Blockbuster Video reveals its contempt for humanity

I dunno, maybe I'm in the minority on this, but I don't see why this is a problem or a bad thing.

Yeah, why would this be bad? Otherwise you rent and you keep it and it's the same as buying.

God help they try to stay open and keep people employed. What soulless monsters.

Really, it's like you are spiraling away to retardation and weirdness more and more each day. It's kinda freaky.

I will say, I don't know how blockbuster stays in business with the 1-2 punch of netflix and redbox. Redbox is going to keep anyone wanting to watch a new release happy for a buck a night, and netflix for new releases and every other movie out there. How does blockbuster actually compete at 5 bucks a pop?

Presumably late fees were one of the reasons why people stopped going to Blockbuster and that this could very well drive even more people away. I suppose it could work, but it's not going to solve the real problem for Blockbuster in the rental industry.

I don't know if its the best business decision ever but its clear Blockbuster's bottom line is hurting. Riding out the PR storm may be worth the cash. But this story is not funny, ironic or a sign of contempt for humanity.

They've been charging late fees all along, they've just changed how they've done it. They'll charge you something along the lines of a dollar a day currently. The original policy would just re-rent it out to your account for the full price of a rental. I'm guessing this is what it will go back to.

This isn't a bad thing. Maybe they'll actually have movies in stock now.

People still rent from Blockbuster?

The one two towns over has a nice small selection of movies that people request and they order, but that's not really enough to get me to go there.

Not suprised at all. The blockbuster in my town closed but the one in the next town where I work was still open so I would go there. About 2 months back I finally dived into this Netflix thing everyone was talking about and I haven't looked back since. I mean new releases delievered right to my door on tuesday and any other movie I can possibly think of. The only reason I can even imagine they are still open is older people who aren't willing to make the switch over to the internet. Not to mention the people afraid to give their card out on the net(I was one for years) and people worried about what happens if the mail loses something.

How is their blockbuster online thing going? Just curious how their selction, prices and delivery times were. Still kind of a shame to hear about. I mean when that store closes there won't be a video store left at all in my town. There were 3 or 4 small places years ago but Blockbuster put them all out of business.

I find this irritating because it applied late fees to their games before they did it to the movies. At $9 a rental, I could deal with it so long as I got to have it for a little over a week total. But now just 4 days for $7 with late fees following? That's kinda horseshit.

I know, Gamefly is out there but getting big new releases within the first 3 months of their release from Gamefly is like pulling teeth.

I did a free trial of Blockbuster Online around three years ago. The selection wasn't near Netflix's and the delivery times, as to be expected with less hubs in place, was much slower.

They also had a deal where they gave you coupons online each month to print out and get free rentals at a Blockbuster store near you. I didn't see the point of that, since it was totally taking away the whole convenience of staying at home and getting all the movies anyway. I understood that it was a way to compensate until they got more delivery hubs in place to get customers their movies at a faster rate, but it just seemed bad from the get-go.

So, my experience with Blockbuster Online was fine, but it didn't come close to even challenging Netflix's service and selection. Again though, this was several years ago, so I am curious myself as to how they have adapted and (hopefully) grown to compete with Netflix.

Fuck Blockbuster. I got sick of their shit, switched to Netflix and never looked back. And the Redbox in my grocery store makes getting the movies I want to watch even easier. They are an obsolete buisiness model and they need to fold up.

That's interesting...I rented a game Thursday last week, then just returned it this morning, which is over the "5 day rental" mark. I wonder if I'll get charged a late fee.

Family Video illustrates that a video store can survive in this millennium. Cheap new releases, all other releases 2 for $1. Meanwhile Blockbuster charges what, 8 bucks for a fucking videogame? Let 'em rot.

Blockbuster was leaving it up to individual stores to determine its late fee policy. The store I went to in NJ, had the "charge you the full purchase price until you returned it" policy, while my store in VA has the $1 a day late fee.

I don't think that Blockbuster hates humanity, but given the market pressures, it seems that this a colossally dumb business direction.

That was why I used to hit Turtle's all the time--new releases were like $3, and everything else was $1 for 2 nights. They just put a Blockbuster-ripoff-of-RedBox machine in the grocery store right next to me, but I haven't tried it yet.

Well, they're a huge corporation forced to compromise because of business woes.

They've been circling the drain for years. This might be suicidal, but so would not doing anything. There's almost literally nothing left for them to do.

Blockbuster is just delaying the inevitable. They are dead in the water. If you have any stock or stake in the company get out now. Netflix basically killed their business and now Redbox is driving the stake in their hearts. If WalMart starts pimping out Vudu in a way that can challange Netflix expect to see even more people flee Blockbuster's services. Their business model is about as current in this decade as a store trying to sell pet rocks and hyper-color t-shirts. Dead I say.

Rented two movies for my mom the other weak at BB, fucking 8 bucks. Screw that. Red Box for me.

I actually used to like going to video stores to pick out movies. I guess there's no way to make that work these days.

Over here in the UK they've never stopped charging late fees (to the best of my knowledge).

Ding ding ding, we have a winner. Blockbuster used to be the only video store in my town (drove the POS video store I worked at out of business) and last month they shuttered that place due to lack of business. Brick and mortar stores are going the way of the dodo, and if BB was smart they'd just stick with the online model and try to adapt that way.

Blockbuster is a dying breed in the DVD rental market, no doubt. However, plenty, and I mean plenty, of people stil frequent the store. It's not just old people or people afraid of the mail service. It a convenience in it's own way that a lot of people are used to using, because they spent up to 30 years doing it.

Old habits die hard, and people will watch their beloved Blockbuster close and they'll be sad. Boo hoo. Good ridance I say, but for the sorry fools, I mean customers, who use Blockbuster, it'll be a wake up call for them.

They just switched their old releases prices back to $4. Fucking stupid. Also, doesn't help when two fat and ugly bitches eating pork rinds behind the counter, not being courteous to customers.

I'm kinda stunned Blockbuster in the U.S. don't charge late fee's; everyone does here. You get a $6 overnight movie and you don't take it back the next night you get a $6 fine every day it's overdue. Sends me broke, but that's the price I pay for being disorganized.
How you could possibly object to that kind of business model is baffling.

Have you tried the aussie answer to Netflix, Quickflix Matty?

Because they're Americans, and the world owes them everything, cheap, all the time.

The Yahoo finance piece was correct: it's a desperation move.

I predict that Blockbuster liquidates by the end of this year.

I'd say that it's because there are other alternatives that don't have you rack up large overage fees, even if it is at the expense of not being able to go through your queue.

I see it as a bad strategy that doesn't address the underlying issues that Blockbuster faces in the industry they're in. Not entitlement on the part of the customers. Sure customers want cheap, but that's not the only thing that got people to go to Netflix over Blockbuster.

I could be wrong, but I don't see much pointing to this being the savior of the company.

There is no savior. This is it for them. They're trying to stop the bleeding, but it's a fatal wound no matter what they do. In fact, it's the same kind of desperation that lead them to drop the late fees in the first place; they were just begging customers not to leave. The writing's been on the wall for years. What they do now hardly matters.

Holy shit, no! I just checked it out! I get so jealous of these American chewers who always post the "Just added that one to the queue!" lines.
Can't thankyou enough for that one, Sir!

Yeah I don't know how the no overdue fees thing was working. People have a hard enough time bringing their shit back on time when they know they're getting charged. And it's a giant pain in the ass when other customers have reserved a movie then they come in to collect it and it's not here because the previous customer hasn't brought it back yet. Or someone comes in for a specific movie and it's not in stock but it would have been if people had gotten it back to us on time. When that customer decide oh well I'll go somewhere else that costs us money.

The thing with the price of DVD rentals is also for New releases we have to pay the distributer $3.50 - $5.00 per rental. we had a deal a few months back 2 new releases and 2 back catalog movies for $10.00 so we were only making $3.00 off ever 4 dvds. it almost sent the store under so we pushed it up to $12.00 and boy did everyone piss and moan about it. Now the store has downsized form a decent size to a tiny pokie little shop, and I've worked shifts where we've only made $30 in a night. I wouldn't expect the store to be around in another six months.

And honestly that would be ok, it's a dying industry and newer better ways are replacing us. It's just like wagon manufacturures being replaced by car companies, sucks for the people losing jobs but that's the way technology works, but that's not the major thing killing video stores off.

There's no Netflix or redbox in New Zealand, You can pretty much thank illegal downloads. People are so brazen as to actually talk about it in the store "Should we get District 9?" "Nah I've got that one on my laptop"

But yeah, it's video stores that are the cunts.

The bottom line is: How the fuck does Blockbuster compete with Redbox? They don't. If you have shares, sell 'em.

DECE the way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future.

I'm pretty sure charging the price of a full rental every day is illegal in the States now. There was a lawsuit some years ago (2002, maybe?), way before Netflix came to prominence, about Blockbuster's fee structure.

Sucks to be Australian, I guess.

This is true a friend of mine and I got in a really dumb argument a couple weeks ago because I was saying that redbox charges a dollar a day but he preferred Blockbuster because there were no late fees. Despite paying however much more for a new release then I do for the one night I rent it and watch it.

But some people are creatures of habit and would rather pay more money for what their used to then try the cheaper alternative.

Yes.

Everyone talks about the death of Blockbuster as a good thing. I mostly, 90% agree... except that with the death of the video store goes the availability of older films that have yet to be discovered by some kid somewhere looking for a movie. No old titles in Redbox. And the magic of just finding something crazy on the shelf, renting it on a whim, and then being blown away by it is just about gone. So many movies I discovered by doing that.

100% agree, Alan. I can't tell you how many times as a kid/teenager I found a new cinematic treasure simply because of some great art on the front of the box/case. I'll never forget picking up Escape From New York for the first time, because of that fantastic video box art.

As of right now, unless you're looking for a blockbuster, Redbox is worthless.

I'm genuinely curious: at this point, why would anyone prefer Blockbuster over Netflix? I mean, I can see that Redbox might be a bit cheaper over the course of a month, but a couple of rentals at Blockbuster and you've paid the equivalent of a month of Netflix. I'm sure there's factors I haven't considered, and I'm wondering what they are.

I do agree that losing the opportunity to browse the shelves is a shame, even with the personalized browsing that Netflix offers.

I think the time of shelf browsing is pretty much gone, make no doubt about that. It's too far gone now for it to come back. But it will leave the older titles pretty much exclusively in the hands of cinephiles. Hopefully people will still read the Internet and get some recommendations for good- yeah, I couldn't even finish that thought.

As soon as Blockbuster drops off the map expect your Netflix/Redbox, whatever, to start charging you more.....

Doubtless. And while it may be to my benefit for Blockbuster to continue to exist, it doesn't necessarily explain why an individual consumer prefers it to Netflix (at least I assume that the typical Blockbuster customer isn't continuing to patronize them just to help keep my costs down).

I wasn't having a go at Blockbuster customers; just curious what appeal it has versus the pricing, selection, and convenience of Netflix.

Never said you were. just saying that is how it works. They are purposely charging less to bring people in, once you eliminate the competition, you jack up the rates. Pretty basic stuff.

I rent a lot from Blockbuster myself, but I am by no means a lover of Blockbuster, just that I don't have any good independent video stores nearby. Oddly the ones that used to be by me had a worse selection and stricter return policy, and are now closed.

The reason I still rent from them is mainly because of their lax return policy and their Blockbuster rewards program which lets you get a free rental with every rental M-W. I can rent 6 movies for the price of 3 and keep them forever.

if that changes, as this article suggests, I might have to bail on them completely though, because late fees were previously the worst thing about Blockbuster as they would send unpaid late fees to collection agency which is really, really, shitty.