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They absolutely ruined the market for Mom & Pop video stores and they refused to carry NC-17 movies and would have studios re-edit their movies to appease religious fundamentalist groups. Rot in hell, Blockbuster Video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVbNNGuWbyo quote:One website reports that there is a total of 12 remaining franchise-owned Blockbuster video stores in operation as of September 2016 (7 in Alaska, 3 in Oregon, and 2 in Texas). As of March 2016, Border Entertainment was reported to be the largest remaining owner of Blockbuster franchise locations, operating the 9 stores in Alaska and Texas.
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Dec 2, 2016 23:15
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My first job was working at Blockbuster. We were constantly asked if we had porn. The most consistently rented tapes we had were Jerry Springer Too Hot for TV, The Turning and Savage Beach So we probably should have just had porn.
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Dec 2, 2016 23:25
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I worked for Blockbuster. The highlight was a crackhead walking in with a backpack (which he handed over after I told him store policy) and then proceeding to walk over to a shelf, grabbing an armful of movies and then just bolting the gently caress out of the store.
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Dec 2, 2016 23:36
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haljordan posted:I worked for Blockbuster. The highlight was a crackhead walking in with a backpack (which he handed over after I told him store policy) and then proceeding to walk over to a shelf, grabbing an armful of movies and then just bolting the gently caress out of the store. Did he just steal a bunch of shrink wrapped covers because that would be good
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Dec 2, 2016 23:37
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I legit miss poo poo like Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video. It's mainly due to nostalgia but Blockbuster doing console rentals is how I first got exposed to Sega Genesis as a kid.
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Dec 2, 2016 23:40
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FishBulb posted:Did he just steal a bunch of shrink wrapped covers because that would be good Nah he actually did get away with a bunch of DVDs. I just stood behind the counter, mouth agape as he ran out the door. I actually admire his ballsiness.
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Dec 2, 2016 23:41
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I used to go to blockbuster every other week or so and try to find the grossest looking horror movie they had purely based on the cover
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Dec 2, 2016 23:44
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Skoll posted:I legit miss poo poo like Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video. It's mainly due to nostalgia but Blockbuster doing console rentals is how I first got exposed to Sega Genesis as a kid. Yeah it was fun to go in an find something. Just renting something because the cover was crazy or finding weird bootlegs (not at blockbuster, other stores)
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Dec 2, 2016 23:48
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Also another time some piece of poo poo came in with his girlfriend and started screaming because he had asked for his rental history and rather than giving him the proper form, one of the workers just printed it out directly from the computer. Problem is, you could see comments added by the staff which included something along the lines of "This guy is a total scam artist, don't let him return/exchange rentals for any reason." He was literally yelling lines from Denzel's "KING KONG AIN'T GOT poo poo ON ME" speech at one point so we just called the cops.
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Dec 2, 2016 23:51
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One time a guy told me that if he wasn't so drunk he would come down and kick my rear end because I wouldn't let his kid rent a movie without paying some huge late fee.
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Dec 3, 2016 00:01
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Also our dudebro manager eventually got shitcanned for showing up to an inventory night drunk (I had already deaded the job by that point).
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Dec 3, 2016 00:06
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Once when I was a kid some worker at the Blockbuster near my house put on a violent as hell anime on all the monitors in the store. He musta thought cartoon=kids movie and only realized his error when everyone heard the main villain or whatever say he was gonna rape someone.
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Dec 3, 2016 02:07
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OldTennisCourt posted:Once when I was a kid some worker at the Blockbuster near my house put on a violent as hell anime on all the monitors in the store. He musta thought cartoon=kids movie and only realized his error when everyone heard the main villain or whatever say he was gonna rape someone. Fuckin' metal. I remember renting Darkwing Duck for the NES again and again. When I was real little it felt like we went Blockbuster every other day.
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Dec 3, 2016 03:09
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I liked going through the horror movie section as a kid because they always had the best covers and titles. Crappy 70s/80s horror films were cool.
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Dec 3, 2016 09:02
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Pretty sure I never would have watched a single loving anime if not for the Ghost In The Shell VHS cover at blockbuster I also kind of miss blockbuster because it was a pretty cheap way to find out if a game was worth buying or not. Being able to rent Daikatana for the nintendo 64 and seeing how horrible it actually was instead of falling for a marketing trick and wasting a birthday/christmas on it was just sort of a valuable thing that's almost entirely lacking in the market these days unless you turn to piracy
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Dec 3, 2016 09:49
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I remember our blockbuster had a bunch of wierd canadian cartoons in the children's section. had i known better i would have watched the gently caress out of all the crazy schlocky sci-fi horror movies I walked past this movie cover dozens of times on my way to the sega genesis rentals and remember being bizarrely fascinated with it
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Dec 3, 2016 10:26
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I had one of those surviving Blockbuster stores near me where I grew up. I always had a mental note to try and keep an eye on the place every once in a while. Figured it would eventually kick the bucket and I could maybe buy a ton of cheap DVDs. Between random checks, it had closed and turned into a mattress store.
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Dec 3, 2016 12:52
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i remember just getting ocarina of time from blockbuster, it was like the last n64 game i kept passing on until i was like  on it
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Dec 3, 2016 13:22
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I never grew up with a Blockbuster. I started using one in a nearby town when I got older and started working by it. I only started because they tried copying Netflix, but you could return the discs in the actual store. So I would use both so when I was watching a television show, I didn't have to wait a few days between returning and receiving new discs. It was a great time. Then Blockbuster died.
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Dec 3, 2016 14:45
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The last movie I rented from Blockbuster was Little Monsters, starring Howie Mandel. This was in 1998 or 1999. It's a bad movie.
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Dec 3, 2016 15:04
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Video rental stores seemed to last a bit longer in Australia because we get badly gouged on home media prices which made video rental a lot more viable for a lot longer. But then everyone discovered internet piracy and that was the end of that, even olds who didn't know how to use a computer could buy pirated DVDs at scuzzy market stalls for a couple of bucks. My brother tells me that there's a guy who goes door to door around all the factories and workshops in his area selling pirated DVDs and he must make a decent living off it since he's been doing the rounds for years. There's a surviving video rental store not far from me, they've changed name several times and at one point the store shrunk half the size so the landlord could sublet the rest of the space to some other business. They used to have sweet deals where you could rent 6 movies for a heavily discounted price, I remember walking around and around the store carrying 5 video cases trying to settle on a 5th title so I could get the discount. The videos they have sitting in the window have been sitting there for at least a decade and their covers have bleached nearly perfectly white in the sun.
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Dec 3, 2016 15:14
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I grew up in a real small town. We didn't have a Blockbuster. We had some old couple's house out in the middle of the country called Little Darlings. I just remember them having a glass bottle coke vending machine and the old couple having massive 70s fros. They had a porn section though so suck it Blockbuster.
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Dec 3, 2016 15:36
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We probably spent $100 on the Legend of Zelda cartridge we got from Blockbuster, but we wouldn't return it because the other ones didn't have our save. One time my mom sent me in the store with the membership card and $20 and told me to tell them I know about the late fees I want to pay them and get another week.
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Dec 3, 2016 15:50
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There was a blockbuster in the town I lived basically until a few months before i moved away in 2014. It was right next to a loving excellent greek place i would get gyros from a lot and it was right on the main road of the town so it was easy to keep tabs on. It stayed pretty busy until hbo and those services broke free of their cable/isp chains.
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Dec 3, 2016 16:24
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4 of the last couple dozen blockbusters were near my area, one of them was like a combination blockbuster and pizza place. poo poo was weird they finally closed this july actually
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Dec 3, 2016 16:44
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the only time i went to blockbuster was when hollywood video didnt have dragon ball z broly the legendary super saiyan
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Dec 3, 2016 17:22
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I worked at Blockbuster towards the end of its life cycle, when they got sold to Dish. I peaced out when my manager got let go for not hitting sales goals, because they had us selling satellite TV, which, gently caress that. The best nights were inventory nights, because we'd get lovely pizza and put whatever the gently caress we wanted on the store TVs.
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Dec 3, 2016 17:52
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DC Murderverse posted:I worked at Blockbuster towards the end of its life cycle, when they got sold to Dish. I peaced out when my manager got let go for not hitting sales goals, because they had us selling satellite TV, which, gently caress that. Yeah I know for a fact no one ever sold a DirecTV subscription in our store. In fact, the only time anyone ever bothered to even ask about it was when it was a secret shopper sent by corporate (because it was on the list of questions).
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Dec 3, 2016 18:04
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there's something poetic about a service that loving sucks and is often only used in lieu of better options being pushed like crack in a dying video rental store.
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Dec 3, 2016 18:20
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I remember going to blockbuster when I was a little kid, and being creeped out by all the scary movie titles (or rather, their box art). Eventually, digging through a pile of DVDs in my parents stuff when they moved, I encountered a Blockbuster DVD (I think it was Toy Story 1) that had been borrowed in 2004. I'm convinced the two mom and pop rental shops in my rural town are fronts for weed money. There's no way anybody is still renting DVDs from a brick and mortar store when you can literally just go to the Safeway and get a movie from the Redbox out front if you're absolutely hellbent on paying money for movies.
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Dec 3, 2016 18:47
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I live in a small town with a somehow in business video store as well. We don't even have a real bar here but somehow we have a video store. The selection is terrible. Gotta be a front or a retiree with too much cash just burning it.
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Dec 3, 2016 18:55
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when the blockbuster near me was closing down they had a huge sale advertising it so I went in and rented a bunch of games for like $30 and never returned them
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Dec 3, 2016 19:03
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It was kind of difficult to sell DirecTV when the signal completely died the second it got even a little cloudy out.
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Dec 3, 2016 21:08
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FishBulb posted:My first job was working at Blockbuster. We were constantly asked if we had porn. I used to volunteer for shrink-wrap duty. Just sit in the back watching some movie getting high on burnt plastic.
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Dec 3, 2016 21:51
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I bought Daybreakers and 127 Hours from Blockbuster when they were shutting down. Also got a ton of mini-posters since they were just giving them away. I'm talking, like 50 mini-posters. Even one for "Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders." gently caress it, they were free.
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Dec 3, 2016 22:32
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All the blockbusters here turned into holly wood videos before also going bankrupt A local store a town over called video HQ took over that dying Hollywood and did a decent job competing with Netflix red box for a while When they went out of business it was like, an overnight warning for the general population. A college buddy worked there and warned us they were closing about a week ahead of time. Rented fable 3 and just kept it through the closing and it never mattered
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Dec 3, 2016 23:41
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fortunately family video is still thriving, mainly because of old folks renting porn
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Dec 4, 2016 01:22
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOmgVgrQi_0
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Dec 4, 2016 01:23
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Wasn't there a dude on these very forums who worked at one and was like hella into the Blockbuster koolaid and even as they were dying the slow death he kept talking about how they weren't going out of business and even as they all closed he kept saying over and over how things were fine? I wonder how he's doing?
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Dec 4, 2016 02:14
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| # ? May 4, 2024 15:03 |
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ONE YEAR LATER posted:Wasn't there a dude on these very forums who worked at one and was like hella into the Blockbuster koolaid and even as they were dying the slow death he kept talking about how they weren't going out of business and even as they all closed he kept saying over and over how things were fine? I wonder how he's doing? He is doing good, everything is fine.
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Dec 4, 2016 04:39
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