Blockbuster files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

This one's been expected and rumored for a long time. Now it's official: Blockbuster has initiated "pre-arranged" chapter 11 proceedings. Under the plan, Blockbuster's debt would be reduced from $1 billion to about $100 million when implemented. The press release states that Blockbuster is currently evaluating its US store portfolio as part of the recapitalization process. For the time being, all 3,000 stores will remain open. However, we've been told by a trusted tipster that up to 1,000 could be shed before things are said and done. Now make no mistake, Blockbuster is still open and wants you to know that it's business as usual during the restructuring -- the details of which you can read in the press release after the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/blockbuster-files-for-chapter-11/

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bye bye

NiKKoM said: Blockbuster files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy This one's been expected and rumored for a long time. Now it's official: Blockbuster has initiated "pre-arranged" chapter 11 proceedings. Under the plan, Blockbuster's debt would be reduced from $1 billion to about $100 million when implemented. The press release states that Blockbuster is currently evaluating its US store portfolio as part of the recapitalization process. For the time being, all 3,000 stores will remain open. However, we've been told by a trusted tipster that up to 1,000 could be shed before things are said and done. Now make no mistake, Blockbuster is still open and wants you to know that it's business as usual during the restructuring -- the details of which you can read in the press release after the break. http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/blockbuster-files-for-chapter-11/ ---------------------------------------- bye bye

I'm alittle surprised that nobody else has posted in this thread. Back in my day this was pretty much the only renting option. You did'nt have netflix and digtal download options. You also did'nt have red-box. This is no real surprise,I've seen this coming for along time now. It's only a matter of time before blockbuster completly goes under. I have'nt been to a blockbuster in over a year probably. It's kind of sad how hard blockbuster has fallen.

Ironically a NetFlix add is player directly below the article......poor blockbuster, still doing decent in Canada though.

Wow that's surprising actually, well at least for me. Well I'm sure if they drop the 1000 worst performing stores they'll be out of the red and back in the black.

no shock there. They were always more expensive than the grocery stores and had bad return policies that drove away customers. Then netflix and redbox swooped in and stole even more customers. I don'tknow how they managed $1B in debt, but I do know how they lost me as a customer.

They had a better service than netflix back when they allowed you to trade in your online rentals for store rentals for free (so long as they weren't new releases), but then they reduced them and then finally took them away.

Funny thing is, I've been hearing they were going to go bankrupt for probably the last 10 or so years so this sorta seems like as if Duke Nukem Forever was actually released

I would feel sad if their game rentals werent so expensive.

I'll paste over what I said on Marketwatch -

Blockbuster is just another company in a long line of many which meets its end at the feet of the Internet, the very idea of having any movie, book, music, or game shop open in 15 years time seems somewhat laughable.

I think the question, nowadays, is whether or not the Internet will stop at these kind of stores. I mean, could home delivery seriously impact electrical stores in the future - you can often find goods for 15-20% less online, and you can receive far more genuine advice online than you could from a sales guy in a blue t-shirt, no matter how specialist they claim to be.

Will the convenience of home delivery of groceries also win out? My family probably buys around 30-40% of all their shopping online from Tesco - which instantly the kills the geographic advantage that Asda has. Asda is 3 miles away, Tesco, 7. The laptop is usually in your bag, and your smart phone, your pocket.

I think it's fairly save to say that retail parks/downtowns are going to be looking very different in 2025, with more and more outlets dedicated to providing services, not goods. I think the only sort of shop that is pretty safe is the convenience store - ordering online and waiting until 3pm the next day is convenient enough for your weekly grocery shop, but when you're out of milk? The 5 minute trip is still more convenient.

Of course, we could go further - a large amount of traffic from fast food stores comes from people walking by on shopping trips. With less people walking by, there's going to be less traffic. Fast food won't be killed off, as it certainly has its place in other parts of society (long road trips, to-and-from work, etc...), but it will be damaged, at the very least, by the Internet revolution that we are going through.

God I hate how the Internet is killing 'real' businesses.  I've been a faithful customer to my Blockbuster for over 15 years, and I love the experience of going out, chatting with the people at the store, seeing what they recommend, yadayadayada.  I haven't pirated a movie in years, and I much prefer having a physical copy of something.  Good thing I'm Canadian, so this doesn't affect me--yet, anyway.  Netflix just launched in Canada, so we'll see...

The end of an era.

dont know why everyone is saying this is it

it says that they might close 1000 stores

and that its business as usual during the restructuring

didnt GM and Ford recently file too

idk about ya'll but that red box isnt cutting it for me as theres about like 20 movies to choose from and all that online crap like netflix isnt cutting it for me im an old timer, i aint with all this modern crap i like to just go out in my car and pick up a movie from a pretty wide variety in store and be watching it with in 10-15min from the time i originally thought about watching a movie

thers like 10 BB with in 10m of me maybe more if i really checked up only 1 closed down that i know of in the last 5yrs

i would hate to see em completely go but if that ever happens i'll just be forced to use them torrent sites and watch em straight of my PS3s HDD

they really need to get there prices better i remember yrs ago movies were $2 and games were $5 way back in the early 90s, now there $5 and $10 i dont rent games there no more i found other ways of doing that, that doesnt cost a penny, but they need to price there movies at $2-3 they can even shorten the rental period if they want its 6 days here 2-3 wouldnt bother me it only takes 1-2hr for me to watch the movie