I'm a former Blockbuster employee who was around during the company's fall. AMA.
>>768726783
Did you ever find anything weird in the movie cases?
Did you get free movies?
Did you ever steal?
>what was the buzz around the store
>did the managers worry
>did you thing netflix would get this far
>>768726783
So um, did you have company meetings?
Did anyone suggest copying Netflix?
what did you do during your days as a store employee to have fun on the job?
>>768726783
did blockbuster have a porn section?
how's mcdonalds treating you
>>768726783
I blame you for the current failures of screen entertainment.
>>768726783
how did thep try to keep employees around near the end?
>>768726881
1. Weirdest thing I found was a case with the correct disk inside and everything, but it was filled with some kind of liquid, presumably spit judging by the bubbles and viscosity. Don't know who did or why.
2. Only once, my boss was nice and let me rent 28 Days Later the day we got it.
3. No, not worth it.
>>768726888
1. Oddly there wasn't that much rumors or anything. The day it came out everyone was just lifeless. One girl cried because losing her job meant she wouldn't have a job so close to her boyfriend anymore or something>
2. Managers worried, yeah. They were pretty good at concealing it though so can't say too much more.
3. Nope, it was a joke to us. A few co-workers of mine predicted it would shut us down funnily enough, but they were only half serious.
>>768726922
1. Peek at the female customers and rate them with my buddy
>>768726893
Occasionally yes. Someone mentioned a subscription service that was still non-digital so pretty similar to all what Netflix used to do before they hit it big digitally
>>768727126
No.
>>768727308
I'm flattered you think I make enough of a difference to do so :)
>>768727362
They didn't. They gave up. At least mine did.
No reply by opening =/ but F N miss blockbuster, Hollywood video, and such. Going down with friends or chicks to pick out movie
Why did BB never go online?
>>768726881
The weirdest thing i saw was a ball of hair inside a case, maybe from a cat of something but it was disgusting
I didnt steal
>>768726888
The first time we heard about netflix we thought "thats going to fail we are too strong in the market" the next time i heard about it we were going to get fired because netflix actually fucked us in the ass lmao, certainly none of us thought they would get this far, at least not us common employees
>>768726893
Not us but the manager was always going to meetings here and there, attending calls and that stuff, we didnt knew how serious the situation was but we could see it was something to worry about by the look on his face as days passed by, i dont know if the top executives thought about copying netflix
>>768726922
Watch movies in the back or play xbox, there was not much to do so i had a lot of free time
>>768726783
When I worked at blockbuster I stole 40 or so video games (Mostly PS2). How much did you get away with?
>>768727520
When Blockbuster was a titan the internet wasn't nearly as established as it is now. When corporations thought of internet business they thought of things like Limewire and piracy and all that shit. So it was a no-go
>>768727413
What the fuck are you doing?
>>768727613
nice, someone else to answer questions. ill let you take over then
>>768727505
Same here. Mom and pop shops were even better. My hometown shop only hired film nerds and had shot separated by genre, but also by director, actor, etc. Had some real rare stuff.
Blockbuster never brought that kind of experience, but still was cool to go down there with your girl and pick something off the shelf.
Probably bought 100 or previously viewed DVDs.. good shit.
One time somebody returned a ps game rental with a dvd called Kid Sparkles Huge Fucking Cocks inside lmao! It was store policy to call the customer to let them know and a mom answered so I explained the situation and she asked which disc was inside and when I told her the name she hung up. We had to call every other day for like 20 days and nobody would pick up. No one ever went back and used that acct after that and we all lol’d
>>768727746
Sorry i just hijacked your thread because i thought you were not going to answer, none of those things are real, i didnt even worked at bb
>>768727670
>corporations thought of internet business like Limewire and piracy
...so unable to think outside the jewel-box.
They are still essentially the same way, twenty years behind the technology.
>>768727673
He's reddit spacing like a total fag.
>>768728057
thank you for fucking up a legitimate thread, faggot
>>768726783
Did you ever rub one out in the employee restroom?
>>768728149
not reddit spacing, its called spacing how i want to nigger
>>768727984
>Kid Sparkles Huge Fucking Cocks
>>768728344
And you want to reddit-space like a fag. Yes, we get it.
Oddly enough there are still video rental places in the town I live. Idk why or how they stay open. But they do.
>>768728437
Lol holy shit! Never thought to google it
>>768726783
Did your location get turned into one of those 24-hour overpriced wannabe emergency clinics for crackheads?
>>768726783
They went under?
>who could have predicted that?
>>768728344
>i want to nigger
You certainly do.
Border Ent still operates Blockbuster Video in Alaska...I heard it’s a two story building
>>768728470
only newfags complains about "reddit spacing", it's called writing a readable text you moron
>>768728649
>Alaska
Probably half the inventory is still VHS...
>>768726783
Do you still have a vcr?
did they let you take all the movies home with you?
>>768728677
Only the newest of newfags, who've come over from reddit, defend reddit spacing.
how many people ended up just keeping shit they rented towards the end, and what did you guys do about it?
>>768726783
Did you go to work at Toys R Us next?
>>768728796
sure thing, phone fag
>>768728633
"to nigger" is a verb now?
>>768726783
Did the black customers scratch/dirty the discs up more than everyone else?
OP isn't answering the questions we're posing. Abandon thread.
>>768729023
"I nigger", "I am niggering", "I have niggered", and "I have been niggering".
Other companies will step in and buy up the debt and then turn around and try to collect money owed by customers. They try and act hard with you but they really can’t do too much because all you have to do is deny owing the money and since they don’t really know how to look up act details and interpret them they have to kinda take your word for it
>>768729130
Lol I don't think op was ever answering.
Block buster did try the tactic of dvds via mail. Only difference at time was you could turn them in at the store
ITT: OP creates a AMA thread and then promptly fails to deliver.
I bounced around from blockbuster and Hollywood video during college and once a graduated I got started with my career. I wasn’t around during the final years
>>768726783
hey OP want a job at Blockbuster? theres one in my town im gonna apply this month
>>768729650
>Block buster did try the tactic of dvds via mail. Only difference at time was you could turn them in at the store
I remember the commercial for that. I specifically remember it because I instantly caught the mental suggestion taking place throughout the commercial, such as the animated CGI mother starting off in the commercial still having a CRT television, but the instant she began using the new mail service she suddenly had a flatscreen.
Ironic considering the mail service idea was already basically antiquated and the company was about to die. I just hate insulting mental suggestion like that (I had a CRT still at the time, and now Blockbuster is gone and I'm using streaming lol).
Didn't you hate it when you cleared the return bin, then turn around and was full again?
I hated that
so i dont have to worry about all my late fees now, right??
I hated having the store clean and the aisles ready for he next day at 11:50 and some dipshit family would show up and make a mess
>>768726783
i "worked" at a blockbuster on geary st in sf. the manager was a coke head pedo stoner dude.
i used to sell him coke and other shit and he faked like i worked there. he would forge time cards and i would credit him half so he could get high. went on for 2 years and a few times when his gm was in store i actually had to go in and act like i worked there.
you ever run any funny shit thing there?
didn't blockbuster go under like ten years ago? why the fuck are you making an ama now???
>>768726783
Since I'm pretty sure no one has asked do you know of any BB employees who killed themselves when it when bust
>>768730270
Seems like working in a vidya store was a dream job. Fucking easy street.
What happen to all the late fees/Debt? did it got written off?
>>768730270
that's fraud. you can go to jail for that.
