BLOCKBUSTER bankruptcy rumor AND $1 RENTALS AT Walmart are very popular with Red Box

[billypoe]

Thank you, God, for NETFLIX

[richard lichtenfelt]

All 3 Walmarts around my house have 2 Redbox's in them. Most of the McDonald's and a Walgreens near me have 1.

If Blockbuster keeps charging $5 a movie their going bankrupt seems inevitable to me.
They're not even trying to compete monetarily, and I think their strategy is insane.

[aheineken]

Originally Posted by xtop

i know where they are around me. just saying..i've never seen one at a walmart anywhere in ohio. is that a popular thing across the rest of the country?

Same here (I'm about 30 miles from you), but every Giant Eagle and several gas stations have them. They're all DVD though.

[Minimejer05]

My Wal Mart does not have a Redbox.

[Chevypower]

All good to have Netflix, Redbox etc. But this is the downside. A lot less employment. The ripple effect is surrounding businesses suffer and its bad for the economy. Our local Blockbuster is gone. Same could be said with Amazon taking business away from Circuit City and other places. Thats fewer people to come in and spend money at my business. So i am not convinced the lower monetary price is worth the other cost.

[foots]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

If Blockbuster keeps charging $5 a movie their going bankrupt seems inevitable to me.
They're not even trying to compete monetarily, and I think their strategy is insane.

The Blockbuster near me has the option to pay daily. It is $1.99 a day for new releases and $0.99 a day for catalog titles.

Originally Posted by billypoe

Thank you, God, for NETFLIX

If Blockbuster goes under you can bet on Netflix rate increases.



All that said I really wish Blockbuster would pull their head out of their *** and get it together. They still don't seem to have a direction. They seem to want to do all these different things instead of doing a few things well. There are test stores around me that have a mini convenience store in the middle of the floor plan complete with slushy machine. Another store has a separate room that sells electronics at extremely high prices and has all three game consoles set up for kids to play. Another has kiosks in the center of the store that no one ever uses.... I don't even know what they do. Another store is now selling concert tickets.....

The only thing they seem to do well is piss off customers. I don't understand how they think it is a good idea (given their history with late fees) to offer a program (Total Access) with incredible value to attract customers knowing that it won't be profitable. Then slowly they remove value from it until it becomes profitable (theoretically) which only pisses off the loyal customers they do have. How is that a good business model? It would be like Sony using firmware updates to remove features from the PS3.

Sorry for the rant. They have once again downgraded the Total Access plan. To add salt to the wound they are promoting it as if they are adding value to the plan. You have to read the very last paragraph to see that your in-store exchanges are now counted as part of the movies you can have out at a time.

[broganreynik]

Originally Posted by foots

Sorry for the rant. They have once again downgraded the Total Access plan. To add salt to the wound they are promoting it as if they are adding value to the plan. You have to read the very last paragraph to see that your in-store exchanges are now counted as part of the movies you can have out at a time.

I wasn't even informed of the new terms, and when I contacted them they said everyone received an e-mail, which I didn't, the only way I knew was because of the store. And then they said "if you return your in store rentals within one to two days, you will receive the same amount of movie rentals". How the hell does that work? In that time, I could've had another one sent to me and watched.

[krazeyeyez]

lol that is crazy, they have slowly made total access less appealing a few times now, is their no grandfathering for this change? i know i didn't know about their first couple changes because i was grandfathered in on them all, i only found out when i let my plan lapse for a few months and went to sign back up.

[demazi]

didnt video ezy buy them out down here in australia video ezy brought blockbuster

[matt2009]

i realy hope blockbuster doesnt go down the drain my local store sells all the catalogue titles 2 for £25 and are pretty keen on prices for new releases .

would be a damn shame to have to rely on ebay and the likes as i like to have the film there and then

[DIY_HD]

Netflix certainly has raised the bar for the competition with the convenience factor and no late fees. I stopped renting from BlockBuster years ago after they dinged me with late fees, even when I know I returned movies on time. I would drop them off at night before closing and they wouldn't check them in till morning so they could charge me for being late.

I don't wish for BlockBuster's demise (because a lot of people would be hurt by it), but ultimately it depends on how the company treats its customers. I had the feeling that I was being screwed by some greedy company officer who dreamed up the excessive late fees, so I took my money elsewhere. If stories like Foots' and mine are repeated too many times, the company won't survive. I never faulted the local staff because I believed that the corporate weenies required them to do what they did, but I had no intention of supporting their policies. So I voted with my dollars. I was in retail for many years and I learned two important principles. You never win an argument with a customer. And angry customers don't complain, they just don't come back!

I like the local Hollywood store, but their selection of BDs is limited (although it is growing slowly). However, they charge $5.29 for 5 days for a BD. While that's only a little over a $1 a day, I really don't watch a movie 5 times before returning it, no matter how good it is. That's a nice down payment on a BD purchase!

My local WalMart does have a RedBox, but I never noticed it when I was in the store. No BDs though. I'm crossing my fingers.

[andyman1970]

Originally Posted by Chevypower

All good to have Netflix, Redbox etc. But this is the downside. A lot less employment. The ripple effect is surrounding businesses suffer and its bad for the economy. Our local Blockbuster is gone. Same could be said with Amazon taking business away from Circuit City and other places. Thats fewer people to come in and spend money at my business. So i am not convinced the lower monetary price is worth the other cost.

While I agree that you have a point about online retailers hurting the B&M stores, you have to realize that a lot of these businesses aren't helping their cause with poor customer service and product selection. While I love shopping at my local Best Buy it is becoming more convenient to purchase my Blu-ray movies from Amazon because the retail location just doesn't have a lot of the titles I'm looking for, i.e. The Pink Panther Collectors Edition. Sure I could have the store order it and go pick it up when it arrives, but if I have to go to all that trouble why not just order it from someone that offers a lower price and will ship to my home for free?

[krazeyeyez]

Originally Posted by DIY_HD

Netflix certainly has raised the bar for the competition with the convenience factor and no late fees. I stopped renting from BlockBuster years ago after they dinged me with late fees, even when I know I returned movies on time. I would drop them off at night before closing and they wouldn't check them in till morning so they could charge me for being late.

well not to pick on you cause i know i have thought the same conspiracy theory stuff from experiences at best buy, why do think they didn't check them in just so they COULD charge you late fee's. Sounds to me like 1.) a lazy csr 2.) a missed scan as in checking in a stack of 20 and only 19 get scanned 3.) you went to the wrong blockbuster to drop off, if they get another stores copy its still late 4.) or some other little thing ...... but i am curious how this doesn't happen to you at every other rental store, cause i have experienced this at blockbuster, family video, hollywood video, sights and sounds etc...

[Mr.Sparkle]

Redbox is nice and all, but due to the fact that they don't carry blu rays I usually rather go to BlockBuster and rent my movies.

[FadetoBlu]

Hope Blockbuster does not go under I like Blockbuster however if they do I will continue to go to Hollywood Video as well but we also have a couple stores called Faimly Video they have been here for awhile but never been in there stores maybe I will have to check them out some time.

All of our Iggle video has gone out they have Redbox so does our Wegmans locations haven't seen any at our wal-marts.

We used to have a place called Video USA but they went OOB sometime ago and there used to be a couple of Home Video locations but they went OOB also as well as a Video Warehouse location.

[Cbailey]

Only reason I would like to see Blockbuster stay afloat is the fact that people are being put out of work, don't wish that on anyone in the U.S. Buuut then again I work at Hastings so rooting for Blockbuster is treason :-P

[Paul.R.S]

Originally Posted by foots

The only thing they seem to do well is piss off customers. I don't understand how they think it is a good idea (given their history with late fees) to offer a program (Total Access) with incredible value to attract customers knowing that it won't be profitable. Then slowly they remove value from it until it becomes profitable (theoretically) which only pisses off the loyal customers they do have.

LOL. Preach it.

Originally Posted by broganreynik

I wasn't even informed of the new terms, and when I contacted them they said everyone received an e-mail, which I didn't, the only way I knew was because of the store.

A rep said the same thing to me on the phone Friday when I called: an e-mail was sent. I call bunk on that--I did not receive one either. I only knew of the late fee policy change for in-store exchanges (but not the concomitant change of having exchanges count against your total number of movies "out" at a time) from a piece of paper posted near the registers in the store . . . which the clerk of course was not familiar with.

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by Paul.R.S

LOL. Preach it.


A rep said the same thing to me on the phone Friday when I called: an e-mail was sent. I call bunk on that--I did not receive one either. I only knew of the late fee policy change for in-store exchanges (but not the concomitant change of having exchanges count against your total number of movies "out" at a time) from a piece of paper posted near the registers in the store . . . which the clerk of course was not familiar with.

I canceled my membership today and in the comments box where you can note your reasons for leaving, I wrote that the new policy was unacceptable and left me zero reason not to switch to netflix, especially with the cheaper cost and faster shipping times. Not to mention the unavailability of nearly every title I wanted through blockbuster.

[mrbakeman]

Movie Stop!, the Movie Stop near my house has a Red Box and it does have Bluray and they are the same rental price as dvd $1.00 per day. Unfortunatly like many other rental places they have a very limited amount of Blurays and the ones i always want are already checked out just about everytime i go. This is the reason i gave up on renting years ago with Blockbuster because everytime i went to rent they were out of the ones i wanted, i also got very angry with the late fees and just stopped using Blockbuster completly. I actually went into a Blockbuster near my house the other day and was shocked to see they are charging $5 per rental, that's insane, no wonder they are rumoured to go out of business.

[Paul.R.S]

Just read the story at OP's MSN link and thought this was on point: "But the video-rental industry is hurting, despite Blockbuster's many attempts to try to lure people back to stores with in-store kiosks and other offerings."

I think that's what this policy change regarding in store exchanges is: using no late fees to drive online customers into b&m stores, even though a large percentage of those folks arguably are the least interested in b&m rental or they wouldn't have signed up for online in the first place.