Adventures of a former Blockbuster employee
Joe Stumpo
Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: Viewpoints
"The times they are a-changin'."
Such was the line from that famous Bob Dylan song. When it comes to the variety of options consumers now have to rent movies, the times really are a changin', especially for Dallas-based Blockbuster Video.
If the video retailer's announcement Sept. 15 that it may close as many as 960 of the more than 4300 stores Blockbuster operates in the country as a result of continuing low profits and the massive beating from competitive rivals Netflix, Inc. and Redbox is any indication, it looks like "the Buster" is well on its way to becoming a dinosaur.
Of course, it wasn't always like this.
Working for "the Buster" from 1988 to 1996, I can't tell you how many times I heard
the comment that Blockbuster's days of being one of the top video store chains, were numbered thanks to upcoming technology that would make renting movies easier.
What amazed me was every time someone made such a comment, the Blockbuster CEOs and executives managed to prove the naysayers wrong.
I equate working for Blockbuster those eight years to being a member of a successful, long-running sitcom. I looked at Blockbuster like working at a popular bar, like "Cheers."
At the Town East Blvd. Location, where I worked, which is no longer there, we had our regular customers who were the equivalent of Norm Peterson, Cliff Claven, and Frasier Crane. You can almost set your watch as to when they'd show up. If they didn't, you knew something was up. They'd gather at the front door at 9:45 a.m. every morning, especially Fridays and Saturdays. Their lives depended on them getting their hands on that copy of Die Hard or Bull Durham from 1988 or that only copy of Millennium (1989) the company stupidly ordered when demand for lousy box office flops was always high.
One customer named Howard had rented over 3,000 movies. When he passed away unexpectedly, the priest at the funeral said the one question Howard will ask St. Peter as he passes through the pearly gates, "Where is the nearest Blockbuster?"
Such was the line from that famous Bob Dylan song. When it comes to the variety of options consumers now have to rent movies, the times really are a changin', especially for Dallas-based Blockbuster Video.
If the video retailer's announcement Sept. 15 that it may close as many as 960 of the more than 4300 stores Blockbuster operates in the country as a result of continuing low profits and the massive beating from competitive rivals Netflix, Inc. and Redbox is any indication, it looks like "the Buster" is well on its way to becoming a dinosaur.
Of course, it wasn't always like this.
Working for "the Buster" from 1988 to 1996, I can't tell you how many times I heard
the comment that Blockbuster's days of being one of the top video store chains, were numbered thanks to upcoming technology that would make renting movies easier.
What amazed me was every time someone made such a comment, the Blockbuster CEOs and executives managed to prove the naysayers wrong.
I equate working for Blockbuster those eight years to being a member of a successful, long-running sitcom. I looked at Blockbuster like working at a popular bar, like "Cheers."
At the Town East Blvd. Location, where I worked, which is no longer there, we had our regular customers who were the equivalent of Norm Peterson, Cliff Claven, and Frasier Crane. You can almost set your watch as to when they'd show up. If they didn't, you knew something was up. They'd gather at the front door at 9:45 a.m. every morning, especially Fridays and Saturdays. Their lives depended on them getting their hands on that copy of Die Hard or Bull Durham from 1988 or that only copy of Millennium (1989) the company stupidly ordered when demand for lousy box office flops was always high.
One customer named Howard had rented over 3,000 movies. When he passed away unexpectedly, the priest at the funeral said the one question Howard will ask St. Peter as he passes through the pearly gates, "Where is the nearest Blockbuster?"
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