Blockbuster

[Michael McLaughlin]

Gavin they tried...

Gavin they tried...

http://www.slashfood.com/2010/04/20/self-serve-fast-food/


I once was on a job with a guy that had worked at that automated
fastfood restaurant (mcdonalds or wendys or something) in LA. He said
it was just him in the back, this huge machine run buy computer by employees that were in India.

Basically when you drove up, you talked like any other drive thru, but the person on the other end of the microphone was working in India. The machines got the order from the guy in india, prepared and spit it out when you paid.

His job was to make sure it ran correct. Obviously it didn't.

 

[Mark Allen]

Mark, I agree, but I really don't know what they could do to their retail stores to draw people. ...[edit edit edit]... Let alone anyone even parking near it in the lot, except for overflow from the adjacent Papa Johns pizza or Wendy's.

People will always need somewhere to go. Somewhere to leave home. The original Blockbuster (and small now forgotten independent video stores it put out of business) was modeled o the idea of bringing the movie theater into the home. It's quite clear the iTunes/netflix online/hulu will be the future answer to that. They could have owned that market if they stuck with their premise and evolved, but they didn't so - now they're stuck with a whole lot of real estate and a brand name association with movies.

They could add a state of the art theater to their "stores" and reduce the store portion to just the lobby area. They could do some type of dinner and a movie type of thing (again, becoming more of a theatrical thing, but the idea being now they are bringing movies back into being a social experience. They could, of course, expand into offering home theater sales - since they ar so associate with home theater purchasers already and peole who do go there would be drawn into seeing the latest and greatest TV technology every time they went there.

They could go behind the scenes a bit and try to get in on the trend of user content. I can't tell you how many people I hear talking about wanting to go to some kind of film school or learn how things work... They are located all over the country and could offer courses for these people.

I could go on and on, but all these ideas are basically just waxing on the idea of what can you do with such a strong brand name before it expires from awareness and significance.

 

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

WHY would someone drive/walk to a video store, look for a movie that possibly is sold out, hope that it is not scratched and plays properly, watch it and then have to return it or pay fines? It's 2010. All of Blockbuster's new releases are available whenever I want on my cable box, my computer, my PS3 and my AppleTV.

- Maybe I want to have a browse of what blu-ray discs are available
- Maybe I want to watch the extras + audio commentary as well
- It gets me out of the house
- Maybe my only alternatives are 480p itunes which is potentially more expensive and gives me a 2 hour wait when I can walk to the video store and back in that time.

I used to have a video store 2 - 5 min walk from my house with weekly dvds for $1 each, that was a pretty good reason to go rental instead of download.

There are many good reasons to go to a store to rent a movie, I don't know about blockbuster video cause apparently that place is shit but rental stores? yeah theres a reason.

 

[Brian Petrie]

I use mainly Redbox because you can't beat it for a buck. Not to mention, there are about 5 locations within a mile of my house and being able to return them to any location is a plus. However, Blockbuster has started putting rental kiosks in every store near my house which didn't have a Redbox and even replaced the Redbox at one location. They were smart enough though that they started a new corporation for "Blockbuster Express" so that their bankruptcy would not disrupt this venture.