Blockbuster closing 960 stores. How often do you rent?

[Hector]

Blockbuster sucks ......

Their stores only carry newer movies ....

and online - forget it !!!

I got Blockbuster free for one month (3 DVD's at a time)
I wound up getting 5 by the time the month ran out --- and they were from the bottom of my que.
Compared to Netflix where sometimes I can get 15 in a month.

I would recommend to everyone -- DO NOT GET BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE !!!
They suck !!!

I had a three month trial with online Blockbuster...horrid...horrid.

Like I said...good riddance.

Go Netflix!

[kryptosmaster]

Haven't been in a Blockbuster for years. Never liked the place anyway. Can't stand having to take the movies back either. Won't miss them.
Rich

[jwyblejr]

Haven't rented anything from them since 1997.

[toys2cool]

I time my stuff perfectly...and always get first run movies from Netfllix.

I always return the DVDs on Monday...and on Tuesday...when the new DVDs come out...they are already are on my Queue for shipping...it works every time.

yeah i started to do that

[Hector]

[mazinz]

the problem with BBuster is that they drastically downsized their selection in hopes of getting more people to use their online rental service (which failed horribly)

Back before dvds fully took over and you had a good even mix of vhs and dvd, blockbuster did have a decent crop of titles. As time went on it became horrible. I was lucky enough to still have a few mom and pop video stores by me as well as the very nice Hollywood video which carried a very good selection (not many places rent criterion titles). Hollywood closed about two years ago. The blockbusters by me are from hunger and even with a free rental coupon I just could not find anything.

One of the last mom and pop chains by me (Joe's video) shut down. Now if I do want to rent, I have blockbuster who never has what I want and one mom and pop (3c video) that is 40 mins away.

I have been seeing more of those $1 rental machines at the super market and they seem to be doing well. Still though, on a number of days I feel like going into a store to rent a title or see what is there and this old habit is dying very quickly

If Bbuster shuts by me I would not miss it as they have jack sh*t to begin with. However out of pricinipal for the sake of the "video store" it saddens me to seem them all going the way of the record store (remember those, I can count on one hand how many are left by me), but what can you do, the internet and a technology changing world are killing these older franchises.

[vulcan2074]

I stopped going to Blockbuster a long long time ago. I'm more of a buyer than a renter
Sammy

[ramsey37]

I picked up all of the EMCE Trek figures on clearance at my local Blockbuster. That was probably the most time I've spent there since the place was built. I almost never rent movies. I always have a stack of unwatched DVDs at home that I've picked up cheap at Wal-Mart and Big Lots.
George

[ODBJBG]

I second most of what's been said. I moved into an area that didn't have a good Mom & Pop or even a Hollywood (which I used to drive across town for) and I finally found myself at Blockbuster. I'd say we rented there maybe a half dozen times.

The selection was really terrible because while they tended to carry 55 copies of new releases that still didn't mean I'd get to see it. To make matters worse they probably had 200 "old" DVDs total. You couldn't rent stuff like Batman, Alien, Rambo, etc... They just didn't have them. I could see if it was obscure old movies, but any video store that doesn't have a copy of "blockbusters" from a few years back is just terrible.

What's even worse is that they charged as much to rent a new movie as it cost to rent an old movie. I often rent old movies, most places charge $1-$2 to rent an old flick. Not Blockbuster, they wanted $7! It was nuts.

Eventually we found a new place and now either the Mom & Pop gets my business or Netflix. Most of my stuff is done via Netflix, but I would never go to Blockbuster unless I had to.

All of them around here have went out of business now, so I suspect in a few years they'll be completely non-existent.

[megocrazy]

I have two major grocery stores within a 5 minute walk from my house and each one has two redbox units. If I take the back exit out of one parking lot to go to the one across the street I pass the Blockbuster. I would guess that one will be one of the ones going under. Nobody is ever in there. I buy a lot of used dvd's at yard sales and flea markets,as well as on ebay and have about 450 in my library as well as 150 in digital format, and since redbox is all new releases I'm pretty well covered. I have accumulated a couple of doubles buying collections, anyone interested in starting a dvd swap thread? If so let me know. I have at least 15-20 dupes.

[fallensaviour]

wow that's a lot. The other day i passed by the one I use to work at when i was younger and it had closed down

Holy Crap!!!
D we are Family/Famia after all,LOL
I worked at blockbuster when I was younger as well...LOL
Blue and beige forever Baby...
I am glad they are closing down I couldn't stand them.Even when I worked there I rented from Rogers...LOL
They had crappy selection and terrible staffing.Return times were confusing to people and they were constantly changing return time rules.
I'm not surprised they have lost a lot of customers over the years.

The only thing I don't understand is I thought they were owned by paramount and universal?
If so what does that say about the movie business?

[starsky]

my bro in law has netflix and he just passes me the movies when he's done and i'll send them back for him when i'm done watching.

[jasonmego1277]

I don't usually rent DVD's . I always buy them and have managed to put together an extensive library myself. I have a full closet converted in a dvd cabinet. I should look into buying used copies and save some money , but I don't want to invest into discs that may have onset of DVD rot. But then again has that even been confirmed to be happening to DVD's like it did with Laserdisc ? Anyways I can see a few of Blockbusters near me going under very soon. I also noticed that our Publix Supermarkets here have Blockbuster , red box like machines in them and there is Blockbuster stores in that same shopping center. Those are probably going.

[trekman101]

I haven't even been in a blockbuster in years but there are several around my area.

[ctc]

>I haven't used Blockbuster since they switched to DVDs.

Y'know.... neither have I. Not by design; but that was about the time I lost interest in new films. The one by my house used to get a LOT of weird stuff.... old films, foreign films, old foreign films.... stuff I'd never seen before. (Or in some cases, ever HEARD of!) They had a good big-budget/no-budget ratio as well. But at a certain point it was all stuff I'd avoided at the theaters.

Nowadays I mostly buy my movies, 'cos that's the only way to get the stuff I want.

Don C.