Blockbuster done for good this time?

I read this on kotaku earlier, pretty wild, i thought they were doing bad, but not THAT bad.

I havent actually rented from a blockbuster in a couple years, so I cant say I really care either. What I DO care about is when they'll start closing stores and if theyll do crazy clearances like HWV:lol:
 
Blah, this blows. Whenever I get bored during my lunch break I would go to Blockbuster and walk around to kill time. Guess I'll walk around a supermarket now...
 
You know as much as I dislike Blockbuster... I feel sorry for those losing their jobs. Of course just like Circuit City the company was mismanaged on the top which is reflected in the stores as well. Not to mention what Blockbuster did to a number of small mom & pop video stores/chains.... yeah I don't feel that sorry for Blockbuster going out of business.
 
I think it's always a shame when a store goes out of business. Even if I didn't use their services in the past years, I always appreciated knowing there was a place to rent older movies.
 
[quote name='Rasen']I think it's always a shame when a store goes out of business. Even if I didn't use their services in the past years, I always appreciated knowing there was a place to rent older movies.[/QUOTE]

Netflix my fellow CAG. You can either rent by mail or stream to your PC/360/PS3/Wii.
 
Oh yeah, let's root for the store with perhaps the best, most consistent, CAG-friendly sales over the last 2-3 years to go out of business :roll:

I'm speaking of the B1G1 sales on used games $14.99 and under of course. You know, the deal that should win CAG deal of the year every year but never does because people pick stupid one-off sales like the RB2 bundles at TRU and crap like that ;).

I'll be sad to see that disappear just as I was sad to see the HWV $5 game sales go away (in case you missed those, they were all used games $29.99 and under for $5 - the only other sale that could compete with the BBV ones). The liquidation at HWV never came close to matching the $5 sales they had the last year before they shut down. I would not expect any BBV liqudation to be any better. When they close stores down now, the sales suck. In fact, they often have worse deals than the regular stores running the B1G1 sale (since the B1G1 doesn't apply to the closing stores and they only give you, like, 20% off at the closing ones, then ship all the good stuff out before it gets any cheaper).
 
[quote name='io']Oh yeah, let's root for the store with perhaps the best, most consistent, CAG-friendly sales over the last 2-3 years to go out of business :roll:

I'm speaking of the B1G1 sales on used games $14.99 and under of course. You know, the deal that should win CAG deal of the year every year but never does because people pick stupid one-off sales like the RB2 bundles at TRU and crap like that ;).

I'll be sad to see that disappear just as I was sad to see the HWV $5 game sales go away (in case you missed those, they were all used games $29.99 and under for $5 - the only other sale that could compete with the BBV ones). The liquidation at HWV never came close to matching the $5 sales they had the last year before they shut down. I would not expect any BBV liqudation to be any better. When they close stores down now, the sales suck. In fact, they often have worse deals than the regular stores running the B1G1 sale (since the B1G1 doesn't apply to the closing stores and they only give you, like, 20% off at the closing ones, then ship all the good stuff out before it gets any cheaper).[/QUOTE]

It probably doesn't win because El Hordo/flippers pick out everything flippable before anybody can get there.

Edit: Also because they are very YMMV in selection, where as the winning deals (like Amazon Black Friday) are usually available for most if you're fast enough to the buy now button.

Either way, sad for the people losing jobs, but not so much at Blockbuster going out of business. They had dumb business practices and for it they die.
 
what I don't get is how they charge $1 for movies at there express locations but instore its $5 a movie.

They own too much retail space, its one of those Too big to fail things, if they decrease there locations and keep there finances tight while expanding there online service they will be around for a while.
 
[quote name='HaLLuZiNaTiOnZ']It probably doesn't win because El Hordo/flippers pick out everything flippable before anybody can get there.
[/QUOTE]

Eh, may be YMMV as you say, but I wasn't even able to hit up the latest sale which started Tuesday till yesterday (Thurs) and I found all I wanted. It didn't look like anything had been touched at my local store. And the selection varies, to be sure, but there are pretty consistent games to be found across the chain as they tend to convert the same things from rental to sale at most of the stores (thus Beatles RB for $7.50 was an easy to find pickup at the end of the last B1G1 sale, for example). It's just that they tend to go lower than most places on particular games (for example, right now a common find is Endless Ocean Blue World for $14.99) and then pile the B1G1 on top of that making those games effectively half that price. That beats the very very mild Amazon BF deals (which have been pretty lame the last 2 years for sure) by a wide margin.

[quote name='phantasyx']
They own too much retail space, its one of those Too big to fail things, if they decrease there locations and keep there finances tight while expanding there online service they will be around for a while.[/QUOTE]

I dunno, at least around here, they already have cut down on the redundant locations and with HWV now gone there are very few retail locations of any sort given the area/population. They may still have too many stores in some areas, but at this point if they cut too many stores out (at least here) then it really is just a sign of desperation and I would say it is the beginning (or perhaps middle ;)) of the end. Up to a certain point closing stores may have saved money and decreased competition amongst themselves - but now they would simply be losing customers entirely that have no other option.
 
[quote name='io']Eh, may be YMMV as you say, but I wasn't even able to hit up the latest sale which started Tuesday till yesterday (Thurs) and I found all I wanted. It didn't look like anything had been touched at my local store. And the selection varies, to be sure, but there are pretty consistent games to be found across the chain as they tend to convert the same things from rental to sale at most of the stores (thus Beatles RB for $7.50 was an easy to find pickup at the end of the last B1G1 sale, for example). It's just that they tend to go lower than most places on particular games (for example, right now a common find is Endless Ocean Blue World for $14.99) and then pile the B1G1 on top of that making those games effectively half that price. That beats the very very mild Amazon BF deals (which have been pretty lame the last 2 years for sure) by a wide margin.
[/QUOTE]


There's also the fact that some games don't come with case and manual. I know the last B1G1 I went to at BBV at least half the bin's games didn't have the case. Didn't bother to check for manual.
 
I would be more willing to support them, but whenever I went to a BBV they seemed rude, or the employees didnt really care. I loved gamecrazy, they had some of the best deals you could get anywhere, they were friendly, and they were willing to help me find stuff. BBV's game department is so half assed in my region, I cant even tell the difference between a regular BBV and one with the gaming attachment.

They have a ton of BBV in my area too. There's one within a mile of another a little further north of me.
 
Eh, my family just got a home theater, so we bought some blockbuster thing for $15 that lets you rent 2 blurays for $5. Seeing as I hate BUYING movies, since I consider that to be the biggest waste of money, it really isn't bothersome to me to pay $2.50 for blu-ray rentals, aside from that $15 additional investment. I might, however, go with a netflix blu-ray plan next summer, just for convenience.

Also, we have been hearing about Blockbusters potentially closing for ages now. I am actually surprised to see they are still around.
 
The problem with Blockbuster trying to expand on Online and Kiosk rentals is that it's too little too late. Netflix and Redbox have too much market share, I really think it's too late for them to be able to compete. Just about everywhere now has no less than 2 Redbox kiosks now, compared to one Blockbuster kiosk in the area.
 
[quote name='Potatoeman']I would be more willing to support them, but whenever I went to a BBV they seemed rude, or the employees didnt really care. I loved gamecrazy, they had some of the best deals you could get anywhere, they were friendly, and they were willing to help me find stuff. BBV's game department is so half assed in my region, I cant even tell the difference between a regular BBV and one with the gaming attachment.

They have a ton of BBV in my area too. There's one within a mile of another a little further north of me.[/QUOTE]

See, the problem is you are going in expecting a "gaming attachment". I guess you mean a Gamerush store (which have always had very limited distribution). You can't compare Blockbuster to Gamecrazy. You have to compare them to the regular old HWV stores that didn't have Gamecrazy attached. If you know what you are doing you can find great deals - it doesn't take any helpful gaming-oriented employees to get in on the deals ;). In fact, I'd say the less gaming-oriented they are, the better chance they leave stuff for customers to buy. This was one problem with Gamecrazy - the employees snagged all the good stuff.

And hopefully they will close some of those stores by you that are a mile apart and leave mine that are all 8-10 miles apart alone! Maybe there is still some fat to trim there and they can come out of it a bit better off.
 
[quote name='spmahn']The problem with Blockbuster trying to expand on Online and Kiosk rentals is that it's too little too late. Netflix and Redbox have too much market share, I really think it's too late for them to be able to compete. Just about everywhere now has no less than 2 Redbox kiosks now, compared to one Blockbuster kiosk in the area.[/QUOTE]

Seriously... I have like 5 redboxes in my immediate area and a few 3rd party ones and no blockbuster kiosk. There are a total of 12 different redboxes I could go to that would be a shorter distance than the nearest blockbuster one.
 
[quote name='cager']Seriously... I have like 5 redboxes in my immediate area and a few 3rd party ones and no blockbuster kiosk. There are a total of 12 different redboxes I could go to that would be a shorter distance than the nearest blockbuster one.[/QUOTE]

QFT The one (closest to us about 3 miles away) is closing for good. They are already having a sale or w/e on games and movies.
 
major stockholders SUCK

i own 100 shares of this company and we was NOT to be delisted

blockbuster wanted to do a Reverse split of a 10 to 1 (meaing i would have 10 shares instead of 100)

People with thousands of shares voted it down even though we were told if the reverse split was not approved. the company would be delisted and bankrupt could be the way they go

Sucks i lost around 300 bucks

got the stock like 4 years ago for 2.55 per share (at that time it went up to 3.25 per share should of sold then)

blockbuster will never be what it was like in the past.. if it does make it out within 1 to 3 all stores will close and the BB name will just be on machines like redbox..
 
I still have credit at Blockbuster from that possibly mispriced Fast And Furious Blu-Ray set pre-order from last year. I've just been too lazy to go and get them to refund it to me. I'll be going tomorrow, don't want my money tied up in a BK filing.
 
You guys can poo-poo Blockbuster all you want, but it is great for CAGs. I think B1G1 sales are one of the best-kept secrets for gamers.
 
[quote name='io']Oh yeah, let's root for the store with perhaps the best, most consistent, CAG-friendly sales over the last 2-3 years to go out of business :roll:

[/QUOTE]

If you have ever worked at BBV, then you would probably change your mind. At first, I used to love the company, but the more I worked there the more I started fucking hating BBV. It's as bad as Wal-mart if you ask me.

You constantly get pushed around by your store manager and district manager. You're constantly told to do things that you aren't even "qualified" to do. I was opening and closing stores because I knew how even though I was still a CSR. It was pretty much say no to the SM/DM and not get hours and my promotion or just do it. It took the company 4 months to just give me a fucking fifty cent raise. Yeah, a FIFTY cent raise even after being promised 10%. Granted, the difference wasn't much, but its the principal of the matter. And I never got my second raise to become a shift leader either. They gave me the run around for 6 whole months just to avoid giving me a $1 raise.

During my final months there, it just got worse and worse too. The company knew it was in terrible shape and starting cracking down on the Regional managers, who cracked down on the District managers and it just spiraled down from there all the way down to the grunts. Yeah, I know that's retail protocol (blame the CSRs for everything), but I really don't see how the company expected anyone to sell 20 candy bundles in a night when you only had 15 customers. I was actually written up once because I didn't hit my sales goals on a Wednesday night that we only had 4 customers. I had to have a face to face with the DM the next day (on my day off to top it all off) because of that night.

It was quite funny though. He drove 20 minutes to the store to talk to me specifically. I walked there (took my sweet ass time too), stepped in, said hello, grabbed a movie I wanted to watch, quickly rang it up and walked out. He was pissed, but I wasn't going to sit there and get lectured because of a lack of customers. That's not my problem. It's not something I can fix and I wasn't going to be buying 10 candy bundles a night because my store needed sales. fuck that... I know store managers who do that, but I'm not going to waste $30 on candy because the company needs money.

That's my mini-rant about BBV. I really hope this company goes under.
 
This is sad news - No longer will I be able to go to the local, clueless BBV and take out all the 1-month XBL codes from the piles of GTAIV cases on the shelves when it first came out.
 
Darkrider - I never said I wanted to work there or that it was a great place to work. I just like the deals ;). Though, I have to say, the ones around me have had a pretty stable collection of workers. There hasn't been that much turnover in the last few years, so maybe it isn't so bad a place to work in some areas. I guess it all depends on the DM and SM, just like any other retail place (and in particular, like Gamestop).
 
I hope they can pull through. The local stores charge $4 per movie (blu-ray included). I don't rent frequently, so it ends being cheaper than Netflix, and BBV has a much better selection.
 
I have some good memories going to BBV on Fridays after school to rent a game as a child. I made some good flips from BB to Gamestop. But I will not miss them at all.

1. They think they can charge 9 dollars to rent a game.
2. Anything that is not rented out in X amount of weeks is removed from stock / sold.
3. Half their store is not even movies or games, just garbage they want to sell. My local store started stocking pay-as-you-go phones, WTF. They didn't have a copy of "Boy's don't cry" when I looked for that earlier this year, but they were selling random romance novels, makes perfect sense.


I will not be missing them at all.
 
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