Bye Bye Blockbuster

[Inazuma]

I'm surprised. There are still Blockbusters left to close? You'd think they would have gone out of business 5 years ago. Well, I guess there are still some old people who haven't gotten the internet yet. Sucks for Blockbuster but what can you do? They didn't evolve with technology fast enough so now they are paying for it. And thanks to Netflix taking control of the market, they are pretty much fucked completely.

Bye bye Blockbuster. You won't be missed. Well, not by anyone under the age of 45 at least.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I'm surprised. There are still Blockbusters left to close? You'd think they would have gone out of business 5 years ago. Well, I guess there are still some old people who haven't gotten the internet yet. Sucks for Blockbuster but what can you do? They didn't evolve with technology fast enough so now they are paying for it. And thanks to Netflix taking control of the market, they are pretty much fucked completely.

Bye bye Blockbuster. You won't be missed. Well, not by anyone under the age of 45 at least.

Why are you so cynical?

I actually quite like Blockbuster, not really for the customer service but for the convenience. Netflix = Rent then wait a day or two for the movie or Rent and then see a grainy Flash Player version of the movie while you wait for the DVD to arrive. On the other hand Blockbuster and other brick and mortar stores allow you the convenience of a large selection of movies all in high quality DVD or Blu-Ray versions that can be rented and seen as soon as you get home, sure it's not a massive selection like Netflix as there's only so much room on store shelves, but I'd be willing to drive 5-10 minutes 3-5 miles away and spend the time to get what I want right now.

[Dylan]

My friend can get Netflix on Tivo, so why can't I get Netflix on my computer? They better be working on that.

[Inazuma]

I'm surprised. There are still Blockbusters left to close? You'd think they would have gone out of business 5 years ago. Well, I guess there are still some old people who haven't gotten the internet yet. Sucks for Blockbuster but what can you do? They didn't evolve with technology fast enough so now they are paying for it. And thanks to Netflix taking control of the market, they are pretty much fucked completely.

Bye bye Blockbuster. You won't be missed. Well, not by anyone under the age of 45 at least.

Why are you so cynical?

I actually quite like Blockbuster, not really for the customer service but for the convenience. Netflix = Rent then wait a day or two for the movie or Rent and then see a grainy Flash Player version of the movie while you wait for the DVD to arrive. On the other hand Blockbuster and other brick and mortar stores allow you the convenience of a large selection of movies all in high quality DVD or Blu-Ray versions that can be rented and seen as soon as you get home, sure it's not a massive selection like Netflix as there's only so much room on store shelves, but I'd be willing to drive 5-10 minutes 3-5 miles away and spend the time to get what I want right now.

I like to just tell it like it is. Blunt honesty and hard facts. The main reason Blockbuster is suffering so much now is because of the internet.

If you want to decide on a whim to watch a movie, you are right about the video store being the faster way to do it (compared to Netflix at least). But step back and look at the big picture. What happens when you finish watching that video? You have to drive back to the store and return it. If you watch a lot of movies, it would be cheaper and overall more convenient to use Netflix and do it through mail. Or if you are like me, you have hundreds of gigs of unwatched TV shows on your hard drive. Why would I ever consider going to the video store? What a pain in the ass that would be. While there are indeed some people who still visit the local video store, between the internet and Netflix, there just aren't as many of you as there used to be.

Mod Man, do you read the newspaper too? Know anyone who does that's under the age of 45?

[dsheinem]

Mod Man, do you read the newspaper too? Know anyone who does that's under the age of 45?

I do, every damn day. I get a yearly subscription.

For me, there isn't any good local coverage on the web, and nothing substantive on TV. Unless you live in a major metropolitan area the newspaper is still the best bet to find out what's going on in your area. If a sex offender gets arrested next door or if the teachers at my local school go on strike, it probably won't make Google News, Drudge Report, the NYT.com , CNN.com, etc. - so the web offers me nothing for local news.

[Inazuma]

Mod Man, do you read the newspaper too? Know anyone who does that's under the age of 45?

I do, every damn day. I get a yearly subscription.

For me, there isn't any good local coverage on the web, and nothing substantive on TV. Unless you live in a major metropolitan area the newspaper is still the best bet to find out what's going on in your area. If a sex offender gets arrested next door or if the teachers at my local school go on strike, it probably won't make Google News, Drudge Report, the NYT.com , CNN.com, etc. - so the web offers me nothing for local news.

Hey, that's fine but you gotta admit it's unusual. How old are you anyway?

[dsheinem]

Mod Man, do you read the newspaper too? Know anyone who does that's under the age of 45?

I do, every damn day. I get a yearly subscription.

For me, there isn't any good local coverage on the web, and nothing substantive on TV. Unless you live in a major metropolitan area the newspaper is still the best bet to find out what's going on in your area. If a sex offender gets arrested next door or if the teachers at my local school go on strike, it probably won't make Google News, Drudge Report, the NYT.com , CNN.com, etc. - so the web offers me nothing for local news.

Hey, that's fine but you gotta admit it's unusual. How old are you anyway?

29...that reminds me maybe I should update my profile!

Any yes, my reading the paper is unusual compared to national/world trends - especially for my demographic. And yes, my local paper does have a website but you have to pay almost the same as an annual delivery subscription to access any of the content on it. For me, I get this access for free with my annual delivery subscription. So if I don't read the paper at home in the morning, I can look at it online later. I think it is a pretty good model for other local papers too, as they won't lose readers due to the web and thus have to close up shop.

Obviously newspapers are dying. I don't celebrate this, though, as we are losing more and more trained journalists in favor of media consolidation, blogging, etc. In many cases, new media journalism just doesn't produce an intellectual or professional equivalent to what has traditionally appeared in print.

Just part of our continual slide towards Idiocracy, I suppose.

[Xonticus]

The Onion called it a long time ago.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/h ... ore_offers

That's great - but nothing tops their eerily predictive story from January 2001

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784

Whoa..... seriously I am quite shocked over its accuracy..........

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Mod Man, do you read the newspaper too? Know anyone who does that's under the age of 45?

I do, every damn day. I get a yearly subscription.

For me, there isn't any good local coverage on the web, and nothing substantive on TV. Unless you live in a major metropolitan area the newspaper is still the best bet to find out what's going on in your area. If a sex offender gets arrested next door or if the teachers at my local school go on strike, it probably won't make Google News, Drudge Report, the NYT.com , CNN.com, etc. - so the web offers me nothing for local news.

Hey, that's fine but you gotta admit it's unusual. How old are you anyway?

29...that reminds me maybe I should update my profile!

Any yes, my reading the paper is unusual compared to national/world trends - especially for my demographic. And yes, my local paper does have a website but you have to pay almost the same as an annual delivery subscription to access any of the content on it. For me, I get this access for free with my annual delivery subscription. So if I don't read the paper at home in the morning, I can look at it online later. I think it is a pretty good model for other local papers too, as they won't lose readers due to the web and thus have to close up shop.

Obviously newspapers are dying. I don't celebrate this, though, as we are losing more and more trained journalists in favor of media consolidation, blogging, etc. In many cases, new media journalism just doesn't produce an intellectual or professional equivalent to what has traditionally appeared in print.

Just part of our continual slide towards Idiocracy, I suppose.

I completely agree, now given the fact that I'm 17 I don't always have a chance to read or any money to by the paper but when I do I usually find the journalistic quality and merit to be of a much higher standard than some website or a blog. Plus there's just something about the look, feel, smell, fun with Silly Putty imprints and comics that makes the newspaper something I just don't want to see disappear.

[Hobie-wan]

Yeah, here's the story I saw on Consumerist yesterday. Oh well. I think I last rented from BB about 9 years ago. At the time they gave me crap about several days late fee for something that I'd dropped in the night box months before. I'd like to know how it could have been several days late unless some lazy employee didn't clean out the drop box.

Ah well, never have needed or wanted to rent something since then. Got free rentals from an anime store when I was working there and otherwise someone always owns whatever we plan to watch or whatnot.