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The skinny!
What are your thoughts on it? It sucks the workers will be out of jobs but at the same time, the stores kinda had it coming to them. I worked there for 2.5 years and they treated their workers like crap (at least the one I worked at). My dad always told me if a company treats their workers like crap then they will not last long and this pretty much holds true to it.
Blockbuster sucks.
The one where I used to live closed down after I moved.
Good riddance. Our regional chain (Hastings) was much better...(even though they did kill our local book store :( )
I'm surprised they lasted this long.
I'm surprised they lasted this long after the Viacom split.Quote:
Originally Posted by SamuraiShodownSensei
Good
fucking
riddance.
Every Blockbuster experience I've ever had has been shit. If I desperately need a new release I'll just Redbox it but even that is too much of a pain in the ass most of the time.
Streaming/Netflix FTMFW
When I moved last year I joined the local Blockbuster because it was pretty much the only choice at the time. They required a credit card and some paperwork to join, the whole process took about half an hour. Then they charge nine dollars to rent a game for five days, no cheaper options for fewer days available. Movies were like five bucks I think. The only good thing was most of the time when I went in looking for a new game it was usually in because no one ever really went there I guess.
That was one of two stores in town, one of them shut down early this year I think. I wouldn't be surprised if the other one did soon.
It was only a matter of time.
Hopefully I can buy everything when there closing :P
Amen to that, the Lake St. Blockbuster always had some killer used stuff for sale (Xbox Xyanide, Graffiti Kingdom, etc.).Quote:
Originally Posted by Medaka
Years and years ago I got tons of great Genesis/SegaCD and SNES games when my local Blockbuster Music stopped dealing in games. Most people didn't even know the store rented movies/games so everything was new or pretty darn near it. I got stuff like MK3 on Genesis, Final Fight Guy for SNES, Splatter House and tons of others for like $2-$3 each. Each with perfect manuals and cases ;) Sure, this was like 1997 or so, but it was sweet. It'll be worth going through the stores for gems, at the very least.Quote:
Originally Posted by Medaka
Good, I hope lovefilm follows suit
The article says that this is for restructuring, so it's probably Chapter 11. Which means some stores MIGHT close, but don't bet on it.
When they get to Chapter 7 liquidation is when you can expect a Circuit City style cluster fuck.
This is no shock to me at all.
I have been seeing a lot of Blockbusters closing up. The last time I was in one, about two months ago, I didn't feel much like a video rental store. The have had to transition to more of a store, selling random useless junk. I was thinking that they may have another couple of years before shutting down totally; this is somewhat quick.
Netflix and Hulu have killed Blockbuster...cable TV is next unless they change how they deliver content, provide more customization for subscribers.
Back in the day I love hitting up Blockbuster on a Friday to rent NES and Genesis games, the location I went to also had a nice selection of Sega CD games.
Speaking of retro games, anyone remember this.....
http://www.emuparadise.org/Sega%20Ge...20II%20(U).png
I did this competition two years. 7th place the first year and 2nd place the next year. I would have taken 1st, but I didn't practice at all during one of the weeks.
Yup, good times. I got first place on the DK Championships, but not store champion...so I guess I got second. But then I heard the guy that did win wasn't high enough to compete in the later rounds so I guess I didn't miss out. I think I have some of those Marvel trading cards in a box somewhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neo Ash
I always hated going there to see that the one game or movie I wanted was always rented out. I remember when I wanted to play Dragon Ball Z on the PSX and it was ALWAYS out, when it finally came back in the game was so scratched up I couldn't play it. Such a pain in the ass to get a refund at my local store.
But I did get some good deals, I got Virtua Racing on the Genny for 10 bucks when it was still being sold in the stores for 80+, Ninja Gaiden 3 and I SHOULD have gotten Christmas NiGHTS because they had three or four of them for five bucks each. I kick myself in the ass every time I see it listed in a price guide.
I won the 1st blockbuster championship in my town (hickville Georgia :) ) and went to the state championships. I got to the third round and lost at NBA Jam the first game because my controller was not working(I believe it was the c button).
I complained and the judges tested the controller and realized it was not working.
I won the next game by 30 and was feeling pretty good. Everything was great in my little kids mind untill the other players mom came up and said we should have to play best 2 out of 3 to be fair. I lost the third game by one point. Oh well. For the second championship my sega was broken and I did not have a chance to practice. They gave you three tries to get your best score(I believe this is true but it has been a loooong time and a lot of drinks). I was doing awesome yet this one kid was beeting me by 20,000 points. i was playing perfect games and could not fathom how that happened. I had the option of scheduling my last play and like a dumbass set it before the kid in the lead. What was I thinking? So, I start playing and this kid comes in. Him and his parents were watching me and were like damn he is good. I believe the games were Sonic 2 or 3? NBA jam, and Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd was last. I finished with One million something points and about 100 points behind this kid. I had lost. So, i decided to watch this kid. I could not believe how terrible he was. He completely sucked at the first two games as I stood with mouth agape. then it happened. There was a ledge in Judge Dredd with a fucking one million point icon and he won because of that shit. Yeah, I know it taught me about strategic scheduling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesagwa
The restructured Blockbuster will likely not have any stores.
That is my guess.
The Blockbuster by me almost never had anything I was looking for, but when they did have it, the price to rent it was usually so much, it was cheaper just to go to Wal-Mart or Target and just buy the DVD for the same price.
At least that way if you didn't like it, you could sell it and get a little back.
time to tap into the ps3 reserves.
Wonder how long it will be till grocery stores start closing.
i like your dad's thinking. if you want satisfied customers then you have to have employees that enjoy doing their job.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maury V.
already happened in germany.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Slaughter
a friend gave me a giftcard for blockbuster.
i spent about 30-45 minutes there trying to find something good.
i swear. couldnt find a thing i liked that i havent seen already
or wasnt just plain stupid expensive enough to not be worth it.
think i liked the stores better when
i went there during summers to pick up snes games.
it was a good place to find japanese animation on
tape, back when watching was a more niche hobby
and it was harder to find.
but yea, i'm surprised it lasted this long.
Times have really changed. I remember when going to Blockbuster on the weekend was like a special treat. It was the only way for me to play lots of games and watch anime. It's kind of sad that I don't go there anymore and that they're doing worse.
I haven't walked into a Blockbuster for years. But I guess I'll take a look to see if there's anything worthwhile that I can pick up for next to nothing.
The fact you can rent movies from a machine kills the video store. The thing is, it stinks. I loved going to look over vast movie choices. I'm tired of the entire world being so in-personal and digital that its less possible to have human interaction these days due to our technology further dehumanizing our life styles.
I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who actually read the article.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesagwa
They're talking about using the bankruptcy filing to "escape leases on 500 or more of it 3,425 stores".
People don't read, and people don't summarize articles well.
America crys.
This is pretty funny, from the actual news article (i.e. not Kotaku):
Why is that? From earlier in the article:Quote:
Blockbuster stock, which last month was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange because of its ongoing low price and moved to the over-the-counter market, closed Thursday at 11 cents. The company’s total market value is $24 million.
In 1994 it was acquired by former owner Viacom Inc. for $8.4 billion.
Ouch.Quote:
Blockbuster has lost a total of $1.1 billion since the beginning of 2008 and has been severely hamstrung in efforts to grow its business due to interest payments on $920 million in debt.
I didnt read the blockbuster article for personal reasons. I frequent blockbuster, and for some time didnt set foot in. Then when I did, I got a 30 day free rental for being a customer, which showed me they are starving for business. Lets be realistic though, people pirate everything except for theatrical releases, which make good revenue while being pirated.
I naturally assumed it was totally true, because it makes sense. I actually think blockbuster won't survive 2011.
I think any local Blockbusters near me won't survive because no one goes to them. On at least three separate occasions I went to one of them to rent a newly released game the weekend after it came out and it was always in despite them only having like two copies. You'd think in a college town popular new games would be hard to get right at their release.
I've read that this doesn't directly affect our own Blockbuster financially, but we aren't doing much better anyway. The one I go past most mornings had their closing down sale a few months back. Last thing I did there was returning Bart's Nightmare for the SNES
Somehow there's a bunch of mom and pop stores still running nearby though.
Redbox started hitting them hard here. Whoever has the Redbox route where I'm at is a smart dude. He/She put 2 to 4 redboxes within sight of every Blockbuster and hit all the grocery stores and quikie marts in the area.
The thing that's killing me is that every Blockbuster around here that closes is getting reopened as a 24/7 ghetto ass "internet sweepstakes" gaming center. Brilliant.
Apparently now that the cash advance bullshit craze is over, this is the one that is taking it's place.
I love Blockbuster here in Denmark. I never rent, but they are my store of choice for domestic releases. Recently they started selling used/ex-rentails, so now you can pick up some fairly recent releases at decent prices. They also have a good games section, where I've also caught some pretty good deals.
Thankfully, the Danish chain is a separate corporate entity, that has turned a profit throughout the economic crisis. I believe it's now been put up for sale.
What's this then? I've heard of the scam that was payday loans, but this is new to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by topher
Final Fight Guy for around THREE BUCKS? You lucky... guy. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by nruva
I actually canceled my cable (Comcast) service last month, but kept their internet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neo Ash
There was only 2 or 3 channels I really cared about and was sick of paying for 60+ other channels I never watch just to get them.
I'll give them $1 for each of those 3 channels and they can stream it via the internet to me. Short of that, they'll never get me paying again.
Does this void the few dollars I have remaining on a gift card?
I hope so, then I have an excuse to finally toss it, I haven't been in a Blockbuster in many moons.
Blockbuster sucks. Redbox sucks. Anyone who hasn't gotten hip to Netflix is wasting their time.
Redbox is good for new releases that are backlogged on Netflix and for instant gratification rentals. Sometimes I just don't want to wait the 3-5 business days to watch my movie. Since I live in a biggish city there are terminals everywhere so it's not hard to rent/return them. Netflix is definitely better but Redbox serves its purpose.Quote:
Originally Posted by FrizzleFried
Has anyone tried Hulu Plus yet? Is it worth the $10/month? I use Hulu all the time but unless there's some magical feature beyond less ads I'm leaning towards pass.
Not too many Blockbusters around my neck of the woods though I noticed many of the stores are starting to get the self-serve machines to try and go against Redbox. Too little...too late.
Once they pulled that recent shit with removing then adding back late fees I was done with them, switched over to netflix. Enough people tired of their bullshit pricing and policies, they are now forced to restructure.
There are just too many better options now. I still prefer netflix, but I can see how redbox is useful if you dont rent much but want to pick up a newer big name release once in a while. They have blurays now but the selection is pretty small, you can only fit so many discs in one of those machines.
Surprisingly enough, Blockbuster is still around in South Florida, but when I went to Tallahassee several weeks ago, many of them were either vacant or became huge-ass beauty supply stores.
I remember back in the 90s, Blockbuster wouldn't let me and my homeboy rent anime because the one by our houses was (and still are) very conservative. The Hollywood Video across the street however didn't care. Because of that store, I was able to enjoy all the anime and video games that were very non-mainstream! HW > BB
BB was only beneficial when I worked there. I was there when they had the no late fees so I had a lot of shit out and the customers had to wait for shit because of me. :)
Bottom line is this, Blockbuster made their money through late fees and people were pretty much tired of dealing with that shit. If they keep their service strictly online and kiosks, I think they'll be just fine.
The local video store in my hometown had to close down because no one was paying their late fees...I guess it got so bad that the owner was going door-to-door asking people to pay them. Such a waste...that store was great for game rentals and had a ton of other niche stuff for sale.
Probably the coolest thing they ever did was buy some space next door and make a full blown arcade. I have many fond memories of playing After Burner II and UMK3 in there. Unfortunately all of the ghetto-ass wigger douchebags kept getting the police over there and the owner converted the space into tanning beds. :hammer::(
Redbox is worthless in my area. Even in my town, there's one of them, but the new shit is always rented out.Quote:
Redbox is good for new releases that are backlogged on Netflix and for instant gratification rentals. Sometimes I just don't want to wait the 3-5 business days to watch my movie. Since I live in a biggish city there are terminals everywhere so it's not hard to rent/return them. Netflix is definitely better but Redbox serves its purpose.
Has anyone tried Hulu Plus yet? Is it worth the $10/month? I use Hulu all the time but unless there's some magical feature beyond less ads I'm leaning towards pass.
Netflix is impossible to get brand spankin' new movies, but I don't mind waiting.
I don't think I've been to a BB since I lived in my apt. 7 years ago.
Yea, not surprised. Blockbuster has been behind the times. Ever since Netflix came out, Blockbuster dismissed it outright until recently (and too late at that point). At $9 with Netflix, I'm not bothered by Blockbuster going under.
Netflix is even a joke.
I pirate my movies in HD before they even hit the theater screen.
Too much hassle. All I have to do is power on my PS3/Wii, put it the netflix disc, and pick my movie.Quote:
Originally Posted by Josip Broz Tito
Yeah, but you'll have to walk out to the mailbox to get it and walk out to it again to return it.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Yugo
That's a lot of extra effort you could trim off your robust schedule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kristian Meller
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/08/inte...gality-debated
They were recently banned in N. Carolina (I think ban goes into place in Dec) so they have been moving north. Like 7'11, almost one on every corner.
Poker Halls were big for a minute in Porstmouth but the DA or AG or someone decided to start going after them so that dried up pretty quick.
Must be a southern thing. They don't have anything like that (to my knowledge) in MN.Quote:
Originally Posted by topher
I don't quite get what they are? Aren't they basically an Internet Cafe that does online gambling? Yet the article tries to make them sound like a sweepstakes..
That right there makes me want to commit acts of violence.:hammer:Quote:
"No, I'm playing the Internet,"
I love this argument of torrents being too much hassle. Seriously people?Quote:
Originally Posted by Harriet Tubman
I could understand if you have qualms with downloading movies and TV shows via torrents for ethical reasons... maybe even fear of being caught doing it in some way. But saying it's a hassle to put a query into a search and clicking a link? If you define that as a hassle, you're lazy.