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The poor UK High Street is taking a right battering at the moment. First Comet, then Jessops, then HMV, and now Blockbuster has hurtled into administration. Deloitte’s handling this one, along with HMV, and it seems the plan is to keep at least some of the 528 stores open.
According to the BBC, Deloitte’s taking over the day-to-day running of the DVD rental emporium, although how long the 528 stores stay open, and the 4,190 employees are kept in a job, we don’t know right now. At least Deloitte’s saying gift cards will be honoured this time.
Who’s next in this recession death procession? It really will just be 99p stores left at this rate. [BBC]
Image credit: Blockbuster from Shutterstock
*de de dum, dum, dum, another one bites the dust*….
to be honest, i thought they had closed down a long time ago
I’m amazed how long Blockbuster managed to hold on too. I mean, when was the last time you rented a DVD from a brick-and-mortar shop?
let alone the last time i rented any sort of media from anywhere lol
cds and dvds are the same whether you buy them online or in a shop, they don’t really have the feel factor when you buy them, a camera does so you can mess and feel the weight dimensions etc..
i just see no need for these types of stores any more
Actually not that long ago. I vave LoveFilm and NetFlix, but for new releases, I don’t find the on-demand rates of Itunes and BlinkBox that great considering you only have 24 hour to watch it and you cant watch it more than once (at least I dont think you can). Blockbuster had the fantastic deal of renting 4 (new) blu-rays for £10 which is only £2.50 and you could keep it for shy of 4 days.
First thing I thought, hadn’t even considered online stuff
It’s a shame but another that’s really no surprise. My small town has one that on average sells games £7 more expensive than the Sainsbury’s 200 metres away. The internet has hurt them as has digital rentals but I do think they should have tried to be more competitive on games and movie sales.
Wonder who will be next? Would be interesting to know how good or bad stores like waterstones, WH Smiths and Argos are doing.
Obviously a good time to apply for a job with Deloitte. Can’t see them going bust anytime soon.
Considering their US counterpart went bust a couple years back, the rate they were closing local stores (mine closed last year), and the fact that their DVD by mail model was no where near as competitive to LoveFilm (let’s blame Amazon again), the writing has been long been on the wall.
I’m sure someone said on here that blockbuster would go bust next. I went in to blockbuster a few years ago it was mainly full of popcorn and sweets.
That was me and I think I deserve a few points for that prediction : )
It was me; not sure who said it first though @pleasethink or me.
I mentioned it on monday. But I actually have a mate who works there and he told me how they were having pretty serious problems. I told him a month ago he should find an exit plan. I hope he did.
The Giz comment section is totally jinxing the high street. Yesterday we predicted Blockbuster, right before that, it was HMV. Both times the announcement came the following day
Waterstones turn tomorrow
On your head be it PickSuppy! Waterstone’s is owned by a Russian Billionaire so I think that might be safe for a while.
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Worth a try
*Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple *Apple
OH MY GOD world’s worst spelling error. I am so ashamed.
still
Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple Apple
I hope there isn’t a company called Appple as I may have unintentionally doomed them. I suspect that if there was Apple would have sued them out of existence years ago.
Out of all these stores, I wish there were less phone shops, who needs that many? Especially 2 (or more) EE stores in each town (after T-Mob and Orange merged).
On a serious note, I do feel for the people who lose their job. I was in that position last year and the Job Centre is no fun and de-moralising, especially if you are hard working.
I agree far too many phone shops. I wouldn’t shed a tear if Phones4U disappeared just for the use of “4U” in their name.
SO how many staff will that be out of work in a few months if it all goes badly, 8000 ish between jessops and blockbuster. Wonder how many comet adds to that. Looking like a bad quarter or two for the economy.
I was thinking that. And HMV too, that’s a heck of a lot of people rudely kicked out on their arse.
I reckon some of these guys should go and get a job at Deloitte, plenty busy at the moment.
1,300 from Jessops, 4,200 from Blockbuster, 4,500 from HMV and Comet adds on a tasty little 7,000 upwards.
At least PC World’s planning on hiring a bunch of the Comet staff — that’ll help a little
It was HMV I was thinking of not Jessops. but thats a worst case scenario of 17000 people on JSA. Not to mention any firms that relied on them.
Not that I think a real worst case scenario will happen, every store can’t be unprofitable.
Hats off to Blockbuster for lasting this long, they tried a few different strategies to keep going and lasted a lot longer than they should.
True, I quite liked their borrowing scheme
I think the niche and lower end market will survive the storm, anything in the middle is bound to face a full blow. Good for rebooting and reshaping economy, if we recover then the mid market will re-emerge, else the niche market would be on the firing line.
Hahahah and don’t you just love the Netflix automated ad on here, one of the reasons why Blockbuster died.
eventually its going to be 99p shops and supermarkets that do everything…….
The fact you can buy DVD’s on Amazon and eBay for less than it costs to rent them for one night probably doesn’t help any…
Sweepstakes to guess who’s next to go! winner gets a +1!
i guess Waterstones
Soon we’re going to end up with with a high street full of local, independent shops again.
Didn’t even realise they were still going.
a few years from now the high street is going to mainly consist of, pound shops, clothing/fashion, travel/ healthcare, and random small outlets, shops like technology, multimedia cannot sustain due to the online shopping, and downloading, a dvd for sale online costs around £3-5 less then the same in bricks and mortar stores, gadgets can be up to hundreds of pounds cheaper, thats why these shops will continue to fall, a shame really….
i can see where my money will go in February
SALES!
Think I said it in another comment, but online is going offline. Pick up points are the start, but I can imagine small concessions popping up soon. Amazon Local anyone? By that I don’t mean their current Groupon-esqe offering, but outlets where they will be able to sell certain items in store and the rest you just pick up from them the next day. Hence I think Argos days are numbered.
This model is already happening with many of the online fashion retailers (ASOS) and the place I used to work for were thinking along the same lines.
Multiple pick up stores under one roof anyone?
I can see that happening. Something like Argos, only you go in there with your confirmation of delivery notice, they scan a barcode on it and it tells them where on their racking they put it, they get it out and hand it to you. The service charges a small fee making up their costs in shear volume.
I’m off to rent a rake load of the latest console blockbuster games… and never return them
I know loads of people will bang on about just download movies but I do really like blockbuster.
And the one close to my house is always very busy so I cannot be the only one that actually enjoys going and renting from the store.