Posted on 03/06/2019 6:38:44 PM PST by EdnaMode
It's lonely at the top.
That's what the Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, discovered when the only other store in the world -- located in Australia -- announced it was closing. Although Sandi Harding, the general manager of the Oregon Blockbuster, is excited that hers is the last Blockbuster on the planet, she expressed her condolences for friends at the Australia store.
"We all have a kinship with the other Blockbusters," Harding told CNN. The Oregon location has been open for more than 20 years. It offers customers the newest movie releases, but Harding says the classic older titles are the store's "bread and butter."
"You can go to Redbox and you can get the new titles, but they don't have the older ones," Harding said. "Netflix and Amazon don't have everything, either."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
“Vinyl came back. Maybe VHS will too.”
WOOT! Gonna be glad I kept those old laserdiscs one day! ;-)
They cracked open some petrified wood from the Jurrasic era and found some old cassette tapes. Quality has degraded some.
I used to be in the video business, we were a local little chain and it was a fun business to be if you loved movies.
There were great perks from the distributors we bought from like Tee shirts, brief cases, all manner of things they gave away. Of course the best perks were the screeners they gave out of the movies that were in the pipe line coming out, sometimes we got stuff three or fours months before stuff came out. I used to have a dual deck VCR and could copy anything and give them to my father who loved movies also.
By the way we had to pay an average of $65 a piece for those VCR’s, so they were not cheap. So you had to rent those out for so many rentals before you made any money on them.
They were fun day and a fun business until DVD’s and sell through stuff destroyed the market.
Our old Blockbuster Video store here in Rogers, AR is now Buster’s Liquor, and the Hollywood Video is now Hollywood Liquor.
Have you noticed how little space Wal Mart now devotes to DVD’s? Used to be there were huge displays of dvd’s on the front cashier line. Now? Not so much...Streaming is where it’s at.
I know a few places in rural Alaska had a Block Buster until recently. It only survived because the area lacked enough broadband internet to stream movies and TV for the community.
There are still several “Family Video” stores here in my area of Wisconsin. I’ve never been in one, and often wonder how they stay in business. Perhaps the profitable product is...something else.
You like Stevie? Youre alright!
Seems like there was a Blockbuster down in Mary Esther, Florida, until just a few years ago.
I visited Bend last March. Great town. I remember seeing the Blockbuster.
We need more comedy like that these days.
Still charging rewind fees for DVDs no doubt.
#34
Next, there will be a DVR rewinder.
My town has a couple of Redbox kiosks peddling the latest trash. Mostly not interested. I get lots of older GOOD movies in both VCR & DVD formats for .50 or $1 from thrift stores, which I can always recoup at next yard sale.
Better yet, rent ‘em for FREE from the library!
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