Comments on: Say goodbye to Blockbuster

With poor results, Blockbuster looks like a company on life support. And according to Don Reisinger, it's time to pull the plug.

[J. Blow]

How about a little reality?

I don't care about Blockbuster but at best your article throws the towel in way too early. Blockbuster had 5.49B in sales last year compared to 1.18B for Netflix. Further, both have been losing subscribers so there are problems that are industry wide and not just the domain of BB.

So while Blockbusters online services have been pretty poor offerings it is too early to say it is over. In general, in my opinion, people in the computer business are way to fast to say something has changed i.e. the vast majority of consumers like the ability to plop a disc in and they like the ability to browse in a physical store.

[madeserto]

by madeserto November 11, 2008 9:01 AM PST
I tried out Blockbuster's new offer to pre-order video games. I have pre-ordered alot of games in my time from gamestop and have never had a problem. Blockbuster failed their test, and in result of not getting the game through them, it will be on back order for weeks and I will get it late. Im not trying to whine here, but for god sakes a company that is in shamble's should represent it self a little better. Very dissapointed iv already got my subscription to netflix, as the merge with Tivo seems to be alot better than anything Blockbuster can pull out of their hat! praise Netflix!

[ndurantz]

Interesting, but Total Access works for me

Interesting opinion. I know some folks that hate blockbuster with a passion, but I think "Total Access" is the best thing to happen to movie renting ever. I love getting a DVD in the mail, walking down to the store, swapping it out for new movie and getting the next one through the mail. If people aren't using this service, I think it is a little crazy. It is the best of both (mail and in-store) worlds, IMHO.

[RalphWaldoELP]

Dewey wins in landslide

Well, maybe. There was an obsolete company called Xerox that oddly seems to be still be around in spite of their core business being something nobody needs any more. And those HP people, they didn't quite all drop off the earth either. Yes, Blockbuster is a mess. But Blockbuster is also a fixture of the American landscape and if they can get out of their own way (a longish shot) they have a chance. I live in an affluent area where most people have cable modems and DVRs and Netflix has been popular with the younger set here since day one (lots of Peapod trucks around too). But I can also tell you that my local Blockbuster store, while I rarely patronize it, I do drive by it a lot and they are always busy. Blockbuster overexpanded, spent too much fighting a war it most certainly can't win, and indeed has plenty of public enmity from the bad old days of ridiculous late fees. Blockbuster's newer "membership" offerings are confusing, badly explained, and generally a mess but actually provides better value than Netflix on several levels if you happen to live near a store. And with Netflix's well-known staggering practices, they are not exactly free from badwill either. If Blockbuster perceives itself as being in the same business as Netflix it is doomed. If Blockbuster can figure out what to do with itself in an integrated online/storefront mode (these guys should pay a great deal of attention to that coffee company, what's it called, the one giving away the iTunes songs right now, with their own record label and merchandising of games and assorted junk)...Blockbuster could sell much more in its stores than overpriced candy bars if they thought it through a little.

[jhendrx]

Total Access

I have been using TotalAccess for about 8 months and it has been a great program. Especially in the beginning when the $9.99 plan included unlimited rentals (1 at a time) AND unlimited in store rentals, PLUS a free rental coupon every month.

They have since moved in store rentals to 2 per month without charge but even then it is a good deal. Clearly you have to live in close proximity to a store.

From an online experience, the UI is ok - not great but navigable and the great thing about ordering online - New Release movies shipped right to your house and you don't have to worry about the 2 day return policy.

As for the in store experience, they definitely have moved from "how are you enjoying the online service" questions to "how would you like to buy *upsell x*"

Just my 2 cents...

[Rick Vibrance]

Karnak says....

Wow. Talk about a daring prediction. Would you also like to tell me who will be the U.S. Vice-president in 2008? Because I'd say that is about as assured as your prediction.

Blockbuster is changing its management team and nobody knows where it will go right now. CEO James W. Keyes (formerly of 7-Eleven) has only been in that position since July and the senior vice president and general manager of Blockbuster Online as well as vice president of strategic planning for Blockbuster, Shane Evangelist, just left last month. Keyes has brought in Keith Morrow to be the CIO (also formerly of 7-Eleven). So there are serious strategic changes to come.

But really you've got to remember, for Blockbuster, online rentals aren't their entire business. They, unlike Netflix, are primarily a B&M company. I expect what will happen is that Keyes, as the new CEO, will be much more concerned about overall increased revenues and do what he can to increase the overall revenues of the stores. After this, will they turn the heat back on Netflix with the online competition.

Also keep in mind that the video rental business is still in flux.
1) With the recent bankruptcy of Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video, the playing field is changing again. There is still a lot of market share to be had.
2) In its past quarter, Netflix reported its first-ever sequential customer decline. Is this the first data point of a trend? Only time will tell.
3) Also keep in mind that some analysts are predicting that within 3-5 years the entire traditional video rental business won't exist, that cable companies will become the predominant method people watch new movies.

So there is a lot going on in the industry right now. I don't think that anyone, with any reasonable assurance, can say that within 2 years Blockbuster will out of business.

[echeola]

I'll dance on the grave

Man, I don't like blockbuster. A few years ago I turned in a movie 2 days late. I don't go in for a month and they report me to a collection agency. They had the same problem as every the RIAA. They treated customers like criminals. I haven't rented from them since.

I don't know if they are going to make it or not, but you won't see me darken their door step. My brother uses the mail order and gets rentals in the store. It takes there service an extra day to get to him. Everyone thinks it's a bonus to be able to go to the store. Why? I hate it. Bright lights poorly organized, screaming babies, and a rude zit faced kid at the register.

I'll just use the streaming video on the Netflix site.

Enjoy Blockbuster suckers!

[KC_Jazz]

My son works at Blockbuster.... he's glad your not coming in anymore!!

[slotplate]

I paid $37mo for Blockbuster 3 at-a-time Total Access. Blockbuster would only ship once a week regardless of how quickly I returned my in-store exchanged DVD's. (They don?t ship any more movies until you return the ones that you picked up in the store and if it?s a Saturday or Sunday, they don?t post the return until Monday.) Therefore, I paid $37 for 24 rentals = $1.54 each.


I switched to Netflix 3 at-a-time. For $18mo I receive 3 shipments per week. They also ship on Saturdays! $18 for 36 rentals = $ .50 each and I don?t spend any time or gasoline driving to pickup and then return movies. I am not even counting the 50+ movies that I watch for FREE from my instant queue.

If you think Blockbuster?s Business Strategy is not doomed to fail, you need to rethink INCOME ? EXPENSE = PROFIT?

[das7282]

Yeah, Block Buster sucks...

Yeah, I'm with the other guy. I stopped using Block Buster when I got a collections letter in the mail for a late fee. I paid the late fee and never went back. Way to treat your customers Block Buster!

[concerned5]

You need to pay late fees, you can't keep a movie or game for as long as you want! When you joined did you not read the fine print. They are a company, What would happen if you didn't pay a credit card or a doctor's bill COLLECTIONS! What are you thinking?

[banishedheart]

Website sucked

I was originally a Netflix member who switched to Blockbuster and preferred it to NetFlix because of the interactivity with my local store. Then the website changed about a year ago, the search function was horrible (broken algorithm?), spent 5 minutes trying to work the stupid site and said 'This is horrible' and switched back to Netflix.

[natsbar]

A little research

"...or spend huge sums of cash on research and development and strategic partnerships with distribution companies to make downloading movies a viable alternative to Netflix."

They've already started down this path by buying Movielink.

If your research didn't get that far, then you're incompetent.

If it did and you neglected to mention it, then you're negligent.

You may be right in the end, but you have more resources than the average blogger, you should have picked it up.

[amy.licious]

Goodbye Blockbuster & Netflix

Blockbuster lost us when they sent the threat of a collection letter with late fees and an invoice for $32.00 for a rental that had been returned on time. That's when there were four of them within driving distance from our home. Now there are none and like the article says the company is doomed. I think Netflix is next ~ altho they're a better managed company, they only sell one product and that product will be made redundant when we can all start renting our choices and viewing them online.

[Eric F Ching]

Blockbuster has already gone bust as .............

Blockbuster has already gone bust as far as I am concerned.
I returned to one of their retail outlets after 5 years. With so many mindboggling smorgasboard of distractions vying for our limited free time I just happen to aimlessly drift into a Blockbuster store to see what has changed and on a spur of the moment madness rented their holiday "Weekly special offer of 3 movies for Aus$ 10"
We do not have much "Free Time" as such to see the movies and of course, forgot about returning the rentals on time.
No phone or a note in the post as a reminder but the audacity to slug me Aus$ 35 for late fees.
Will anyone be surprised to hear Blockbuster has gone bust. They should not expect any flowers from me for their funeral.

[J.G.]

Commenters know more than blogger

Despite the presence of the usual chronic complainers on this thread, there
are commenters who clearly know more about the topic than the poor,
semiliterate blogger does. Not only is he not a competent writer, his basic
premise is wrong. Downloading movies is still rare. If it had taken off, movies
on the ITunes Store would represent all studios. The number of households
downloading movies would be higher. Sometimes I suspect C/NET hires
people of nominal competence because they come cheap.

[b8375629]

Censors, bandwidth and flames

I for one have better things to do than *personally* attack a blogger just because I don't agree with him. Jeez, that's pretty lame.

That being said, I left Blockbuster years ago because I didn't like they way they meddled in how movies were edited. They were so arrogant and large at one point that there was what's known as a "director's cut" vs. a "Blockbuster cut". Blockbuster was actually dictating to Hollywood what they could or couldn't put in their movies, even if they already passed muster with the MPAA ratings board.

Ever notice why you can't rent an NC-17 movie at Blockbuster? Or unrated director's cuts? At least at none of the ones I've been to.

Nope, I won't miss them if they go down the tubes.

Btw, the massive amounts of bandwidth needed for instantaneously downloading movies just isn't there and probably won't be for at least another 10 years. It will be the future, though...

In the meantime we have Netflix...

[savagesteve13]

Door to door sales died too

The concept of a brick & mortar video rental store is just out of date. Pretty soon we won't even be dealing in discs anymore, just solid state cartridges if that.

[felixderkater]

End of what?

NetFlix might be important in the demise of Blockbuster. I, however, don't see that end coming very soon. It is quite nice to be able to walk into a store and pick up a movie, then return home with it for immediate use. The online services are too slow in the area of turnaround times. As far as the existing online video services, such as Vongo, etc., they are too slow at delivering. You may sit down desiring to watch a video, and then it won't come through for several hours. When the movie a downloaded video does come through, the quality remains inferior to that of even a DVD, and comes nowhere near to that of the two HD technologies. In the future, this may change, but for now, there is no reason to start closing the corner video rental stops. What might be of more concern are the electronic video kiosks, where you can rent a video for as little as $1.00. If these machines were stocked with several copies of the movies, instead of just one, this could be a strong point of competition. Maybe Blockbuster could supplement their store sales with some of these machines of their own.

[bliq]

On the other hand...

Netflix raised my rates 4 times from $12.99 to $21.99 until blockbuster showed up. And it was such a pain in the butt to order a movie then have to wait 2 days to get to watch it.

Blockbuster came along and boom, $17.49 a month for 3 movies at a time. That was the only time Netflix dropped back down to $17.99. And yes Blockbuster raised their rates by like a buck, but whoa, I still only had to pay $17.49 since that's what I agreed to in the first place.

And add to that, the ability to be impulsive and return a movie at a store, which happens to be within walking distance, and get something else, and be watching it 15 minutes later.

Plus, I don't know how they all work, but at the store I rent from, you get a 7 day grace period before charging late fees. If you're 7 days late, you deserve a late fee. And the people that work there are pretty nice and friendly. And lo and behold, some are also attractive and generally have fairly clear skin. And I don't care if other patrons have crying babies because I have one also. The world does not always play by your rules. Deal. Some of the rationales people have for not patronizing blockbuster are pretty stupid.

[baer57]

Don't you mean say goodbye to netflix?

Yes I started out with netflix, and the turn around time was horrible, I switched to Blockbuster, and it is nice, I average 6 movies a week!I turn in three that was sent in mail, pick up three more while they are shipping 3 more, and take them back to start all over again! how can Netflix compete with that? you make them back and wait 3 to 5 days average, not cool at all!

[East Bay Outlaw]

Blockbuster is my choice by far!

I've never had Net Flix and used to just drop by Blockbuster stores when a new release came out. But then Blockbuster.com launched and it was a whole new ball game. Netflix didnt infiltrate Blockbuster stores, Blockbuster invaded Netflix mail customers.

I get 3 videos via mail. When i'm done, I take them to the Blockbuster store and get 3 more. In the meantime, a Blockbuster store employee scans my videos I got in the mail, and their distribution center rushes me 3 more in the mail. That means I can have up to 6 videos in my posession at one time, all for $17.99 a month! Netflix cannot touch that!

Blockbuster offers flexibility which Netflix cant. And now with Blu-Ray titles for rent, Blockbuster is that much sweeter.

[XMattingly]

Any demise is Blockbuster's own fault

I think Blockbuster's number one problem with customer retention has been
the fact that they constantly fiddle with their pricing structure and services.
For example: when Total Access premiered, you could rent a video in-store
for every single video you rented online; several months later, they changed
the plan again, so the in-store freebies are limited to your monthly plan.

Regardless of recent changes, I think they still have a solid competing plan to
Netflix. But their only way out of this is if they do some serious market
research, and find out why customers leave. The most significant thing will be
that Blockbuster has diluted its own brand. People don't like joining a service,
and finding out a month later that it's totally changed; they want something
stable and reliable.

[gkamer]

Blockbuster had it coming

So, some people believe Blockbuster is about to go belly up? Not a big surprise here..... They slammed a lot of customers for a long time with there outlandish late fees. I wonder how much money they socked away with that little scam.

When complaints over these late fees reached fever pitch, they launch a major advertising blitz. No More Late Fees banners hung from buildings proclaimed. People jumped for joy. They danced in the streets. Women cried. Men hugged.

What Blockbuster failed to tell their few remaining loyal customers, was that any video kept for more than 5 days was charged to their account, and now they never had to send it back, because they had become the proud owners of the video.

I don't think Netflix is a whole lot better even after having lost the class action suit against them. But if you screw enough people long enough you can't blame them when they jump ship on you.