The last days of Blockbuster.

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Slimline
The article does not say Blockbuster is going out of business...and I doubt it will, even with increasing prices. The Blockbuster in my area is always packed.

Yup. Blockbuster will always have a market until someone figures out how to get highspeed broadband into every home that has a box that can receive movie downloads on demand cheaply.

Yea, there will always be a market. The question is, can Blockbuster capitalize on this market enough to make it *profitable*. Thus far, that doesn't look likely. With the overhead they have to deal with, they've got to keep very high revenues and healthy profit margins. As thier customer base erodes away, they won't be able to maintain the same volume they had before. The only way to compensate would be to offer more extensive products, or to raise prices. Raising prices, of course, would only serve to destroy what little consumer base they have left. In my opinion, even offering more products in-store won't save them.

 

[Rudee]

Originally posted by: krnxpride83
lol.. learn how to read...

 

[Anubis]

i can see it dieing, especially with Digital Cable and the ton of on demand channels, buy the movie for the same as it costs to rent, you never have to get off the couch or use the phone, and you can pause ff/rw all that for 24 hours, IMO that is the future

 

[Night Blade]

I won't miss them for 1 second, stopped using them years ago due to those stupid late & high rental fees, good bye & good riddance.

 

[teddyv]

A year or two back I sat down with my Wife and discussed our membership to Blockbuster - most of this revolved around continually getting stung for huge late fees. I looked at what we spent on rental and late fees over the previous few months and decided it made sense to simply buy the movies. Yes it did cost a bit more, but not that much more and we actually owned the movies.

I have not stepped foot in a Blockbuster since and have to say I do not miss them a bit.

(And BTW, BB could solve all its problems if they started renting pr0n )

 

[LanceM]

While I do understand people's gripes about basic rental fees (there's a place out here that charges $5.50 per game rental, no matter how old... and some of them are from the PS2 launch window), I've never been able to feel compassion concerning late fees.

It's not like they give you 5 hours to watch a 3-hour movie. Rent it and watch it when you have time. And don't forget to return it. How hard is that, really?

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: Slimline
The article does not say Blockbuster is going out of business...and I doubt it will, even with increasing prices. The Blockbuster in my area is always packed.

 

[teddyv]

How hard is that, really?

That is a logic wholly lost on the Female of the species (ok, at least with my Wife.)

 

[shortylickens]

9 times out of 9, this sort of "news" is made up by people who want it to be true.
Just like when they said the computer would die because of ipods and console games.
What the fvck ever.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: teddyv

How hard is that, really?

That is a logic wholly lost on the Female of the species (ok, at least with my Wife.)

So true. I have a friend whose live SO (and her two female spawn from hell) just could never quite grasp the whole "return the DVD by the due date" thing. He had to tear up his membership card, and now "saves money" by only buying DVD's (I can't convince to try Netflix or B-Buster on-line).

 

[TheAdvocate]

double post. sorry.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
9 times out of 9, this sort of "news" is made up by people who want it to be true.
Just like when they said the computer would die because of ipods and console games.
What the fvck ever.

Yeah, those lying bastards also said the same thing about the typewriter, the zeppelin, and the horse as the main means of transprotation. What do THEY know, anyway?? :disgust:

 

[TheAdvocate]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
What people don't get is that it doesn't matter if one or two stores do well, or if your local store is "always packed", they are LOSING MONEY, hand over fist. They used to make a lot of money off late fees, no more. Every copy of a new movie that they buy to rent costs them almost $100, sometimes more, and then they have to turn around and rent it 60-100 times just to break even on that individual tape. That doesn't leave a lot of room for profits, expenses, all that.

Why are they paying $100/movie? If that's what the studios/distributors/MP Co's are charging because they can, and that's the only reason they are, then I'd expect that $100 purchase price to give a lot faster than BB folding. The day BB stops ordering millions of copies of DVDs is the day those distributors take a massive bow to the chin. They will have to price adjust or see the lucrative secondary (rental) market profits go bye bye.

With the late fees (which I absolutely abhorred paying, still makes me mad just thinking about them), consumers were essentially paying a surcharge for convenience. Netflix & direct delivery vehicles have diversified the convenience issue, so BB can no longer make huge backend there, so the dirtibutor companies will have to realize that and reprice accordingly. I sincerely doubt they charge a similar premium to Netflix. If they're able to get it from Cable Co's piping direct delivery, then BB will fold, and so will Netflix, I suspect, for the same reason. $100/DVD is insane.

Individual stores may be doing alright, but as a whole the company is dying, and if the company goes under, the stores will all close up, no matter how well they seem to be doing.

I don't like them but I have no desire to see them go under. Besides, they've diversified their offerings - over 1/3 of their stores are now console games. If they can manage costs and inventory successfully, that will coninue to be viable for a few more years. Meanwhile, the average family still enjoys going to the vid store on a Friday night. It's too ingrained in their habits to disappear quickly.

 

[darkamulets]

Sadly I don't see them going outta business. People love to browse, you can find tons of stuff @ amazon but I don't see any libraries closing either.

Oh well.

 

[weirdichi]

How much do they pay for video games? Same $50 price tag or $100 movie price tags also? What I am pissed off about is them having a hojillion copies of one video game and then just ONE freakin copy of another, ie: 32 copies of Gun for PS2 and 1 copy of Dragon Warrior 8. Yeah, the market isn't there for RPGs, but at least get 2 copies of DW8. -_-

 

[Indolent]

Originally posted by: weirdichi
How much do they pay for video games? Same $50 price tag or $100 movie price tags also? What I am pissed off about is them having a hojillion copies of one video game and then just ONE freakin copy of another, ie: 32 copies of Gun for PS2 and 1 copy of Dragon Warrior 8. Yeah, the market isn't there for RPGs, but at least get 2 copies of DW8. -_-

Where is this $100 per movie price to blockbuster come from? I see one person mentioning that they pay it for unreleased movies but how often is it that they have a movie before it is in stores?

I seriously doubt they pay that much per movie yet have only one or two copies of every game that cost $50 at most.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
They also have hidden costs, they pay over $100 a copy for movies they get from studios that are unreleased.

That's not the case with DVD though, they're released for sale and rent at the same time, and they don't have to pay any license fees, just the cost of the disc.

 

[Winchester]

We rent movies at our grocery stores, HEB has them for $1/day and Albertsons has then for $2 for new releases for 3 days.

 

[JASANITY]

Blockbuster sucks. Terrible Customer Service. I surely won't miss them.

 

[dr150]

Video on demand on teh CHEAP is a looong ways away.

Until then, Blockbuster will survive until it adapts to the new paradigm shift.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Indolent

Originally posted by: weirdichi
How much do they pay for video games? Same $50 price tag or $100 movie price tags also? What I am pissed off about is them having a hojillion copies of one video game and then just ONE freakin copy of another, ie: 32 copies of Gun for PS2 and 1 copy of Dragon Warrior 8. Yeah, the market isn't there for RPGs, but at least get 2 copies of DW8. -_-

Where is this $100 per movie price to blockbuster come from? I see one person mentioning that they pay it for unreleased movies but how often is it that they have a movie before it is in stores?

I seriously doubt they pay that much per movie yet have only one or two copies of every game that cost $50 at most.

They really do cost that much to BB when they are released to BB before they are for sale.

As for games, they dont have those kind of agreements with game studios so im sure they pay MSRP or even less because of the volume they order.

They paid over $130 a copy for the matrix when it was released (i worked there at the time).

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Acanthus
They also have hidden costs, they pay over $100 a copy for movies they get from studios that are unreleased.

That's not the case with DVD though, they're released for sale and rent at the same time, and they don't have to pay any license fees, just the cost of the disc.

Yeah, the movies that they do rent out before release are bought at normal prices, i shouldve clarified that.

 

[sygyzy]

Very good read. Thanks for posting.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Originally posted by: darkamulets
People love to browse, you can find tons of stuff @ amazon but I don't see any libraries closing either.

If I'm not mistaken, aren't most libraries publicly funded?

 

[Reckoner]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I agree, it was a good read.

I don't understand how Blockbuster isn't making money. You license the movies, you rent them out, and pay some staff to support it. The infrastructure is already in place. They must have some serious debt to content with right now.

They also have hidden costs, they pay over $100 a copy for movies they get from studios that are unreleased.

You don't know what you're talking about