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Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

reuters.com

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Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#41

Post by Psyonic »

nkassis wrote: post #30
avar wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What kind of books does she read, that she can read 150 in a 9 months And when does she read these books? Good Lord! Unless she reads like Kim Peak... a page in like 2 seconds, then I suppose 150 books is well within reason.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#42

Post by nhebb »

davidw wrote: post #28
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?

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.

My older son had a Lion King addiction, so I know what you mean. I was thinking in terms of movies for grown-ups, though.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#44

Post by Psyonic »

jw84 wrote: post #36

What's funny is that they just recently entered into a partnership agreement with NCR to buy up DVDplay and replaced all the newer, more compact, and better designed DVDplay boxes with crappier, buggier, and bulkier Blockbuster boxes. So their copycat of Redbox sucked. Their copycat of GameStop in-store video game sections sucked. Their copycat of Netflix sucked. It's like watching a kid trying too hard to become an…

What's wrong with their copycat of Netflix? I was a subscriber for the past few years until recently, and never had a problem. It was actually cheaper than Netflix for me, blu-rays were included for free, and I got 5 in-store trades a month for spur-of-the-moment selections. Perhaps their collection is a bit smaller, but it's definitely big enough for most people. It rarely disappointed me, and I have film friends recommending esoteric movies for me.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#46

Post by ben1040 »

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 found that thanks to Blockbuster's late fees (I was habitually unable to return movies on time) I would spend at least $25 a month, and in exchange I usually was able to watch two movies.

Sometimes I'd rent a movie and never even have time to watch it. I'd end up bringing it back a week later, unwatched, and have to pay another ten bucks in late fees on it because I sat on it too long.

I switched to Netflix 7 years ago and never looked back. I still have DVDs sitting around that I haven't watched yet, in spite of them having been mailed to me 2 weeks ago. I do watch a streaming title two or three nights a week. For all that I pay way less than I ever did to Blockbuster.

Netflix is probably making tons of money off me since I am so slow to mail back movies, and yet I'm totally happy with the service I'm getting and feel it's worth the price I pay.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#47

Post by chc »

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…

For a little perspective: Blockbuster's biggest competitor in the western US, Hollywood Video, had much worse late fees. They wanted to charge my mom something like $100 for a video she kept a few days over. (It's been more than a decade since then, so I don't remember the precise details, but I do remember it was several times the purchase price of the movie.)

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#48

Post by dbrannan »

I used to call them "Ballbuster" due to their late fee policy. They were worse than taking out a loan from the the mafia, and eventually I started to avoid them in favor of Netflix where I could return the DVD when it was convient for me.

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#49

Post by ghjklkjh »

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.

Netflix arrived in Canada yesterday - but their selection is terrible.

The most entertaining thing about them is their suggestions:

Type in say "Sherlock Holmes" and it says - we don't have that but you might like "Miss Marple investigates", then underneath it says we don't have "Shrek" but you might like "cats and dogs - the rip off TV series".

So it somehow matches Sherlock with Shrek - then it actually suggests movies they don't stock - the whole thing is like the monty python (which they don't stock) cheese shop sketch

Re: Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

#50

Post by Andrew_Quentin »

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'm very glad to see the market can respond and a new player can come in

I would suggest it is not quite "the market". It would have been the market had a competitor arrived before the technological advancement of the internet. As that was not the case, it is rather, or it should rather be a praise to the advancement of technology, and quite a condemning example of "the market".

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