Blockbuster to Close 300 Remaining Retail Locations

LongIsland.com

Many Long Islanders may not have seen a Blockbuster store in years, but the video chain is now officially shuttering its doors.

Print Email

The announcement made by DISH Network Corporation yesterday that it will be closing the remaining 300 physical Blockbuster locations may have come as a shock to many—perhaps less because the business’ retail operations have officially come to an end than because there are still 300 brick-and-mortar Blockbuster stores around the country.

Blockbuster Video’s rise and fall are well documented. The company came to define stay-at-home movie nights with its ubiquitous blue and yellow stores renting out VHS tapes and DVDs from the 1990s through the mid-2000s. At its peak, the chain had over 9,000 locations and employed over 60,000 individuals, but as digital streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu rose to prominence the company faltered. Profits dissipated and stores closed while former customers forwent trips to the video store and potential late fees in favor of instant streaming, causing the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the subsequent acquisition of Blockbuster by DISH in early 2011.

Dish quickly closed hundreds of unprofitable stores and integrated Blockbuster streaming services into its own “@Home” format; now that feature and the company’s separate On Demand apps are all the remain of Blockbuster. The 300 retail outlets which it has clung on to will soon shutter, and its DVD-by-mail service will end before the new year.

 “This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment,” said DISH president Joseph P. Clayton. “Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings.”

All of the remaining US stores are expected to be closed by the end of January. DISH does see some continuing value in Blockbuster’s future, however, pointing toward its “significant video library” as a key asset in marketing its two streaming services.

[Source: DISH]