I remember when I was a teenager I used to go to Blockbuster so many times a week to rent games and anime all the people that worked there knew me by my first name. At one time, it was a truly awesome service, but now that you can just go to a website like Netflix or Goozex and load up a queue of stuff you want to watch and play and never have to leave your house, well, stores like Blockbuster are on the decline. It's kind of sad, as I have such fond memories of it, but all things change, right?
GamesIndustry.Biz reports that Blockbuster will be closing 960 of their 7000 stores before the end of 2010. They describe this move as a way to "improve four-wall profitability". A spokesperson made a comment to CNet in regards to the changes:
All these stores are candidate stores ... although we may in fact close that many stores, if we can renegotiate leases or remodel stores to make them more profitable, that number might go down.
Well ... it's still a lot. I wonder if stores like this will still be around in ten years? Unless they radically alter their business model, I'm thinking maybe not.
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Contest:
6:40 PM on 09.16.2009
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Yup.
Since I was too poor a boy to buy many games and my parents were cheap I remember renting so many Dreamcast games from Blockbuster. Back then it was 5 bucks so the risk was like zero so I rented whatever had the coolest looking box art. And I had no idea of gaming reviews so every gem I found was completely by chance.
Without the Bust I woul have never discovered Jet Grind Radio, Crazy Taxi, that 18 Wheeler game, Tokyo Extreme Racer, Space Channel 5, that 4X4 game, Power Stone 1&2, it just goes on and on. I got a lot of great memories out of Blockbuster. Oh man and they had those "Rent 1 Get 1 Free" coupons every month that had like no expiration date.
Grr, I have such fond memories of my local Blockbuster. Nostalgia aside the service has gone down the shitter.
But yeah, sucks to see Blockbuster havin' to do that. Not only for the whole "Lots of people are gonna lose their jobs" thing, but also because back when I worked at Game Crazy I heard lots of rumblings about Hollywood Video having to do the same thing if things didn't shape up soon, which would also have probably meant a lot of Game Crazy's woulda went under too. And if Blockbuster is having to go this far, then I can only imagine Hollywood Video's gonna have to do the same soon. Granted, last month while I was still there I heard that their new Powerplay program practically saved them from an early grave, but time will tell I guess.
...On a side note, I need to stop getting on the computer after I take Vicodin. I can't seem to shut up. >_>
I'm with you, Colette. Not necessarily sad that the stores themselves are closing, I mean, it is unfortunate, just sad to see another part of my childhood slowly going the way of the buffalo.
Things change...
Anybody? No? Rats...
HAHA!!
I would just love to see how far this can go before it's not funny.
I've finally settled on an In-store blockbuster monthly pass for ANY 2 items out at once, games, blurays and dvd's. It's a little bit more expinsive than the netflix and gamefly, but hte store is just down the street from me and I get to rent games the day they come out and can rent multiple movies a day if i have the time to watch them. So, i hope my bb stay's open.
Oh, and about the post, i never rented anything from Blockbuster,GameFly,Netflix...
@Artemus
Oh my God man, yes! I STILL remember doing the Blockbuster Gaming Championship tournies when I was a kid! Early RIP Blockbuster.
Also, when I was a kid and they still had three day rentals, I'd go every Friday night, get an NES or SNES game, and spen my weekend playing it. Good times. The weird thing about this is Blockbuster has a Netflix-style service, with the added benefit that if you take the DVD to the store when you're done, not only will they send you the next film on your queue, but you can rent one at the store for free (depending on the plan you have, I think). So I hope the Blockbuster back home stays open...
What about Hollywood Video? My local is still open only cuz they have GameCrazy, which is apart of it and its a good alternate to Gamestop.
these days though I've only rented a handful of games over the last few years, but Blockbuster still has use since I can't afford a subscription to both Netflix AND Gamefly, here's hoping my local one doesn't close