I wonder if they'll ever adapt the "rental only" price on new releases again? That did keep the market more exclusive. And it's probably why it was exciting to go the video store and see what was there. More than Red Box, THAT was the death of home video rentals - when they got rid of that high pricing. It used to last 4-6 months, before you'd see a movie "priced to own". By then, you could buy the used VHS for around $10 or $15.

So the total wait on seeing it in the theater, to buying it on home video, was around one year. With the exception of the movies that were immediately "priced to own" (Disney often did this, and the biggest blockbusters).

Awe, shucks. Now I'm feeling all nostalgic.

Video stores going away doesn't bother me, but I am going to be very bummed out when record/music stores are all gone.

I think the problem was the rental companies got greedy when this happened. I remember a lot of places were actually charging MORE to rent the DVDs than they had for VHS in the beginning, despite the fact they were getting the copies at a fraction of the price. Most places were charging a minimum of $3 a rental for DVDs and a few were doing the $5 thing (but you got it for a week, which did nothing for me since when I rent something I watch it the same night). It got hard to justify paying $5 to rent a movie I could get for $7 through some Reel.com special.

This plays a bigger role than most people realize. The truth of the matter is DVD pricing should have benefitted video stores, not hurt them. Yes, folks like us here at DVDTalk may have started buying everything rather than renting, but the reality is Joe Sixpack did not pay $15-$20 for a new release every week or spend hours here studying every possible way to game the system. He continued to rent four or five DVDs every week for that price.

Video stores are still viable businesses; look at Family Video.

The problem is the business model needed to succeed is not compatible with the business model of a giant, publicly traded company. The writing was on the wall when Hollywood Video and Blockbuster began worrying more about shareholders, market share, and shady gimmicks rather than satisfying their customers. I worked for both companies and watched both of them shut down profitable stores because they weren't making enough profit.

Redbox did not have much to do with the demise of HV or BB ... Both were already long past done before Redbox became a standard fixture. I don't think Netflix was that big of a thorn in the side until the Big 2 began alienating their customers with crappy programs and shady policies. HV and BB drove their customers to the competition; the competition didn't take them away.

^That is the single biggest mistake these "misbred, gray executive I've seen heavily advertised" make all the time. It's amazing how out of touch with their customers they become when they attempt to dictate what they want rather than provide the cutomers wants. Then they never think that their own actions are the biggest problem.

Still alive

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Reminds of this video Chris Stuckmann did last year. He went out of state to visit an operating Blockbuster.

There’s a Showtime Video about 15 minutes from my house. I’ve been meaning to go in for nostalgia’s sake and see if it reminds me of the old school rental shops.

I don’t think I’d give two shits if I drove by a still in operation Blockbuster, aside from maybe flipping it off as I drove by.

"Why won't you die?!"

We still have a Family Video a few miles from my house. I usually hit it on Friday afternoons to pick up one or two for the weekend. Other than the blue and yellow theme, a video store is a video store. Not too nostalgic for me. The big difference was the great 4 or sometimes 5 / $20 sales.

I had BB online and found it far superior to Netflix up until the end.

It's a good thing the geniuses running the place didn't waste all that money buying Netflix when they had the chance. WHEEWWWW. Crisis averted.

Blockbuster SHOULD have been Netflix in 1998. Instead they arrogantly clung to their B&M model (thanks to myopic dinosaur management -- see the recording industry) because that was their money. By the time they adopted BB Online and utilized a B&M/hybrid model, it was far too late for them.

I still miss renting a movie at Blockbuster. Call me old fashioned but it’s the little things like this that keep everyone in their bubbles. On the other hand, I love Netflix for the new and older TV shows (complete seasons).

You're absolutely right. But then I can't help but wonder: if they HAD acquired Netflix, would it be the same Netflix we know today, or would Blockbuster have ruined that as well?

I hated renting from Blockbuster. They came in and shut down all the Mom and Pop rental stores in my small town. Their customer service was terrible. I bought a 30 day gaming pass where you could rent one game at a time for a month. I bought it and a week later the manager was telling me it about to expire. I argued with him about it and finally he realized he was wrong. He said you're right go on get out of here. I signed up for Netflix discs and I never rented from them again after that....

I moved from South Nashville to Lebanon, TN recently. There are two video stores still here. A Captain Video which also has a post office in it and Tanning Beds and a Family Video which I absolutely love. Lots of 2 for $1 5 nights rentals and $1 for 5 nights rentals. I have been going to Family Video every week since I moved. They are surprisingly very busy. Especially on the weekends. The line was insane when I stopped by last Friday.

If anyone is on Twitter, The Last Blockbuster is a really fun follow.

https://twitter.com/loneblockbuster

They had an opportunity to acquire Netflix for just $50 million:

http://www.businessinsider.com/block...million-2015-7

But you're right, they probably would have run it into the ground. They had a complete lack of vision.

Family Video proves the video store concept is still a viable business model. It just doesn’t work as a publicly traded business that puts shareholders before customers.

The last two Blockbuster stores in Alaska are closing, leaving just one location left in the US, in Bend, OR.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/bu...ster/36832227/

There's no Family Videos around here; in fact, I don't even think there are any mom and pop video stores except for those that serve non-English-speaking demographics. I guess Redbox is enough as far as renting physical media goes.

I wonder how John Oliver will feel about this after donating so much to the store...

I thought internet is slow and expensive in Alaska so that’s why the video store was still a viable business up there. Sad they were forced to close.

It sounds like their leases were going to go up too much to not make the business profitable. The main reason Family Video is still around, is that they own most of their buildings and all their revenue/profit goes toward paying the mortgage. I think they sell the stores once a store can't afford to pay the mortgage anymore. I believe the company is worth quite a bit due to the value of the real estate that they own.

"Film is Truth" video rental store is still operating in Bellingham, WA. It's in one of the segments of my mini-documentary from 2014 (when there were 3 remaining stores.) I'm proud that it is still there. Video rental stores are near and dear to me.

They suck

They had 20 copies of one movie on VHS but all of them would be checked out.