Why Blockbuster is going out of business
I’ve never liked Blockbuster, starting with their placing a ban on “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which caused me to place a ban on giving them any of my business for years. But then a few years ago I desperately wanted to see any one of three films — “Das Boot,” “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” or “Fitzcarraldo.” I called every Blockbuster around and not only did none of them stock any of these films, none of the clerks had heard of them. This was in Los Angeles, the movie capital of the world. So that night I signed up for Netflix. Netflix, and Red Box, and online streaming, and iTunes and piracy have all been killing Blockbuster and I have to admit to feeling a little frisson of schadenfreude about it.
But the advent of better technology (immediate delivery at a lower price) isn’t the only reason that Blockbuster is going out of business.
The other night I wanted to introduce my kids to the joys of “Alien,” that wonderful science fiction horror movie. This being a last-minute decision, and discovering that it wasn’t available as a “Watch It Now” via Netflix streaming, I impulsively swung into Blockbuster while driving by. Sure enough, they had the movie. Although there was absolutely no easy way to find it on the shelf (it seemed to be stocked between microwave popcorn and spiderwebs, and by the way, who would buy their microwave popcorn at Blockbuster, anyway?), the clerk located it and led me to the checkout. Whereupon I was staggered to learn that this rental was $5.49.
“$5.49?” I asked. It seemed to me that I could probably buy it for about $5.49. Did they think this was still 1990? I told him that it seemed pricey.
“Yeah,” he answered. “But it’s not due back until Thursday.” This was on Saturday night.
“Why would I need it until Thursday? I want to watch it, not worship it. Do you have one I can just buy?” Because now I thought, kids being kids, they’ll probably watch it over and over for years to come. And my wife, being similarly disposed, has repeatedly watched four movies, and only those four movies, in the past twenty years (and two of them were “Dune”). So it would get lots of viewing.
No, they didn’t have a sale copy. Just the rental. I figured what the heck, and rented it.
Half an hour later, my two kids and I were ready to watch it. Emma had her blanket all ready to cover her eyes during the scary parts, while Dietrich was ready with his mask of grim defiance. (“It’s not going to scare me.”) An hour into the movie — precisely when the little extraterrestrial bugger is bursting out of John Hurt’s chest — the movie froze. No matter what I tried — including slow fast forward, slow rewind, playing the director’s cut version, even blowing on the disk — it wouldn’t play. We were stuck with the turgid image of a bloody sharp-toothed alien phallus directed straight at our living room.
I called Blockbuster to ask if they had another copy. “No,” said the same guy who’d rented this one, “that’s our only copy.” Now I took a closer look at the case. It was so old and worn it looked like Abe Vigoda.
The next day I took the disk and the receipt back to Blockbuster. I told this clerk, a different one than the previous night, what had happened, including the salient fact that “we were an hour into the movie — right in the middle of the chest-bursting scene — and it froze. Which ruined the experience of watching the movie.” To which he replied:
“It’s an old disk. It happens.”
I know: I’m sentimental. I’m a relic of a bygone era, an era of the milkman and the 15-cent comic book and “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” Because here’s what I honestly thought I was going to get, at some point: “Sorry.” Any variation of that would have sufficed. I didn’t want anything additional — not a special offer or a make-good or anything. Just a simple “sorry.” But he didn’t seem sorry. In fact, he barely seemed cognizant, like he’d spent too much time scoffing their supply of Milk Duds in the back room when no one was watching and was now weighed down physically and emotionally by all the plasticky chocolate he’d consumed.
He asked if I wanted store credit — guess what my response was — and then gave me back my money. Usually when a cashier hands me change, I say thank you. This time I waited to see if at any point this person was going to say “sorry” or “thank you” or anything at all that sounded customer-service-like. But no. Nothing.
So here’s the Blockbuster experience:
- high prices
- limited selection
- bad service
- products that don’t work
Wonder why they’re failing.
And by the way? We drove over to Best Buy and bought the “Alien” trilogy. All three disks, brand-spanking-new, for $19.99, or $6.66 each. The price may have been demonic, but the disk works and we get to own it for $1.17 more than Blockbuster wanted.
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:40 am
The Hollywood Video around the corner from us closed recently. They too were consistently awful. At one point the clerk had a friend who was always there and they would holler across the store to each other, using lots of profanity. Then there were a couple of young clerks who used the in-house video system to play loud grating music. And the high prices and not-so-great selection. And the poor attitude.
One additional reason the chain stores are failing is that you can buy used discs so cheaply. We recently got a new outlet nearby, called Tunes, and their pre-owned titles start at two bucks.
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:50 am
There’s been an independent video/DVD store called Odyssey in my neighborhood for years. Back when Blockbuster was first coming to prominence, they pulled their usual trick of opening up a store right across the street from the mom and pop, in hopes of driving it out of business.
Fifteen or twenty years later… Odyssey is still there and going strong while Blockbuster teeters on the brink. And why? Well, for one thing, if you wanted to rent Aguirre or Fitzcarraldo or any of a number of other films, Odyssey would probably have a copy or two, and not only would the clerks have heard of it, they’d probably love to discuss it with you after you return it. And they definitely know the meaning of the word “sorry”.
The only thing I’m going to miss about Blockbuster? Their used DVD racks. But maybe they’ll be having a going out of business sale soon…
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I have been boycotting Blockbuster for years! Their alleged holier-than-thou censorship policy of not stocking art-house NC-17 films while on the other hand making sure that there were plenty of Swinging Stewardesses and Pom-Pom Girls videos on the shelves seriously pissed me off. But then they went over the line, quietly and, to my mind, illegally – they started providing customers with films that cut all the “naughty” bits out. Lee, our friend, Mark, rented “Y Tu Mama Tambien” there and when I mentioned how incredibly uncomfortable the threesome near the end was for me, he had no idea what I was talking about! When I mentioned the other nudity in the film, he said there hadn’t been any in the DVD he rented basically eliminating a major plot point from the movie!
Besides that little bit of cinematic slight-of-hand, when they instituted the “bring it back when you’re done with it” sales promotion, another friend of mine jumped at it and rented something there. When she brought it back a week or so later, she’d discovered that they had charged her card $75 for the movie, but then wouldn’t credit her upon returning it. I think that’s called “fraud” and thievery.
Bottom-line is that Blockbuster blows and the sooner it goes into its well-deserved bankruptcy, the better off the film lovers of America will all be!
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:31 pm
I received a $25 gift card from BB one Christmas and upon attempting to redeem it 14 mos. later was told that it was worthless because they charged $2 a month “maintainance fee” to keep a record of the transaction on their computer. I have also been boycotting them. I agree with you gentlemen: good riddance to bad rubbish!