We were a Redbox test market back in 05’ when they were backed by McDonalds.
I’ve never rented another DVD from Blockbuster since then.
The only time I go into Blockbuster is to buy previously viewed DVDs when they sell them 4 for $20-$25.
There’s a mom-n-pop video store in my Minneapolis suburb that’s fantastic - they have a huge selection and their staff is both knowledgeable and personable. We’ve been going to them for years, and as long as they’re here, I’ll support them. We used to go to the Blockbuster in town until we went here, then we stopped going and never looked back. That Blockbuster has since closed.
We don’t have a Netflix account, but we do sometimes rent from Comcast On Demand. As long as Video Universe is around, I don’t plan on getting a Netflix account, but I’ll do so if they close their doors. I’d rather support their business as long as it’s there.
I subscribed to LoveFilm a couple of years ago, I’ve not been in a video store since. I’ve also seen a lot of films I would never have normally rented and quite liked.
I hadn’t been to Blockbuster in forever, but we just got a Bluray player and I don’t care enough to pay for Netflix Bluray service but I wanted to try it out, make sure it works, that sort of thing. So I went to Blockbuster. And then went to Pittsburgh where I had to sit around for a week watching my grandma die, and my boyfriend forgot to return the movies. I got back and found out that “no late fees” thing has gone the way of the dodo - before they checked the movies back in they quoted me seventy bucks on my card! So yeah, no more Blockbuster for me.
The stores are so depressing these days anyway - it’s obviously something on the way out.
I gave up on the local Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos years ago after I went with Netflix. If I have a jones to see a particular movie right now, I’ll see if I can find a used DVD at Rasputin Records. Between the two stores in my vicinity, there’s a good chance I can find a copy for less than $10.
There was a Blockbuster Video you could just make out, looking out my window. Soon after I moved in, that location starting having a liquidation sale.
If I had the money, I would have bought stuff, but the prices were still too high. The location closed in the past month or so.
Related, I found my way to a Record store fairly recently. I went in looking for Tangerine Dream. The clerk asked me what I was looking for, and I told him. He near immediately told me that he wouldn’t have any Tangerine Dream. As if I had grown three heads or something. How dare I ask for what I wanted.
So, No. I don’t visit brick and mortar stores that sell only Videos or only records. I still make it to Best Buy and Fry’s.
Netflix streaming on Xbox 360 is amazing. I can’t wait to see what that Tech will be like in 5 years.
At a Grocery store / Supermarket [Publix] near my Parents, there is such a machine. By a company that (apparently) got bought out by Blockbuster. Blockbuster re-named the machine “Blockbuster Express”.
The problem is, a traditional Blockbuster is in the same strip center, at the far end of the complex.
I think one or the other has to go, and soon. Cannibalism, pure and simple.
We have Netflix at our house so we watch a lot of our movies online or when the DVDs come in, but we still go to Blockbuster once every few weeks or so.
There’s one a few blocks away that’s really good. The clerks are always pretty friendly and they’ve given us free rentals on several occasions and we haven’t gotten hit with late fees either. We also buy giftcards at my daughter’s school as a fund raiser so we use those there. I won’t buy a DVD at Blockbuster because the last time I did, it had a Meier price tag under it that was 4 bucks less.
I think there’s a certain ammount of Schadenfreude seeing Blockbuster taking it on the chin right now the way they’ve undercut the small video stores and then only offered “safer” versions of movies in the past, and I used to feel that way about it, too. Now, I just don’t really care that much. If Blockbuster has a movie that I want to watch, I’ll go there and rent it.
We went to a Hollywood Video just last month, to rent two Blu-Ray movies. It was our first “night without the kid” in a while, and we’d just gotten the Blu-Ray player. But before that visit…it’s been a while, I couldn’t tell you just how long. Years, most likely.
No, and I don’t have any kind of Netflix/online DVD membership either. I just get them from the library if there’s something I want to see. The NYPL has a very large collection.
Whenever I went to Blockbuster and the like they NEVER had the movie I wanted. And I wasn’t looking for terribly obscure, just older flicks - and when I say older I mean like 80s! I was never so happy as when I went to Netflix and have never looked back and never will. I won’t really care when they close down.
I can actually pinpoint the time when Blockbuster started going downhill.
The used to be easy to navigate. New Releases, Comedy, Drama, Action/SciFi, etc. All alphabetized. Huge in-store catalog. Color scheme of the stores were blue and white.
Then they painted the walls yellow.
The in-store catalogs shrunk. They started cross merchandising movies onto Johnny Depp endcaps, employee picks shelf, Stanley Kubrick favs, best actress flicks, etc. so it was getting impossible to find anything. Prices started to climb.
The open and airy blue/white scheme was exchanged for dollar store yellow.
I left soon afterward.
I just visited Family Video last week and rented ‘Seven Years In Tibet’ for $1, since my friend just read the book. They have more in there than I thought they would, at least compared to the non-selection you get with the Redbox. I don’t know how Family Video stays in business, though…Sometimes I can get DVDs through the county library, and sometimes I just buy them online from any of a number of sources…And I notice most of the discount stores (Walmart, Big Lots, grocery stores) have racks and racks and racks of new or used DVDs on sale this month really cheap, but there’s so much garbage it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack to find a winner.
The one by me has excellent customer service. Really helpful staff, constant free rental offers (get one free older release rental for every new release rental), free rentals for the kids with a good report card, waived half of a big late fee we racked up when my wife thought her one-day rentals were five-day rentals and didn’t return them for seven days, etc.
I still use Netflix but I’m happy to stop by Family Video on the weekends when we want a family action flick and my Netflix selection sitting on my desk is some indie documentary. I doubt I’d be as inclined if I had to deal with the crap I used to get from Blockbuster/Hollywood.
If you count my local library as brick and mortar, I go there all the time. They have the best prices in town – free! And even the new movies are loaned out for a week. The older ones can be kept for as much as a month. Best of all, if I’m borrowing an entire season of a TV series, I get the entire season at once. I can browse the catalog and enter my requests online, get notified by email when my requested DVDs are available, and be reminded by email when they’re a day or two away from being overdue.
There are a few downsides to all this though. Popular new releases frequently have extremely long waits, the online browsing can be a bit clunky, and the selection isn’t quite as extensive as Netflix. For that reason, I still have my one-at-a-time Netflix account for about $10 a month.
I think I’ve been to my local Family Video perhaps two or three times in the past few years since I opened my Netflix account and discovered that I could get a lot of movies free from the library. Once in a while, it’s nice to browse aimlessly and get the instant gratification of spotting something interesting and taking it home that same day.
We go to Blockbuster all the time - say, 2-3x per month. We have Netflix, but Mr.Q seems to be in charge of the queue, so all we get is weird crap that he wants to watch. We get movies for the kids at Blockbuster, and I occasionally get a movie for myself. Before a road trip, we’ll go and rent 6-8 movies so each kid has plenty to watch. We never buy movies, but I’m sure there are some that we’ve rented four or five times.
Dude, BetsQ. Profiles! Seriously. You can have your movies and he can have his movies. The kids can even have theirs. The boyfriend and I together have I think five profiles - movies for both of us, my stuff, his stuff, dramatic long-format shows for both of us, and shorter shows or comedies for both of us.
I use Netflix streaming, but I visit Seattle’s Scarecrow every Wednesday when rentals are two for one. But I watch twelve or fifteen hours of movies every week for my job, so I don’t watch as many (non-work-related) movies as I used to when I worked in a vidstore.
I hit the 'Buster 4-6 times a week, dressed in mah khakis and polo.
Chimi, your personal 4-Star CSR.
I would if I could, but every single one that I am aware of is gone. I’d have to hit the yellow pages and drive quite a ways to find one.