It looks like the bottom has finally fallen out of Blockbuster. After numerous failed attempts at attracting new customers, the company is finally spiraling out of control.
Although Blockbuster tried everything it could to create a compelling reason for us to use the service, the company could not overcome its downfall. For years, it was hated by those people who saw it as a monolithic organization that enjoyed charging exorbitant late fees and had little or no care of what the customers wanted most. I guess the business model of "Screw all your customers out of as much money as possible" just doesn't work these days..
According to the company's 2007 results, Blockbuster's revenue slid almost 6 percent and the company harbored a net loss of $35 million. Worse, it has closed 526 stores in the past year, and the number of employees will be reduced to offset high overhead costs to the tune of $45 million.
I never understood how bad Blockbuster was. An enormous store would somehow only have thirty actual movies, most of them direct-to-video. When you finally had one, you inexplicably had to wait in line for half an hour to rent it (usually while employees stood idle waiting for people on some sort of premium plan). Then, you'd have to go through that elaborate ritual where they slid it past the security scanner and you walked around to pick it up. What other store makes you jump through hoops like that to take the product home?
