In addition to the corporate owned stores, the company has announced that it will also be cutting off the Blockbuster by Mail service along with the company’s distribution and fulfillment centers. Franchise holders and licensed stores worldwide will be able to keep their doors open, but it is not yet clear how these stores will be able to survive with Blockbuster closing its distribution and fulfillment centers. Sources tell us that franchise holders will be directed to new distributors to fill this role for the surviving stores.
While Blockbuster may be gone at the retail level, Dish is expecting to leverage the Blockbuster branding to continue to offer Blockbuster branded digital offerings such as Blockbuster on demand and Blockbuster at Home for Dish customers. The expansion of its digital offerings will still be marketed using the Blockbuster brand because the company sees value in doing so. The Blockbuster branding is still widely known and leveraging the branding is about the only way to get some value out this deal that saw Dish purchase the company.
Blockbuster has had a rocky transition to the digital and mail order business which has been dominated by Netflix. Blockbuster continued to fall behind as consumers found new ways to get their movies without driving to the local brick and mortar Blockbuster locations. Despite Blockbuster’s best efforts in developing both a disc by mail rental and video streaming business, neither one of them met with much success. It will all be a memory now after the remaining Blockbuster stores are closed. Left will be the independent local brick and mortar locations that are also struggling for their own survival.
