Gizmo

May 11th is apparently a 'big day' for Blockbuster. With all the current debts they owe to studios they may be going out of business. Reports are stating that stores are pulling almost all New games, Blu-ray movies, random accessories off shelves to send back to be wholesaled off while other shipments that usually arrived have not.

Over at IHateBlockbuster.com

whotony

May 11th is a sort of d-day.
BBV is doing a few things that makes it appear
they expect to still be in business after that day.

All employees are about to start wearing new unis and name tags.
BBV is about to change the Rewards program.
Some in store changes are taking place too.

The logo looks to be changing including the name from
Blockbuster Video to
Blockbuster Media.

Plus a new ad compaign soon to begin.

Ajay C

Today is May 11th... let's see how this goes down...

Goat3001

FWIW, the stock is up 11.5% on the day while the market is down about 100 points.

Gizmo

*rubs hands together*

Gizmo

Ouch

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv...54D5RI20090515
More in the link

My Other Self

You're going to blame people spending more money to go to theater over not renting at your overpriced stores? Bullshit. Are these people serious?

whotony

what's overpriced?
$5 to rent a dvd that you can keep for nearly 2 weeks if you need to?
compared to $10-$16 to go see a movie one time.

mike07

Or if you're familiar with the DVD Bargains forum on this site, you will most likely be able to buy any DVD for $5 or under and keep it for as ever long as you'd like.

But for those who don't buy DVDs, there's always Hollywood Video as an alternative to Blockbuster and Redbox.

Trevor

Exactly. I may own too many DVDs, but there are people who own no DVDs but have rented less than what I own, and yet I've spent less money then they.

DVD Josh

He's not even blaming the right things. It's NetFlix, his own mailing service, RedBox and streaming, not to mention piracy. PLUS, it's oversaturation. There are like 3 BBVs within a 10 minute drive of me.

Gizmo

Clearly you have not seen their recent strategy of $3 first day, $1 the next, Late Fees are back etc. discussion?

calhoun07

Been off the board for a while and nobody else posted an update?

Here's one from The Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124200101193605143.html

What the article doesn't tell you is how they paid $100 million down on their revolving credit...they pulled just about all new games from every store and several stores reported having their retail Blu-Ray and a huge chunk of their retail DVDs pulled and sent back to distribution (source: Ihateblockbuster.com and the employees who post there.) So that should tell you that they were unable to turn a profit that big that quick, so I think they are just delaying the inevitable.

Something else left out of the article...several insiders will tell you the stores are making money. That's why you haven't seen massive store closings so far. The stores that have closed had expensive leases and it was better for the company to focus on stores in the same area with grandfathered leases. But on average over all, the stores are up 4%-8% depending on what source you read. The problem is somewhere, some how, the money is being squandered away by corporate once it's out of the store's hands. (I am not 100% sure about the first quarter this year and how the second quarter is going, but I read that the last quarter of 2008 was good for the store.)

Living Deadpan

I live in AZ. If I hadn't stopped to rent at Blockbuster during my recent trip to Connecticut, I wouldn't have seen "their recent strategy" either. Meaning: rental fees vary across the country.

Here in AZ (at least the metro Phoenix area), non-new releases are $0.99 for 5 days.

In CT (at least the Meriden store I went to), I was quite disappointed when I found out old rentals were $1 per day (the Redbox price), or you could choose to pay $4 to keep it 5 days. The clerk questioned my sanity over thinking it was $0.99 for 5 days before I mentioned "I'm on vacation from AZ, that's how much it is to rent over there". Then she said "Wow, that is a good deal!" as if their CT rental fees were in the dark ages and this mysterious stranger from the West spoke of a sunny, pioneering land where old DVDs were $0.99 for 5 days and didn't charge incremental late fees (just the "buy it after 10 days" charge).

whotony

calling that pricing structure "recent strategy" isn't entirely accurate.
this has not been rolled out nationally yet.
It was supposed to be rolled out on april 9th but it was put on hold.

there are still some test stores using those prices and maybe some franchise stores too.

Superdaddy

I'll echo this in spades. I can't remember when I last rented a movie; maybe a year and a half ago. When I first started buying DVDs, I rarely made blind buys. Now, with the insanely cheap prices of some discs, particularly older titles, I can purchase for a price equal to (or less than) renting, and if I don't like the title, I can always find someone who would like to have it, or sell it online and get most or all of my money back. I have a few old music CDs and some VHS tapes that may be destined for giveaway because I'm not getting any bites for them, but I have yet to have a DVD that I could not unload or at least give to someone when I'm finished with it.

Best of all, since I know my taste well, I have in this process discovered lots of wonderful films and TV shows that I have kept and added to my collection without having to spend for a rental first to check them out.

Chrisedge

Nice to see Gizmo quoting my site...



I would pay Netflix whatever they want if I can see BBI die a painfull death.

Gizmo

I <3 it!

Living Deadpan

Depending on which location you go to, you might find a good selection of $3.99 used DVDs. Here are some bargains I found lately:

$1.99
Simone
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
King Kong (1978)

$3.99
Pulse (Kairo)
Calvaire (The Ordeal)
Targets (1967)
I Married a Monster From Outer Space
Time of the Wolf
Kedma
Eastern Promises

$4.99
The Creeping Flesh

Gizmo

So what store do you work at

Living Deadpan

I'm actually the dwarf that pushes the DVDs out of those Redbox machines.

Gizmo

Ryan Seacrest?

calhoun07

At Christmas time, they had a good selection of NEW and SEALED DVDs for 3.99, including Eastern Promises.

The ol' 'Buster may get knocked down by the public, but there are times good things can be found there.

I don't know if it was on DVDtalk or another site, but I read that the presale price for the 3 disc Blu Ray of Watchmen is $19.99 in their computers. Just sayin' in the event anybody wants to preorder a copy.

whotony

it was here, i started that topic.
Also if you work for them you get the disc for $16 + tax.

Heat

Yes, $5 for a rental is way overpriced. It has been a while since I've paid more than $1 for a rental and I normally rent at least one DVD a week. Redbox is the obvious $1 rental place, but Family Video has a huge selection of $1 and 2 for $1 DVDs.

Blockbuster is dead. They just don't know it yet.