Author Topic: Blockbuster  (Read 2625 times)

foxhack

Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2013, 12:46:21 am »
I much prefer the ability to instantly watch any movie or tv show over the internet rather than driving to a store to rent a handful of movies. Having everything instantly is better than having a limited selection where things might be out of stock.
You can still have that out of stock feeling by using Netflix and having them pull stuff you wanted to watch.

The only Blockbuster I've ever been to was near my old college in Mexico. I think they're still around. They had a CDI up for rental at one point.

scott

Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #16 on: November 07, 2013, 08:48:48 am »
You can still have that out of stock feeling by using Netflix and having them pull stuff you wanted to watch.

Yup. I've wanted to watch the original Conan the Barbarian for months and it's not available on Netflix. It's on Amazon Instant, but I really don't like paying a $3 rental fee when I already pay for Prime and a Netflix sub.
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blipcs76

  • Guest
Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #17 on: November 07, 2013, 09:54:12 am »
I was very upset by this news, though I knew it was coming eventually.  The convenience of streaming and the value of Redbox has made the video store model obsolete.

The problem for us is that we are Blockbuster By Mail subscribers.  We get discs shipped to us by mail, and we can pick movies, games or blu-rays all for the same price (Netflix and Redbox charge extra for blu-ray, and Netflix doens't rent games).  The discs we got in the mail could be exchanged in-store for whatever we wanted, so we would usually get obscure stuff through the mail and then swap them in the store for new release blu-rays on the weekend.  It cost like $16/mo. and we definitely got our money's worth. 

Netflix has giant holes in its streaming catalog and Redbox has a very limited selection, but I guess that's where we'll have to go in the future.

I'm very sad about this because I love video stores.  I've rented thousands of movies (and games) from them over the years -- I worked in one when I was in college.  Even though I was no fan of BBs practices pre-Netflix, I'm really sad to see them go.  There are still other smaller rental chains like Hastings Entertainment and Family Video, but there's no rental options left in my city.  I loved chatting with the staff, who we'd talk movies with each week when we stopped in.  I loved browsing the shelves and finding stuff we never would have been able to see otherwise (stuff that's buried on Netflix).

So yeah, I'm bummed out about this.  I knew it was coming, but I thought it would last at least another year or two.

90snostalga

  • Guest
Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #18 on: November 07, 2013, 03:45:45 pm »
I was very upset by this news, though I knew it was coming eventually.  The convenience of streaming and the value of Redbox has made the video store model obsolete.

The problem for us is that we are Blockbuster By Mail subscribers.  We get discs shipped to us by mail, and we can pick movies, games or blu-rays all for the same price (Netflix and Redbox charge extra for blu-ray, and Netflix doens't rent games).  The discs we got in the mail could be exchanged in-store for whatever we wanted, so we would usually get obscure stuff through the mail and then swap them in the store for new release blu-rays on the weekend.  It cost like $16/mo. and we definitely got our money's worth. 

Netflix has giant holes in its streaming catalog and Redbox has a very limited selection, but I guess that's where we'll have to go in the future.

I'm very sad about this because I love video stores.  I've rented thousands of movies (and games) from them over the years -- I worked in one when I was in college.  Even though I was no fan of BBs practices pre-Netflix, I'm really sad to see them go.  There are still other smaller rental chains like Hastings Entertainment and Family Video, but there's no rental options left in my city.  I loved chatting with the staff, who we'd talk movies with each week when we stopped in.  I loved browsing the shelves and finding stuff we never would have been able to see otherwise (stuff that's buried on Netflix).

So yeah, I'm bummed out about this.  I knew it was coming, but I thought it would last at least another year or two.

Do you have a locally video store in your area?  We have a MovieStop where we can buy used dvd's and blu rays, and trade them in when we are done.  It's all a good price.  I hate online and streaming services.  I prefer physical copies of movies and shows.  If anything ever happens to the streaming, internet, or that company, nothing like going to your own collection to grab the dvd

sin2beta

Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #19 on: November 07, 2013, 09:10:32 pm »
 ;D

I guess the internet has made everything readily available one way or another.

Blockbuster always had huge holes in their collection as well. Specialty video stores with foreign and independent films were an absolutely amazing discovery. Blockbuster's name described their selection very well. I don't blame them it was a necessity. But the limits of a physical rental service for a small geographic area is still disappointing when you see past it.
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Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #20 on: November 07, 2013, 09:38:32 pm »
Can't say I'll be sad to see them go. While the job itself wasn't the worst I've ever had, pretty much everyone I dealt with at a management level was a total scumbag, and they - like many retail jobs - paid like absolute shit. I spent 2 1/2 years at that place and only made $9.00 or so an hour, despite being an assistant manager for most of that time.

If there's any silver lining, it's that during the time I worked there, DVD was slowly trickling into the public eye, and we still had a ton of VHS stock, which meant a lot of foreign and niche stuff hanging around the store, and we got 5 free rentals a week. I suppose most of that old stuff wound up in the trash, which is what they did with overstock after a certain point (literally, tossed right in the dumpster outside), but my employee discount helped me get some nice price cuts on special orders.

burningdoom

PRO Supporter

Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #21 on: November 11, 2013, 02:42:42 pm »
Can't say I'll be sad to see them go. While the job itself wasn't the worst I've ever had, pretty much everyone I dealt with at a management level was a total scumbag, and they - like many retail jobs - paid like absolute shit. I spent 2 1/2 years at that place and only made $9.00 or so an hour, despite being an assistant manager for most of that time.

If there's any silver lining, it's that during the time I worked there, DVD was slowly trickling into the public eye, and we still had a ton of VHS stock, which meant a lot of foreign and niche stuff hanging around the store, and we got 5 free rentals a week. I suppose most of that old stuff wound up in the trash, which is what they did with overstock after a certain point (literally, tossed right in the dumpster outside), but my employee discount helped me get some nice price cuts on special orders.

I loved my job at Blockbuster when I worked there. From the DVD comment, I'd say we worked there around the same time. I was in high school. That could be the difference maker right there. For me it was just a job for spending money. I was still living with my parents since I was still in high school, so I had no bills to pay. I didn't NEED the job.

But I thought it was a fun place to work. You get paid to talk to people about movies all day. And you got free rentals. Plus we got to watch movies in the stores when the fun manager was working. Sometimes the rush on Friday nights would get crazy, but when that happened you just took it 1 customer at a time. And of course the irate and beligerant "I refuse to pay late fees" customer was always a pain. But most of the time I'd just scan a free rental coupon for them to shut them up. I certainly have had to kiss more ass and work harder at my real adult job than I ever did at Blockbuster.

sin2beta

Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #22 on: November 11, 2013, 09:46:03 pm »
I certainly have had to kiss more ass and work harder at my real adult job than I ever did at Blockbuster.

So much truth. I miss my highschool job. Sometimes I fantasize about pulling a Kevin Spacey from American Beauty.... not the pedophilia thing but the quitting your job thing.
UPDATED 01/22/2016 New Ages of SEGA "Space Slalom" is now on....
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Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #23 on: November 12, 2013, 12:52:57 am »
Can't say I'll be sad to see them go. While the job itself wasn't the worst I've ever had, pretty much everyone I dealt with at a management level was a total scumbag, and they - like many retail jobs - paid like absolute shit. I spent 2 1/2 years at that place and only made $9.00 or so an hour, despite being an assistant manager for most of that time.

If there's any silver lining, it's that during the time I worked there, DVD was slowly trickling into the public eye, and we still had a ton of VHS stock, which meant a lot of foreign and niche stuff hanging around the store, and we got 5 free rentals a week. I suppose most of that old stuff wound up in the trash, which is what they did with overstock after a certain point (literally, tossed right in the dumpster outside), but my employee discount helped me get some nice price cuts on special orders.

I loved my job at Blockbuster when I worked there. From the DVD comment, I'd say we worked there around the same time. I was in high school. That could be the difference maker right there. For me it was just a job for spending money. I was still living with my parents since I was still in high school, so I had no bills to pay. I didn't NEED the job.

But I thought it was a fun place to work. You get paid to talk to people about movies all day. And you got free rentals. Plus we got to watch movies in the stores when the fun manager was working. Sometimes the rush on Friday nights would get crazy, but when that happened you just took it 1 customer at a time. And of course the irate and beligerant "I refuse to pay late fees" customer was always a pain. But most of the time I'd just scan a free rental coupon for them to shut them up. I certainly have had to kiss more ass and work harder at my real adult job than I ever did at Blockbuster.

Nah, it was mostly a spending money type job for me, too. I think I was maybe 18 or 19 at the time, maybe 20 by the time I quit, since I was there for about 2 1/2 years.

It had its upsides, no question. I liked a few of my coworkers, and we usually worked until close, so the last few hours of the night were pretty much just spent kicking around, then we'd all pile outta there late and go get coffee somewhere, and the free rentals helped me churn through a massive amount of movies during my time there. Inventory nights consisted of blasting music, plowing through the endless sea of movies with scanners, and hoping we'd all get out of there before sunrise.

We had a particularly high volume store (highest in our district, anyway) in the 'burbs though, and most of the customer base consisted of extremely rude people with awful, cringe-inducing taste in movies. Early on, I held onto some hope that we'd eventually get people to pick up stuff like Evil Dead 2 or Videodrome, or who would rent some cool game or other, but almost without exception, that stuff was rented out by employees. Most customers stuck only to the 'hit' movies on the new release shelf, Pokemon crap for their demon spawn, and rarely veered away from either. Friday and Saturday nights were filled to the brim with people complaining that we didn't have enough copies of whatever big movie was out at the time, even if we had two or three of those tall shelves filled up. If some movie had gotten popular that had subtitles, like Life is Beautiful, we'd listen to a barrage of these idiots complaining about reading.

It's the job that, for me, really brought home that line from Clerks: This job would be great if it weren't for the fucking customers, so we mostly just did our best to ignore them :p

blipcs76

  • Guest
Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #24 on: November 12, 2013, 10:44:34 am »
Do you have a locally video store in your area?  We have a MovieStop where we can buy used dvd's and blu rays, and trade them in when we are done.  It's all a good price.  I hate online and streaming services.  I prefer physical copies of movies and shows.  If anything ever happens to the streaming, internet, or that company, nothing like going to your own collection to grab the dvd

No other rental stores, but I do have a pawn shop I frequent that has all of their DVDs for $2 (mostly garbage, but I find good titles from time to time).  A few months ago they were reducing inventory and were selling them for $1, so I picked up quite a few.  Nobody sells used blu-rays cheap around here though -- I usually buy a stack of them on Black Friday.  Last year I bought a bunch of blus for $4 each.  Walmart is doing them again this year with even new stuff showing up i the $4/$6 price range and big titles are about $10 (Star Trek/Monsters University/WWZ/etc.)

matt

Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #25 on: November 13, 2013, 12:01:15 pm »
Not really. I never rented much, was always paranoid about dirt from other people's systems getting into my VCR/NES.

haha this sounds like such a Scott thing to say.

For me I rented a Genesis game almost every weekend but was never a Blockbuster fan. We either went to Hollywood Video or one of the little mom n' pop shops. We actually used to have a sweet rental place in my town that delivered for a small extra fee. Used them a few times too.

scott

Re: Blockbuster
« Reply #26 on: November 13, 2013, 08:48:50 pm »
Hey I still scour my newly bought used cart based games before they reach the holy land.   :)
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