Blockbuster Cuts Hrs of Business! (Did you get the memo?)

My first post

I love to rent Blu-Ray's, DvDs and games to pass time when I am not editing a music video or wedding. We can all appreciate a good book(Jim Marrs) or a cool movie(JFK), right? I was disturbed to find out this soon to be realized fact:
A friend called me this evening to tell me, "Blockbuster Video has cut their 'open for business' hours to 12pm to 8pm", she sounded very sad and scared. She is a manager at the location near my residence here in San Antonio, TX. The hours of operations have always been 10am to 12am. The surprised mother of three sounded very discouraged as this will no doubt slash her pay in half.

They will be handing out flyers giving a "Very dumb" excuse for the change in hours of operation. My friend said, "The company has asked employees to lie, ensure and comfort customers that it is not because the economy.", I nodded over the phone as she continued, "How the hell can I look the regulars in the eye and tell them a non-truth when I know they are not dumb Americans?!"

I agreed and after no debate we both feel it is about coming events where the 'Greater Depression' rears it's ugly head. I will be picking up the flyer and editing this post when one is in my hand. Times are tough indeed, yet we still spend on entertainment so we can have that get away from reality. I was in this morning returning Tony Scott's 'Man on Fire' and noticed a quite and strange sense of fear in the air. It was so weird...

Blockbuster's here in San Antonio have been having very untimely, but tempting massive clearance sales which began last year. I suppose this is a sign of the times when your neighborhood chain video store is making a last ditch effort to cash in by chopping its hours to save themselves money and bankruptcy or both. Anyone hear anything to the contrary?

I love movies, but Long live the people with smiles across the counter who rent them to me!!

The video store my husband and I go to (Movie Gallery) has cut their hours for the entire week. I saw the notice on the door last month. It's going to affect a lot of people. When the business isn't open as many hours in the day, it means employees will get less hours and less pay. I'm sorry your friends is having to go through this in San Antonio.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is just about the economy.
The video store business model is in a bit of trouble.
Between netflix, downloadable movies, and On demand cable content, thre just aren't as many people taking a drive to the vid rental store anymore.
Plus, I just bought 3 pretty decent movies for 10 bucks at the mall last week.

Thats just about the cost of a rental, and I get to keep the DVD's.

The economy is just speeding up the inevitable.

I agree and will stand corrected Moderator. Internet, Nextflix or Redbox type of business are very very popular and some DvD's are getting cheaper depending on release date and company. I have many friends excited about Gaming consoles and internet steaming films. These new technologies have indeed taken a big chunk out out the Video rental industry and the economy is just adding to the weight of it all.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Unfortunately, I don't think this is just about the economy.
The video store business model is in a bit of trouble.
Between netflix, downloadable movies, and On demand cable content, thre just aren't as many people taking a drive to the vid rental store anymore.
Plus, I just bought 3 pretty decent movies for 10 bucks at the mall last week.

Thats just about the cost of a rental, and I get to keep the DVD's.

The economy is just speeding up the inevitable.

its true...there really is no reason at all to "rent a movie"...with torrents now and netflix people truly won't leave their house to rent a movie...

sure there will still be those who want to rent a movie now and then, but the demand has easily been sliced in half.

Blockbuster/movie gallery/ hollywood video...all going through the same...unfortunately they need to figure out how to evolve business to match customer appeal.

blockbuster should sell movies for rental prices...thats how they'd stay in business.

That is an excellent idea; Selling the movies at rental price! Sweet... I was in last week and my friend had 27 copies of some weird romance flick in front of her. I smiled to make conversation and said,"What? You putting prices on all those?" She looked at me funny and said, "Hell no. I am throwing them away! We have to demolish them." Lol...That is so weird. IMO

I mean they could sell them for like a few dollars or throw them in the 3.99 bin, but the other employee mentioned the company always gives them orders to 'dispose ' of all those moves. They had two other huge stacks like that one!

Their brick and mortar business model will no longer be something you will see in the future. They have started broadcasting movies to televisions through receivers you can buy from them, but even then, it still is a dying situation for them with netflix taking the lead in digital movie services.

10 years from now, I would expect to see only 15% of their stores still open, with the rest of their business being conducted online or through digital video means.

Good one. That is what is coming...

You know, unless I have a cool game out. I can be in and out of a Blockbuster 4 times a week if my work load is light because I have a 20 dollar a month pass for unlimited rentals. This works well on Games, catching up on Tv shows or new releases I don't wanna buy.

Even iTunes has cool films...It's a new era and we all seem to agree on that. I just fell bad for the human side of the transaction.

I have noticed a lot of people return their online Blockbuster rentals at this location. Once I overheard the employees complaining about scrambling to get DvD's ready for the UPS guy who was there waiting to pick them up. They told him come back ...lol.

This probably costs Blockbuster an much expected pretty penny at the end of the day. In that regard Video stores will be a thing of the past. They come up with another system. They have tried to adapt , but it's not working.

they actually closing down here in Oregon.

so yea.. it's like that

The fall of Blockbuster was and is predictable to me. I am actually amazed people still drive and visit a store to rent movies.

Have you ever lost a movie from blockbuster and was unable to return it? If so than you know what I am talking about. They charged me over 70 dollars for losing the movie and not returning it. I offered to pay the full retail price of the movie but they demanded over 70 dollars. I paid them the money and have never returned to any movie rental store since.

I do however use the netflix service they do not charge for lost or unreturned movies. And they pay for shipping through the mail. This is a case of business model competition and netflix won.

I am sorry though for the people who will be losing their jobs at blockbuster. It has really got to be hard in these times.

I go to Blockbuster because it's so darn close to where I reside...lol. I remember when they tried to become a GAMESTOP. My friend at Blockbuster would always be with a customer saying, ..."please pre-order this and that with us not them."

My friend and her co workers were being pushed really hard by the company. They still sell game systems and Blu tooth accessories several stores, but no one ever buys them. It seems as of late the employees are just baffled and scared at what the company is going to do to their jobs when it all goes down!

I know a guy at Circuit city and he said a Fire sale is gonna happen this weekend. But their employees saw it coming more than the people at Blockbuster stores. Crap....here's Blockbuster employees heads up on what's gonna happen I liked Circuit City. I always got my DvD's and BD's there!

I work at Blockbuster and we are open till midnite every nite and we're one of the busiest stores in out area, but no one really comes in after 10 pm , so the cutting of hours is a smart thing to do.....people have been talking about Blockbuster closing for the last few years!

I worked for them part time in 2003 and 2004 and the business already was failing back then. Netflix and the on-demand services have killed them not to mention that you can buy the same new dvd for almost the same price in certain stores as you can rent it.

I wonder if they have been having the same problems with payroll as we did. The stores only pay through direct deposit and if they "have a glitch," voila, no pay which takes a few weeks to fix. Happened twice toward the end of my stint.

reply to post by looneyhd


It's to keep them from winding up on ebay or being sold at flea markets. We did that too, its not so much a store policy as it complies with movie licensing contracts since they prohibit product from falling into unlicensed dealer's hands.

I currently work at Blockbuster, and there is indeed a change in business hours. Also, they have instituted a hiring and promoting freeze!

They've just rolled out a new set-top box that you can download movies from, and this looks to be the way things're headed. Its actually a smart decision, from a company that makes many stupid decisions (fun fact - Blockbuster was days away from bankruptcy just a couple of years ago.)

Also. yes, Blockbuster does destroy some titles instead of selling them. This is due to having purchasing agreements with several studios that give BBV low prices. In turn, BBV cannot sell these titles, and must destroy them, as they would impact sales of brand new copies of the same flick.

We have Blockbuster here in Australia too but my beef with them is that they are too far away and never in a convenient location like a shopping mall.
(Not in my area anyway)

I like to rent movies that I would never buy.
I love the 8 movies for 10 bucks and the movies are only a few years old max.
Streaming movies online isn't an option for me as my broadband isn't fast enough.

Too bad about your friend though. My sympathies go out to her.

It seems, like Blockbuster, a lot of businesses are streamlining their business hours.
I recently found out the hard way that my local Coles shopping store is now closing at 10pm instead of midnight.

So maybe a sign of the times???

Thanks for your replys... I really believe it's a sign of the times. My friend has been looking for a job and all the while she continues work at the Blockbuster store crossing her fingers. She seems worried about what's around the corner. I recently learned my friend in Florida has parents who own a 'Mom & Pop' video store and he said, "It's really tough times for them right now. I don't know what to do." Damn.

I returned to Circuit City to buy some gaming accessories marked 30% off. And since the creditors have taken over they hired a liquidator-all the employees who haven't bailed were giving the 'new' guy in charge a hard time. Who ever was in control was a real jerk from what I was told. Crazy...

For one, we were never told to lie about our hours. We changed them and to all my customers I tell them it is because of the economy and cutting our hours from 10-11 to 12-9 is keeping the store open. Keep complaining and worrying about your job. Trust me it will help in the long run. HA. How about this. Do your best, show improvement and try to fight the best fight. The ship doesnt need to sink, but with posts like this it discourages readers from shopping at Blockbuster. How about some positivity about the things that Blockbuster are doing to try to survive? Sales are a way of life. Get used to them. Hours change. Economy changes. Deal with it and roll with it. It will get better and Blockbuster will survive. So with your friends job. Tell her to suck it up and spend more time focusing on her store instead of her job hunt.

This will happen shortly with most retailers, not just media rental businesses. Retailers are right now negotiating with their mall management companies to restructure hours in order to cut costs. Restaurants will cut hours of operation as well.

The fact is the seven-day-week business model has never been cost effective. Consumers only have X numbers of dollars to spend, no matter how many hours are available to shop. With most retailers, excluding gas stations and convenience stores, you make the same amount of money each week whether you are open ten hours a day/seven days a week or eight hours a day/six days a week - only one costs less.