Goodnight Blockbuster!!!

Sound and Vision is reporting, that Blockbuster will close 960 stores by the end of 2010. They claim they will boost their profits by 60 million dollars.

My local newspaper in Bend, Oregon, had an article on this topic. From what we read, Blockbuster has been taking major hits every quarter due to Netflix and Redbox. Even Blockbuster's own online rental is not measuring up to Netflix - of course, Netflix took a commanding lead years ago, so there you have it. Also, the 60-mill is just an estimation of maybe. If things stay the course they are now, and say Blockbuster lost no customer base at this point, then they might gain a 60-mill in profit by doing this move. 60-mill for Blockbuster is really not enough to save the future of the company when you really think about it. Some of your major Hollywood blockbusters cost over 200-mill alone to make. Again, this is just what I read, and I don't put a lot of stock in any article these days.

What I'm waiting for is "Hollywood Video" to announce closing their doors. Those guys are still hanging onto the brick-and-mortar business model, so you know they have to be hurting. I will hate to see them go as I do like their gaming department. They've been a good competitor to places like Game Stop and EB Games. Oh, well, the rental future is certainly online and down-streaming, but at least Blockbuster is making an attempt to adapt. Unfortunately, it may already be too late.

Hey IB... I'm thinking you missed our NEWS REPORT five days ago about this news.

With this latest restructuring, Blockbuster's ability to survive is much stronger now (closing unprofitable stores, less staff costs, adding thousands of kiosks - similar to RedBox).

Analysts are praising the move, including Netflix chairman Reed Hastings (both in the article, and this morning being interviewed on CNBC). Blockbuster offers the same convenience as Netflix: discs by mail and online streaming. Along with their in-store rentals, they are rolling out thousands of rental kiosks, to further compete. As the company says, it all adds up to TOTAL ACCESS.



On the other hand... if Blockbuster were to need a competitive bailout, I'm sure Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) is salivating over the possible future chance of acquiring their assets and large customer base (a merger with Netflix, perhaps?). Stay tuned...

-JOE- (Love Hendrix!)

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[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on Sep 21, 2009 - CDT 12:17 PM]

Sorry Hendrix I forgot to take my medication!!!

Very sad indeed. The loss of jobs. Also (and I do have netflix) I think loosing rental stores is sad. There is something to be said about the experience of walking around and looking at titles. The same thing went with the whole experience of buying music. Now thanks to Itunes and other digital music sites that let you buy by song and whores who think its ok to just download music for free that is pretty much gone as well. Aside from big box stores and an FYE here and there but I don't like FYE. I think people take these things for granted. I always enjoyed going to the video store. When I had blockbuster online I enjoyed the in store trade since I got to walk around the store. Often finding an enjoyable straight to dvd scifi movie I hadn't noticed before.

Well, one thing is for sure no matter what you read, the brick-and-mortar business model will not go away too quickly. There is still a large base of people that don't even own computers to do online rental (mainly your senior citizen crowd that is stubborn about adapting to anything the future has to offer. Believe me, I now a few), but the Redbox idea will work fine for these types.

And no, I'm not getting into the argument of Blockbuster is the evil empire or anything like that. I'm just mentioning an article I read and it said nothing of what Joe mentioned - thus the reason I say I don't put too much stock in articles I read these days. Seems even our news media is bias towards one way of doing things compared to another, or there are the usual underlying payoffs nobody is aware of.

Tim Tim Tim, Blockbuster is not the EVIL empire, that would be Wal Mart.

Don't get me started on the music industry and the band selling out to the large chains and iTunes instead of supporting small time record stores. Can't believe those losers Pearl Jam are releasing their new, though crappy, album exclusively at Target.

When even Pearl Jam sells out, you know it's time to call it quits.

Actually, speaking of music sales, the independent labels - many of them working through online sales and downloads - have had a growth of 1.08 million last year while major "sell-out" labels dropped over 3 million.

I read an article about this topic in my local newspaper over a month ago. It would appear the days of musicians chasing down a major record label are becoming a thing of the past. It is more beneficial and more profitable in a sense of "do it yourself" rather than depend on a major label that will essentially just suck up your income. Thus becoming their corporate lackey and instead of it being a "sell out" it is more of a "slave out."

A lot of this change is not just due to MP3 players but the ease and cheap marketing the internet provides. It cost millions to have a major label market your work through retail, radio play and advertisement. The internet is mere chump-change in comparison and can be just as effective. The band "Radiohead" experimented with this last year when they freely let people download their new album for two months before their major record label took over and sold it in stores. During that time, you could download it for free or pay them whatever you felt was fair. Needless to say, they proved it was a successful way to do business and paved a new foundation for independent thinking in the music industry. It was a bold move meet with controversial criticism but it actually worked.

I really don't see selling exclusive to Wal-mart or Target as "selling out" but rather as, "save our band." Since many of these bands already have a good fan base, it just means some of their record sales and fan base has dropped off over the years. Not to mention, most of these bands that go that route are usually from a time period of people that are used to CD's, tapes and vinyl records (e.g.: The Eagles, AC-DC, etc.). Therefore selling in a location built on instant gratification may be a better move on their part.