Remember Blockbuster?

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Blockbuster came into being October 19, 1985, its first store was in Dallas, Texas. It was the brainchild of entrepreneur, David Cook, after the oil market he was working in collapsed. VHS rentals were just becoming popular and he thought a store with a large inventory could be profitable. It is fun to note here that 16%, or $800 million, of the company's revenue, came from late fees. (A nice bit of pocket change, huh? When you figure a movie that is eight or more days late could end up paying the full purchase price of the movie.) Late fees were canceled in 2004. By that time the rental store had 60,000 employees and 9,000 stores around the world. It had a market value of $5 billion with revenues of $5.9 billion. The competition was too much for it, however, and in less than ten years' time the store's popularity was waning due to on-demand rental sites and online streaming. Only 300 stores remained in the U.S. and revenues had dropped to $120 million. In 2010 Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy and was $1 billion in debt. In 2011 Dish Network bought remaining assets at an auction for $320 million with the intention of making Blockbuster in a Netflix rival but the next year it scrapped the idea. I rented a lot of movies from there. Now the place where Blockbuster used to stand down here on State street is a sandwich shop. Sad how these things happen in the business and entrepreneur world. Image courtesy of blogspot.com