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Netflix has won: Blockbuster is closing their last retail stores

A Blockbuster store in Racine, Wis., displays a closing sign in March 2010. Dish Network announced Nov. 6, 2013, that it will close the remaining 300 Blockbuster locations scattered across the United States. (Scott Anderson/Journal Times via AP)
A Blockbuster store in Racine, Wis., displays prepares to close its doors in March 2010. Dish Network announced Nov. 6, 2013, that it will close the remaining 300 Blockbuster locations scattered across the United States. (Scott Anderson/Journal Times via AP)
Bloomberg reports that Dish Network, which bought bankrupt video rental store Blockbuster in 2011, will close all remaining retail locations by the end of the year. So ends the long, slow death march of the brick and mortar video rental store.
The demise of Blockbuster is a pretty clear case of a company not seeing the technological trends that overhauled their industry. Variety reported in 2005 that the company refused not one but several offers to buy Netflix for $50 million back when the company was still essentially a mailing subscription service that could be managed online. But by the time Netflix launched its online streaming service in 2007, Blockbuster was trying to sell brick and mortar customers on its "Total Access" DVD-by-mail program.
It didn't catch up to providing some form of online streaming until after being picked up by Dish in 2011 — long after competitors Netflix and Hulu had staked out significant market shares. And even that attempt didn't go very well.
The death of Blockbuster's remaining retail outlets is not a surprise to anyone. If anything, the surprise is that it has taken so long — the company was already down to 300 locations. And Dish intends to keep the Blockbuster on Demand streaming service afloat for the moment. But it seems unlikely that it will be able to seriously challenge Neftlix, the once upstart DVD-by-mail company now worth nearly $20 billion, any time soon.
Andrea Peterson
Andrea Peterson covers technology policy for The Washington Post, with an emphasis on cybersecurity, consumer privacy, transparency, surveillance and open government. She also delves into the societal impacts of technology access and how innovation is intertwined with cultural development.

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HGF78
11:37 AM GMT-0200
I use to work with a former Blockbuster store franchisee owner. The stores were amortized for 30 years. That owner had sold his store before the collapse. The reason he did so is that he saw that the company had no intention of keeping up with newer technology. Some of the owners had suggested part of the store be converted into a electronic stores as the big box stores were long drives to get anything (this was over a decade ago). The company didn't want to hear it. It was clear to him they were using the stores as cash cows and were planning to run them into ground. Looks like he was right.
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ricksta
2:59 AM GMT-0200
Netflix may be in for the time being, but the true problem is Hollywood turns out nothing bu garbage, and most people don't want to see the same garbage twice.
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Asmodeus1971
5:18 AM GMT-0200
Probably why Netflix has so many movies from the UK and Asia. They don't live on Hollywood alone. Then again people have been saying this about Hollywood for 40 years plus and people still go see this garbage in record numbers.
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Tim J Moore
5:29 AM GMT-0200
Some years ago I didn't know I owed a late fee to Blockbuster. Usually the drill was, when you go in to rent a movie they would tell you that you owe a late fee and you would pay it along with fee for the videos you were picking up. Right? Blockbuster sent me to a collection agency over a late fee! A LATE FEE! I swore I would never rent from them again. And now the are going out of business. I am loving it.
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Lee_Malatesta
8:45 AM GMT-0200
Netflix streaming service has so many movies from overseas, relatively speaking, only because the major Hollywood studios do not want to license their new titles at a price that Netflix is willing to pay. It has less to do with what people want to watch and more to do with what Netflix is able to get for people to watch.
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jbanks979
11:39 AM GMT-0200
It's a pretty blanket statement to say "Hollywood only churns out garbage"

Perhaps you just haven't seen a good movie recently?
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Posted by: Tukiyooo Blockbuster Updated at : 5:57 AM
Thursday, November 7, 2013

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