Blockbuster Store Closing Marks End of an Era

I still remember the day that the first branch of the Blockbuster rental chain opened its doors in the Itaim neighborhood, in São Paulo. At the time, there was a big fuss about a store where dozens of copies of each major cinema release were available, something impossible for small neighborhood rental stores that could only get 1 or 2 copies at most. (https://yellowtail.tech/)

Even so, it was common not to find the main news if you arrived at the rental store on Friday afternoon. The success was such that dozens of other stores were opened. In the United States, the company once held 50% of the movie rental market, with approximately 70 million customers in the mid-1990s.

But the technological evolution caused the decline of the sector. Pay-TV operators began to offer launches on the pay-per-view (or pay-per-view) system. Piracy has become a fever with DVDs being sold at street vendors and stores throughout the cities and, finally, the internet has arrived to make life even easier for those who enjoy watching movies.

All you need is a broadband connection to download or stream great movie productions. It was against this backdrop that Blockbuster's management announced that the video store will abandon DVD rental activity and close the remaining 300 retail stores in the country by January 2014.

"It's not an easy decision, but consumer demand is clearly evolving towards digital video distribution," said Joseph Clayton, managing director of Dish, the network's parent company. The Blockbuster brand will continue to be used for internet offerings.

In Brazil, the chain was purchased in 2006 by Lojas Americanas, which took advantage of the stores' structure to sell various types of products. It's definitely the end of an era.