Blockbuster, the company that was the largest video store company in the world and that had to close due to bankruptcy, was physically reduced to a single location in the immense territory of the United States. However, in recent days the luck of the brand seems to have changed for the better.

What is the revival due to? In January 2021, after a Reddit forum was organized to buy-in and drive GameStop stock from $2.57 to a peak of $470, users didn't stop there. Thanks to them, Blockbuster saw its shares rise 6,000%.

Blockbuster has been bankrupt for more than a decade. As of January 22, its shares were worth $0.0033. However, with the help of Reddit users, the stock was worth $0.20 in just a few days, which represents a rise of 6,060%.

In any case, this does not mean that Blockbuster -which today is experiencing a temporary boom- will rise from the ashes. The main objective of the users of the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit is none other than to lose millions of dollars to investment groups that invest short in companies.

In the long run, the shares of GameStop and Blockbuster will go down again, but in the middle, many users are getting rich and taking heavyweights along the way, iProfesional said.

Blockbuster May Have Bought Netflix: Why Didn't It?

Near the end of its golden age, back in 2000, Blockbuster passed up the opportunity to buy a nascent Netflix, the current leader in the streaming market, for a sum that today would be laughable.

Reed Hastings, current CEO of Netflix, came up with the idea of ​​creating a much more flexible movie rental service after he was fined $30 for late delivering a copy of the film Apollo 13 to a Blockbuster. The story has never been substantiated as such, but what is certain is that Netflix was one step away from being bought by Blockbuster.

Until the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century, it was the largest video store company in the world, but in 2010 it declared bankruptcy and closed all its stores except some independent ones.

According to Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph in his book That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Power of Great Ideas, the story took place in the year 2000.

Netflix had been in operation for three years then. Founded by Hastings and Randolph, the current queen of streaming services was then a service that had nothing to do with video on demand (VOD) systems.

The heart of his business was a web page where his users could choose various movies to watch. Netflix sent them by post on DVD and there was no risk of penalty, since the second movie only reached them when they had returned the first. This removed the penalties from Hastings' history.

Those beginnings were hard. Netflix added users but continued to accumulate losses and they found it difficult to send their movies in a single day. That year 2000 they had lost 50 million dollars and had rejected an offer from Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who wanted to eliminate any competition in the online purchase of DVDs for his company.

The Bear Hug That Wasn't Between Blockbuster and Netflix

At that time, Blockbuster appeared as the only viable option. Netflix initially had the idea of ​​an alliance to be the online leg of the video store chain.

But at the same time Blockbuster launched its Total Access service, a direct response to Netflix so that its customers could also choose what to see on its website and receive it in their mailbox.

After several attempts to meet with the then giant, the heads of Netflix received the OK for a meeting to negotiate the sale of their business with the CEO of Blockbuster, John Antioco. They made an appointment, and the subsequent story reads like something out of a Netflix original movie.

The night before the meeting, Randolph, Hastings, and then-Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy were in rural California at Netflix's first corporate retreat when McCarthy learned that Blockbuster wanted to meet with them.

Blockbuster hubris

At the time, Netflix was in trouble. The dot-com crash had made its once-rosy future look bleak. The idea of ​​his mail-order DVD rental service, which was all that was possible in this era of slower download speeds, was gaining popularity, but not fast enough for the company to be profitable.

Blockbuster wanted to meet them at 11:30 the next day in the Texas city of Dallas, a 12-hour drive away. The arrogance of Blockbuster's offer manifested itself in this: After months of someone requesting a meeting, they finally agreed to meet with Netflix at a time and place where it would be physically impossible for the other.

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Hastings realized they could do it if they chartered a plane for 5:0 the next day. McCarthy objected that this would cost at least $20,000 when the company was on its way to running out of money and having to close its doors.

"We're on track to lose at least $50 million this year. Whether we make it or not, another $20,000 isn't going to make a difference," Hastings was quoted as saying by Randolph. The three of them rented a plane, and they left for Dallas.

An awkward meeting between Blockbuster and Netflix

Randolph described his arrival at Blockbuster headquarters as an awareness of where everyone stood. "His (Antioco's) loafers probably cost more than my car," Randolph acknowledged.

"The walls of the Blockbuster lobby, like ours, were covered with framed movie posters, although I couldn't help but notice that the Blockbuster ones were much more tastefully framed, each movie in its own gleaming stainless steel frame, surrounded by a ring of light bulbs like the marquee signs you see in theater lobbies," he described.

Antiochus had every reason to indulge in fancy footwear. He had come to Blockbuster two years earlier, when the company was already in decline due to some poor business decisions, like trying to sell clothes, but he still dominated the industry. And the conversation transmitted that as it is, until Netflix leaders said the figure they were handling for its acquisition: 50 million dollars.

"I'd seen him use all the tricks he'd also learned over the years: leaning in, making eye contact, nodding slowly when the speaker turns in his direction. Framing questions so it's clear he's listening. But now As Reed had named a number, I saw something new, something I didn't recognize, his expression was slightly unbalanced by a quirk at the corner of his mouth. It was tiny, involuntary, and it was gone almost immediately. But as soon as I saw it, I knew what it was. what was going on: John Antioco was fighting not to laugh," Randolph recounted.

The wrong decision of the Goliath of the videos

"Selling seemed to be our only way out. And Goliath didn't want to buy us, he wanted to stomp us into the ground. Even though Blockbuster had been a long shot, I really hoped it would save us. It was now clear that if we were going to make it out of the accident, Blockbuster was our responsibility," admitted Randolph.

Over the next several years, Blockbuster's Total Access service overtook Netflix's market share, but was also losing money. Shortly thereafter, Netflix began experimenting with a subscription model, which allowed customers to rent as many DVDs as they wanted, and managed to go public in 2002. That same year, Randolph began to walk away from the company, which he would apparently leave. no hard feelings with Hastings, in 2004.

Three years later, Netflix launched its first streaming service, and three years later, with Antioco already out of leadership of Blockbuster and with accounts in the red, the video store company announced bankruptcy.

Today there is only one Blockbuster open in the world, a franchised store in the state of Oregon that was allowed to continue using the brand and is now offered on Airbnb for a weekend of 90s nostalgia.

The secret of the last Blockbuster in the world to remain open in a pandemic

"I survived with the last Blockbuster" reads one of the stickers that are part of the merchandising of the only open branch of the once successful movie rental chain.

This store, the last in the world, not only survived the fury of streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney +, but also stands up against the coronavirus pandemic that has wreaked havoc on face-to-face businesses that lost market to the e-commerce.

More than a year ago, the Bend, Oregon, US branch became the last Blockbuster location when the Alaskan stores closed their doors and the Perth, Australia, levied its last late-return surcharge.

Sandi Harding, the manager of the Bend branch, revealed to the digital media Vice the secret to keeping the last Blockbuster in the world open in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The challenge of renewing DVD stock

The manager of the premises explained that she herself is in charge of getting the new releases of movies and series. How do you get premieres? Harding buys copies of DVDs and Blu-Rays from other stores.

"I usually start with 30 (copies) on DVD and 12-14 Blu-Rays. I'll go to Walmart, Target, Fred Meyer, all the retailers we have here in town, and I'll only get five or 10 of each. I really like it if I go in and clear out their shelves, so I try to be mindful of that and make sure I drop off movies for their regulars as well," he said.

When the pandemic spread across the US, Harding understood that having customers inside the premises was a time bomb. That is why she decided to close the doors for a few days to think about a health security protocol. So she decided to reopen the store with a sidewalk service. To avoid a crowd of customers on the sidewalk, those who wanted a particular title had to call the store, pay the rent by phone.

When they arrived at the store, a Blockbuster employee properly protected with personal protective equipment, cleaned the DVD case with disinfectant wipes and placed it in a zip-lock bag to take it to the customer's car.

A Blockbuster location resilient against the pandemic

However, Harding said the store had 10 to 15 customers on the sidewalk a day and that wasn't enough to sustain business or justify the potential risks. "You're in a tough spot, because part of you is looking at the economy and thinking, 'I've got to have customers come in and spend money, or my business won't be viable, but at the same time, I'm like the blockbuster mom,'" she said. "These are my children who work here, the clients are my family and, my God, I can't put them at risk either," she added.

For this reason, the store closed a second time, but Harding said owners Ken and Debbie Tisher continued to pay everyone and none of their 12-plus employees were laid off. To deal with this situation, the owners of the Blockbuster store received a staff protection loan, a kind of PTA.

During those days without customer service, Harding and other employees volunteered to take a complete inventory of the store whose DVD collection tops 22,000 units.

Additionally, Blockbuster employees posted social distancing markers and directional arrows on the floors. Only then did Harding feel safe enough with the new health safety measures to open the doors to 10 people at a time. "I got a client and she was like, 'I'm so thankful you're back open, because I didn't get to check Netflix one more time,'" she said.

Blockbuster Nostalgia Merchandise

Blockbuster's latest branch offers its own merchandising on its website. Customers can shop online for a wide variety of products like T-shirts, sweatshirts, and foam trucker hats, all printed with the logo of the nearly-defunct video store chain.

Also the Blockbuster location offers laminated replicas of its once-must-have membership cards for moviegoers, and a bumper sticker that reads in distressed block letters, "I survived on the last Blockbuster."