jayctora hajaria yalanda

[Juan Navarro]

Before talking about some weird nostalgia that I\u2019ve noticed online, I want to remind you that each month we do a mailbag edition of this newsletter where I answer reader questions. Last month\u2019s just came out a few days ago, and it was a ton of fun. I looked into musical death and pop song budgets, among many other things. We are now open for this month\u2019s mailbag.

Click this link, leave a comment, or reply if you want your question considered. If your question is selected, you get a free premium membership for a month, which includes four additional newsletters! Now, onto this week\u2019s newsletter while your questions percolate.

Going to Blockbuster usually occurred in one of two situations in my childhood home. First, we were staying in on the weekend and needed something to do in the evening. Second, either me or one of my sisters was sick and my mom needed something to occupy us while we laid on the couch all day. In either case, I loved going to rent movies. I loved walking the aisles and getting to pick out something of my own. I loved the chance of maybe getting a treat at the checkout counter. I\u2019d go so far as to say that I loved Blockbuster. Or at least I thought I did.

Things started to change as the 2000s marched on. First, our Comcast cable package began to include scores of movies to rent. That was great. You didn\u2019t have to leave the house to get a movie. There was still a large selection. And it only cost a few bucks to rent for something like 48 hours.

Eventually, my family got Netflix and that was even better. For a monthly fee, Netflix would mail you any DVD you could imagine. You\u2019d keep it for as long as you wanted, mail it back, and then they\u2019d send you the next DVD in your queue. Though it was debatable if your cable provider\u2019s on demand movie service was better than Blockbuster\u2019s, Netflix\u2019s superiority was certain. Their selection was endless. And there were no late fees. It\u2019s easy to forget that Blockbuster late fees were no joke. In 2000, those fees accounted for $800 million \u2014 or 16% \u2014 of their revenue. Furthermore, in 2001 they settled a lawsuit for $5.4 million related to their late fee practices.

By the time Blockbuster went bankrupt, I didn\u2019t really know anyone lamenting their demise. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been surprised to see an intense wave of Blockbuster nostalgia on social media over the last year. It\u2019s not only like people have forgotten that part of Blockbuster\u2019s decline was driven by the better options that emerged but that Blockbuster was also constantly maligned as the corporate behemoth that bowdlerized mom-and-pop video shops.

The Austin Chronicle (2013): \u201CIt's a bittersweet day for film fans: Blockbuster, for decades the bane of the independent video store, is going out of business \u2026 Seen by many as the Walmart of home entertainment, it pushed independent stores across the nation out of business.\u201D

Yahoo! News (2013): \u201CI always hated Blockbuster. In fact if I\u2019m nostalgic for anything, it\u2019s for what Blockbuster destroyed: The idiosyncratic, independent video-rental shops of the 1980s and 1990s. I associate Blockbuster almost completely with the general rise of chain culture that\u2019s slain interesting little businesses across a huge variety of retail categories \u2014 but even in that context, Blockbuster was special.\u201D

Of course, there were people who loved Blockbuster. Given its scale, Blockbuster was often the only place consumers could rent movies, especially in small towns. And I don\u2019t doubt that some people who are nostalgic for Blockbuster do actually miss it. But I think the majority of this nostalgia is not for Blockbuster itself. It\u2019s for things that Blockbuster represented. And I think parsing those things out is important.

If you want to listen to some new music, where do you go? Probably the internet. If you want to watch a movie, where do you go? Probably the internet. If you want to order something for your sister\u2019s birthday, where do you go? Again, probably the internet. Forget the fact that you might be accessing the internet on your computer, your phone, or television. Forget the fact that you likely need to head to a different app or website to accomplish each of those things. The important point is that you don\u2019t need to leave your house to do many things these days.

This wasn\u2019t always the case. Not that long ago, if I wanted to hear some new music, I would probably head to a record shop. If I wanted to watch a film, I would probably head to Blockbuster or a movie theater. If I wanted to get my sister some new clothes, I would probably head to a local boutique. There is tremendous convenience in being able to do all of these things without leaving your home. And it\u2019s clear that we like the convenience. Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon are all worth billions of dollars. But with mobile computing giving us the ability to be everywhere, it often feels like we are nowhere.

There is something special about going to a physical place dedicated to a specific purpose. Sure, I can access more movies than any Blockbuster could hold sitting on my couch today, but I can\u2019t access the feeling conjured by a place dedicated to all things movies and television.

Blockbuster[5] (formerly called Blockbuster Video) is an American multimedia brand and former rental store chain. The business was founded by David Cook in 1985 as a single home video rental shop, but later became a public store chain featuring video game rentals, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater.[6] The logo was designed by Lee Dean at the Rominger Agency.[7][8][9][10] The company expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004,[11][12] Blockbuster employed 84,300 people worldwide and operated 9,094 stores.[13]

Poor leadership and the impact of the Great Recession were major factors leading to Blockbuster's decline, as was the growing competition from Netflix's mail-order service, video on demand, and Redbox automated kiosks. Significant loss of revenue occurred during the late 2000s, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010.[14][15] The next year, its remaining 1,700 stores were bought by satellite television provider Dish Network,[16][17] and by 2014, the last 300 company-owned stores were closed.[18] Although corporate support for the brand ended, Dish retained a small number of franchise agreements, enabling some privately owned franchises to remain open. Following a series of further closures in 2019, only one franchised store remains open, located in Bend, Oregon, United States.[11][12][13][19][20][21]

Blockbuster's beginnings can be traced back to another company, Cook Data Services, founded by David Cook in 1978.[3][22] The company's primary goal was to supply software services to the oil and gas industries throughout Texas, but it was very unsuccessful.[22] Sandy Cook, David's wife, wanted to get into the video business, and her husband would soon study the industry and future prospects.[23] Using profit he made from the sale of David P. Cook & Associates, the subsidiary of his company, he decided to buy into a video store franchise in Dallas known as Video Works. When Video Works would not allow him to decorate the interior of his store with a blue-and-yellow design, he departed the franchise and opened the first Blockbuster Video in 1985 under his own company Blockbuster Video Inc.[24][25] When he realized the potential in video rentals, Cook abandoned the oil industry and began franchising the Blockbuster store.[26]

The first Blockbuster store opened on October 19, 1985, in Dallas, Texas, with an inventory of 8,000 VHS and 2,000 Beta tapes.[27][28][29] The chain's name is derived from the term blockbuster, a Hollywood term for a successful film. Cook's experience with managing huge databases proved helpful in driving innovation within the industry.[3] Following early success from the company's first stores, Cook built a $6-million warehouse in Garland, Texas, to help sustain and support future growth that allowed new stores to open quickly.[3] Blockbuster would often custom-tailor a store's inventory to its neighborhood, based on local demographics.[3]

In 1987, Waste Management co-founder Wayne Huizenga, who originally had reservations about entering the video rental industry, agreed to acquire several Blockbuster stores.[30] At that time, there were 19 stores, attracting Huizenga's associate John Melk's attention due to its efficiency, family-friendly no-pornography image and business model. Huizenga and Melk utilized techniques from their waste business and Ray Kroc's model of expansion to rapidly expand Blockbuster, and soon they were opening a new store every 24 hours.[31][32] They took over many of the existing Blockbuster franchise stores, and Huizenga spent much of the late 1980s acquiring several of Blockbuster's rivals, including Major Video. In 1989, Nintendo attempted to halt Blockbuster's ability to rent video games, filing multiple lawsuits and lobbying the U.S. Congress to ban the practice.[33] Nintendo ultimately lost the battle, which paved the way for future video game rental.[33][34]

Blockbuster sponsored the Blockbuster Bowl in American football, which began in 1990[35] and was played at Joe Robbie Stadium outside Miami. The first three editions were played under that name before Blockbuster withdrew its sponsorship.

In 1990, Blockbuster bought mid-Atlantic rival Erol's which had more than 250 stores.[36] In 1992, Blockbuster acquired the Sound Warehouse and Music Plus music retail chains and created Blockbuster Music.[37][38] In October 1993, Blockbuster took a controlling interest in Spelling Entertainment Group, a media company run by television producer Aaron Spelling.[39] Blockbuster purchased Super Club Retail Entertainment Corp. on November 22, 1993, from Philips Electronics, N.V. for 5.2 million shares of Blockbuster stock. This brought approximately 270 Record Bar, Tracks, Turtles and Rhythm and Views music stores and approximately 160 video retail superstores into the corporation.[40] It also owned 35% of Republic Pictures; that company merged with Spelling in April 1994.[41]

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