Are all Blockbuster stores closing?

[Brazoo]

ealdrett - yeah, you're right of course.

Still - vinyl records are still around - who knows what will happen for sure. Convenience probably wins, but for a certain amount of people there's just something about buying something tangible...

[SeattleEd]

ealdrett - yeah, you're right of course.

Still - vinyl records are still around - who knows what will happen for sure. Convenience probably wins, but for a certain amount of people there's just something about buying something tangible...

I agree. Vinyls records around here are more for the young and old hipsters. Funny seeing the type of people on Record Store Day, the same type in High Fidelity. It has become boutique and hip. Even VHS and cassettes are becoming that.
Tangibility, love buying a limited edition colored vinyl of my favorite album but can't say the same for a movie, be it disc or tape.
Cassette? Unless it's an original print of Daniel Jonhston's first album.

[Brazoo]

I agree. Vinyls records around here are more for the young and old hipsters. Funny seeing the type of people on Record Store Day, the same type in High Fidelity. It has become boutique and hip. Even VHS and cassettes are becoming that.
Tangibility, love buying a limited edition colored vinyl of my favorite album but can't say the same for a movie, be it disc or tape.
Cassette? Unless it's an original print of Daniel Jonhston's first album.

Oh man - I actually wish I had some of those! I have a huge pile of tapes sitting in a box. I wish I could unload them - and for some reason I can't bare to throw them away.

I've always hated video tapes - especially late 80s/90s video tapes that are super breakable and feel lighter than air. But I did get pretty excited about building up my DVD library for a while - especially because of special edition and Criterion releases with all those extra features. I'm a bit of a movie nerd.

Discs suck because of their large playing surface though, I'm super careful with mine, but I think it's a huge flaw in the format. The packaging is getting uglier and cheaper looking too - I know it seems like a silly point, but I'm a sucker for really nice packaging (partially 'cuz I'm a designer). Blu-rays aren't an improvement on either of those things - and some of the digital cleanliness actually bothers me. I watched an old favorite, "The Thing" recently - but without the grain it just looks really silly for some reason.

Blu-ray also seems built for obsolescence, so there's no way I'm going to upgrade my collection any time soon.

[Mikey]

One time back in the 80's I was screwing around with my VHS player and played a VHS tape with the top of the player off.

It played it fine but I could not believe what that player was doing with my $30.00+ VHS tape.

It pulls the tape out and winds it up in the players guts to play it.

From that point on I never bought another expensive VHS tape because there's just too much room for breakage

[starsky]

still have one in my area. they seem to be surviving.

[johnmiic]

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/co...ores/19597754/



Blockbuster

No. of Stores Closing: 500-545

Under assault by video-on-demand and online video rentals, Blockbuster (BLOKA) announced earlier this year that it plans to close 500 to 545 stores in 2010. That's in addition to the 374 it closed last year.


http://www.dailyfinance.com/article/...p-for/1157309/


Blockbuster Inc. has brought in turnaround specialist Jeffery Stegenga as its chief restructuring officer in an effort to salvage the troubled video rental store chain.

Stegenga's hiring satisfies a demand by Blockbuster's bondholders, who last week agreed to give the Dallas-based company more time to repay some of its debt if it brought in outside help to bolster its finances.
James Keyes, Blockbuster's CEO for the past three years, remains in charge of the company.

Stegenga comes to Blockbuster from Alvarez & Marsal, a firm that works with companies striving to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection. He is supposed to stay at Blockbuster for as long as it takes to get the company's finances in order again.

...
With the company's survival in doubt, Blockbuster's shares have been depressed for so long that they were de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week, (7/9/2010).
The stock, now trading on the over-the-counter market, gained 2 cents Friday to close at 17 cents.

[BOTZWANA]

I still buy DVD´s. My fear is if my computer crashes I have lost the movie. I love DVD´s!

[SeattleEd]

I still buy DVD´s. My fear is if my computer crashes I have lost the movie. I love DVD´s!

Hence why Hard Drives and hard drive based recorders are dropping in price to sell for storage.
Also, what better way for you buy the movie again if you don't have a back up, right?
I've learned to back up EVERYTHING and update my hard drive if not in use for a long time.
Remember, it's still mechanical inside those drives. Prone to problems as any other device. I've lost hard drives but luckily managed to pull most info off if possible
DVD-R's and CD-Rs all have a shelf life despite the initial arguments that they last 100 years. All my old burn media from 10 years ago is history. Lost A LOT of content so now I mostly archive to drives and upgrade drives.
It would be nicer to keep the CDs, Hardcopy photos and articles and DVDs but it's just more clutter to horde.
I prefer sparseness in a small living area. Not a fan of big houses. Simplicity is much better.

[mazinz]

Not to hijack the thread (but I will be checking the two B-buster's by me to see if they
were affected by the mass closings), but for you old schoolers out there
here is the non public access basement of older non rentals at the last
Mom and Pop video store by me. He still has a slew of vhs for rent/sale upstairs
(though he really wants to finally close down the place and move on).
I was lucky enough to be given the key to kingdom and able to raid the whole building.
Since Nov 2009 I think I have spent upwards of 1500.00 (if not more) on old big box, rare most
no dvd release vhs tapes. DAMN that nostaligic collector in me

Looking back I can now easily say "take me back to these days anytime". F*CK Redbox
and it's limited rental crap, people waiting on ever increasing lines and lack of many titles.
And to hell with Netflix too. I would rather be able to actually walk around a physicall store
and see/discover new or old movies for myself.

Even more tapes are on the right and left of the pic which cannot be seen

[toys2cool]

most are gone, the last day they lower all dvd's to a $1 or less so make sure you stop buy

[Lonestarhobbies]

I do miss the oldschool video stores. Growing up my mom,brother and I would often hit the local grocery stores like Randall's or Kroger's and pick up a few videos while grocery shopping.

As a teen I used to rent from Blockbuster....but it just didn't feel the same.

I currently do the Redbox gig......it works for me

In my early 20's I began building my dvd collection....... thanks to my wife's cats....they killed at least half of my collection last year Now with Blue Ray being all the rage I'm glad----not for some new disc technology, but because everone around here is literally dumping thier DVD collections like the plague. For me this is fantastic, because I've been picking up DVD's at my local flea market and pawn shops for $1 and $2 on a regular basis. I'm not talking about worn out scratched to hell discs....I'm talking stuff that's fresh from the shelf, recent release stuff. I'm back to building my collection

[Mikey]

I miss the old day's when it was a planned "event" to go out and rent a movie.

[Hector]

Good riddance Blocksuker...I hated every time I went there...hated it.

Bad customer service, employees who wouldn't give a crap about you...didn't even know about movies, fighting for the few new movies that came out with other customers...and awful overall selection.

Good riddance...I'm not going to miss you one bit.

[VintageMike]

They seem to be surviving pretty well by me. There are also some smaller stores in the area as well. My Dad is a huge movie watcher and despite getting him a Netflix trial for Christmas, he ultimately decided he'd still rather go to an actual store. I think the price of even hard copies has hurt the rental business as well. When you can get a new DVD for $20 and an older one used cheaply, a per disc rental fee doesn't add up. The one area where they could do well, video game rentals they blow by having the prices too high.

[HardyGirl]

I miss the old day's when it was a planned "event" to go out and rent a movie.

Me too...take a ride in the car, go get some frozen yogurt, and rent a video.