SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Blockbuster to close all 300 remaining stores

Posted: Nov 07 2013 10:53 pm

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/11/blockbuster-to-close-all-300-remaining-stores.html

Although it's sad to hear that it's closing the rest of its stores, I don't really feel all that sad about it happening now. I stopped going to video stores a long time ago and I haven't rented video games in years; it was already dead to me a while ago.

It's one of those things that might as well have been dead for a while; the childhood memories may be good and it's those that I really miss, but the actual store disappearing today just doesn't make a difference for me. I don't really feel like something's been taken away from me suddenly because it's not like I've been using it recently.

It's the same thing with video game magazines like Gamepro and Nintendo Power which have both bit the dust in the last couple of years but nonetheless didn't mean much to me in the past decade, but I'll still love the old copies from the early 90's.

It's not so much the stores and products I miss as much as I miss the old times when they were much more 'fashionable'. Still, just knowing that it'll officially be gone now means that there'll never be a time where I can just visit it whenever I may want to.

Posted: Nov 08 2013 12:06 am

I miss being able to walk around a Blockbuster store and read the cases of the videos to figure out what movies might interest me. That's about it.

Posted: Nov 08 2013 01:09 am

i remember they had video game kiosks at blockbuster. other than that, i remember just picking random movies based on the cover. that was always an adventure in and of itself.

Posted: Nov 08 2013 01:12 am

The one I used to frequent is now called a Family Video, so they're relatively safe.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 08 2013 02:02 am

There's still Blockbuster stores open?

Posted: Nov 09 2013 02:51 am

All the ones I knew of closed ages ago. If you know of one it might be a good opportunity to snag like some posters, or cardboard standups, or shelves.

Posted: Nov 09 2013 11:29 am

When the local Blockbuster closed a few years back, I bought most of their video games and a 50 inch HDTV for about 500 bucks. After it was completely closed down I went with some friends and raided the dumpster out back and got even more games. It turned out they still had SNES, N64 and PSX games when they closed and just threw them out. It was a great day for all of us.

Posted: Nov 10 2013 12:34 pm

@om*d wrote:

I miss being able to walk around a Blockbuster store and read the cases of the videos to figure out what movies might interest me. That's about it.

I went to Block Buster weekly from like the age of 12-19/20 (before that it was an assortment of video stores). I loved movies as a kid so seeing Block Buster close (well all of the rental chains, more so the smaller ones, but still) is a little bit saddening. I have a ton of nostalgia for going to places like BlockBuster, browsing the store and shelves for hours trying to find something I wanted, or pick between things. This drove my mother crazy, as I got a little older she would just wait in the car if I wasn't going in for one specific thing.

I also liked being able to browse between movies and videogames. I didn't get n64 until gamecube was coming out and never bought many games because my parents thought renting made way more sense than buying a game retail and not liking it. I loved looking at the boxes of the games for the systems I couldn't afford yet, and on very rare occasions got to rent an N64 (when it was newer and all I had was NES) which consumed every minute of whatever weekend/week I had it for.

I also remember renting some of the shitiest movies based on title and back cover story. And picking a raptor movie as a kid that, if I saw now would be laughably bad, gave me nightmares for a couple nights.

I didn't grab too much when my block buster closed, all of the good stuff was gone in a day or two. Mine closed 1-2 years ago and while I still occasionally rented from there, it was starting to only have new titles and I didn't need to rent games there. With there still being one independantly owned rental place (it is also a Home Entertainment place) in the city, the death of blockbuster wasn't as bad. Still, when I was a kid, going to BlockBuster on a friday to load up on games and movies (sometimes their overpriced candy too) for the weekend was always enjoyable.

Posted: Nov 10 2013 06:47 pm

3 years ago there were 4 Blockbusters here in Fort Collins Colorado where I live, now there's 1.

Posted: Nov 18 2013 09:43 am

slapolakinkaido wrote:

3 years ago there were 4 Blockbusters here in Fort Collins Colorado where I live, now there's 1.

I didn't know there were any other SydLexians in Colorado other than Thunderhorse.
Yeah, there were a couple around here in the Springs, but they're gone now. I hadn't realized only 300 were left.

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

I'd just like to clarify that only Blockbusters owned corporately were closed. Any franchised stores that were still around weren't necessarily shut down, and I'm sure some will linger.

Posted: Nov 22 2013 02:35 am

Update: Just found out the remaining store here in Fort Collins will shut down in January.

Title: Miss Madness 99 Joined: Sep 09 2012 Posts: 225

I personally liked Hollywood Video better aka MovieGallery as they seemed less evil in their return policys and most of my PSX days were spent renting games from them. My dad personally hated Blockbuster so I had to wait until I was 16/17 to rent from them. They had some weird credit card policy in the early 90's where you had to have one to rent from them I believe. Hollywood Video did not.

Needless to say I think Blockbuster offers alot of strong nostalgia as most people on this board in the US probably dealt with them at one time or another yet at the same time they did piss alot of people off with turning customers into credit companies over 10 dollar late fines. Also they put alot of mom and pops out of business so maybe it was poetic justice for them to die the slow death they did in the end.

Posted: Dec 20 2013 12:47 am

GeorgeTaylor wrote:

I personally liked Hollywood Video better aka MovieGallery as they seemed less evil in their return policys and most of my PSX days were spent renting games from them. My dad personally hated Blockbuster so I had to wait until I was 16/17 to rent from them. They had some weird credit card policy in the early 90's where you had to have one to rent from them I believe. Hollywood Video did not.

Needless to say I think Blockbuster offers alot of strong nostalgia as most people on this board in the US probably dealt with them at one time or another yet at the same time they did piss alot of people off with turning customers into credit companies over 10 dollar late fines. Also they put alot of mom and pops out of business so maybe it was poetic justice for them to die the slow death they did in the end.

i agree w/this post. hollywood video was great, especially w/their late fee policy (just pay what you could at that point in time)

Posted: Dec 21 2013 07:30 pm

One thing I know I'll definitely miss that I really felt sad seeing go away: Hollywood Video's Game Crazy section. I always thought of it as a reincarnation of FuncoLand. I wish they could've at least salvaged that part of the business.

Posted: Dec 22 2013 12:05 am

Methid Man wrote:

One thing I know I'll definitely miss that I really felt sad seeing go away: Hollywood Video's Game Crazy section. I always thought of it as a reincarnation of FuncoLand. I wish they could've at least salvaged that part of the business.

i second this statement. gamecrazy was great. way better than gamestop.

Joined: Mar 18 2010 Location: Tuonela Posts: 299

You can still rent video games in the States? It hasn't been possible here for abot 15 years. I think the last game I rented was Sonic 3 or something.

That said, I think a small retro game rental store might have some niche/marginal/hipster value over here. I wish there was one. Especially if they had consoles in neat case you could take home. A retro gaming store just opened in my home town, but I'm not gonna pay 70€ for Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers.

edit: there is also just one arcade in the whole country. Maybe I should move.

Posted: Dec 26 2013 03:06 pm

I think those Redbox kiosks rent games too. There's also Gamefly which does mail and online rentals like Netflix does.

Posted: Dec 26 2013 05:58 pm

A recent Cracked image macro contest identified public libraries as such a place nowadays.

Posted: Dec 26 2013 10:02 pm

I'm from Canada so it may be different than the US.There is still a privately owned video rental store called Steve's TV in my city that rents games and I suspect always will because they rent movies primarily in the back part of a home entertainment store. There is also a place called Microplay that is sort of like a game stop type of place, they also rent video games and since they sell them, the renting is just a bit of added revenue so I can't see them stopping.

Posted: Dec 26 2013 11:05 pm

I actually used to go to a Microplay in my middle school years.