I got to a specific point in this a little way into where my perception of the store flipped from, "Oh Oregon, it's so quirky, they would still have a blockbuster" to "Oh, wow, I see now. The people keeping this open are insane."

ApachePilot said:

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Blockbuster killed me in college with late fees! The fees were more than the movie was worth.

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Lol, my roommates and I were always asking each other who had late fees outstanding so we knew which account to use.

texagco2003 said:

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ApachePilot said:

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Blockbuster killed me in college with late fees! The fees were more than the movie was worth.

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Lol, my roommates and I were always asking each other who had late fees outstanding so we knew which account to use.

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I started buying the used movies for $10 instead of renting. Cheaper in the long run.

I almost took a job at Blockbuster Corporate back around 2007. Passed it up because of what looked like Redbox's rise in popularity...didn't even really think of Netflix at the time.

Dodged one there!

tamuags08 said:

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Wow, and a Papa Murphy's attached. Great model there.

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Funny enough, when Blockbuster finally did close its doors another Pizza place opened up in its space directly next to Papa Murphys. This one is a local pizzeria, Bullwinkle's, which blatantly stole it's name and images inside from the cartoon. It's a dine in model directly next to the take and bake model. I'd have figured one of them would have shut their doors down by now but it seems they can coexist next to one another.

https://www.bullwinklespizza.com/

Psychag said:

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Spent the night camped out at Hastings for tickets to The Police Synchronicity Tour. Must have been around 1984. They even brought out a keg for us to stay hydrated over night. Great Times!

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That sounds awesome.

College.

Boo

I thought this was about Bullwinkle's in college station. From what I heard, I had a lot of fun there

Spent a lot of time at the 2 Hastings in BCS. Great store.

Also, many, many hundreds $ on used DVDs and CDs, which I still buy today -
... GenX forever, physical media #1 (yes, I stream, but I also just finished ALL physical official releases of Dylan, Who, Rolling Stones, Cheap Trick, Spoon, and others, and won't stop). I listen while I read and I want PHYSICAL. So, now its Half Price Books mostly.

Philip J Fry said:

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Mostly went to Hastings in CS.

Still, it's incredible that Viacom single handedly destroyed BB. The "no late fees" business was mind boggling.

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I thought the most interesting point of the documentary was when they asked what the "no late fees" model did to their revenue stream the guy responds that it nosedived a third. The interview asks for clarification "did your revenue go down by a third or was it a third of your previous revenue stream?" He replies "it was one third of our previous revenue."

Wow. Two thoughts...how on earth did they not quantify how much of their revenue was made up of late fees before making this decision and furthermore how did not one person anticipate that removing late fees would mean people would simply return their movie(s) really late or worst case, not at all.

Just a galactically stupid decision.

Surely they knew how much revenue came from late fees. Obviously they way under estimated how motivating it was for someone to be forced to bring the movie back 48 hours later and rent something else. I was shocked it was that drastic, but they were desperate.

CowtownAg06 said:

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Surely they knew how much revenue came from late fees. Obviously they way under estimated how motivating it was for someone to be forced to bring the movie back 48 hours later and rent something else. I was shocked it was that drastic, but they were desperate.

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Exactly. Their late fees werent 2/3 of their revenue, but many many people probably started going to blockbuster once a week or less instead of multiple times per week

BadMoonRisin said:

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I watched it last night. I really do miss blockbuster. I tell my wife all the time, it was such an exciting event to "Make it a Blockbuster night". We'd head there Friday night, have to horse trade with my brothers to pick out which movie or SNES game we got. Get a pizza and watch with the whole family.

Yeah, yeah, you can do all that now, but it just brings back so many happy memories of my childhood.

Once mom and dad said that we might go to Blockbuster, the anticipation was just a special feeling.

And the smell....the smell man. I can still smell it. A mix between popcorn smell and that warm laminate that they put on all of the VHS cases.

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My thoughts on old record stores..

Look guys... said:

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Always went to Hastings in College Station in the 1990s. Hastings was the greatest store. Music, movies, and books. I loved it.

Moved to Dallas in the late 1990s anc was shocked that every corner had a blockbuster.

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In the Far North Dallas/Richardson area I can clearly remember there was blockbuster on Spring Valley, Beltline, Arapaho, and Campbell roads....which are all the major streets of that part of town.

There was literally a blockbuster store everywhere you turned.

Growing up Blockbuster is where you ran into everyone on a weekend night.

That's pretty much where I moved to. Worked at Hillcrest and LBJ and lived near Preston and Campbell.

double aught said:

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A may be misremembering here: But I thought that when they introduced no late fees, that it was in actuality a somewhat convoluted system where there still ended up being fees or they would just charge you for the movie outright.

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I think that's correct. After so many days (a week or a month or something), they converted the late fees to sales. I think there were lawsuits around it.

Look guys... said:

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Always went to Hastings in College Station in the 1990s. Hastings was the greatest store. Music, movies, and books. I loved it.

Moved to Dallas in the late 1990s anc was shocked that every corner had a blockbuster.

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Had never heard of or seen a Hastings til they built one in New Braunfels late 90s early 00s. We had blockbuster and Jim's Video. Hollywood Video came later.

TXAG 05 said:

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Look guys... said:

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Always went to Hastings in College Station in the 1990s. Hastings was the greatest store. Music, movies, and books. I loved it.

Moved to Dallas in the late 1990s anc was shocked that every corner had a blockbuster.

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Had never heard of or seen a Hastings til they built one in New Braunfels late 90s early 00s. We had blockbuster and Jim's Video. Hollywood Video came later.

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Hastings was mostly in college towns. They started expanding outside of them later on, but....

I remember being 12 and while the rest of my family was off browsing new releases I could sneak a peak at the cover for the 1977 movie "Ants"

Just saw Netflix is coming out with a workplace comedy about the last blockbuster in Oregon. Will star Randall Park (Asian Jim/Jimmy Woo from Wandavision) and Melissa Fumero (Amy from Brooklyn 99).

I lived in the area of Skillman at Abrams in Dallas in the early 90s. We went to a Blockbuster nearby, I want to say it was on Skillman, next to a B Dalton bookstore. This was supposedly the original store.