So I was a manager of a Blockbuster and got to watch the company implode from the inside, and I reflect on it a lot, when thinking about how avoidable the whole thing was.
Red Box had a bigger hand in blockbuster’s downfall than Netflix did. And when Blockbuster finally started to compete with Red Box, they did so by creating a confusing late fee policy that should have been illegal, and launching three different services about 6 months too late, because they misunderstood why these services were taking off.
See, Blockbuster falsely assumed that the issue was solely late fees. So they started the “More” initiatives, which included the over priced Movie and Game Passes, and “The End of Late Fees”.
The End of Late Fees, i feel, should have been considered false advertising. Because all they did was replace Late Fees with a system that just re-rented the movie to you if it was late. Then they changed the policies to trip customers up. Instead of movies being due by 11pm, they were due by noon. Instead of renting on Friday and returning on monday, new releases were “2 nights”, which included the night you rented it. So Friday rentals has a Sunday morning return date. And of course, rental fees went up. A $3.45 rental became $4.98. A $4.95 game became $8.50.
Customers didn’t mind late fees. A minor penance for a reasonable slight. But once they became confusing, predatory, and expensive, Blockbuster’s fate was becoming clearer.
Also, Blockbuster was tech phobic. From everything I saw, it seemed like BBV thought mail in would be a fad, like DiVX. And they were right. But wrong about what would happen next. They didn’t anticipate streaming. No one did. At the time, Hulu was in closed beta and was kind of a mess. And who wanted to watch movies on their computer, right? Turns out college kids and young people did.
Anyway, I sometimes think about what would have saved Blockbuster. Reasonable, straight forward late fees, better new release availability, a more affordable Movie Pass. A better website that allowed you to hold movies for a small ($2-3) fee, Blockbuster kiosks earlier.
all4reddit on November 20th, 2017 at 09:51 UTC »
"Hi. I'd like to rent these 3 videos thanks."
Sure, however that will be $3.50 in overdue fines first please.
MadCritic on November 20th, 2017 at 10:18 UTC »
In Denmark Blockbuster is now a streaming service where you can rent and buy movies, pretty cheap too. Is it just here?
shapeshiftingrobot on November 20th, 2017 at 12:02 UTC »
So I was a manager of a Blockbuster and got to watch the company implode from the inside, and I reflect on it a lot, when thinking about how avoidable the whole thing was.
Red Box had a bigger hand in blockbuster’s downfall than Netflix did. And when Blockbuster finally started to compete with Red Box, they did so by creating a confusing late fee policy that should have been illegal, and launching three different services about 6 months too late, because they misunderstood why these services were taking off.
See, Blockbuster falsely assumed that the issue was solely late fees. So they started the “More” initiatives, which included the over priced Movie and Game Passes, and “The End of Late Fees”.
The End of Late Fees, i feel, should have been considered false advertising. Because all they did was replace Late Fees with a system that just re-rented the movie to you if it was late. Then they changed the policies to trip customers up. Instead of movies being due by 11pm, they were due by noon. Instead of renting on Friday and returning on monday, new releases were “2 nights”, which included the night you rented it. So Friday rentals has a Sunday morning return date. And of course, rental fees went up. A $3.45 rental became $4.98. A $4.95 game became $8.50.
Customers didn’t mind late fees. A minor penance for a reasonable slight. But once they became confusing, predatory, and expensive, Blockbuster’s fate was becoming clearer.
Also, Blockbuster was tech phobic. From everything I saw, it seemed like BBV thought mail in would be a fad, like DiVX. And they were right. But wrong about what would happen next. They didn’t anticipate streaming. No one did. At the time, Hulu was in closed beta and was kind of a mess. And who wanted to watch movies on their computer, right? Turns out college kids and young people did.
Anyway, I sometimes think about what would have saved Blockbuster. Reasonable, straight forward late fees, better new release availability, a more affordable Movie Pass. A better website that allowed you to hold movies for a small ($2-3) fee, Blockbuster kiosks earlier.