LinkA Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon, will become the world’s last outpost of the once-booming video rental chain later this month when a store in Perth, Australia closes its doors.
Located in the Perth suburb of Morley, Australia’s last Blockbuster store will begin a going-out-of-business sale on March 8 and close for good at the end of the month, the Australian Associated Press reported. The store’s owners attributed its downfall to the arrival of Netflix and other streaming services in the Australian market.
The Blockbuster in Bend became the last U.S. location of the bankrupt chain with the closure of two stores in Alaska last summer. Now, it will be the last Blockbuster store in existence on Earth.
“I had no idea,” Sandi Harding, general manager of the Blockbuster store in Bend, told local newspaper The Bulletin Opens a New Window. when asked about the Australian store’s closure. “I wondered which one of us was going to hold out the longest.”
A dominant brand during the late 1980s and 1990s, Blockbuster once had more than 9,000 stores in operation. The chain shut down its last corporate-owned stores in 2014, but some franchisees have remained operational in the years since.
The rise of Netflix, which instantly streams movies and television shows to its base of nearly 150 million paid subscribers, has rendered physical video rentals obsolete. Other competitors in the burgeoning space include Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.
Harding told The Bulletin that her Blockbuster store is still a solid business and has become a tourist attraction, drawing visitors from around the world.
“We probably open up 10 accounts a day,” Harding told the newspaper. “It’s crazy the amount of people that come in and want a Blockbuster card.”
There's only one Blockbuster left in the world - One too many imo
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- Registrado
- 11 de Jun, 2014
I'd honestly still rent from Blockbuster if it were an option (outside of Bend, Oregon, I mean).
Netflix doesn't have nearly everything I want to watch. I think that even if I also subscribed to Crave and Prime and whatever other options are available in Canada, I still wouldn't have access to every movie. Not that a Blockbuster could carry every movie either, but at least they had nearly every theatrical release from the previous couple of years plus a decent cross-section of older films.
Netflix doesn't have nearly everything I want to watch. I think that even if I also subscribed to Crave and Prime and whatever other options are available in Canada, I still wouldn't have access to every movie. Not that a Blockbuster could carry every movie either, but at least they had nearly every theatrical release from the previous couple of years plus a decent cross-section of older films.
- Registrado
- 6 de Oct, 2018
If we all banded together and paid our exorbinant late fees, Blockbuster would become a superpower again.
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid
This will all end in tears, I just know it.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Registrado
- 24 de Feb, 2015
Don't ever bother with Prime, it's worthless and all you get from it are foreign films, low budget crap, indie crap and Twilight Zone episodes. If it's worth actual money, Prime won't get it for you. I say this in full earnest when I say that Red Box, Hulu and VRV are better choices than Amazon Prime.
- Registrado
- 30 de Jul, 2016
Getting old sucks.
Plunkie
kiwifarms.net
- Registrado
- 19 de Dic, 2017
DVDs also had all the additional content attached, unlike Netflix. I would have definitely liked one down here because the internet is so laughably shit.
Redbox can suck a dick though
- Registrado
- 30 de Jul, 2016
Also, out of curiosity, is Family Video a thing outside the Midwest? We have like four in my hometown and I'm shocked that they manage to stay in business.
- Registrado
- 11 de Jun, 2014
I'm not sure about VRV but Red Box didn't last long in Canada and Hulu's never been available here (well, not without a better VPN than the freebie one I use).
- Registrado
- 2 de Oct, 2018
I miss cast/director commentaries.
- Registrado
- 19 de Feb, 2018
I think I'm probably still listed at a Blockbuster Kids Club member.
I wonder how Kid Vid is these days.
Probably panhandling right next to Jeffrey Giraffe.
I wonder how Kid Vid is these days.
Probably panhandling right next to Jeffrey Giraffe.
- Registrado
- 6 de Mar, 2017
It's present on the east coast. Thank goodness for them, too. I can get discs resurfaced cheap.
The one I'm familiar with has a pizza place attached, though, and I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason they're still around.
- Registrado
- 28 de Nov, 2018
Didn't they still have a couple of these in Alaska though?
R
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kiwifarms.net
they should run a special on renting highlander: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqcLjcSloXs
- Registrado
- 11 de Jun, 2014
I like the emphasis that it's the last one "in existence on earth," there may still be some outside earth, who knows.
- Registrado
- 11 de Jun, 2014
- Registrado
- 19 de Feb, 2018
Of course that asshole always has his 'qickening' episodes on somebody else's property.
Fucking prick.
- Registrado
- 9 de Mar, 2014
No joke, that's part of the reason I stopped pirating movies.
Commentaries are fucking amazing to have on while I do my workouts.
I get the gains, in both my body, and in my film knowledge.
