Keep in mind that if Blockbuster had its way, we would be living in a world where newly released DVDs are fullscreen and cost $99. They tried for years to deprive collectors by creating a business model of outrageously priced DVDs, thereby forcing everyone to rent. And they sure wouldn't be unrated or NC-17 versions either. Thankfully, the studios did not go along with this.

Blockbuster rents WideScreen and UR discs.....I know in the past they may not have, but they have came around lately. The BIG problem is prices for rentals....I think it's like $4-$5 for a movie and $8 for a game...which is kinda outrageous. Glad I get TWO free rentals with Blockbuster.com (two games pays for the service)

In most Blockbusters you can not rent games with the coupons anymore.

Well, i can still....says right on the coupon. I think NEW subscribers may not...not sure. Oh well....I still can...yeah!

My local Blockbuster stinks.

I Hate Blockbuster. Quite a bit. I will be very happy when they go under.

Actually, in the past I believe 99.9% of their stock was Full Screen VHS and the cost for "Priced of Rental" tapes was insane.

So rennervision is on the right track. If those bastards had their way, buying/renting DVDs could have been a horrible experience.

Hell, I remember buying my widescreen VHS tapes from Suncoast or another specialty retailer and waiting for that "Priced for Rental" crap to hit retail prices.

I say it's good news, I grew up working in a small video store and we charged $2 to rent movies and $1 on Tuesdays. After BB came around and many of the small stores went out of business, we had to increase our rates, but never got upto $4 for a rental like they did, before the store was sold.

While BBV may end up declaring bankruptcy sometime in the near future, I wouldn't count on them disappearing from the face of the earth. They are still a highly marketable and identifiable company, the most recognizable brand name in their market. And there will continue to be a reasonably strong (but ever shrinking) market for video rentals for a while to come.

The primary problem with BBV is that they have held onto a business model that worked marvelously 20 years ago, but have in no way adapted to the current marketplace. They basically want to pretend that it's still 1985 and the home DVD market doesn't even exist - witness their complete inability to transition into DVD retail in any competent way. And the only reason that they haven't been able to continue to dictate the paradigm of home video entertainment was that A) DVD became such a successful media with the public, and B) the studios saw an even bigger revenue stream in DVD sales than in rentals, thus undercutting the BBV model that had made them such a success.

The best thing that has come out of all of this is that (at least in this particular case) due to forces beyond their control, a monopoly that had a stranglehold on it's market for nearly 20 years had it's legs cut out because it tried to control the market rather than adapting to it's natural changes. For that we should all be glad; monopolies are rotten in every way imaginable.

Now if only the same thing would happen to Microsuck and Wally World, we could all REALLY celebrate.

While I'm sure Blockbuster would've preferred that the DVD market continue the same way the VHS market had been since it obviously worked well for them, I'm pretty sure they didn't invent the VHS rental window or the rental pricing for tapes or the idea of putting VHS tapes out in fullscreen.

Well this sucks from my side since I work for Blockbuster! I guess I'm out of a job.

However I did predict this at the beginning of 2005 when they decided to get rid of late fees. I knew this was a death sentence for the once king of video rentals. And I am so tired of them bull shitting me by telling me everything is fine and they are going to be coming back. Whatever.

An interesting note. On the heels of the announcement that the francise stores are bringing back late fees, my store (corporate store) was forced to take down all the signs that say no more late fees and we are not allowed to tell people there are no more late fees. Sounds to me like they are coming back in full!

I hate Blockbuster!

Over the years I played a little game with BB. I made it a policy to never rent anything for full price. They started sending me R1G1 free coupons every couple months. When they did, I'd rent a couple of movies but as soon as they dried up, I stopped.

Two summers ago they sent me a card that I believe was part of marketing test. It was a coupon card for 1/2 priced rentals. For six weeks I could rent any video I wanted for $1.99. To this day I don't know why they sent it to me.

Blockbuster seems to be carrying 'unrated' titles now, but they still have a policy against carrying anything with an NC-17 rating (so they can't carry the Andrew Dice Clay concert movie since that's rated NC-17, but they can carry his in-concert videos since those were never rated to begin with. Make sense??) They were the main reason why more movies were cut down before theatrical release to get an R instead of NC-17. Wal-Mart's probably a bigger reason for it now, even though they are also carrying unrated titles that would probably have been NC-17 if rated.

I don't know if that's true that they were the main reason. It's not as if the studios were rushing out X-rated movies prior to Blockbuster being around.

There are large theater chains that won't show NC17 movies, and a large percentage of newspapers won't take advertising for NC17 movies. I assume there are quite a few TV stations that wouldn't take such ads, either.

While Blockbuster contributed to that, it's certainly bigger than just something they did.

Oh yes. $8 a game is insane. I haven't rented a game in years due to the inflated prices. I just wait for a title to reach the $15 mark either new or used.

Yeah, so was Woolworth's. And there was a time when most Americans went to Howard Johnson's for their ice cream.

And today the company that was Woolworth owns Foot Locker, Lady Footlocker, Champs, etc. They didn't go away, they just stopped trading under their name. BTW, Woolworth stores are still going strong in Europe and Australia.

We have never had a Blockbuster, but those prices are the reason I never rent from Hollywood Video. Don't get me wrong, I think HV is a decent store and much nicer than the Blockbuster stores I've been to, but when rentals are $4 for a 'new release' (which are often as much as a year old) and catalog titles are $2 (really funny when you can sometimes buy the same title for $5 or less) it just doesn't make sense. The argument is "Oh, but they let you have it for 5 days!" That makes sense for kid's movies, but otherwise who needs 5 days to watch a movie? If you're too busy to watch a movie within the next 1-2 days, why are you renting it now?

Howard Johnson's is still around, as well, with 500 or so hotels around the world.

My problem is they wanted to charge me for losing movies I never rented. After fighting with store employess and on up the corporate chain, getting the charges removed 2 months later, I never went back. I don't want them to go out of business, as that will just send people across the street to my Hollywood Video, but I do hope they suffer tremendously.

Interesting Topic!

There are currently two ways to get free Blockbuster rentals. Buy a $10 gift card at Taco Bueno and get a free movie rental card at BB or on select 12 packs of can Coke products there is a sticker (on the outside that can be ripped off) and get a movie rental and 20oz coke product for free!

These two coupons, I think, are a sign Blockbuster is trying to get people in their stores. My wife and I use the coupons like they are going out of style.....I mean business.

I hope BB stays around for a little while longer. Because we eat at Bueno once a week and I drink Cokes, these coupons are basically bonuses or free. Viva Blockbuster......or atleast until the coupons run dry!

That's right, the studios came up with rental pricing and full screen videos long before Blockbuster even existed. We can't blame Big Blue for everything.

I don't think Blockbuster is in trouble because of poor customer service and fraudulent late fees. I think they're in trouble because anyone can buy a DVD from a store for $9.99 instead of renting it for $5.00. At half the cost of a new DVD, it's just not worth it for me to rent. Would you would rent a car if a week's rental cost as much as a new car?

So I don't blame BB for fighting against a pricing policy that is now putting them out of business. I would do the same if it were my company.

I am happy that the studios didn't go along with them.

I think that pretty much sums it up. Any retail business gets complaints about service. Hell, Wal Mart tops Blockbuster in sheer hatred directed towards them, but Wal Mart is sucessful because they charge cheap prices, generally. People get lousy service there but they go back because they get good deals. If you get lousy service anywhere, you will generally go back if they have something for a good price. Blockbuster will inevitably piss people off, because not all clerks working at these places are perfect, but when they piss somebody off renting a 4.25 DVD that's on sale up the street in a bin for 5.50, where is that customer more likely to go next time?

Charging a bit more for their new releases is one thing, but charging the SAME PRICE for their favorites/non-new releases?? That's ridiculous. And they wonder why people don't want to rent from them.

That was one reason I liked renting from Hasting's. They had a tiered pricing structure. New releases were one amount, older releases were cheaper and there was a not-insigificant section of even cheaper releases. This was several years ago when VHS-rental was still probably a pretty good business, but it made sense to me.

Charging a single, fairly high price to rent everything in the store with the only concession given for older movies is how long I get to keep it really does tend to limit my willingness to rent.