blockbuster: the last straw...

[the gooch]

it's bad enough they only carry certain edited
copies of unrated movies like requiem for a
dream yet have 1 million copies of hannibal...
today i noticed the 3 stooges in dvd DRAMA!
and that is where they really wanted it.

???

[Apostic]

Blockbuster's earnings for the last quarter are up about 100 percent.  I hate to say it, but there must be plenty of paying consumers out there who have no serious problems with the chain's categorization schema.

regards,

Apostic

[Apostic]

Blockbuster's earnings for the last quarter are up about 100 percent.  I hate to say it, but there must be plenty of paying consumers out there who have no serious problems with the chain's categorization schema.

regards,

Apostic

[Apostic]

..to put up my message twice with but one push of the [Post] button

[John Morgan]

I've had so many bad experiences with Blockbuster that I have lost count.  I don't know if it was the local franchise or what.  I would ask the workers there if they had a movie (after I spent an hour looking for it) and they would not even know about the movie.  I wanted to show my wife "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" and "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai," they didn't have any of them.  I had to go to a local video store to find them.   Now I own them both on VHS.   They did have 50 dozen copies of whatever was the latest release.

I about every week I went in they would say I had a movie overdue.  I never heard of any of the movies they said I had out.  One time, they said I had an overdue copy of "Throw Mamma from the Train."  I never wanted to see that movie.  I never cared to see it.  I was not going to rent it.  I had never rented it.

Their anime section was terrible.  They had 5 copies of "Akira" and a few others that took up two shelves.  This was in a college town too.  The two comic book shops had a better selection.  

I honestly believe it was just that franchise.  I never saw anyone working there who actually liked movies.  They were mostly college kids who needed a part time job.  

I just moved to a new city, so I will have to try the Blockbuster here to see if it is any different.

There is a store here called Hastings that rents videos.  It's huge.  I thought it would be great, but it looks like it is worse.  I couldn't figure out how they arranged the movies.  It looked like it was Alphabetical by movie title.  That means you will find Godzilla next to Gone with the Wind.

[Jim Hepler]

Yeah, a lot of it is local franchises.  I've had no experiences like you've described.  The workers at blockbuster are alright, and their selection is better then the average blockbuster.  To bad they're so expensive.  

Worst thing they've done recently, CHAIN WIDE, is that they threw out all the old movies.  This might of been discussed on here before, but they cleaned out a large portion of their old VHSes - often times this means out of print movies.  They didn't give them away or sell them.  They just TOSSED THEM OUT IN THEIR DUMPSTERS.  I didn't know about this until it was to late, though a friend of a friend managed to snag like 50 tapes out of a dumpster.  Heh.

[Evil Ed]

man, you guys are dondelingers!.
Blockbuster is North America's family video rental store.  They don't specialize in obscure titles released 20 years ago.  They make there money by having a s**tload of new releases.  Trust me, i know, and love hard to find movies.  But don't go to Blockbuster and complain that you can't find anything.

[Andrew]

Evil Ed wrote:
>
> Trust me, i know, and love hard to find movies.
> But don't go to Blockbuster and complain that you can't find
> anything.

I think that the complaint is their dominance of the rental market (along with another chain) has led to this situation.  Just a few years ago there were lots of mom & pop or independent stores, which often had some pretty obscure titles on the shelves.  With the coming of Blockbuster they were absorbed (insert Borg joke here) and now we have lovely vanilla.  

Would you like vanilla?  Vanilla, vanilla, spam, and vanilla?  Just plain vanilla and spam?  Or...

Andrew

[slaX]

I hate renting dvd's from blockbuster
reason being is ppl take about the same care of dvd's they rent as they do vhs
i.e. leaving the movie laying around out of the case

[the gooch]

they are conveniently located every .5 miles and that's my downfall when i'm lazy...and those frickin LINES at the counter.

IT WOULDN'T be so bad if there was some consistency in most of the outlets...dramas in comedy etc. aside....they'll have completely insane unrated anime with that 18+ sticker slapped on (or not) or Boogie Nights without one...but then get totally chopped copies of award winning movies.
It all seems so arbitrary. They need to put stickers on chopped versions and versions varying from the theater releases (like when they carry an R as opposed to the unrated).
it's their right to endorse censorship...but don't hide from paying customers.

i'm guilty. i go there way too much to cry for a revolution. but at least a lot of us think about what is going on...right? then again...just stand in line and look at everyone with the latest tim allen movie or the latest shocking! interracial love story starring julia stiles or new james bond crap. like they're gonna care blockbuster carries a chopped version of something from the horror or kung-fu section.

[AndyC]

About the only advantage my local (15 minutes away, in the city) Blockbuster has is that I can rent three movies for a week and watch them at my leisure. The disadvantage is that there isn't much worth renting. To make matters worse, the same store that was once filled with VHS movies now has a third of the space devoted to DVD and a third for retail movie sales and merchandise. As they expand their product lines, the selection is actually decreasing.

I remember when the big video store chains first came along, with several big chains competing against each other and all trying to take business from the mom and pop operations. They emphasized selection, and tried to offer something the other stores didn't have or were unable to supply. They continued to add to their stock, accumulating thousands of movies in each store. Over the past decade, a lot of that selection went into the bargain bin or the garbage, and the focus shifted to supplying more copies of the latest new release. If I want new releases, I'll go to a theatre. If I want to be told what to like, I'll watch TV. For me, video is about seeing the movie I want when I want to see it.

I've had to seek out an independent store, a few blocks away, where the owners actually love movies, and aren't in it solely for the money. On the other hand, by filling a niche, they're laughing all the way to the bank.

I get into the debate of Blockbuster vs. independents with a friend of mine on a pretty regular basis. In our own smallish town, there are two pathetic video stores run by people who are more interested in keeping up with business trends than they are in movies. They are also well aware that the local market is still too small for any real competition to set up shop. Consequently, I go to the city. I wish I didn't have to do that.

My friend insists that a Blockbuster is needed while I say that the community would be better served by an indpendent dealer who really cares. He believes that the corporate backing of Blockbuster would be a boon, while I say that more owner control is better, provided the owner respects his customers and their personal tastes. We still haven't agreed on this.

[John Morgan]

I think it has something to do with contracts and licensing.  The same company that owns CBS, Viacom, and a bunch of cable channels owns Blockbuster.  I don't know for sure, but I bet that they only deal with those productions that are associated with their network of companies or they tend to look more favorably upon those contracts that will give them "big profits."

In recent years, it has been discovered that TV Networks make more money from shows they produce themselves than from syndicated shows they have to buy.  It makes sense.  A production company can use the same sound effects department for two totally different shows while two syndicated shows may use tow different sound effects companies.  The syndicated show will cost more.

The same thing could be said for movies at Blockbuster.  If Blockbuster orders a batch of movies from a sister company, it will cost them less money than to order a bunch of movies from an outside source.  Now to keep the masses coming, they will order some movies from another production company, but I bet it is not as many as if they ordered from Viacom.

I have no proof of this, it's just a theory.

[Flangepart]

Tis; a perplexity. I'm luckey, i can see that now. The Columbus Public Library has a great video selection, and the DVD line is expanding like the Blob on slow moveing extras. For this, i don't mind paying taxes! Heck, i'm useing a library computer to write this! Some one in audio/visual has a B-movie bug, as the midnight cinema line has been cropping up, as well as Anime and HK action(W00W00!) True, the mistreated disk is a common tragity, but what can ya' do, but see 'em before the skags get hold of 'em. Ah, well, The Late Oxoner Video did me well,while it lasted. Got to see the Toho series in the original prints! Domo Arigato, Ozoner-san!

[PoorLogic]

Try going to Hollywood Video and ask for a new release that is distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment - they won't have it for at least 2 weeks before Blockbuster....Paramount is a division of Viacom, isn't it?


I had 5 independent video stores within a 6 block radus of my apartment, Blockbuster opened one of thier tiny "new releases" only stores and had 4 of the independent stores closed in 6 months. Video Update (which I don't consider a chain due to the s**tty conditions of thier VHS tapes, I think all most all have closed in Chicago) just recently closed and that sucks, because I could rent 2 VHS tapes for $.99 on Tuesdays and I was able to find "Break'in 2, Electric Boogaloo".

Bloockbuster has clean stores, pretty decent help and I have never had a problem with a DVD. As for the 17+ labels they place on movies, I think they are conducting a social experiment to see how many more rentals they get from the jackass who makes thier rental decision on the 17+ label alone.

[Lee]

Now granted, i've gotten aggravated at not being able to find a movie down there at times(that and them not hiring me even though I need money). But, overall, I like my Blockbuster. The chicks that work there are hot! And I can usually find the more obsure movies at Hastings. But Hastings can't take care of their rentals. They don't want to play. At Blockbuster i go there and the tape works fine. If not then I comeback, tell them, and the problem is taken care of. At Hastings, they just put the damaged tape back up there. That's stupid. Gotta go now. My hand hurts.