There are 10 Blockbusters left in the US. 6 of them are in Alaska.

[Meg Cherry]

I drove up and down the Oregon coast recently, and was shocked by how many of the smaller seaside communities had multiple active video stores. Most family run, not franchises. My guess is that they entirely survive off vacationing families realizing that their rented beach house doesn't get broadband and buying a few DVDs to keep the kids entertained at night. And since they're so remote, Redbox doesn't want to deal with servicing a unit that only gets attention for a fourth of the year.

There's definetely still small localized markets where the video store just makes more sense than digital distribution.

 

[Trouble]

I totally didn't associate the word Blockbuster with the company that apparently still exists, so this thread title confused me greatly.

 

[notsol337]

I saw a Radioshack in Skagway. I was so delighted.

Here it is!

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Cleanse it with fire. That does not deserve to exist.

 

[TaterTots]

Great memories.

 

[Deleted member 12833]

I live in a pretty big Midwest city and we still have some rental places around. Family video being the major one I think

 

[Shola Akinnuso]

I'd love to own one of those franchises. I miss the Blockbuster rental experience. It's very intimate. I'd turn it into a rental/viewing room type place.

 

[TheBeardedOne]

I miss Blockbuster, even though it's been dead here for years. It was my favourite store, I enjoyed going there and knew the staff well. Renting was a great option to have, especially for games, and I truly do miss the days when you would just go rent a movie instead of streaming or having to worry about the Internet.

 

[Doc Laserstein]

My favorite rental joint was always Spec's growing up. They were a smaller chain (may actually have been Florida only) but they were music store that had expanded into video rentals, so in addition to catering to your VHS needs they were also a pretty decent record store.

Also, if you were the first person to write your name and phone number on the back of any of the promotional standees, they would let you take them when it was time to put up their new displays.

 

[Claude Augario]

Blockbuster was a family tradition. We used to go every Friday night and rent games and movies. Fridays have never been the same since they shuttered.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

That's Morraine Lake, Alberta

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You're correct, my bad. Here's Alaska:

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Strictly speaking, Alaska has eight national parks: Denali, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark and Wrangell-St. Elias. All except Kenai Fjords and Kobuk Valley are actually classified as both national parks and national preserves. These holdings cover a great diversity of scenic and wild terrain. Denali National Park and Preserve protects both North America's highest peak -- Mount McKinley, or Denali -- and wildlife-rich expanses of boreal forest, rolling tundra and braided rivers. Katmai National Park and Preserve features stunning volcanoes and huge brown bears. Many of these parks, like Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic, contain little or no infrastructure and are on a wilderness scale approached by few others places in the world. Mountainous Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest national park in the United States at 13.2 million acres.

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-Source

Long story short, Alaska is fucking rad.

 

[Usul]

I had a weird nostalgia rush watching that video.

But seriously 0.49c now... I remember back in the day here in Australia new release games would cost something like $8-10 overnight.

 

[TAJ]

The nearest video rental place here is twenty minutes away. Eight years ago there were three that could be reached in five minutes or less.

 

[ak1287]

Every once in a while, there's a piece of news that makes me miss Fairbanks.

 

[Gonzalez]

With Netflix streaming slowly losing movies on there steaming service, I would love a return of the video store, but this time a classic Netflix style subcrition service.

 

[Maligna]

After remaining empty for like a decade, the building where the blockbuster was in my town just this week opened as a family restaurant.

While sitting down to eat in a booth, I realized I was sitting exactly where the SNES/Genesis aisle had been back in the day.

:(

 

[Proteus]

I worked at Blockbuster for nine years. I had mixed feelings about seeing them go in Canada. Plenty of people I knew still worked at the location I worked at but the store closing meant the nightmares I had about still working there ended.

 

[Bashful Trey]

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I saw The Shining for the first time last night. *muah* so good.

 

[Izayoi]

When I lived in Alaska, the small rural town where I spent my summers at one point had THREE video rental stores.

The town could not have had more than 2000 people living in it at the time...

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

My first job was at a Blockbuster here in Mexico, i was there for an entire summer, the pay was shit but my coworkers were cool and i got to watch movies all day so i actually liked it.

The music from the videos we had on loop on the VCR is still stuck in my head, the trailer i remember the most from the time is from the Hurricane movie where Denzel Washington plays a boxer in jail

 

[Powdered Egg]

I just saw one on Better Call Saul and it gave me the feels.

 

[Decarbia]

I just recently starting go back to a local video store(Naro video) because streaming I can never find movies I actually want to fucking watch.

 

[Tobor]

I drove up and down the Oregon coast recently, and was shocked by how many of the smaller seaside communities had multiple active video stores. Most family run, not franchises. My guess is that they entirely survive off vacationing families realizing that their rented beach house doesn't get broadband and buying a few DVDs to keep the kids entertained at night. And since they're so remote, Redbox doesn't want to deal with servicing a unit that only gets attention for a fourth of the year.

There's definetely still small localized markets where the video store just makes more sense than digital distribution.

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There is a small family run video store in the Outer Banks near Corolla, NC. No idea how they stay in business as every beach house has broadband and WiFi now. I bring an Apple TV every year and we watch movies and tv over the WiFi.

As for blockbuster, good riddance. Streaming is better in every conceivable way.

 

[Extra Sauce]

Thats neat, satellite internet for rural folks is shit for Netflix.

I bet Blockbusters still has better Halloween movies right now than Netflix does.

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That's not saying much though. At this point the only decent selection of Halloween movies would have to be things like PSN, Google Play and my Blu-ray collection.

 

[Deleted member 2145]

 

[Kthulhu]

It infuriates me that they don't have decent internet access.

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

Wait, so they don't even have new movies? Just whatever they had over a decade ago?
This actually sounds like hell.

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Being stuck with Predator, Big Trouble in Little China, Blues Brothers, Robocop and Bloodsport sounds pretty great actually

 

[Malalaw]

The one in my city here in Louisiana closed down over a year and a half ago. If was the last one in the state.

 

[MisterR]

I think I'm part of a whole generation that grew up with going to the local video store on Fridays to pick the rentals for the weekend. I really miss it sometimes because it was a family activity and something as simple as going to the store to decide on one or two movies for the weekend felt more social to me that whipping on Netflix and just browsing a screen.

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I'm right with you. Made it more of an event. The family and maybe a friend sleeping over going to pick up some movies and games at the rental store beats the hell out of just streaming something. I miss it.

 

[Deleted member 7148]

I have Blockbuster Video to thank for playing a huge role in why I became such a hardcore gamer.

Growing up, my parents didn't have a lot of money. Picking video games as my major interest was hard on my parents since it's an expensive hobby to have.

When I wanted a new game system, I would have to sell the old one and all of my games in order to help fund the new one. As a result, I had to repurchase all of my old retro stuff when I got older.

Anyway, since my parents couldn't afford to buy games very often, we would hit up Blockbuster Video. I had a small allowance of $10 a week for doing chores and I would take that $10 to Blockbuster every single weekend and rent a couple of video games. Due to this, I played so many different games that I was exposed to a lot of genres I would otherwise not have tried due to having a lame box art or premise that didn't interest me. I got to the point where I played just about everything Blockbuster carried and I would just start grabbing anything that I haven't played yet just so I could play something new.

Games I adore, like Harvest Moon on SNES, I probably would have never experienced if it wasn't for Blockbuster Video. If I had one game to purchase a year, I wouldn't have picked the one with the farm kid and some cows on the front.

 

[FriedConsole]

Maybe that's why the Alaskan government pays people a few grand a year to live there. Compensate for all those late fees

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Nice. The late fees were crazy and were apparently a big percentage of Blockbuster's revenue. I am surprised they didn't try the business model of renting for free and sustaining with late fees.

 

[Wiseblood]

"For 49 cents you can get a cool movie"

*cuts to shot of "White Chicks"*

 

[Deleted member 4574]

Add me to the list of former Blockbuster employees. Worked there from '99-'01 as CSR, then shift manager, assistant then senior assistant(?). I know I started at $5.15, the promotion to shift manager was huge because it was $6. Think when I left it was $400/wk salary.

The pay was terrible, popping our own popcorn worse and some of the things I was called for not refunding a $3 late fee still amaze me.

That said, I worked with some of the best people there and without BBV I wouldn't be where I am now. 100% worth it.

For those 10 stores-- I wonder if the raincheck thing still works-- 5110AX26. My franchise thought we were giving away too many so they took away the barcode so we just memorized it. More than 15 years later it's still ingrained in my head.

 

[matimeo]

Also worked at blockbuster during college. I was surprised at how many long time employees were there in the managerial ranks.

Hated secret shopper, it would put the store on edge and all our normal customers would know something was up.

I really love super store (tv show) because of my time at blockbuster, it really nails so much about working in retail and the characters.

 

[Catdaddy]

So that Fight Club DVD I never returned, I have to fly to Alaska to turn it in?

 

[Deleted member 2226]

I will forever remember that to this day, the most frustrating and long job application I ever filled out was for a damned Blockbuster.