Netflix and Blockbuster (film, family, history, watch)

[quiet walker]

"After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month, according to people who have been briefed on the matter."
L.A. Times
August 26, 2010

Blockbuster tells Hollywood studios it's preparing for mid-September bankruptcy | Company Town | Los Angeles Times

According to the story Blockbuster is looking to close between 500 and 800 stores as part of the bankruptcy.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by quiet walker

"After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month, according to people who have been briefed on the matter."
L.A. Times
August 26, 2010

Blockbuster tells Hollywood studios it's preparing for mid-September bankruptcy | Company Town | Los Angeles Times

According to the story Blockbuster is looking to close between 500 and 800 stores as part of the bankruptcy.

I am neither surprised nor sympathetic.
One of my happiest days was discovering Netflix.
My experience as a Blockbuster customer was dismal at best. Nobody in upper management cared, and that's how it all trickled down--then trickled away.

[eevee]

I called it months go. the writing has been on the wall for years. good riddance to poor selection, poor customer service, and BS late fees

[h152cc2]

I used to work at blockbuster. Their movies in the mail thing used to come directly from their blockbuster stores-- at the end of the night we would get a list for movies to ship directly from our store to particular addresses. This might have changed, because that was about 7 years ago-- but that's how it initially worked. I really enjoyed my job there... But anyway...

Netflix is great-- I signed up for it last month. I really love being able to stream movies / tv right from my wii console. It is like having a movie store right in your living room. I really think instantly streaming movies will be the future of "renting."

[Giesela]

Netflix really is slick and a great business model for other businesses. Pick 1 thing, do it really well, don't expand to fast or get all frilly. Keep adding quality to the 1 thing you do, keep costs moderate. Expand into the next thing slowly and evenly.
My 86 year old mother isn't housebound but almost. She is very cheap and won't spend the money for a big Dish package (she lives outside a small town).
I signed up for Netflix 3 at a time unlimited and pick her queue. Its not that expensive for the amount of movies she watches. Of course I tell her it is much cheaper As an older woman with older values and lots of opinions they have a good size selection that allows me to send her stuff (I live 4 hours away) - although honestly this is still hard - she's very hard to shop for. Blockbuster just didn't have the selection of Netflix. I never got beyond that and they didn't have a blockbuster in her small town anyway.
I'm so grateful to have this service and have such a good one. It really helps her and the funny thing is she sometimes doesn't really understand that I'm the one picking the movies. She'll talk about "them" not sending her movies lately she likes, or "they" sent something great. Once I think she sent them a letter telling "them" what she liked and they sent it! I figure she told me too and it was coincidence.
The other unintended thing is since she doesn't know what she's getting - there is a little bit of the thrill of suspense since she doesn't know what she's getting.
More than the OP's question.
I think Blockbuster was great in its day. And I think they tried to continue to support their communities with brick and mortar as a service that just couldn't compete with online and cable. Sort of sad actually. Then they just didn't tranistion to online, hard to beat Netflix.
I think they should have tried to get into the cable on demand market frankly. That still leaves a lot to be desired, they could have cornered that market maybe. I don't have the equipment for streaming from Netflix and a lot of people dont - so there is a market for cable ondemand.
For lower economic classes in smaller or rural towns a brick and mortar video store really is still a godsend. But its hard for them to make money.
I think it would be interesting if the B&M stores could order for people who don't have computers and can't keep that volume of inventory of the shelves. That would be an interesting business model.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by Giesela

Netflix really is slick and a great business model for other businesses. Pick 1 thing, do it really well, don't expand to fast or get all frilly. Keep adding quality to the 1 thing you do, keep costs moderate. Expand into the next thing slowly and evenly.
My 86 year old mother isn't housebound but almost. She is very cheap and won't spend the money for a big Dish package (she lives outside a small town).
I signed up for Netflix 3 at a time unlimited and pick her queue. Its not that expensive for the amount of movies she watches. Of course I tell her it is much cheaper As an older woman with older values and lots of opinions they have a good size selection that allows me to send her stuff (I live 4 hours away) - although honestly this is still hard - she's very hard to shop for. Blockbuster just didn't have the selection of Netflix. I never got beyond that and they didn't have a blockbuster in her small town anyway.
I'm so grateful to have this service and have such a good one. It really helps her and the funny thing is she sometimes doesn't really understand that I'm the one picking the movies. She'll talk about "them" not sending her movies lately she likes, or "they" sent something great. Once I think she sent them a letter telling "them" what she liked and they sent it! I figure she told me too and it was coincidence.
The other unintended thing is since she doesn't know what she's getting - there is a little bit of the thrill of suspense since she doesn't know what she's getting.
More than the OP's question.
I think Blockbuster was great in its day. And I think they tried to continue to support their communities with brick and mortar as a service that just couldn't compete with online and cable. Sort of sad actually. Then they just didn't tranistion to online, hard to beat Netflix.
I think they should have tried to get into the cable on demand market frankly. That still leaves a lot to be desired, they could have cornered that market maybe. I don't have the equipment for streaming from Netflix and a lot of people dont - so there is a market for cable ondemand.
For lower economic classes in smaller or rural towns a brick and mortar video store really is still a godsend. But its hard for them to make money.
I think it would be interesting if the B&M stores could order for people who don't have computers and can't keep that volume of inventory of the shelves. That would be an interesting business model.

Very good points, Giesela, esp about lower economic folks.
And I liked hearing about Netflix and your mom.
I think Blockbuster would have done better if they had been more forward-thinking. Blockbuster's greatness was very short-lived. It just seemed to me that their attitude was neither progressive nor personalized. Basically the opposite of Netflix.

[IndigoLight]

Originally Posted by BlueWillowPlate

I think Blockbuster would have done better if they had been more forward-thinking. Blockbuster's greatness was very short-lived. It just seemed to me that their attitude was neither progressive nor personalized. Basically the opposite of Netflix.

In our city (and I suspect everywhere else) Blockbuster's main attitude was "kill the competitor".
I remember the "wars" between them and competition, it didn't stop until all non-Blockbuster stores were squeezed out of business, and then Blockbuster raised their rental prices. So what they've gotten at the end is fair. What goes around comes around.

[JSizzle225]

I tried them both; and Netflix >> Blockbuster

Here is why:
Cheaper
Faster to get DVDs
The Streaming
Seems like they have more Selection and more DVDs

I hope that they stream new movies faster, but I think the reason why not, is not to step on the toes of ON DEMAND.

[Debsi]

Netflix must really love me.. I'm the ideal customer. I don't stream anything (I don't like to watch movies on the computer) and I tend to keep my movies for at least 8-9 days as I'm a huge nerd and like to watch all the directors commentaries and extras and then maybe watch the movie again after I've gotten insight from said extras.

[Middle School Mustache]

Originally Posted by JSizzle225

I tried them both; and Netflix >> Blockbuster

Here is why:
Cheaper
Faster to get DVDs
The Streaming
Seems like they have more Selection and more DVDs

I hope that they stream new movies faster, but I think the reason why not, is not to step on the toes of ON DEMAND.

They will also ship on Saturdays instead of waiting until Monday like BB does.

Netflix>>Blockbuster.