articles.moneycentral.msn.com — If there is one thing decidedly true, it is that Blockbuster Video's future is not bright. It just announced 500+ more store closings, having already shuttered 250+ stores in January. Its stock is 30 cents. Its business a dinosaur & in shambles. If its future is "bright", would love see a business whose future is cloudy...or bad.
Feb 25, 2010 View in Crawl 4
hazmatsuitFeb 25, 2010
Blockbuster Closes 500 Stores. Lying CEO: "Future Is Bright""Mental recession" - Phil Gramm - 7/08"The economy is strong and rubust" - "We are currently not experiencing a recession" - Bush - 6/08
dmcaudioFeb 25, 2010
Netflix mail + streaming = Blockbuster Killer
dmcaudioFeb 25, 2010
At least here, Redbox is killing blockbuster and hollywood. All they'd have to do to reclaim the market and be successful is take the $1 / movie / night approach on all their titles... new releases, old ones, and games. Games especially is where they'd win.
pinkcherryFeb 26, 2010
Never been a fan of Blockbuster, but I have a warning to Redbox users. Not that anyone cares, but me and my husband got ripped off by Redbox so we wont using their services again. It was nice using it until they claimed we kept a movie for an additional three days and and never returned the other movie. They charged us $28.00 and would only refund $10.00. I am not for sure if they have unscrupulous employees stealing movies and passing blame to the customer, or a glitch in their automated kiosk system. BTW their customer service is horrendous if you have the privilege of having to deal with them in a situation like this. I can understand the draw of the convenience and price point, but it's not really a good deal if they claim you did something you didn't and it's your word against theirs :(/cool story bro
vitriolandangstFeb 26, 2010
I agree, but I don't think that even Netflix has a sure thing right now.The REAL dark horses are Microsoft (XBox) and Apple (iTunes subscriptions). The WINNER is going to be some digital streaming company -- so it could be a cable company, but my money is on a company that can use ANY digital pipe and create the marketplace. Amazon.com will probably also enter the fray.Do I really want to pay for 500 channels when I only watch 12? No.Is Netflix distribution good but not as cheap as digital? Yes.A lot of this is going to be about "mindshare" with the public -- so Netflix and Walmart have an edge over Blockbuster. So even this tactical retreat, does not mean that Blockbuster has a sure thing ahead.
larfusFeb 26, 2010
This about sums it up <a class="user" href="http://gregsedwards.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!19760888BE8FCA70!3574.entry" rel="nofollow">http://gregsedwards.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!19760 ...</a>
jspegeleFeb 26, 2010
I had Blockbuster online a few years ago. When I signed up it was cheaper than netflix, I got one free in-store game rental per month, and I could return any online rental to a store and get a free in-store rental. One year later, they had raised prices twice (about $5/month additional), took away the free game rental, and reduced the unlimited in-store exchanges to 1 per month. I switched to Netflix (who hasn't raised prices in the 2 years I've had an account) and never looked back.
boner79Feb 27, 2010
Netflix > Blockbuster