Readers continue the thread:
One comment I think deserves to be made about the demise of Blockbuster is that it was specifically their aggressive late-fee policies which gave Netflix its beachhead into the market. People tend to forget that Netflix started out as a mail subscription service where physical disks were sent to the customer. On the face of it, that sounds like a crazy business. Why would I wait several days to get a movie when I can just go down to the local Blockbuster and get one immediately? The answer, of course, is the hassle and cost of the late fees. Netflix’s no-late-fee policy was a critical differentiator that gave them a toe-hold in a market that Blockbuster was dominating.
Another:
I wrote a paper in college on Blockbuster and how their management was a classic example of a reactionary business strategy. It’s really not their business model that sank Blockbuster, but rather their poor management style. Let’s not forget they had an opportunity to buy Netflix several times for as low as $50 million (currently valued at $20 billion) back in 2005. By the time Blockbuster launched their own dvd mail service in 2007, Netflix had started streaming video online.
I’m afraid it only gets more ridiculous from there. Blockbuster was actually on the cutting edge of video-on-demand back in the late ’90s and even set-up a partnership with one of the largest companies in the world in order to provide video-on-demand service via a nationwide broadband system. One problem though: that company was Enron. So that didn’t work out so well …
Another:
I’m going to be closing my fifth and final Blockbuster store this holiday season and I am sad – but also relieved.
I joined the company right around the time when Jason Bailey worked there (2005). And I have had a much, much different experience than he has. Most of the managers I’ve worked with, especially these past two years, have shared my enthusiasm for movies and do not treat their work as just collecting a paycheck. I make sure all my employees love movies and we’ve had a great relationship with our regular customers since I took over my store recently. We even had an awesome Halloween party last month with a lot of kids and it reminded me how much families did enjoy coming into the store and relying on our service to help find the best movies for them. Ironically, we finally learned to turn ourselves into the mom-and-pop stores that Blockbuster drove out of the communities so long ago.
Most employees would tell you this has been a slow death – we had over 1,500 stores when Dish Network bought us back in 2011 and they’ve been shedding stores since. But they would also say they thought we had time through the holidays to try to turn things around. I don’t even think most at the corporate level in Blockbuster knew that Dish Network would deliver the axe so swiftly. We were gearing up for the holidays and had a giant holiday guide ready to go!
I don’t get upset that much anymore when people bring up Netflix or Redbox bringing about our doom. I actually think small, independent stores (much like the book industry) can thrive in this market. If you look at Family Video, a growing chain in the Midwest, they are consistently busy. They don’t have to pay rent (the company owns the plazas they’re in) and they’re busy enough to keep the lights on.
I would like to echo that sentiment that going to the video store is a communal experience. If the right people are in place, video stores can provide the right place for people to share their love for movies and that obscure horror film about zombie Nazis or share quotes from Princess Bride or just take in the spectacle of Joss Whedon’s Avengers playing on the nearby TV.
Another hated those TVs:
They would play previews for all sorts of movies on several large screens with the sound jacked up. The problem was that many of those previews were inappropriate for the children that I sometimes had in tow. When previewing a slasher movie they may cut out the worst, but taking a four-year-old through a store to a soundtrack of screams and explosions was not merely unpleasant, it was entirely inappropriate. The managers said that they had no authority to shut the previews down. Once when I complained, a manager replied, “How do you think I feel? I have to listen to this crap all day.”
The good thing is that in many communities there are still small independent video stores, just like there are small bookstores. My favorite is staffed by dyed-in-the-wool movieheads who are basically curators and are able to direct me to good flicks far more effectively than Netflix et al.
The Dish 