It’s the end of an era folks, and a huge sign of the times, but according to IMDB the rental chain Blockbuster has dropped VHS, and let’s face it, who watches rental VHS anymore, especially with DVD’s costing less than a night out!
Blockbuster has virtually banished videocassettes from all its outlets, with the exception of some children’s and Spanish titles, Home Media Retailing reported on its website Monday. It quoted a Michigan Blockbuster employee as saying, “It’s definitely phasing out.” However, a company spokesman denied that Blockbuster is dropping its VHS rental business, telling the trade publication that it is continuing to appraise product and format allocations on the basis of customer preference.
Yeah, aka “We’re dumping VHS for DVD”, but what’s the deal with Spanish and Kid’s movies? Why are they still needed on VHS? Are you still using VHS (apart from recording TV programmes to watch later)?
Well Marla, I have also read reports that say many of the indie video stores are now losing customers to Blockbuster because of their “no late fees” policy, so I don’t know if that’s entirely true. But you are right about lack of title availability. They’re constantly out of stock on new releases because of all the inconsiderate, lazy scum bags who milk the no late fees thing for all it’s worth. But then again, availability on new releases has ALWAYS been a problem in video stores, at least for the first couple of weeks of release. Anyone who still walks into a video store on a Saturday night and expects the “hot” and usually TOTALLY CRAPPY new Tom Cruise movie to be in stock is just clueless and has obviously been living under a rock for the last 20 years..
As for that loser customer, you should have asked him how he’s going to rent or buy Star Wars Episode 3 when it comes out in November. For anyone who doesn’t know, that movie is ONLY coming out on DVD and obviously it will be one of the biggest video releases of all time. That idiot better snark himself back to 1985 because he’s going to be completely screwed pretty soon here. It’s unlikely there will be any movies released on VHS past 2006. I find it pretty amazing the movie studios are still manufacturing the things to begin with. Surely they can’t be making much of any sort of profit off the archaic old format. I mean places that still rent the things is one thing, but can you think of any stores that still sell them??
For the record, there are 5 Blockbuster’s in my area(all CORPORATE OWNED stores) and none of them stock VHS anymore. There’s also one Hollywood Video here and they don’t carry VHS either. So yeah, I think it’s safe to say that guy was totally full of it. How can you take a person seriously if they still don’t even own a DVD player, anyway? I don’t think they even qualify as functioning members of modern society. If you can’t plonk down 40 bucks for a low-end DVD player, there’s just something seriously wrong with ya..
Farewell VHSuck. I sure won’t miss ya.
actually rogers only hires 18 year olds because the employees need to be able to enter the porn section.
i work at rogers video and a customer actually asked me last night why we didnt have as much vhs to rent for our new movies like sahara and monster in law, and i told him that vhs has fizzled and we’re slowly getting low on vhs copies. of course the customer snarked at me and said “well blockbuster has lots of vhs”. i completly ignored the comment and went along with my business, and i doubted in my mind that that was true and i guess i was right. theres no way blockbuster would have an abundant amount of vhs. there’s a couple of things they arent in abundance of such as available rentals (nobody returns their movies anymore), profit (how does a store make profit if they do not have late fees), and customers (rogers video has grossed since no late fees due to complaints of charged credit cards, lack of selection, and closed accounts at blockbuster.)
snarky remarks are rude and uncalled for. the situation u create by those comments is unecessary. just becasue we are video store employees doesnt give u a right to condescend us in that tone. Rogers video only hires 18yrs or older….why? becuase the maturity and capacity is needed to run sufficient, impactful business. where am i going with this? it takes a lot of work to do the job and although u may not believe that, just remember this before you get on your high ass consumer horse, our job is a lot less appreciated than yours
I agree with what James Russell mentioned, about not all films on VHS being out on DVD yet. Now, most of these films are generally low budget cult films or B movie fare, and while some people may not miss some of these titles, others will. But there are many indie films as well that need good transfers as well.
Before studios throw out more double dips so we can blow more money, put out some of these other films on DVD. As much as I hate full frame/ 1:33 ar, if need be, put on there for the time being.
There are a few films I would love to see on DVD yet. They may not be earth breaking classics, but I promise I’ll get them…
The Perfect Weapon (1991)
Street Knight (1993)
Blue Monkey (1987)
One False Move (1992)
The Desperate Trail (1994)
As for kids films and spanish videos…I think a good reason is that this is more slow going; I think studios will be more apt to put in boxed sets, or there may be legal rights battles or…children just shouldn’t play with DVD remote controls I guess…
The spanish titles are hugely popular because they are easy to follow with the subtitles and they are muy romantica. *barf* All spanish programming is soap opera driven. There have been a few aside films that aren’t like that (Real Girls Have Curves for one), but 99% of them are, and chicks and old people dig them.
I agree with the above commenters. Lots of parents I know buy cheap children’s movies on VHS. They can pickup old cartoons & shows on the cheap, and not worry about a disc getting scratched like a DVD.
I used to work there, and I know I told tons of people that we were phasing out VHS over the course of the two years I was there. Of course, the boss always said that we were going to do it “in a couple of months.” I think the reason behind the difference in quotes could mainly be attributed to the fact that most stores are franchises. A franchise might decide to dump all their VHS, while the Corporate stores will keep them.
Funny story, we actually had people accusing us of discrimination when we started getting fewer and fewer VHS tapes. It was always old people who were scared of technology. I overheard one of my co-workers helping a customer on the phone say one time: “yes, you put it in shiny side down.” This was after CDs and DVDs had been on the market for years already.
Ah, the memories. I’m glad I quit that job.
I agree with treycranson in regards to childrens tapes – these are about the only VHS tapes that I still own.
It was bound to happen sooner or later. To be frank – I’m surprised it’s taken this long!
One of the Blockbusters in my area here in Sydney junked all their VHS stock months ago. A tragedy and a waste, as a lot of what they had on VHS still isn’t on DVD. As for the stuff that is available on DVD, I’d like to think they would replace the old VHS tapes with digital upgrades, but they won’t.
The catch with VHS is that a lot of movies for Kids don’t ever come down in price. An example of this might be an Elmo movie. The Elmo DVD will cost around $14. Very rarely will you see these movies in the bargain bin. On the other hand, the VHS versions you can find for as low as $4-5. When your child has the attention span of a gnat, you’ll need a large collection, so $5 each is much better than $14 each. Despite all of this blabbering about VHS, I have started the phased out. All of the VCRs are slowly ending up in the closet, replaced by DVD players.