There's only one Blockbuster left in the world - One too many imo

A 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.”

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[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Either you live in a cuck country or you're really young. You've never heard of the X-Files?

Unsolved Mysteries, Boardwalk Empire and Oz. I meant it when I said half. Of course I would know the X-Files, don't sell me that Goddamn short.

 

[XYZpdq]

video store secretly was a front for heroin dealers.

One time I was wasting a Saturday checking out random indie video rental places, found one where it was clear that nobody ever rented anything and the clerk seemed confused and angry that I was looking at their videos.

 

[W00K #17]

You're right about Oz, but I liked the Greek mythology subtext throughout. The Greek angle fits with the buttsex as well, I suppose. I'd personally put The Wire and Deadwood above Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, myself, those shows are incredibly well written and acted IMO.

I really wish they hadn't cancelled deadwood when they did.

Here's to hoping that movie they talk about every few years actually gets made someday, but I doubt it.

The wire is also incredible. Well sheeeeit.

 

[sasazuka]

The Hollywood Video and the grocery store video rental place were the best. And I'm not talking some little kiosk or stand, I mean there was a whole side room in the grocery store that was a video store. Now it's the room where they place the paperback books, magazines, Hallmark cards, and similar fare.

There actually is one Your Independent Grocers store I know of that still has a large rack of movies on DVD for rent, though it's a bit far from me to want to rent from there on a regular basis. It's a supermarket that may attract a lot of rural residents who may not have the fastest Internet although there's a larger Independent, a Real Canadian Superstore, and a Sobeys not too far away, not to mention two separate Walmarts, that would probably be more attractive to out-of-towners coming in for their once or twice a month "big shops" in town, so perhaps the video rentals this smaller Independent supermarket offers is actually something that brings in a few customers.

 

[Dracula's Spirit Animal]

I really wish they hadn't cancelled deadwood when they did.

Here's to hoping that movie they talk about every few years actually gets made someday, but I doubt it.

The wire is also incredible. Well sheeeeit.

I know they had intended to do another season, but the budget for Rome killed it (Rome is also quite good). Personally, I liked where Deadwood ended. Swearengen probably mentioned "burning the whole fucking town down" several times if he looked to be losing, and the real life Deadwood burnt down about a year after the last season's intended point in history. It was like the combo of the show and actual reality worked to show some respect for the ignominy of Swearengen's defeat done off camera, and the real world fire gives a big Swearengen "fuck you" as the end of the arc.

But I digress....cocksuckers.

 

[Trilby]

The Hollywood Video and the grocery store video rental place were the best. And I'm not talking some little kiosk or stand, I mean there was a whole side room in the grocery store that was a video store. Now it's the room where they place the paperback books, magazines, Hallmark cards, and similar fare.

I remember Hollywood Video vividly as they had a few locations in town as well. Their ads were always pretty amusing...

A local supermarket I knew (also long gone) also had a small video rental section much like you described. I'm sure those were pretty standard for many such supermarkets when the video boom was huge. I remember having fun going through them.