The Blockbuster Netflix war continues
I've posted about the ups and downs of Blockbuster before. This morning Mike points us to the latest pundit who says that Blockbuster will die within 2 years.
I can't refute his findings, and if true it's pretty sad. Everyone needs competition, and I'm sure it's done something to keep Netflix honest. Remember throttling?
From my point of view Blockbuster continues to make some good and some bad decisions. Since I last commented on them..
(-) They have increased the charges
(-) They have reduced the number of times I could visit the store, down to 5
(-) They cancelled the freebie coupon
(+) But they have improved their service, no more bad dvd's
(+) They remove instore-rented DVD's from your online queue
(+) They seem much faster to send DVD's. Regularly they turn up 2 days before they are due.
Unfortunately, overall I have to say that they are slipping into the red with me again. The ONE BIG advantage they had was that I could drive a couple of miles and grab a DVD when I wanted one. In fact I had got into the habit of returning most DVD's this way, for the instant gratification.
Getting people into the store had to be a good thing for business - I'm not a candy-buyer, but surely they make money from the impulse candy/soda purchases. (I heard once from a gas station owner that unbelievably they made more money from the groceries than gas).
Now, I know I was the one to choose to move to the 5 in-store DVD's a month plan, not the unlimited plan even though I wanted unlimited. But charging me more money for the same product is NOT the way it's supposed to work guys.
So, I baled to the 5/month plan. And as it turns out that stopped me going to the store at all. Not sure why, but I got out of the habit because I had no way of counting how many times I had left. I'm not naive enough to trust my memory - I forget anything not business-related - so in one fell swoop they lost my store visits.
I don't understand what they gained. They annoyed me, got me to visit the store less, and charged me less money. That doesn't sound like a great plan.
I still want to root for them though - if only to stop Netflix becoming a monopoly. Monopolies suck.