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A comment on Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive. Parent comment

Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive by mikeocool on Monday July 11, 2022 @02:07PM (#32059560)
Anecdotally, I recall a brief moment in the late 2000's where the mom and pop shops had a bit of resurgence (or at least a stay on their execution) -- when Netflix DVD's by mail had put most Block Busters out of business, but before every movie was readily available on streaming services.

If it was Friday night, and you'd just sent back your netflix disc -- or you were looking to watch something that wasn't at the top of your queue, the mom and pop video rental place was your only option. At least in NYC, it seemed like this kept those places going a little but longer than anyone would have guessed when Block Buster was still around.

Though once streaming became prevalent they all disappeared pretty quickly.

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Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive by rhino369 on Monday July 11, 2022 @02:33PM (#32059905)
NYC probably had more indie rental stores around just because of the population density. In my suburb, Blockbuster had already wiped them out in the 90's.
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Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive by Apocryphon on Monday July 11, 2022 @02:46PM (#32060072)
Feels like even without streaming or even Netflix’s original DVD-by-mail delivery service, Redbox could’ve eaten brick and mortar movie rental stores.
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Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive by exmadscientist on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @04:51AM (#32067222)
According to a coworker, Redbox/Outerwall had massive management issues, which probably explains why they had so much trouble. He insisted that the corporate culture got significantly better when private equity bought them out, which is a statement I don't recall ever having heard before.
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Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive by TedDoesntTalk on Monday July 11, 2022 @06:05PM (#32062634)
I don't recall Redbox existing, at least in my area, during that time.
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Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive by WalterBright on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @01:24AM (#32065977)
This was before Netflix streaming, when Netflix was just dvds.
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Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive by TedDoesntTalk on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @09:49AM (#32069899)
Yeah -- still don't remember Redbox then. I did use Netflix DVDs by mail, too.
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