Posted on 01/22/2013 9:40:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Dish Network Corp plans to close 300 Blockbuster stores in the United States in the coming weeks and could lay off as many as 3,000 employees, a move that comes days after the DVD rental firm's UK unit went into administration.
Dish is trying to shed unprofitable Blockbuster outlets as online retailers like Amazon.Com Inc and download sites like Apple Inc's iTunes eat away at Blockbuster's business model. The potential job cuts represent about 40 percent of Blockbuster's U.S. workforce of 7,300 people.
"We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand and we will continue to analyze store-level profitability and, as we have in the past, close unprofitable stores," Dish said in a statement. The company did not disclose the locations of the store closings.
Some of the 300 stores are reaching the end of their leases and others are being closed based on overall performance...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Blockbuster has been on the wane for ages.
I didn’t even know they still had blockbusters around. Where I live they shut those 6 area stores down years ago
Some business models stand the test of time........some don’t. Not a whole lot of horse drawn buggy manufacturers around anymore.
Next thing to go will be West Coast Video.
Before long, they will claim that Betamax is dead.
bump
Not surprising. As others have mentioned, Blockbuster’s business model is just not cutting it anymore. Between online/on-demand services low overhead competitors like Redbox, there’s just not a lot of reason to go to a Blockbuster anymore. A local place might be able to survive by finding a niche - rare/foreign films for the cult classic-minded, for example - but I just don’t see that being enough of a draw to keep BB afloat. I doubt it will still be in business, at least in its present form, in five years (if that).
I know a guy who was a programmer for a new system they were going to have where they could rent and return DVDs by mail, just like Netflix, only before Netflix existed. They cancelled the project after it was finished.
As far as selling it from a brick and mortar store front.
Hell, Amazon now has a deal when you buy a CD they will automatically upload a hi res copy to your free Amazon Cloud account and it doesn't count towards your storage limit. How is Blockbuster going to compete with such without a huge influx of cash for Cloud servers and such?
Stick a fork in them, they are done!
Good. The more businesses that go under, the more people lose their jobs. The more government will try to “help” and the faster it will collapse.
Anarchy, despair and pain is about the only thing left to reverse this turn to the dark side.
Go ahead, flame away. I don’t care any longer. Republicans are useless at every level. Democrats are getting cocky so let them overreach.
But since the majority doesn’t care as long as they have crap to watch on TV, why should I?
I’ll just use my copies of the Constitution as fuel to warm the house.
Great. More Obama dependents.
Great. More Obama dependents.
Great. More Obama dependents.
Great. More Obama dependents.
None where I live anymore either. I saw one recently while traveling on business and it was like seeing a ghost from the past. It made me think about how going to the video store just isn’t part of my life anymore, even though it had been for decades.
And it's 1-2-3 what are we working for, don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is uncle sam's program...
Can’t say that I’ll miss them...I remember them in the late 80s and 90s....they were ripping people off left and right with their rental charges, overcharges and outrageous costs for lost movies...good riddance to them.
3,000 customers affected as well.
Love that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.