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Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

reuters.com

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Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#21

Post by alecco »

nhebb wrote: post #10
city41 wrote: post #2

Not to dance on someone's grave but to me this is fantastic news. When Blockbuster was the dominate player, they were quite the nasty bully. Ridiculously high late fees that were very hard to avoid. Half the time you'd return the DVD on time, but the employees wouldn't inventory it until it was too late and still hit you with a fee. A fee which they were extremely reluctant to remove. Their customer service was downr…

I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?

You can resell them online easily.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#22

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

cabalamat wrote: post #7
krschultz wrote: post #3

I wouldn't go long on Barnes & Noble or Borders either.

Well, Borders in the UK went bankrupt a year ago, but I don't think bookshops are going to go away any time soon. When I buy a book, either I want a specific book (in which case Amazon is the most convenient way of getting it) or I want a book on a particular subject, but I don't know which book I want. In a book store, I can easily and conveniently browse several books, and decide which I like the best -- this is ha…

I really think Amazon is going to rule them all. I recently received a Barnes & Noble gift card and it wasn't until I tried to use it online that I realized how reliant I had become on Amazon simply having everything . B&N has a more limited selection, more stuff is "ships in 2 weeks" as opposed to Amazon's "ships in 24 hours" and their recommendations are useless.

As a brick&mortar store, I love B&N even though the closest one is half hour away (and do I ever miss browsing the 17th st one in NYC after work!!), but I'm never going to buy online from them again.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#23

Post by jp_sc »

cryptoz wrote: post #17
charlief wrote: post #15

Blockbuster Canada is unaffected by the U.S. bankruptcy and is still financially stable http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100923/bankruptcy-protect... I wonder how the US and Canada businesses diverged, maybe less competition in Canada.

There's no Hulu in Canada. Until this week (or was it last week?) there was no Netflix either. Now that we have netflix, I doubt Blockbuster Canada has long to live. You might not believe it, but Canada is way behind the USA when it comes to the Internet, media, movies, mobile communication, and all of that. As we slowly catch up, traditional stores like Blockbuster will fail.

But is not Canada who is behind. Media producers are way behind the Internet in general.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#26

Post by AtTheLast »

liamk wrote: post #12
cromulent wrote: post #4

And some background on the one big mistake that hastened their death by years: http://www.slate.com/id/2133995/

From the article you posted: "Blockbuster turned down the opportunity to buy Netflix for a mere $50 million, instead entering a disastrous home-delivery deal with Enron." Wow...

I'm so glad they didn't sell to blockbuster! I wish more companies would stick with it and not sell to their competitors so early on.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#27

Post by sabat »

Outside of the fact that Blockbuster was often not a very nice company: did it really have to turn out this way? I think it didn't have to end in bankruptcy. Someone will eventually write a whole screed about missed opportunities (e.g. expanding beyond movies, early strong internet presence) and the reasons BB management missed them (stuck in the '80s?). But I'm sure a smarter team would have capitalized on the future instead of ignoring it.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#28

Post by davidw »

nhebb wrote: post #10
city41 wrote: post #2

Not to dance on someone's grave but to me this is fantastic news. When Blockbuster was the dominate player, they were quite the nasty bully. Ridiculously high late fees that were very hard to avoid. Half the time you'd return the DVD on time, but the employees wouldn't inventory it until it was too late and still hit you with a fee. A fee which they were extremely reluctant to remove. Their customer service was downr…

I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?

I am starting to learn, with our 2 and a half year old daughter, that you can watch the same damn thing many, many times.

Beyond that, I completely agree with you though.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#29

Post by T_S_ »

This is a financial event, not an operational one. The debt holders will now own the company and operations will continue on whatever trend is set. There is no new technology trend in this story.

The businesses lesson is that Blockbuster was once an extremely hot startup, then it became a big company able to issue large amounts of debt at favorable rates. And now this.

Innovation destroys some businesses as it creates others. It can take a while though.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#30

Post by nkassis »

avar wrote: post #20
nhebb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?

That's like asking how many times you can read the same damn book.

I don't get it when people find it weird that I will reread some books multiple times. I've read some books once every year or so and even my wife thinks I'm weird. She's a serial book reader (150 books as of now for the year, almost one a day) and will sell them as soon as she reads them, I don't work that way even after she tries to push me into selling some books I just can't.
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