Video Killed the Video Store

Did nobody look at the window ? P2P files sharing was just the final nail in the coffin. Even before DVD, people were simply copying video's. It became a lousy business model as soon as people could copy stuff they borrowed.

In the UK, second hand videos can be found for 10p, with some rarer stuff selling for the giddy sum of 5GBP. CD's and DVD's are pirated as soon as released.

As an aside, the song was Video killed the Radio Star, by Buggles, so the headline here should have been something liked DVD killed the Video, or P2P killed the Entertainment Hire Shop.

For an added bonus, I comment that streaming media will collapse the internet. It's a bit like everyone and his dog having a car whilst only single lane tracks exist.

Block buster did this to them selves every time they had a GREAT IDEA THEY GOT TOO GREEDY AND MUFFED UP THE CONSUMER CONFIDENCE they had it socked up with the rent online then turn it in and get one for free for the turn it. seemd like they were giving out too much for the money spo they killed it they copuld have blown netflix out of the water!

Indeed.

P2P may have been the final nail in their coffin, but Blockbuster themselves dug the grave, carved the headstone and called the florist for a nice arrangement.

Bad rental policies and poor stock levels (which I think may be largely fixed now) were the start of their woes. But as said above it was cable / satellite on-demand video and Netflix which struck the most painful blow. This freed us from the galley slave work of rowing our gas guzzlers back and forth to Blockbuster twice. Americans (rightly or wrongly) don't seem to have enough time for such labors.

Even Redbox kiosks are seemingly doing well. I'm stunned at the number of people I see using them. Presumably their cost / convenience formula is winning out. Not sure how the company is doing as a whole though.

They imitated rather than innovated and even then they did it poorly. Sadly, the penalty for this is death.