Blockbuster Inc. said in a regulatory filing late Tuesday that the company was suffering “significant liquidity constraints” and could have to file for bankruptcy protection due to competition from DVD-by-mail company Netflix inc. and DVD vending machines operated by Coinstar Inc., according to the Associated Press. Shares of Blockbuster dropped 30 percent Wednesday after the announcement. Blockbuster has had to close down 1,300 stores and is looking to close hundreds more.
Mar 18
2010
06:20 AM ET
Blockbuster may file for bankruptcy
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Kind of sad, kind of expected. I only use Blockbuster to rent games because GameFly sucks and NetFlix doesn’t offer it. I might rent a movie from Blockbuster from time to time if NetFlix has one of their infamous “long wait”‘s on new releases.
A few years ago there were 3 video stores in our little town, now the last one standing,a Hollywood Video is closing. There is a Blockbuster in the nearby city, but I’m afraid its days may be numbered. My son tried using the DVD vending machine in the town closest to ours, but it didn’t work,and my sister said that when she has rented from the vending machine near her house, the DVDs often are defective. I hope at least one of the video stores could stay open, because I enjoy going to the stores and besides getting new releases I like to look through older movies I have never seen, as well as rent old favorites. The worst part of the situation is all the employees who will lose their jobs, even if for most of them it is a part-time job, a part-time job is better than no job. I’m hoping the economy will improve and we’ll see businesses opening instead closing.
I am old enough to remember the mom and pop video rental stores that predate Blockbuster, and I remember how the video giant steamrolled over them without mercy. Poetic justice that now the Netflixes of the world are pulverizing the chain…
Well, it’s not as if they made themselves competitive. Both the Blockbusters in my area closed late last year due to both Redbox and having higher rental fees & shorter rental times than the other video store in town. Their online service couldn’t get movies to people as quickly as Netflix and they had a *much* smaller selection than Netflix.