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Alaska's Last Two Blockbusters Are Closing, Leaving Just One In the US (adn.com)
According to Anchorage Daily News, the two remaining Blockbuster stores in Alaska are set to close, leaving just one location left in the United States. The last one standing in the U.S. is in Bend, Oregon. From the report: The stores, one on DeBarr Road in Anchorage and the other in Fairbanks, will close Monday for rental business, a post on the Facebook page for Blockbuster in Alaska said Thursday afternoon. They will reopen at noon Tuesday for an inventory sales that will run through July and August. Thursday's news follows a smattering of other recent Blockbuster closures across the state, which had 13 Blockbusters in 2013 and was down to nine stores by 2016. As Blockbuster stores disappeared from most of the Lower 48 in recent years, the brand long managed to persist in Alaska. Some have said expensive internet here is one reason why. The stores have also been a destination for some who visit just for the nostalgia.
https://www.hollywoodreporter....
It's a film that is so popular that the line for movie tickets busts out into neighboring city blocks from the block where the theater is located.
Also, it's a store that was revolutionary in 1995 for its use of video rental fees that were 30 years ahead of their time. I mean, seriously, I can rent a movie tonight for less than my family did at Blockbuster in the early '90s.
I don't understand the concept of "renting" movies. Information wants to be free.
It's pretty straightforward. You hook your VCR up to your buddy's VCR and copy the VHS tape you've rented from Blockbuster onto a blank tape. Free information.
Note that you may also need an RX2 Video Stabilizer.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i...
A "Blockbuster" was sneakernet netflix, sonny
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Their site lists many more franchises still: http://www.blockbuster.com/fra...
Information wants to be free.
Really? Then please start with your banking information, medical history, and preferences in pornography.
Information doesn't want anything. It's inanimate. People might want certain information to be free, but there's some information that they'd only prefer see the light of day after the heat death of the universe renders such a thing impossible.
Like I said: I post on slashdot all day. I don't have a wife or girlfriend.
Doesn't bring 'em in the way it used to
Jokes aside, I do miss the rental stores. No UI comes close to the ability to browse through the rows of videos, maybe pick up a few snacks. Mine was right next to a Chinese place and a pizza place, so I used to go order, then wander through a pretty large selection of movies while I waited, with some random flick playing in the background on their TVs. It was a nice little space devoted to cinema. I liked it.
Yes, technology has made them somewhat obsolete when you can just rent & stream a lot of movies from Amazon, I get it, but still, I'm kind of sad to see them go. Although, mine was one of the smaller (by store numbers, not floorspace), regional ones, not Blockbuster, so maybe my experience was better than most.
Some of these are still around, and possibly going strong, at least in places with a lot of students. They carry obscure movies and DVDs, and you can find weird people willing to argue about movies.
The Video Paradiso/Rhino Records combo is still doing fine in Claremont, CA, with its numerous colleges, and all the nice restaurants nearby. I know similar places in Cambridge, MA.
But the Blockbuster stores were all about efficiency and had no personality. So when someone with better efficiency and less personality came along, they died. The boutique stores remain... but will probably not survive those of us who remember them fondly at their heyday.
And frankly, they are an affectation. I have no real reason to rent a DVD no matter how obscure. I think I am just making myself feel virtuous instead of finding it on one of the Russian / Ukrainian / Bulgarian web sites. And I know someone who took Chinese in college so that he could pirate in more places.
No good deed goes unpunished...
If its a similar story to a recent one i heard about, they cant get product anymore. I am not sure why they couldnt get dvds, as i assume that they dont rent VHS anymore ( you can still buy dvds right?). Buy anyways sounds like the parent distributor is closing up shop.
Comox Valley's last video store to close, but not due to lack of demand
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A "Blockbuster" was sneakernet netflix, sonny
I wonder if there would be any value in something the size of say a chromecast dongle or similar that you push into a kiosk and store a few movies.
Basically you could get temporary copies of movies and not need to take them back. Charge say $100 for the device so its not a useful way to store movies forever, and of course there is no reasonable way to export them. When you finally do go back it deletes old movies. The device should just be hdmi and usb power maybe with smartphone app control.
Maybe for 4k?
Transfer (write) speed for an M2 module is around 700MB/s so this is feasible, assuming the security can be handled.
Which is why I should receive a payment for every advertisement served to me based on my location (my information) or my other preferences (again my information).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I still don't get it. Can you rephrase it in the form of a car analogy?
It's like renting a car.