Blockbusted: Video Rental Giant May Close 960 Stores
Most of us are gleefully enjoying this brave new world of streaming our favorite shows and movies to our Xboxes and iPods and cell phones and holographic ocular implants. But if there’s one sector that isn’t exactly digging the brave new world it’s those whose business model is rooted in the brave old one. Case in point: Blockbuster Video, who announced this week that they may be shutting down 960 of their 4,400 brick-and-mortar stores.
Supposedly the downsizing could save Blockbuster a cool $30 million, something the rental giant could certainly use in light of the business they’ve lost to the likes of Netflix and Redbox. Blockbuster is hoping to counter the Redbox threat by increasing the number of its own rental kiosks from 500 to 10,000. I think they should take it a step further and create an army of blue-hued rental droids to go door to door. I’d be a lot more likely to watch the latest Wayans Brothers movie if it’s being offered to me by a robot.
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