Comment by cmos | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cmos | Hacker News Reader

wow. He should be fired. Immediately.

Just saying those comments should be career suicide. His PR person is probably freaking out.

Why would the board of directors just wait around for a clueless leader to drive them into the ground?

They lost the battle. Time for an aggressive plan B to stay in business.

Attempts to sell consumer electronics in blockbuster stores are pathetic and have failed over and over again. First radio shack, then circuit city. Putting up a shelf with electronic gear will not move it. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6695/is_200201/ai_n2...

My plan B for them would be to change store format entirely. Build a nice home theatre that can sit 20 people and have showings of new releases. The catch is they use equipment that is in the $1000-$5000 price range, and it's a great experience that you can 'take home'. Delivery is free. Installation is extra.

Show new movie releases. Always have free popcorn!! It costs virtually nothing. Have a kids night. Let local managers be more creative.

Still rent movies and games, but change the 'browsing' process. Have large screens and use a wii type remote to navigate a virtual store with slick graphics. Show what's popular, ask what type of movie they want. Make a game that promises to find you the perfect movie. Navigate through actors or scenes. Remember what they have seen. (how miserable is it to walk to the other side of the store with a movie and your wife says 'seen it' over and over again)

Make it so people don't say "do we have to go to blockbuster?" when they are in between movies in their netflix queue. It's staggering to think that the idea of putting boxes of discs on shelves and letting people walk around aimlessly picking at random is

My plan, if I were CEO of Blockbuster, would be simple (if undignified): compete on price.

A few years ago I lived near a Blockbuster -- I had a card but I hardly ever used it, because with rentals going for something like $6.50 (compared to $9 in the cinema or maybe $10 to buy the DVD outright at Walmart) what was the point? Then I moved to a new place, where my local video shop was an independent shop where DVDs rented for $3 a night. At three bucks a rental, I found myself watching a lot more DVDs, and of course spending a lot more money than I had previously.

(Oh, and then I moved away from the cheap video store, so now I have Netflix.)

If Blockbuster cut its prices to $3 per movie per night, it would get a lot of people thinking "Wait, am I _really_ watching enough movies per month to make my Netflix subscription worthwhile?"

This would, of course, only be a stop-gap measure, while they work on getting a good online-delivery system going for the long term.

>My plan B for them would be to change store format entirely. Build a nice home theatre that can sit 20 people and have showings of new releases. The catch is they use equipment that is in the $1000-$5000 price range, and it's a great experience that you can 'take home'. Delivery is free. Installation is extra.

Great idea, but not economical -- public screening rates for movies are ~$500. That was the rate clubs at my college had to pay, a commercial rate may be even higher.

When I was growing up, we went to a small-chain video store. They always had some movie (recent, but not new releases) playing on a real-projection screen in the store -- no seats or anything, but people would cycle through, watch for a few minutes, and move on.

As far as I know, they didn't play public screening fees, but different jurisdictions have different laws.

Blockbuster has enough clout to force movie companies to "water down" their product so they don't have to sell "unrated / NC-17" editions of movies, why can't they negotiate a much better public screening rate? Also, if it is so un-economical, why do the electronics stores that sell home theaters do exactly this?

"My plan B for them would be to change store format entirely. Build a nice home theatre that can sit 20 people and have showings of new releases. The catch is they use equipment that is in the $1000-$5000 price range, and it's a great experience that you can 'take home'. Delivery is free. Installation is extra."

This is brilliant! the Brick and furniture places try to sell you the entertainment stuff and throw a movie in there as flashing demo, but no one ever feels good about watching a 2 hour film while commissioned sales people peek over your shoulder. But put the emphasis on the movie and make the living room set "optional", and it may work. And for crissakes Free Popcorn, how cheap and good is that!

>My plan B for them would be to change store format entirely. Build a nice home theatre that can sit 20 people and have showings of new releases. The catch is they use equipment that is in the $1000-$5000 price range, and it's a great experience that you can 'take home'. Delivery is free. Installation is extra.

Toss out Blockbuster entirely, and I think that this could be a viable business in and of itself so long as you could negotiate decent licensing terms. The only change I would make is to focus on allowing customers to choose the movie. Right now, people are pretty much limited to seeing movies in theaters when they first release and watching them on home systems.

The declining price of home theater systems makes the second option a bit better, but there is still a huge gap between the two experiences. I think that a company could do very well for itself by offering a quality moviegoing experience for small groups(let's say mini theaters seating anywhere from 10 to 50). The ability to watch old favorites on the big screen (and let's face it, who wouldn't want to watch Jurassic park in theaters again), and the opportunity to watch directors' cuts that never entered theaters in the first place could be a huge draw.

So... will you go to the trouble of pitching this idea to a VC and setting up shop in some major cities (Columbus being one of them)? This would be a cool way to meet new people.

It kind of sucks that there is nothing in between "watching movies with friends at home" and "watching movies with friends at the theatre". The former is a lot a of fun, and the movie is even ignored at points as you are having more fun with each other, but there is no chance of meeting new people. The latter is 100% focus on the movie with a few comments here and there, with a slim chance of meeting new people.

Your idea could be really cool... almost an informal theatre that allows talking and horsing around, a place for both friends and bored individuals, where you can meet cool new people.

The more I think about this idea, the more I like it.

Great idea. A theater chain here in Toronto offers VIP theaters which are basically 20 person theaters with smaller screens and much nicer chairs. They offer tables to put your stuff on, space between seats, and also servers that deliver you drinks and popcorn or whatever you want (prior to the movie starting).

I could definitely see blockbuster going that route. Setup a couple private screening rooms and let people book them for their friends/family/co-workers. Then as you say, make a point of showing them how reasonable it would be to make that kind of experience a reality in their own home, but only before and after the film.

You have to be careful with the licensing on that one...but a good idea in concept

As far as I know, they already play clips of movies or even full movies (though they are older movies usually).

I seem to recall they had stuff on in the background while you browsed, but I don't know if they had to pay for that right or if the movie distributors paid them, or neither. But I suspect if a commercial establishment started having "theater" showings, they might be violating the license agreements of the videos.

I know that schools sometimes do it (or they used to, before the RIAA went rabid), however, as do (did) day-care facilities.

Agree. Even if you are not a visionary at least being updated with the market is absolutely necessary.

Imagine how Keyes would respond on Amazon's release of Kindle, lest sold books online or having a vast catalog.

Why would the board of directors just wait around for a clueless leader to drive them into the ground?

Typically, CEO's hire their board and gives them lots of options to essentially align with the CEO.

Once I wrote this, out of curiosity, I checked who's on the board of Blockbuster. Interestingly, a one Carl Icahn is on the board. (http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyOfficers?symbol...)

Also, the CEO made $5 odd million last year(http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officerProfile?symbol=...).

wtf? The board hires CEO's not the other way around - board members are voted on by shareholders.

I like your approach. Jordans Furniture uses the "shoppertainment" strategy very effectively--I think this could work for blockbuster, too.

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