What happened to… Blockbuster?
Global News
On this episode of the Global News podcast What happened to…? Erica Vella finds out what happened to the movie rental store, Blockbuster.
On this episode of the Global News podcast What happened to…? Erica Vella finds out what happened to the movie rental store, Blockbuster.
As a former multiple-franchiser owner, Alan Payne is familiar with Blockbuster; he had owned over 40 stores in Alaska and Texas.
“I put together the money and bought the stores in early 2000 and that’s when I became a franchise owner. … We built up a relatively good-sized infrastructure to run a company of that size,” he said.
Early on, however, Payne said he noticed issues with how the company had been operating.
At its peak, there were over 9,000 Blockbuster stores around the world and many of the stores were corporately owned.
While it appeared that Blockbuster was growing, Payne said he identified many financial flaws.
READ MORE: Only one Blockbuster remains in the U.S. as two more stores close
“To put it in perspective, the average Blockbuster store in 1994 was doing about $900,000 in volume. By 1996, it had declined to $700,000. In a retail business that’s largely fixed cost, that just kills your economics,” Payne said.
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