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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."
The role/job/position of air-waitress was never intended to be a life-time career. In the same way that most people do not usually flip burgers or wait tables for their whole lives, the same should be true of flight attendants.
We are talking about hospitality workers. These people should be friendly and pleasant. The aged and unionized workers are anything but hospitable. They are privileged, job-secured, prison guards of the sky. Something has gone VERY wrong with that aspect of the industry.