Court House Blockbuster going out of business
No word yet on other county locations
Oct, 12-2009 1:26 pm
By CLAIRE LOWE
Staff Writer
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE—After the many recent Blockbuster store closings in Atlantic County and the closure of the Cape May Blockbuster store in August, one more store has fallen victim to the changing way people watch DVDs. The Cape May Court House Blockbuster put up a clearance sign in its front window, getting ready to sell off most of its product before the end of the month.
This Blockbuster store is one of five in the county owned by franchiser Marcus Rawden of Rawden Enterprises. Rawden was not available for comment on Monday, Oct. 5. However, employees at the Cape May Court House store did confirm the closure. An employee at the Ocean View location on Route 9 said that she was not aware of any other store closings in the county, but did say that just two weeks ago employees were told the Cape May Court House store was not closing either.
Other Blockbuster locations in Cape May County include 100 E Rio Grande Ave. in Wildwood, 3855 Bayshore Road in North Cape May and 901 Simpson Ave. in Ocean City. Employees at the Wildwood and North Cape May locations said that they were receiving surplus inventory from the Court House store. The Ocean City store employee declined to comment.
While no word is available from Rawden as to what is causing the closure, competition from other video rental companies like Netflix and Redbox has forced many video rental stores to go out of business. In fact, Blockbuster Corporation announced in September that it would be considering closing nearly 1,000 stores by the end of next year.
“Well, we've said we are going to be rationalizing our store portfolio. Some of the news reports have said de facto that we were going to be closing a certain number of stores. Those are stores that we are evaluating. Our goal is to keep as many stores open as we can,” said Randy Hargrove, Blockbuster company spokesman.
Hargrove went on to say that those stores that are being considered are not franchise stores, but corporate owned stores. There are about 3,800 corporately owned Blockbuster stores in the United States and about 600 franchised stores, he said.
As a corporation, Blockbuster has set its sights on adapting to the new landscape of technology, which may mean fewer stores and more of a digital presence. Like Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox DVD rental kiosks at many local retail shopping centers, Blockbuster Corporation has begun installing rental kiosks in shopping center locations around the country to keep up with the competition; however none have sprouted up in New Jersey as of yet.
“The entertainment landscape has changed and we’re changing with it,” Hargrove said. “We've said that consumers have more ways than ever than they have had in years past to get their media entertainment. That’s why were going beyond our normal store base to do that. We’re building our strategy around a multi-platform approach.”
All three companies offer online renting. While Netflix and Blockbuster will deliver to your door or allow you to view movies online, and offer monthly-unlimited memberships starting at about $9, Redbox has an enticing $1-a-night DVD rental. Customers can go online to reserve a copy of their desired rental and visit a local kiosk to pick it up. Local Redbox locations include the Wal-Mart in Rio Grande; the Acme stores in Ocean View, Cape May Court House and Ocean City; and the ShopRite in Marmora.
Hargrove said that in addition to the online, by mail and kiosk rental services, soon Blockbuster will offer digital delivery through TiVo. The corporation is working with NCR Corporation, a global technology company that developed the Blockbuster Express video rental kiosk, to provide this digital service.
“Before the end of the year, through alliances we have with TiVo and Samsung, we've said you'll be able to download movies to your TV through TiVo and BluRay players,” Hargrove said.
Claire Lowe can be e-mailed at claire.lowe@catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
