Blockbuster, The End is Nigh

[barryo]

They're bringing back late fees. Must be desperate.

yea the late fees is what made me drop block buster. my particular store would charge me if i was an hour late...
damn clock watchin' over chargin' bastards....

 

[screamingmetal]

what films (aside from the obvious porn) would Blockbuster not carry?

i remember those old ma and pop immigrant owned (when I lived in California) rental places in the 80s. i remember as a 13 year old being allowed to rent faces of death.

They even carry NC-17 rated films. But I know they won't carry Faces of Death or the like, a good decision IMO. Basically, if it's popular or a cheap B horror movie, you'll find it at BB.
The mega DVD rental chain Family Video will carry just about anything, including Faces of Death.

I do see their funeral on the horizon, but I have yet to make the switch to Netflix. I like that I don't have to pay a membership fee every month, a good thing as I don't have the money for the service now, but with Blockbuster, I can always go in when I do have the spare cash for a rental.

There is one thing I hate about Blockbuster, their selection is crap. I was looking to rent the Wolfman on DVD for a year before it finally played on TCM during Halloween. The movies recently I've been wanting to rent and BB doesn't have are the original Hobbit and Lord of the rings animated films and Fantasia. I've looked in a couple of BB stores and have yet to find them. I guess I'll see them, when I switch to Netflix.

 

[agen_kolar]

Will not miss them.

 

[grphyx1]

they've long closed all the stores here in philadelphia

 

[uscmhicks]

I've been mentioning this for months since my local blockbuster is always empty. It was inevitable.

 

[karamazov80]

Well,
TBH I was pissed @ Netflix's throttling practices, so I switched to Blockbuster online + store exchange program and it worked great for me for a while, until recently, when they decided to limit the # of exchanges and use the store exchanges as part of your online sub...

I might end up doing Netflix with the PS3 now...

That happened to me, but they started restricting the number of exchanges per month, like, 2 years ago for me, which turned me off to them and onto Netflix. All the Blockbusters in town here except for one closed down already, anyway, so this is not a big deal one way or the other. Netflix for me, until truly hi-def, streaming movies becomes the norm (probably very soon).

 

[creature4000]

Netflix killed them.

 

[Kirthew]

Netflix killed them.

I don't think that netflix alone killed them... I think it was a number of things... People are changing the way they get content. It was first music, and with faster download speeds, it has moved to movies. The only thing I don't think the internet and digital distubution will kill is books. I think that someone will always want to hold a book in their hand. But I could be wrong...

 

[p!tu]

Later Bicheeess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BBV can suck my balls!!!!!

 

[feeter]

I don't think that netflix alone killed them... I think it was a number of things... People are changing the way they get content. It was first music, and with faster download speeds, it has moved to movies. The only thing I don't think the internet and digital distubution will kill is books. I think that someone will always want to hold a book in their hand. But I could be wrong...

Kindle

 

[The Ween]

We don't have any Blockbuster stores around here. We have Family Video.

 

[ProgMatinee]

I've never noticed "throttling" from Netflix.

We often get something Monday, send it back Tuesday get the next movie Thursday, send it back on Friday, get the next movie either Mon or Tuesday. Multiply that by the 3 movies we get at a time, we probably go through no less than 9 discs every 2 weeks or 18-20 a month. We've done this for 4 or 5 years now without any noticable delay between releases.

Then again, I'm not obsessed with watching a movie as soon as it releases. Most of my queue is filled with releases from 2 or more years ago.

 

[CAhobbit]

I've heard of the 'throttling' happening to folks that typically send their movies back the next day or on the same day they receive it. So, depending where their distribution center is, they could potentially get a refresh of new movies 2 to 3 times in one week. I've personally never experienced a slow down for me (of course I have the 3 at a time plan and can only get through those in a week timeframe if I'm lucky. Plus 12 or so movies a month (if it's a good watching month) is really the most I could get through).

Oh and I love that I can stream as many movies and TV shows I want through netflix as well.

 

[ProgMatinee]

its one of those reasonable business practices that gets built up into a big conspiracy. anyone that is being "throttled" probably like you say turns a movie around in a day and is expecting 30 or more discs a month.

if you're experiencing throttling you're already receiving a supreme value for your $20/month what more could you want?

its like the people complaining about "unlimited" internet providers charging more if you download like a terabyte of information "wah I want my unlimited plan"

 

[karamazov80]

I don't know if I have experienced "throttling" or not, but there sure always seem to be movies with "very long waits" at the top of my queue, that sometimes take a month or so to get to me. . .obviously, not every customer who wants "popular movie X" is going to be able to get one immediately, but you would think with as many distribution centers as they have, that they could re-route one to you after you have waited, say, 2 weeks for something at the top of your queue.

 

[ProgMatinee]

i get the "very long wait" occassionally on stuff, but my queue is like 100 discs long so i don't care if it gets skipped i've got so much else.

the only time i'd be mad is if i knew they were not sending me anything on my list

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

I've heard of the 'throttling' happening to folks that typically send their movies back the next day or on the same day they receive it. So, depending where their distribution center is, they could potentially get a refresh of new movies 2 to 3 times in one week. I've personally never experienced a slow down for me (of course I have the 3 at a time plan and can only get through those in a week timeframe if I'm lucky. Plus 12 or so movies a month (if it's a good watching month) is really the most I could get through).

Oh and I love that I can stream as many movies and TV shows I want through netflix as well.

I live near 2 netflix facilities...indy,indiana & louisville, KY lol

 

[karamazov80]

I have 382 movies/tv shows/etc. in my queue, but when the new Coen Brothers or Tarantino movie comes out (Inglorious Bastards, A Serious Man, the Hurt Locker, and Zombieland are all currently at the top of my list with "long waits"), I am usually interested in seeing them sooner rather than later. Not a huge deal, but an annoyance.

 

[ProgMatinee]

those are all semi-famous movies that at the same time aren't "blockbusters". so it doesn't surprise me they have long waits because I wouldn't expect netflix to order a lot of them because I doubt they will be big sellers from the used pile.

a movie like Avatar I am betting will be easy to get on Netflix because they are sure to order a crap load of them because they know they will sell when the big rental window is over.

 

[karamazov80]

I understand that, but they could set up their system so that it went to those who had been waiting longer vs. those who just happen to have a movie returned at a time when they are "in stock" at a near-by distribution center (as seems to be the case). Certainly, it would suck if they were intentionally keeping a movie from coming to me because of this "throttling" phenomenon.

But at least they aren't too different from Blockbuster in this respect. Those are also the movies most likely not to get enough stock at a "brick and mortar" rental store to meet initial demand.