Dish to close rest of its Blockbuster stores in US by end of January. DVD/Game mail service shutting down at mid December

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This great place for cheap games, blu rays and dvds is coming to a final close...Markdowns are probably happening now.

The company will also end its Blockbuster By Mail service by mid-December.

Read more: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/23894564/blockbuster-closing-all-retail-locations-by-january#ixzz2jtOPAdVl
 
 
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The final curtain is falling on the Blockbuster video-rental stores that Dish Network Corp. owns in the U.S.

The closures announced Wednesday will affect about 300 Blockbuster locations scattered across the country. Dish Network expects the stores to be closed by early January. Dish Network says about 2,800 people will lose their jobs.

The Englewood, Colo. satellite-TV provider also is shutting down Blockbuster's DVD-by-mail service next month.

Dish Network's retreat will render Blockbuster's once-ubiquitous brand nearly extinct. About 50 U.S. stores operating under franchise agreements will remain open.

Blockbuster's downfall began more than a decade ago with the rise of Netflix Inc.'s DVD-by-mail service, followed by the introduction of a subscription service that streams video over high-speed Internet connections.

Dish Network bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy court in 2011.

 
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My local store had finished the liquidation process about two weeks ago.

Sad to see them go, I loved going to that place as a kid.
 
RIP BBV. Got a lot of good deals in the past. You may be gone but we'll always have those ridiculous TIVs for Wii Fantastic Four and Cranium Kabooki to remember you for.

Hopefully Randy buys them.
 
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Glad to see them fall.  The took over every independent video store in town over the course of a few years, decimating the selections.  One day, I'm in this great Mom & Pop store where I can rent an old movie for $1 a night, and the next, that movie is $4 a night (if they even carry it).

Amazon can stream every movie that Best Buy used to carry.  It's not like you have to wait a week for Netflix to deliver anymore.

It's better this way.  Only problem now, is that liquidation sales will go away.

 
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BBV died 2 years ago for me.  they still had some of the free fairytales fight I got for free and traded back into them for 15-22 dollars each when they died in my area.  I wondered how they stayed alive this long.  as soon as they stopped carrying old movies and only had new releases they were doomed with the likes for netflix and redbox.

 
Not surprised at this point. Feel bad for all the employee's though. The blockbuster near me closed down last year and I think the nearest one is an hour away.

Their prices got way too high.. it was $9 to rent a game for 3 days here.

 
Darn..me and my girlfriend had a lot of future dates planned around block buster rentals. Definitely an end of an era, I was an early 90s kid and grew up without cable, my weekdays were filled with kids wb and fox box, my weekends with family and friends always started with a Friday night filled with board games and blockbuster movie rentals, followed by Sunday night Disney movie presented by the old head of Disney on I think abc. Alas my childhood is dead. I will continue to use Netflix, but now my options for hbo, other expensive cable shows, and old less popular hard to find shows are limited to either buying individual memberships when my gf and I only want to watch individual shows on occasion, fighting through long hold lines at the library, or risking viruses for hd copies off the Internet to put on disc for my tv. Damit blockbuster, live dam you, live!
 
Why even keep 50 stores open? Is that due to existing contractual agreements or something? I can't imagine they even have 50 stores that are all that profitable enough for a giant company to hang onto.

 
Meh Glad they are gone. 

Once I tried to rent Gears of War when it was relativity new. I couldent because I needed a credit card. Had a debit card but due to policy's they couldent accept that.   

 
I just hate the lack of other options in most cities now. Still have family videos around me but know plenty who are stuck with just suck box
 
I'll always remember the $30 you gave me for all of those $1 copies of Kinect Adventures... And the b2g2 that went along with it that gave me a grand of trade credit at Best Buy. :)
 
For years they offered a 5 day rental for an entire HD season of any show for only a dollar! No way your cable provider/Xbox movies/sony movies/etc. will ever offer you a deal anywhere near that good for streaming, and don't get me started on how much download speeds can even make Netflix a sucky low res hassle at times!
 
kodave said:
Why even keep 50 stores open? Is that due to existing contractual agreements or something? I can't imagine they even have 50 stores that are all that profitable enough for a giant company to hang onto.
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Franchise means that they're independently owned. They just licensed the blockbuster name and product agreements.

 
The Prize Fighter Inferno said:
15 years ago I never would have believed it. So long, old friend.
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Not even 15 years ago.

10 years ago I remember being in Blockbuster that was always PACKED on weekends with college students. Back then I figured Blockbuster was doomed because DVD's were getting so cheap to just buy them. In 2002-2003 I'm sure I'd "heard" of Netflix, but it was just another option for DVD's. Not a dominant player, and I don't know how viable their streaming service was back then. Never really considered how quickly streaming would become the norm.

That being said, streaming is still not the "norm" for me. I'm sure still watch far more films on blu-ray than I stream via Netflix or Hulu+ (even though I subscribe to both).

 
Loved going to them to print out stickers from Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap. Every weekend was fun with BBV.

This may be the final nail in the coffin of my childhood. Might have to start watching the news.

 
Serious McMopy said:
Even so, why keep the name? Why keep a dead brand?

It would be kind of like a big box retailer licensing the Circuit City brand, or something.
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Are you serious? Please tell me your trolling? Or have an STD that effects the brain....
People like this makes this awesome site stupid....
Try typing circuitcity.com on your URL
Blockbuster brand is worth a lot, just because your high on technology and can use netflix and Hulu, what about the other half that doesn't have internet? Think of how big blockbuster is in the UK.. I'm not defending blockbuster, I just wish stupid people use their brain before posting.
 
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Wow my childhood is gone :(  Me playing games growing up relied heavily on Blockbuster and Got It Video. The excitement of wanting to play a game and calling Blockbuster to see if it was in stock was the best things about weekends growing up. Same with movies. I rented more action movies from Blockbuster than I care to remember.

Also the sales the past few years have been amazing. Im glad I wiped out the stores around me. God that was some awesome flipping.

 
I'm old enough to remember when BBV first came to be in our town.  Back then, renting was a family event that you just don't get anymore.  I don't think we went there very often when I was a kid because they charged something like $5 for 2 days and our normal spot was cheaper for longer.  But when we did, it was like entering an upscale mall of video madness.  New rental walls were always bare if you weren't quick, which always used to piss us off lol.  I didn't care about movies as much back then because it was always what new NES or SNES game did they have for me.  I remember it was thanks to them that I got to play an SNES without owning one yet since they'd rent the system out.

I had such a good childhood; poor kids these days.

 
handsomepete said:
safe travels, blockbuster. family video is truly a poor substitute for video game cheapassery.
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family video will be gone within 2 years....

i remember running from blockbuster to blockbuster flipping games back in the late 90s and early 2000's

going to miss them just like gamecrazy

 
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Blockbuster went out here years ago. Same with Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video. Family Video is still here, because they are cut-throat, and do well at beating out the competition with coupons, freebies, and monthly flat rate rental deals. That, and a good deal of the population in my area are too stubborn to use digital, or too bad off financially to get a credit/debit card for Redbox.

Personally, I'm surprised Best Buy didn't go under yet. My guess is that them matching online competitors, like Amazon, is what has saved them so far.
 
Phrozenspite said:
Franchise means that they're independently owned. They just licensed the blockbuster name and product agreements.
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Got it. Thanks. I wonder if keeping the name has helped or hurt the franchisees over the recent years? It's such a tainted name now, but on the flip side, it's more well known than Mom & Pop Video.

 
crazedracerguy said:
I'll always remember the $30 you gave me for all of those $1 copies of Kinect Adventures... And the b2g2 that went along with it that gave me a grand of trade credit at Best Buy. :)
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Oh man, the two weeks that got me flipping in the first place. Bought like 6 copies of Kinect Adventures from a very confused Gamestop employee. Traded them to two blockbusters for serious profit and got like 8 games at each. Traded those in to Best Buy for a shit ton more profit. Took some of that trade in money to buy some copies of Duke Nukem Forever, Demon Frorge and a couple others to trade in to blockbuster to buy more games to trade into Best Buy, but now I was doing it by spending Best Buy credit. I almost single handily put my local Best Buy at the top for game trades in the region (seriously, I got to know the gaming manager and she told me that corporate was constantly asking how they were putting up the numbers for such a slow store). Good times.

 
Damn the closest Blockbuster to me is over 16miles away. I didn't even know all the ones in my area had closed.

Its sad to see them go. I still remember going in there and being amazed and the amount of movies they had.

Still remember the first and possibly only movie I ever bought there, A Beautiful Mind. Going to miss them like Circuit City before them.

How is it these places are going extinct and crappy Radioshack is still around? :?:

 
Having worked at Blockbuster for years, I am not sad to see them go. They refused to evolve with the business and blame their troubles on their employees.

 
AugustAPC said:
Having worked at Blockbuster for years, I am not sad to see them go. They refused to evolve with the business and blame their troubles on their employees.
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Bingo. I wish Hollywood Video was still around. I worked there first and was the coolest job and I mean that. Great co-workers, met my fiancee that way (though we went to high school together, but reconnected there in college) - anyways. They tried to save themsevles, but much to late. BB was walloping them and Netflix/Gamefly/Redbox and even fucking Hastings were stealing the college crowd. Our one location in Norman did well, but a the previously mentioned were located by the richies/college kids better.

 
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