Dish Network to shutter 200 more Blockbuster stores

By on Jul 22, 2011 at 7:20 PM
Business July 22, 2011

Dish Network on Thursday revealed plans to shutter 200 additional Blockbuster stores, dropping the number of nationwide locations to approximately 1,500. Dish won an auction to take control of Blockbuster and its remaining assets this past April, after the fallen giant filed for bankruptcy last September. Dish said that the 15,000 employees working in Blockbuster locations that will remain operational will not lose their jobs. The company also said employees of the locations set to be shuttered will have the opportunity to transfer to other stores. Blockbuster failed to evolve with the shifting movie rental industry — when it finally did begin to offer new portfolio options to compete with the likes of Netflix, it neglected to add any real value or differentiation beyond competitive offerings. Coupled with the expense of operating physical rental shops, Blockbuster didn’t stand a chance. Dish Network acquired Blockbuster’s in April for approximately $228 million in cash, and it remains to be seen whether or not Dish can manage to transform the current business into something worthwhile.

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19 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    I cant wait until they are all gone.

  • Cer

    This is progress. Now when can I finally remove the Blockbuster app from my Thunderbolt without having to root?

    • Anonymous

      Launcher pro > hide apps. Boom.

      • Cer

        No. I want to uninstall it without rooting. The app comes up in the Market
        as wanting to update so I can’t click Update All. It’s annoying and I want
        Blockbuster to die.

      • Anonymous

        Launcher pro does not require rooting

      • Cer

        In what possible way does using Launcher Pro allow you to uninstall the
        Blockbuster app? Please illuminate me, because you’re clearly misguided
        here.

      • Anonymous

        Well since you’re being a dick now, read again and see that I wrote hide apps, then educate your self and realize you cannot uninstall that app without rooting, dumb phuk

      • Cer

        I know you can’t uninstall without rooting. But perhaps it BB goes out of business you will be able to. That’s all I was going for with my original post. Not too hard.

  • Anonymous

    I happen to much prefer Blockbuster’s by mail server to Netflix. In store exchanges are awesome, and between Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus, I really don’t need another streaming service anyway.

    • Shawn_menchaca

      I agree. I loved the in-store exchanges. Made me mad when they got rid of Blockbuster in my city. (They are turning it into a Pawn Shop!). 

      • Anonymous

        A city with one Blockbuster is called a “town”.

  • Jason

    When they closed my Blockbuster, they sold all of the new release video games for only $12.99. Sweeeeeeeet!!!!!!

  • Too Hard

    I really can’t believe Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. I don’t think they manage the company well for that to happen. I mean look… Blockbuster had that ad where they got alot of their new movies up to 28 days before Netflix or Redbox (I know this to be true). That was a plus. Blockbuster had older movies available to rent right when you wanted them. With Netflix, you had to wait for them to come in if they weren’t on instant Queue (which is a gamble). I liked going into blockbuster and browsing the “NEW” wall to see what movies were out. There were tons of “B” movies I would have never found out existed if it weren’t for that wall as well. Blockbuster had in-store exchange. And it was the same as returning them to the center, so they would ship movies even when you had the store exchange movies rented! Tell me that isn’t a plus! Netflix charges extra for Blu-Ray add on. There’s no extra charge what so ever with Blockbuster. Blockbuster even had their own kiosks (or however it’s spelled) to compete with Red Box. Not to mention, Red box is so limited. If you happened to find a new movie you wanted, a dollar is a deal, but what if you wanted a movie they didn’t have? (which is very likely). That’s the relavance of a store! I really don’t understand why they filed for bankruptcy after everything I just said. And ontop of that, not too long ago, Blockbuster pretty much owned more than half the rentel industry a few years ago… So how does that happen?!?

    • Anonymous

      As a former blockbuster employee I can tell you flat out its due to complete ignorance on the corporations part. They flip flopped promotions constantly. The changed prices constantly. The would make promises and then let the fall through. In the early 2000′s they had complete control over the movie rental market and then were so lazy and arrogant they lost control because they refused to modernize. Hell the store I worked at was still using a DOS operating system in 2010… All of the things you mention as pluses happened after the beginning of the end for blockbuster. They had already starting losing market share in leaps and bounds when they FINALLY introduced their mailer system… they were crashing further by the time they got the kiosks going. On top of that you have terrible district managers who cram bullshit down employees throats, who make them not want to do their jobs properly which leads to high levels of customer satisfaction. The companies only real plan to attempt to get itself out of bankruptcy was to sell popcorn and candy bundles. They still don’t have a comparable streaming service. The whole 28 days before netflix was only on select titles about 5 or so every month to two months. Its only real advantage is the ability to walk around a store and browse for things you never thought of watching… which is a plus. But in reality its not enough to keep a store open. Its really kind of a face the facts thing. If your a compnay with over 5 billion in market share and 5 years later your a filling for bankruptcy, you deserve it. You failed to even understand the basic principles of how a business should be run. Plus, like starbucks, blockbuster super over expanding during the late 90′s early 2000′s so they had waaaaay more workers and stores then needed. Hell when I first started working at BB there were 10 stores within a 5 mile radius of my store… that is just crazy. Even McDonalds didn’t have that kind of coverage.

  • Anonymous

    Blockbuster = American Corporate Mismanagement at its’ BEST and the American Employee at its’ FINEST.

    It’s really tragic but, I’m not surprised. Whenever I would walk into a BB store here in New York or around the country, especially here in New York, I was always amazed at the level, or lack thereof really, of its’ employees. I always wondered, who the hell trains these people; they always gave these looks if you ever asked a question, more in line with, ‘why the hell are you interrupting me – can’t you see I’m chewing gum and talking on the phone’. That lovely work ethic and commitment, combined with gross mismanagement and outdated services, led to the company’s ultimate crumbling.

    Other examples of GREAT AMERICAN COMPANIES with
    the same management style:
    Circuit City
    CompUSA

    Best the BEST OF THE WORST:

    U.S. POST OFFICE (and, yes I realize it is not a company in the same sense as the aforementioned)!!!!!!

    • Anonymous

      By the way. I’m a scum sucking douche bag

  • Anonymous

    Wow, What a difference

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  • Anonymous

    Why am I seeing this picture again? Didn’t Block Buster close their stores since last year? I uninstall their app of my phone cause it’s useless.

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