Blockbuster Declares Bankruptcy -- Now See What Big Company Will Drop Next

Business Insider ^ | 09/22/2010 | Gus Lubin

[SeekAndFind]

Ding Dong. The bell tolls for Blockbuster, which declared bankruptcy this morning, reports CNBC.

The stock had already been at 15 cents, so this was widely expected.

Click here to see which big companies are likely to be next...

[Jeff Chandler]

[Moonman62]

I heard they are going to reorganize and make buggy whips.

[Jeff Chandler]

[dead]

Well, I’m sure we’ll all miss the days of the $3.00 a day late fees.

[cweese]

LOL!

[Tolsti2]

They were doomed when they couldn’t counter Netflix. The instant watching on Netflix is worhless for me, but getting 3 Blu-rays at a time with no fuzz is just impossible to beat at $22.

[Alberta's Child]

I’m surprised it took so long for this to occur, as Blockbuster is simply a victim of an industry that has changed so dramatically that its core business is obsolete.

[al_c]

It’s their own fault. They chose not to keep up with Red Box and Netflix.

[randita]

i have seen the Blockbuster kiosks in supermarkets and convenience stores. I guess they jumped on the wagon too late.

[max americana]

They tried the box approach like Red Box here in L.A. but you have to pay attention. Used to go with my former GF(s) to BB years ago just to get out of the apartment but nowadays you can do that in your underwear, going online on Netflix.

[Gaffer]

Good riddance to what I would definitely call a greedy company. They cornered the market,drove all the mom and pop stores out of existence, and then proceeded down a couple of decade path of screwing their customers in a virtual monopoly which ultimately became woefully inept at adapting to new technology and consumer preferences......Glad to see this.....

[doodad]

Does this mean I can keep Robin Hood that I rented yesterday?

[JTHomes]

The two Blockbuster stores I’ve visited are in strip malls with high vacancy already. Another blow to a depressed real estate market. I guess another dollar store will move in.

[Moonman62]

They cornered the market,drove all the mom and pop stores out of existence, and then proceeded down a couple of decade path of screwing their customers in a virtual monopoly which ultimately became woefully inept at adapting to new technology and consumer preferences......Glad to see this.....

The inspiration for Netflix's founder was Blockbuster's outrageous late fees.

[Domandred]

And the reporting those late fees to your credit report immediately.

[yarddog]

Only a few years ago, Movie Gallery had nice clean extremely well stocked stores all over this area. Now they are defunct.

Probably Netflix.

[GonzoGOP]

I looked at the list of 15 other companies and found a few I expected Renault (Who even knew Le Junk was still around), United States Steel (How's that hope and change working out for your big heavily unionized company), Eastman Kodak Company (I no longer own any cameras that use film). Like Blockbuster they have business models that just no longer fit the real world.

I didn't expect to see Porsche on the list, and certainly didn't expect to see them at #2. I figured a luxury auto maker might be having problems these days, but I thought someone would buy them up for the name.

As for the green energy companies like #5 Renewable Energy Corporation they grew faster than demand anticipating the governments to make people buy their products. Now that we are in a world wide recession nobody has money to spend on feel good green crap.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: The two Blockbuster stores I’ve visited are in strip malls with high vacancy already. Another blow to a depressed real estate market. I guess another dollar store will move in.

---

Let’s not forget that municipal LIBRARIES are de facto competitors with Blockbuster.

A lot of videos at Blockbuster can be borrowed from many local libraries.

Why should I rent videos and pay money for these when I can borrow them FOR FREE in the public library?

They have very little chance to survive if taxpayer funded places become your competitors.

[RobRoy]

>>I’m surprised it took so long for this to occur...<<

I’m with you. It shows how the “doomsayers” can be right but just off target on the “execution date”.

And you will notice I am not attempting to veil my perspective that this is a lesson in why we have doomsayers regarding the world economy that seem to be “wrong” but we just need to wait a little bit. It is easy to predict (to anyone paying attention) as the Blockbuster bankruptcy.

The timing is the trick. Peter Schiff famously got it right with the housing bubble. I wonder if any of the doomsayers will get it right with their 2010 and 2011 predictions.