For every '90s kid and '90s parent reading this article right now, how great were weekend trips to Blockbuster? They literally had everything and more. For kids, they had every children’s movie and for adults they had every single genre of movie from PG-R. Not only the movies but Blockbuster also had video games and of course...the food. They had every snack known to movie watching fans and more.
Blockbuster provided value that Amazon, Apple, Netflix or even HBOGO can never and will never be able to compete against. Sure, all those services provide one basic, exact same feature, movie renting and viewing, but Blockbuster added the definition of family into it. Going as a family to pick out a movie from Blockbuster was probably one of my favorite weekend activities. Sure, my mom would always want to see something sappy and my dad would always want to watch something action packed that barely made sense to my child mind, we all got our weekly picks.
So to those companies that ran Blockbuster out of business, congratulations for taking away the better of your services. My ultimate favorite part about Blockbuster would definitely be the cover art. Each movie has their own distinctive plot and art to it, the cover art to movies just shows that off and Blockbuster’s cover art for their movies really did help make my decisions easier.
Another thing Blockbuster offered that services today wouldn’t be the gift cards/ pre-made gift baskets. Know someone that loves watching movies? or wants to start watching movies? What’s better that a Blockbuster gift basket, loaded with popcorn, gift cards, subscriptions, candy and soda?
Growing up my absolute favorite part about Blockbuster was probably their rewards program. You pay an annual fee of $5 and it offers you free movie rentals every week almost. It only took about two movie rentals for the rewards program to pay itself off and for my childhood that meant an extra movie to watch. Something Netflix and Redbox fail to offer is something that Blockbuster always offered: instant gratification. When you went to a Blockbuster you knew for a matter of fact that the movie you want will be there. If it was not there, a Blockbuster employee would call the neighboring stores to see if they have it for you and put it on hold, and if that wasn’t possible then Blockbuster would grant you a free I.O.U. For Netflix to receive new movies it could take months and even years, and you never really know what Redbox has in store.
Blockbuster always did know how to keep organized. With self-updating software’s within Netflix and Redbox, you never really know nowadays where to find your movie on the screens, it really is a hassle. What made Blockbuster so awesome was that anywhere you would go in the store, everything would be organized. From the movies to the candy to the drinks and more, every big or little thing would be kept in an orderly and neat fashion for customers.
I will always miss Blockbuster. Rest in peace, old friend.
