7 ms·

It's sort of bizarre that an entrenched, widely despised corporate behemoth thoroughly deserving its own demise has turned into an anachronistic mom-and-pop sho

It's sort of bizarre that an entrenched, widely despised corporate behemoth thoroughly deserving its own demise has turned into an anachronistic mom-and-pop shop that just gets by. But isn't this the worst of both worlds? It's dystopian nostalgia. Maybe I just have too much of a grudge against the 1980's...

karaterobot 4y ago
Yeah, ironic because Blockbuster is what killed off the mom and pop stores it now stands in for in our collective memory of the 90s. I actually liked our local Blockbuster, and have fond memories of it, but only because it was run by the same employees from the independent video store it drove out of business. I liked that one even better.
- artificial 4y ago
  This reminds me of smaller bookstores prior to the era of Borders and Barnes and Noble dominance. pours one out
  - legitster 4y ago
    Smaller bookstores are actually doing pretty okay these days: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/02/18/indie-bookstores-comeback https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/02/18/indie-bookstores-com... Mostly because Amazon decimated corporate chains, which freed up more market for independent stores.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      Though independents are still a pretty niche business. Around where I am there are certainly far fewer of them than there were before the big chains became dominant.
      - legitster 4y ago
        I don't know. I'm in a pretty redneck county and even here there are dozen independent bookstores. Most of them are tied to a coffeeshop though. But if you check your local map you might be surprised.
        pessimizer 4y ago
        Even the article said there were 10-15 bookstores in a place that had 35 of them in the 70s.
  - bluedino 4y ago
    How are they still in business, by the way? It seemed like they were just a Starbucks location with a ton of overhead, I thought we'd seen the last of them when pandemic shut everything down. I loved B&N by the way, more computer-related books than WaldenBooks, but not as many as Borders.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      Because "Starbucks with overhead" is a surprisingly effective business model apparently; though if you go into one you'll notice that there are a lot more chotchkeys for sale near the front of the store (even LEGO lol).
    - munificent 4y ago
      > How are they still in business, by the way? They've broadened out into being general "gift stores". My local Barnes and Noble has a large toys section (mostly LEGO and educational stuff), board games, puzzles, music (lots of vinyl), stationery (fancy journals). It's essentially "stuff introverts like" in a nice space.
    - jabroni_salad 4y ago
      Around the time of the pandemic they implemented a strategic change to have local management arrange the store rather than auctioning shelf placement to publishers like most other retailers do. This has actually made B&N pretty nice to browse compared to a few years ago.
- legitster 4y ago
  > Blockbuster is what killed off the mom and pop stores Is there a source for this? Usually, both rise and fall together with consumer demand. When I grew up, Blockbuster was one of a dozen options in town. As an example, there are more independent coffee shops today than before Starbucks expanded.
  - LegitShady 4y ago
    the wikipedia article for blockbuster contains a quote/source about this (search it for "mom and pop") but the citation no longer exists due to link rot. essentially blockbuster operated at larger scales than many small video businesses and so had smaller unit costs while also having more selection.
  - omar_alt 4y ago
    I distinctively remember around 1994 two family run stores in the UK town I grew up in disappearing and the reason was the same, Blockbuster. I didn’t play games much but I recall them also renting out Japanese nintendo games and also sold the necessary cartridge converters to play Starfox.
    - ars 4y ago
      > the reason was the same, Blockbuster. The "name" of the reason might be Blockbuster, but the actual reason was that Blockbuster had a larger selection. Those mom and pop stores were really small, so if you wanted something else you had to go to Blockbuster anyway, so why bother dealing with more than one store even for the stuff they had? Just get everything at Blockbuster. It's the same with retail stores - I don't go to the small stores, even if they might have what I want - why should I? I can go to the larger store and get everything and not have to think about it.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Starbucks grew the "expensive coffee" market, and so independents had a niche to slip into (expensive, but not Starbucks) - Blockbuster did nothing to grow the "rental movie" market, and a given market in an area is roughly limited to the number of houses in said market. People drink less office/gas station coffee than they used to, and so can drink more Starbucks/independent coffee. The same didn't happen to the mom and pop video rental places (though the ones that survived blockbuster, usually by being in a market too small to support a Blockbuster, often outlived them (the one near me closed a few years ago finally)).
- causi 4y ago
  I loved when Blockbuster came to town because it cut the price of rentals by two thirds. I was not a wealthy child and being able to rent a game every few weeks was way better than every couple of months.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  The local video rental proprietor told me when she was closing up for good was that Netflix destroyed her business.
  - mikeocool 4y ago
    Anecdotally, I recall a brief moment in the late 2000's where the mom and pop shops had a bit of resurgence (or at least a stay on their execution) -- when Netflix DVD's by mail had put most Block Busters out of business, but before every movie was readily available on streaming services. If it was Friday night, and you'd just sent back your netflix disc -- or you were looking to watch something that wasn't at the top of your queue, the mom and pop video rental place was your only option. At least in NYC, it seemed like this kept those places going a little but longer than anyone would have guessed when Block Buster was still around. Though once streaming became prevalent they all disappeared pretty quickly.
    - rhino369 4y ago
      NYC probably had more indie rental stores around just because of the population density. In my suburb, Blockbuster had already wiped them out in the 90's.
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      Feels like even without streaming or even Netflix’s original DVD-by-mail delivery service, Redbox could’ve eaten brick and mortar movie rental stores.
      - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
        I don't recall Redbox existing, at least in my area, during that time.
        WalterBright 4y ago
        This was before Netflix streaming, when Netflix was just dvds.
- fundad 4y ago
  How is that ironic? Memories of the 90’s woupd be all about the demise of mom and pop shops and generally flattening the character of US cities and towns (see also Starbucks). It’s more discomforting than ironic.
Dig1t 4y ago
I grew up in the 90's and have nothing but warm fuzzy memories of renting a movie on Friday night and watching in the living room with my family, eating popcorn and candy. I think there's probably a lot of people who have that from their childhood.
- corrral 4y ago
  That part was great. Getting charged late fees because you didn't have it back at 8:00AM sharp (or whatever) sucked.
  - hinkley 4y ago
    They also had quite a markup on those snacks. Not movie theater levels, but a lot higher than the convenience store.
    - nend 4y ago
      I don't really view that as evil though, just basic market dynamics. Similarly, CVS sells cheerios for $7 a box. I don't think CVS is evil, sometimes I'm just lazy.
      - hinkley 4y ago
        Convenience stores also generally have a markup versus grocery stores. That they had a markup above that was always a bit questionable. My recollection is that over time they switched to some more niche candies, things you couldn't necessarily find down the street and so the apples-to-oranges problem gave them a bit of an excuse.
      - chihuahua 4y ago
        I totally agree with you, but there are people who refuse to see it that way. If there was an ice cream cart at the bottom of the Grand Canyon selling a scoop of ice cream for $10, some people would be outraged. Never mind that it's a remote location, it's very difficult to supply ice cream there, it's incredibly convenient to be able to buy ice cream there, etc. For Blockbuster selling snacks, no one is under any pressure to buy snacks there. If you're really pressed for time or don't want to drive to another store for snacks, then maybe the ludicrously high price is worth it. If it's not worth it to you at that moment, then don't buy there. It's only bad if there's a monopoly or some other form of coercion involved, which is clearly not the case for Blockbuster selling snacks. And yet, to some people, it proves that Blockbuster is the devil...
mikkergp 4y ago
Since I'm obsessed with the recent 80's resurgence(acknowledging that this reflection of the 1980's is much more polished than the original) I'm curious, what's your grudge against the 1980's?
rubyn00bie 4y ago
Yeah I personally hated blockbuster because they sent me to collections over like $9 in late fees I didn’t know I had. People have fond memories but I have nearly none of video rentals. Long lines, poor selection, and over priced… along with bullshit “late fees,” I can say I am happy they failed. Truly video rental stores were not great, and I dunno why people remember them like they were.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Mostly rose-colored glasses nostalgia probably. Being able to rent a movie whenever[0] you wanted to and watch it at home was extremely transformative in a way that someone who grew up with streaming (not you I realize) would find difficult to appreciate. A lot of movies weren't even purchasable as a practical matter (priced to rent) at the time. [0] Well, if they had it and it was in stock.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    They'd even rent VCRs and DVD players, which was a big deal early on when they were multiple hundreds of dollars.
    - amyjess 4y ago
      They'd rent video game consoles too. Speaking of which, I miss video game rentals. I spent so much time as akid at Blockbuster looking for games to rent. Even now, I'd like to be able to play with a game for a few days before committing to paying for the whole game. (and of course, I say this with a hundred unplayed games in my Steam library...)
      - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
        Before video rental stores, we rented a film projector at the public library and movies on reel-to-reel film. Small selection of old stuff like Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, etc.
      - bombcar 4y ago
overthemoon 4y ago
It is weird. I think it's a stand-in for nostalgia for lost media formats and the experience they engendered. I have a lot of fuzzy feelings about it, because it was an event on Friday when my parents would take us there, or my dad would stop by after work and get movies or video games. I would just about shit myself when he finally got a copy of Super Mario All-Stars or Earthbound. When I was a little older it was close enough that I could ride my bike there. But for me, it's not really about Blockbuster. It's about the format of home video. All the ritual, the excitement surrounding a new release that everyone wanted, sitting down to watch it together. It's about the object of video, the thing you can hold, and is similar to why I like to collect vinyl. I like the artifact in and of itself, along with what's encoded on it.
_fat_santa 4y ago
The way I see it, there are really two Blockbusters. One is an evil corporate behemoth, the other is the neighborhood video store that lives on in our memories. These guys aren't keeping Blockbuster running so much as they are keeping the nostalgic memory of it going. TBH I'm a bit surprised no one has tried to buy the Blockbuster brand from Dish and restart the company. I feel like you could effectively run one much like a comic book store, there's always a niche that will patronize the business.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Double so since something like Redbox could have definitely used the brand.
  - mxuribe 4y ago
    They could have bought the Blockbuster brand, and combined it into a gawdy 80s style amalgamam of purple (you know, blue plus red)...and called it something like BoxBuster! And beyond dvd rentals, sell Roku devices. But, alas! ;-)
- causi 4y ago
  I don't purchase movies anymore but I could see myself going to a store to rent a 4K blu-ray to get the commentary tracks. Those are hard to come by online.
  - registeredcorn 4y ago
    That's one of the things that kills me about present day distribution. There is such a massive hole in not getting to hear from the creators the way you could with DVDs. Shows like The Simpsons, etc. have offered a massive amount of information presented through commentary, that wouldn't otherwise be known.
    - causi 4y ago
      When I was a kid I'd watch Futurama on DVD with commentary and think "Wow I bet one day I'll be able to pause any movie and click on anything and get all the info about it." I can't believe we went the opposite direction.
rco8786 4y ago
> widely despised Wait? It was? I grew up through the 90s and have nothing but fond memories of Blockbuster
pmarreck 4y ago
The 80's will always love you

karaterobot 4y ago

Yeah, ironic because Blockbuster is what killed off the mom and pop stores it now stands in for in our collective memory of the 90s. I actually liked our local Blockbuster, and have fond memories of it, but only because it was run by the same employees from the independent video store it drove out of business. I liked that one even better.

artificial 4y ago
This reminds me of smaller bookstores prior to the era of Borders and Barnes and Noble dominance. pours one out
- legitster 4y ago
  Smaller bookstores are actually doing pretty okay these days: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/02/18/indie-bookstores-comeback https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/02/18/indie-bookstores-com... Mostly because Amazon decimated corporate chains, which freed up more market for independent stores.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Though independents are still a pretty niche business. Around where I am there are certainly far fewer of them than there were before the big chains became dominant.
    - legitster 4y ago
      I don't know. I'm in a pretty redneck county and even here there are dozen independent bookstores. Most of them are tied to a coffeeshop though. But if you check your local map you might be surprised.
      - pessimizer 4y ago
        Even the article said there were 10-15 bookstores in a place that had 35 of them in the 70s.
- bluedino 4y ago
  How are they still in business, by the way? It seemed like they were just a Starbucks location with a ton of overhead, I thought we'd seen the last of them when pandemic shut everything down. I loved B&N by the way, more computer-related books than WaldenBooks, but not as many as Borders.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Because "Starbucks with overhead" is a surprisingly effective business model apparently; though if you go into one you'll notice that there are a lot more chotchkeys for sale near the front of the store (even LEGO lol).
  - munificent 4y ago
    > How are they still in business, by the way? They've broadened out into being general "gift stores". My local Barnes and Noble has a large toys section (mostly LEGO and educational stuff), board games, puzzles, music (lots of vinyl), stationery (fancy journals). It's essentially "stuff introverts like" in a nice space.
  - jabroni_salad 4y ago
    Around the time of the pandemic they implemented a strategic change to have local management arrange the store rather than auctioning shelf placement to publishers like most other retailers do. This has actually made B&N pretty nice to browse compared to a few years ago.
legitster 4y ago
> Blockbuster is what killed off the mom and pop stores Is there a source for this? Usually, both rise and fall together with consumer demand. When I grew up, Blockbuster was one of a dozen options in town. As an example, there are more independent coffee shops today than before Starbucks expanded.
- LegitShady 4y ago
  the wikipedia article for blockbuster contains a quote/source about this (search it for "mom and pop") but the citation no longer exists due to link rot. essentially blockbuster operated at larger scales than many small video businesses and so had smaller unit costs while also having more selection.
- omar_alt 4y ago
  I distinctively remember around 1994 two family run stores in the UK town I grew up in disappearing and the reason was the same, Blockbuster. I didn’t play games much but I recall them also renting out Japanese nintendo games and also sold the necessary cartridge converters to play Starfox.
  - ars 4y ago
    > the reason was the same, Blockbuster. The "name" of the reason might be Blockbuster, but the actual reason was that Blockbuster had a larger selection. Those mom and pop stores were really small, so if you wanted something else you had to go to Blockbuster anyway, so why bother dealing with more than one store even for the stuff they had? Just get everything at Blockbuster. It's the same with retail stores - I don't go to the small stores, even if they might have what I want - why should I? I can go to the larger store and get everything and not have to think about it.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Starbucks grew the "expensive coffee" market, and so independents had a niche to slip into (expensive, but not Starbucks) - Blockbuster did nothing to grow the "rental movie" market, and a given market in an area is roughly limited to the number of houses in said market. People drink less office/gas station coffee than they used to, and so can drink more Starbucks/independent coffee. The same didn't happen to the mom and pop video rental places (though the ones that survived blockbuster, usually by being in a market too small to support a Blockbuster, often outlived them (the one near me closed a few years ago finally)).
causi 4y ago
I loved when Blockbuster came to town because it cut the price of rentals by two thirds. I was not a wealthy child and being able to rent a game every few weeks was way better than every couple of months.
WalterBright 4y ago
The local video rental proprietor told me when she was closing up for good was that Netflix destroyed her business.
- mikeocool 4y ago
  Anecdotally, I recall a brief moment in the late 2000's where the mom and pop shops had a bit of resurgence (or at least a stay on their execution) -- when Netflix DVD's by mail had put most Block Busters out of business, but before every movie was readily available on streaming services. If it was Friday night, and you'd just sent back your netflix disc -- or you were looking to watch something that wasn't at the top of your queue, the mom and pop video rental place was your only option. At least in NYC, it seemed like this kept those places going a little but longer than anyone would have guessed when Block Buster was still around. Though once streaming became prevalent they all disappeared pretty quickly.
  - rhino369 4y ago
    NYC probably had more indie rental stores around just because of the population density. In my suburb, Blockbuster had already wiped them out in the 90's.
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Feels like even without streaming or even Netflix’s original DVD-by-mail delivery service, Redbox could’ve eaten brick and mortar movie rental stores.
    - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
      I don't recall Redbox existing, at least in my area, during that time.
      - WalterBright 4y ago
        This was before Netflix streaming, when Netflix was just dvds.
fundad 4y ago
How is that ironic? Memories of the 90’s woupd be all about the demise of mom and pop shops and generally flattening the character of US cities and towns (see also Starbucks). It’s more discomforting than ironic.

Dig1t 4y ago

I grew up in the 90's and have nothing but warm fuzzy memories of renting a movie on Friday night and watching in the living room with my family, eating popcorn and candy. I think there's probably a lot of people who have that from their childhood.

corrral 4y ago
That part was great. Getting charged late fees because you didn't have it back at 8:00AM sharp (or whatever) sucked.
- hinkley 4y ago
  They also had quite a markup on those snacks. Not movie theater levels, but a lot higher than the convenience store.
  - nend 4y ago
    I don't really view that as evil though, just basic market dynamics. Similarly, CVS sells cheerios for $7 a box. I don't think CVS is evil, sometimes I'm just lazy.
    - hinkley 4y ago
      Convenience stores also generally have a markup versus grocery stores. That they had a markup above that was always a bit questionable. My recollection is that over time they switched to some more niche candies, things you couldn't necessarily find down the street and so the apples-to-oranges problem gave them a bit of an excuse.
    - chihuahua 4y ago
      I totally agree with you, but there are people who refuse to see it that way. If there was an ice cream cart at the bottom of the Grand Canyon selling a scoop of ice cream for $10, some people would be outraged. Never mind that it's a remote location, it's very difficult to supply ice cream there, it's incredibly convenient to be able to buy ice cream there, etc. For Blockbuster selling snacks, no one is under any pressure to buy snacks there. If you're really pressed for time or don't want to drive to another store for snacks, then maybe the ludicrously high price is worth it. If it's not worth it to you at that moment, then don't buy there. It's only bad if there's a monopoly or some other form of coercion involved, which is clearly not the case for Blockbuster selling snacks. And yet, to some people, it proves that Blockbuster is the devil...

mikkergp 4y ago

Since I'm obsessed with the recent 80's resurgence(acknowledging that this reflection of the 1980's is much more polished than the original) I'm curious, what's your grudge against the 1980's?

rubyn00bie 4y ago

Yeah I personally hated blockbuster because they sent me to collections over like $9 in late fees I didn’t know I had. People have fond memories but I have nearly none of video rentals. Long lines, poor selection, and over priced… along with bullshit “late fees,” I can say I am happy they failed. Truly video rental stores were not great, and I dunno why people remember them like they were.

ghaff 4y ago
Mostly rose-colored glasses nostalgia probably. Being able to rent a movie whenever[0] you wanted to and watch it at home was extremely transformative in a way that someone who grew up with streaming (not you I realize) would find difficult to appreciate. A lot of movies weren't even purchasable as a practical matter (priced to rent) at the time. [0] Well, if they had it and it was in stock.
- bombcar 4y ago
  They'd even rent VCRs and DVD players, which was a big deal early on when they were multiple hundreds of dollars.
  - amyjess 4y ago
    They'd rent video game consoles too. Speaking of which, I miss video game rentals. I spent so much time as akid at Blockbuster looking for games to rent. Even now, I'd like to be able to play with a game for a few days before committing to paying for the whole game. (and of course, I say this with a hundred unplayed games in my Steam library...)
    - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
      Before video rental stores, we rented a film projector at the public library and movies on reel-to-reel film. Small selection of old stuff like Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, etc.
    - bombcar 4y ago

overthemoon 4y ago

It is weird. I think it's a stand-in for nostalgia for lost media formats and the experience they engendered. I have a lot of fuzzy feelings about it, because it was an event on Friday when my parents would take us there, or my dad would stop by after work and get movies or video games. I would just about shit myself when he finally got a copy of Super Mario All-Stars or Earthbound. When I was a little older it was close enough that I could ride my bike there. But for me, it's not really about Blockbuster. It's about the format of home video. All the ritual, the excitement surrounding a new release that everyone wanted, sitting down to watch it together. It's about the object of video, the thing you can hold, and is similar to why I like to collect vinyl. I like the artifact in and of itself, along with what's encoded on it.

_fat_santa 4y ago

The way I see it, there are really two Blockbusters. One is an evil corporate behemoth, the other is the neighborhood video store that lives on in our memories. These guys aren't keeping Blockbuster running so much as they are keeping the nostalgic memory of it going. TBH I'm a bit surprised no one has tried to buy the Blockbuster brand from Dish and restart the company. I feel like you could effectively run one much like a comic book store, there's always a niche that will patronize the business.

bombcar 4y ago
Double so since something like Redbox could have definitely used the brand.
- mxuribe 4y ago
  They could have bought the Blockbuster brand, and combined it into a gawdy 80s style amalgamam of purple (you know, blue plus red)...and called it something like BoxBuster! And beyond dvd rentals, sell Roku devices. But, alas! ;-)
causi 4y ago
I don't purchase movies anymore but I could see myself going to a store to rent a 4K blu-ray to get the commentary tracks. Those are hard to come by online.
- registeredcorn 4y ago
  That's one of the things that kills me about present day distribution. There is such a massive hole in not getting to hear from the creators the way you could with DVDs. Shows like The Simpsons, etc. have offered a massive amount of information presented through commentary, that wouldn't otherwise be known.
  - causi 4y ago
    When I was a kid I'd watch Futurama on DVD with commentary and think "Wow I bet one day I'll be able to pause any movie and click on anything and get all the info about it." I can't believe we went the opposite direction.

rco8786 4y ago

> widely despised Wait? It was? I grew up through the 90s and have nothing but fond memories of Blockbuster

pmarreck 4y ago

The 80's will always love you