Blockbuster FAIL

I'm sure you've heard by now that Blockbuster, as a company, is going away, 100%. A company that much of my generation grew up with and, despite the change in formats, seemed like it would survive, as all other similar companies failed. I remember when I got MY first Blockbuster card... it was a big deal, for some reason... not sure why.

So where did they really go wrong? Their downfall obviously started awhile ago, since they filed for bankruptcy back in 2010. And I can tell you, it has been horrible customer service since then, on the DVD by mail front. You could tell Dish Network really didn't care about that part of the business. But I think anyone who watched the whole bankruptcy filing and buyout happen saw that coming.

So what then? Did they try to hang on to the DVD/Blue-Ray format too long? Were they too slow to change? Did they not have enough options? They claimed to have movies a full 4 weeks sooner than any other the other services (ie Netflix, Redbox). But if they can't actually get the movie out to you within those 4 weeks, what's the point? So was it bad customer service? Did they just focus on the wrong outlet for too long (DVD's/Blue-Rays vs. digital download)?

I think it was a combination of all the above, actually. I think they underestimated the popularity of people who wanted to just stream movies as TV/Gaming Systems and other devices became capable of doing that. And they were slow to jump on board, where as Netflix was all over it. Instead, they tried to compete with Redbox by putting kiosks as gas stations. And when they finally got on board with the streaming, a majority of devices were already right restricted by Netflix. In the meantime, they continued the hard format route by trying to allow people to interchange the store and mail experience, to 'make it easier with no fees'... but by getting rid of fees, they got rid of a revenue source. And hence, the downward spiral quickly escalated.

Pretty sad, actually. At one time, Blockbuster was on top of it all, squashing any other video store and making movie theatres nearly obsolete in the process, as more and more people would just wait for it to come out on video. And now, by the end of 2013, they will be no more. Just a memory for my generation to yammer on about to our grandkids.

Bye-Bye, Blockbuster.