Blockbuster closing off 295 and San Jose

[Jaxson]

Let's not forget the availability of DVDs for check out at public libraries.  In Jacksonville, they are free (as long as they are returned within seven days)...

Let's also not forget that I can press one button on my cable remote and order a new release movie for less than what it costs me to drive to Blockbuster, rent the disc, watch it, and return it the next day.

I really like my local Blockbuster store (Hodges and JTB), and I feel really badly for the tens of thousands of Blockbuster employees living on borrowed time, but I have a hard time feeling too badly for a company that almost single-handedly killed the Mom and Pop video store over the last 20 years.

So true about the Mom and Pop stores.  Before Blockbuster came in an homogenized it all, the Mom and Pop stores were more likely to take a chance with films that were out of the mainstream.  Remember when Blockbuster would not stock NC-17 films?  Well, the old Mom and Pop stores usually had no such worries.  Some even had back rooms that had the kind of fare that would make Wayne Huizenga blush.

[Timkin]

What are you saying , Jaxon?    did you go to those "back rooms" ??

[Jaxson]

What are you saying , Jaxon?    did you go to those "back rooms" ??

Alas, I was too young to visit the back room during the Mom and Pop heyday.  But, believe me, I knew about it.  Don't ask me how! : )

[JC]

We had a place up here in Yulee that would take the suspect tapes out of their boxes, collapse the boxes and then store them in a rubbermade container for one to browse through! 

[ProjectMaximus]

KIA going away, yet they built a new plant in West Point, GA just a few years back. Yeah, not that believing that one.

KIA is owned by Hyundai. It would be a business decision whether or not to shut down their alternative (SEE cheap) brand and focus on Hyundai quality moving forward. It is certainly feasible because Hyundai has extremely ambitious plans so it may behoove the company to shift its focus to just one brand.

The point is, if Kia shuts down I'm sure Hyundai would make use of that plant and all others that had been Kia-designated.

[Timkin]

What are you saying , Jaxon?    did you go to those "back rooms" ??

Alas, I was too young to visit the back room during the Mom and Pop heyday.  But, believe me, I knew about it.  Don't ask me how! : )

  MMMHMMM

[mtraininjax]

BlockBuster was delisted from the NYSE last week. On the penny sheets now and not far from eventual end of some sort.

[Timkin]

Yup...they are among 10 businesses expected to fold before 2011.. I personally doubt Blockbuster will make it to the end of 2010 .

[copperfiend]

Hard for me to feel sorry for Blockbuster. The employees, yes. The business itself, no. They were like a plague in the 90s.

[David]

Blockbuster online seemed like it was putting up a fight for awhile. You could get movies delivered by mail just like netflix, but return them to a store and exchange it for something else when you didn't feel like waiting. This was in the pre-instant streaming and redbox days though.

[KenFSU]

With all this said, even though I use the Red Box just as much as the next guy, it's kind of sad to see a simple vending machine destroy a true American institution (the video store) and wipeout out countless jobs.

[Dapperdan]

Blockbuster has a vending machine too. I see them mostly at Publix. If Blockbuster is to survive, it will probably be in this medium.

[Timkin]

I have seen the Blockbuster vending machines,,but not before the Red Box ones emerged.  May be way too little too late. As the other posters have stated , I feel for those that will become unemployed because of this.