Blockbuster Files for Chapter 11 Protection

[furo]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...ter-chapter-11

...

Non-US subsidiaries, including the 600 UK shops, are not involved in the bankruptcy proceedings, but hundreds more American stores could now close - on top of the 500 that have shut in the last year.

The chain is creaking under the weight of its debts and has faced management upheaval in recent years. Its problems have been made worse by a growing number of vending machines that rent films for as little as a dollar a day, as well as an explosion in the number of consumers streaming movies online, either illegally or through legitimate sites such as Netflix and iTunes. DVD and video stores appear as threatened as high-street music shops.

...

Blockbuster has roughly 3,500 remaining stores in the US, making it the country's last major DVD franchise - rival chain Hollywood Video collapsed earlier this year.

This doesn't come as a surprise to many, but I seriously doubt Blockbuster will be able crawl out of the hole they've dug.

 

[MetroStyles]

Business model is obsolete. They had a good run in the 80s and 90s. Time to shut the door.

 

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

Business model is obsolete. They had a good run in the 80s and 90s. Time to shut the door.

Truth. The only way I can see that they would have been able to stay afloat would have been to cut their store footprint sharply - both in quantity and size - and retire that debt. Even then, they would be competing with the stores that sell new DVD's for $9 or whatever they go for these days.

 

[furo]

I remember going back to Blockbuster a couple years ago for a short time while they promo'd a competing program to RedBox, where I could rent any movie for $1.50 a day, even the "hot new releases."

I was quite pissed when they ended that program, and stopped going altogether. I dropped by a few days ago to the local one nearby (it was literally like a ghost town in there) and saw their new gimmicks like "only available here! can't get this one on Netflix!!!11oneoneone"

I then saw the price, $5 +tax for any new release and even higher for Blu Ray rentals, so I said no thanks

 

[gam29]

big shock

 

[LawrenceMD]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Truth. The only way I can see that they would have been able to stay afloat would have been to cut their store footprint sharply - both in quantity and size - and retire that debt. Even then, they would be competing with the stores that sell new DVD's for $9 or whatever they go for these days.

nah bro... all they need to start doing is just "swede" all their movies and all will be well.

 

[MetroStyles]

What's next, adult video/mag stores will go out of business?

 

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by LawrenceMD

nah bro... all they need to start doing is just "swede" all their movies and all will be well.

, although I have my suspicions.

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

What's next, adult video/mag stores will go out of business?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!1!@

Actually, they were probably smarter than BlockBuster, since they didn't bother expanding or taking on debt.