, and don't look in the rearview mirror to see RedBox or Netflix.

Next on the chopping block: gamestop. They did the same thing. They also still have more stores than any reasonable person would think they would need, the result of merging with EB games and closing few redundant stores.

They've managed to hold their own in the face of competing with walmart etc, mostly through the used console game market. Many of their customers don't bat an eye at selling a game for $5 that someone else would buy for $25. Game developers are already moving in to try to block used game sales with one time use codes and digital content. I'd expect that next generation, most of the big titles will not be transferrable easily and gamestop will really take a hit.

Re:I'll miss them

[rotide]

I know people see the past through rose colored glasses, but I most certainly won't miss going in and finding that all the good/new movies are out of stock and the hassle of dealing with late fees for things I definitely returned on time. Oh, look at that, they found the copy I had out. Thanks for making me come down and threaten to drop my membership, AGAIN.

Meh, dinosaurs died out too

[sizzzzlerz]

One more greedy corporation who muscled out the small, neighborhood stores and when they finally became the big kid on the block, squeezed their customers for everything they could. Now, in the light of new technology they're unable to control, they become unable to compete. So be it.

In the words of airline stewardesses everywhere: B'bye!

Re:Meh, dinosaurs died out too

[Anonymous Coward]

One more greedy corporation who muscled out the small, neighborhood stores and when they finally became the big kid on the block, squeezed their customers for everything they could. Now, in the light of new technology they're unable to control, they become unable to compete. So be it.

In the words of airline stewardesses everywhere: B'bye!

Who'd those "small, neighborhood stores" put out of business when they opened?

Your romantic idealization of the past is touching.

Re:Meh, dinosaurs died out too

[stewbacca]

Let's not jump to conclusions. Bankruptcy proceedings don't mean Blockbuster is out of business (yet).

Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad bastards are finished. How many customers they have gouged with false "lost" tapes/dvd/games or "late" fees. Twice they have tried to screw me over and it took months to correct "computer" errors.

Re:I'll miss them

[Albanach]

It's an incredible strategy they're undertaking.

They don't have free streaming, so what separated their plans from Netflix was that you could exchange in store.

Here they closed all three local stores leaving over 100,000 people without a local Blockbuster. Overnight, their rent by post plans were more expensive than Netflix and more restrictive. They also appeared to be slowing down shipping movies, where they'd often be sent out the day after your return was received, rather than the same day.

Then they started rolling out kiosks, like RedBox. But if you have a mail in subscription, you can't use your free rental coupons in their kiosks and you can't do returns or exchanges to their kiosks.

They seem hell bent on destroying themselves, and that doesn't engender much sympathy.

Re:I'll miss them

[AnonymousClown]

And conveniently these days you can borrow movies from most local libraries.... free.

Libraries don't have a very large selection and the condition of their movies can be horrible. I borrowed a Harry Potter from my local library and the thing wouldn't play because it was so scratched up. I don't know WTF people do, let their kids play hockey with the things?! The clerks at the local Hollywood that closed said that theirs was the same way, but they would have a bunch of backup copies - the library doesn't.

People are so inconsiderate.

Re:I wonder how much of this is MPAA greed?

[Maxo-Texas]

Yea.. because if you are 50+, you should really not be hirable any more. It'd be best if you just go and starve in the wilderness so as not to be a burden on society unless you are successful at carousel and get renewal.

Re:Good

[cerberusss]

They screwed me 15 years ago losing a movie I returned [...] I hope all the blockbuster execs lose their golden parachutes.

15 years ago and now you wish for random people to not get money.

I'm giving you serious advice here. It is not healthy to stock up on anger like that. Take yoga classes. Really, I'm fucking serious.

Witness a rare defense of Blockbuster

[elrous0]

I know it's hip to romanticize Mom & Pop stores over the big evil corporation, but I would like to offer an alternative viewpoint on this one. Does Blockbuster stock mostly crap (i.e. the latest CGI-fests/the latest Adam Sandler movies/etc.)? You bet. But, you know what, all my Mom & Pop's shelved crap almost *exclusively* before Blockbuster came along in the 90's. Blockbuster was actually a godsend to my neighborhood because they stocked a pretty decent selection of indie and lesser-known movies. They may not have had 100 copies of "Ghost Dog," or "Memento" or "Sling Blade," but at least they had a FEW copies. My local Mom & Pop's didn't have ANY of these movies (before Blockbuster and Netflix, there was no way for me to see these movies without buying them). Blockbuster ran my local rental stores out of business for one very good reason, because they were a lot BETTER (no bullying necessary).

Now, when Netflix came along I went over to them (because they offered an even better selection and didn't censor NC-17's like Blockbuster). But for a long time in the 90's, Blockbuster was the best store out there for film fans in a LOT of neighborhoods and even whole cities. Blockbuster was the only place to go for smaller films, unless you were one of the fortunate few to have a nearby Mom & Pop that catered to indie fans (and those were pretty rare in the cities I lived in, and usually only found near big college campuses and in artier neighborhoods).

So I'll actually miss them. And I also worry that Netflix might now leverage this to jack up their prices and introduce other heavy-handed customer treatment (since they pretty much have a monopoly now on physical rentals).

Re:I'll miss them

[dnahelicase]

It's not stupidity. They were already making megabucks each year with obligatory bonuses independent on how the company they supposed to manage is doing. It's not a capitalism, it's a parody on it.

Actually, it is stupid. They could have used those megabucks to wipe out any competition that started getting popular. They were lazy and stupid because they didn't understand or study their market or the way technology changes their market. If you don't adapt to changing market conditions and get ahead of the curve, you can't expect to stay on top.

Re:I'll miss them

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be tired because that actually made perfect sense.

Re:I'll miss them

[dnahelicase]

Why was Barnes and Noble stupid? I bought books from their website before I bought them from amazon.

You might have bought from B&N first, but it sounds like you bought from Amazon later on? B&N should have invested early to keep Amazon from getting huge. Back in 1997 Amazon.com was cheap! B&N was huge! Amazon started buying up other .com's, like CDNow, in order to grow their product lines to be more than just books. Amazon grew from nothing and became a giant while B&N was a giant and started struggling to survive, but they both were selling the same thing! B&N could have been the site we all go to, or Amazon could have been a subsidiary. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory...

Re:I'll miss them

[mapkinase]

I agree that it's stupid for a company to do that, but people who did that were not stimulated by the company actually to do that. They just sit on their salaries.

It's laziness rewarded in $M.

Re:I'll miss them

[tixxit]

You think that's bad. I live in Canada, a market that is far behind the states in terms of movie rental options. Blockbuster Canada should have seen their U.S. counterparts continual failure as an opportunity to invest in the streaming market in Canada. Instead they focused on their brick-n-mortar stores. Now Netflix has finally moved into Canada. It was good knowing you Blockbuster Canada.

Re:I'll miss them

[stdarg]

Hopefully Redbox will force Netflix out of much of the DVD market. They are way more convenient and cheaper for most people.

That will allow Netflix to focus on what I would love to see the most -- a completely internet based tv service. I can't wait until I can subscribe to HBO via Netflix.

But it seems like they need a kick in the pants to realize that the DVD mail business is not the future.

Re:I'll miss them

[HaZardman27]

One might say that if you pay poorly that's what you get

Off topic, but I agree with you here; I absolutely hate that way of thinking. When I was working a crappy hourly-wage job, I still made sure that I could go home at the end of the day with the pride of doing a good job. The reason people get stuck in crappy low-paying jobs is because they believe the job they're doing is beneath them, and don't make an attempt to excel at it. If you can't take pride in what you do, the fault is not with the task at hand, but the person doing it.