By now, most people have heard that Blockbuster Video will shutter the last of its 300 company-owned brick-and-mortar stores AND it’s DVD-by-mail operations within the next 2 months. The few remaining franchise stores will also likely shutter their operations around that time or shortly after, meaning Blockbuster won’t even make it to it’s 30th birthday, which would have occurred in 2015.
It’s a dramatic fall for a company that once dominated Video Rentals, Game Rentals, and even dabbed a little bit into Music Stores. Blockbuster ran smaller Video Rental operations into the ground. Turtles, Tower Records & Video, and other companies ultimately caved to a chain that less than a decade ago had 9000 stores. Blockbuster was so popular once upon a time that people fought for parking spaces at the stores on Friday nights. My wife even worked at Blockbuster for a time.
Ultimately, Blockbuster fell victim to similar circumstances that knocked Kodak out of the camera business and has left BlackBerry smartphones in tatters. Blockbuster failed to adapt to changing circumstances, like those other two companies. Kodak failed to adjust to the rise of digital photography, even though they were the first to create it. Kodak has apparently survived, but it will never be the same company again. And although BlackBerry created the first smartphone, their failure to adjust to changing demands left Apple and Google a path to run BlackBerry towards the cliffs of extinction. In Blockbuster’s case, streaming Video over the Internet and cheaper alternatives like Netflix and Redbox destroyed Blockbuster. There were other reasons for Blockbuster’s collapse, and I’m sure other people can explain why Blockbuster went from American titan to fading memory.
With Blockbuster now joining the pile of companies from my past that have come and gone, like Circuit City, KB Toys, Steak & Ale Restaurants, and others, I wonder if anyone will really care about Blockbuster’s demise. What do you remember about Blockbuster Video Stores?
No comments:
Post a Comment