Blockbuster goes under...

[one eyed jack]

You say that Arginald but I have seen a few soft titles in there. Given the restrictions imposed on R18 its not their fault they couldnt stock anything harder but its hard to beat !Anatomy Of Hells" arty scene of drinking fresh period juice straight from source

The mind boggles at that one. Makes a face load of man juice look tame in comparison

[max_tranmere]

It would be very wrong if people can't get their money back if they have bought HMV giftvouchers, or can't redeem them if they've been given them. Seeing as the shops are still open the people with the vouchers should get spending quick-smart. I assume they can still be used this week.

Regarding the look of the high street, there are some areas where everything is just pointless and does little in the way of 'serving the community'. I remember that excellent TV series The Streets Of London on BBC2 last year, each week they focused on the history and changes within one particular street over the generations and interviewed lots of oldies who talked about what the place was like when they were younger. Many of these areas were poor years ago and are affluent now. One common theme in the episodes was how a street years ago went from having what you'd expect - from greengrocer to butcher to fishmonger to a builders merchant to everything else the area needed - to a situation in many of these areas today where there'll be a posh shop selling blinds, an upmarket travel agent, a posh boutique, a fireplace shop, and other equality daft and pointless outlets - all because the wealthy people now inhabiting the neighbourhood might occasionally need such things. The other outlets in the parade have long been turned into posh residential places.

The point I'm making here is many commercial districts are rather ridiculous now and do not serve the community at all. Years ago they did. The fashion for travelling to other places to shop has gathered momentum in recent years. Also, and this is sad, areas where you do have businesses providing what you need are all identical from one place to another - Tesco Metro have set up everywhere so the individuality of areas has gone. As I said earlier most of it will be online eventually anyway.

[Panties]

Looks like Blockbuster are reaping the whirlwind. I have no sympathy for a company that did everything it could to shut down every independent video store in this country during the 90s. During this time they were owned by Viacom so could undercut every small video business, the cost of rental titles to them being far less than anyone else.

They had a chance to get into the streaming and downloading market but got beaten at it by Netflix and Lovefilm.

[one eyed jack]

Got to agree with you Panties. There was a time when the internet was being shunned as a lot of producers thought no one wanted to watch porn on a computer screen either

A lot of them missed the goldrush by geting onboard too late after a zilion other upstarts crowded the market place

Blockbusters lacked the foresight to roll with technology and only went as far as the Love Film method of rentals but by then Lovefilm had all but dominated the market but even Love Film were smart enough to survive with their online option

Its a fast moving world. If you dont roll with it you will get rolled over