Rusted

Do anyone still remember the Music+ stores? Tower Records took over its location, then also croaked, albeit many more years later. Surprisingly, the Wherehouse is still alive, though not at all advertised.

SayAhh

Woden501

I always point out "You'll save 30 cents buy grabbing two popcorns and a soda since you're already buying that candy." Most people are happy to, the only people that didn't are people that still don't have a microwave.

We popped the popcorn then and there for them, and ended up with some very happy customers.

ZekeDMS

lawnmowerdeth

For No to mean No, you have to say No. If you need to say it with a cast iron skillet, say it with a cast iron skillet. And a lawyer.

BlackFlag55

Wonder if the same thing will happen with Best Buy and their magazine scam as well...

tom2133

mamacat49

Hooper

FattyMatty

S-the-K

highmodulus

JackWalker

The Count of Monte Fisto

ZekeDMS

Clarkins

Scuba Steve

Go Celtics!
Go Sox!
:-)

mattman0726

linbey

Angryrider

rbaldwin

verucalise

That, and a lot of people I know have had lousy luck with Netflix movies actually getting to them. Not Netflix' fault, the problem appears to lie with our area postal service...

zibby

verucalise

This is SOP at Blockbuster too. Had to work 2 weeks at a store that wasn't my own, and was 45 minutes away, because the DM had fired 90% of their staff.

brainwav

boomerang86

parrotuya

Public library FTW! They even have newer videos, for a very reasonable rental fee (but usually I just go for the slightly older ones). And at least the fees go to a worthy institution. Judging from the Friday closing time crowd, many of the people in my town do the same thing. Perhaps that's why the video rental places here aren't doing too well...

elisa

Lucky225

mrearly2

I've forgotten most of my undergraduate business classes, but I don't recall anyone ever trying to drill "SCREW THE CUSTOMER AT ALL COSTS" into my head. Well, except that one marketing class I took, it popped up a couple times there.

That's it, isn't it?

TechnoDestructo

Most customers also figured out that if they really didn't want to pay there late fee's all they had to do was call the corporate office
I had people that would be late with their movies every single time the rented and had corp take of 6 months of late fee's every 6 months.

Is this good for the consumer? Yes but only in the way of being cheap on the pocket in the short run.
Every single late fee that was taken off was taken out of the store budget. Less money, less workers. Less workers messy store, longer lines, or videos not returned into the system correctly ie more late fees taken off, repeat cycle until of business.

Also late fee removal was closely watched by loss prevention. Do it a little too often and they would interview you thinking that you where hooking up your friends or family.

It was very weird in that they wanted very good customer service but tried there employees like thieves. What's even funnier about that is that we had free rentals and DVD burners where just getting cheap. Why steal when you can have the store for free. Theft was always looks at as an internal problem.

I had a loss prevention manager ask we where the closest flea market was I told him about 30 minutes away and then told him that there where 3 pawn shops less than a mile from the store. The manager told me that the pawn shops where not the problem even thought I when up to one of the pawn shops and saw our locked videos on there store selves

When I "left" I had seen the writing on the wall for some time
Most of the people I had worked with for the last 2 years in the corp had up and left, or where in the process.

When I was the store manager I actualy told people not to sell play guard as I and most employees found it a tax on the stupid, since if you broke a DVD or game if you called corp they wouldn't charge you. Yeah it made your revenue look good but I like sleeping at night, and most people with a brain saw play guard for what is was, 25 cents for nothing. Most of the stores that did well with it pushed it as a Starlight Foundation charity thing.

Does this new action surprise me at all? No, as a former store manager the company has been going down hill for the last 3 years.

They had some good plans like extending store hours with a video vending machine, but instead we got play guard and the subscription services.

Also weird was how they pushed they web site but how technophobic the corp was. The computers ran on DOS up until about 2 years ago.

It is a matter of time until they are out of business. So look for the closing sales

Scooterx56

And you just can't beat Redbox for new releases ($1/night).

Interestingly, it seems if I pay for Redbox with my debit card, I don't get charged tax. Any one else have this experience?

farker

And for the amount of "I don't rent movies anymore" comments I see, there sure are quite a lot of people who rent at blockbuster and hollywood video that I see.

The Marionette

So people still rent movies the old fashioned way, eh? I stopped renting movies years ago. Way too expensive and too much of an inconvenience for the price. If it's in the video store, it's available On-Demand too. I like being able to select my movie from my couch without need of driving to the store to pick it up and drop it back off. Otherwise, if it's a movie I think I'll want to watch again, I'll just buy it.

Lambasted

Corporate-Shill

bleigh

As for the Blockbuster part of it, I know when I worked for them, I frequently went to help out at a different store, and was given no notice. I'd come in for my shift and they'd tell me they need me to go to a different store as soon as I came in.

I liked Hollywood Video, they always had harder to find movies to rent. They've all been closed down here.

iDuckie

thalia

Matt Redacted

MG failed to overtake BB because rurally-focused businesses rarely do well in an urban and suburban model. Just look at Wal-Mart, whose majority of stores in large and major cities do not make as much of cost to profit ratio as its rural stores. Also, if either BB or MG had bought Netflix in its earlier days, nothing could have challenged them.....period.

rsanders27

1. Landline Phones - skype
2. Electric Bills - Solar panels
3. Auto Insurance - Electric scooter
4. Gas Bills - Electric Scooter
5. Cable/video rental/ netflix - plenty of sources for streaming tv.
6. Investment advisors. Zecco.com and sharebuilders.com

What do I spend my money on. My highest bills are homeowners insurance, Homeowners tax food and water and garbage.

Gladiator11

Charred

Phexerian

OldHVEmployee

OldHVEmployee

Shadowman615

the starlight thing doesn't surprise me. They got seriously burned (er caught red handed pocketing the money) from Starlight. They WERE NOT happy about that.

As for the receipts, most stores only printed up for sell-thru purchases (candy, PDVDs, new DVDs, etc---nothing new there).

I agree about PlayGuard. Some stores cheat. We'd get harassed with the "why can't you sell 100 like such and such store."

Glad I'm gone! I've been into a Hollywood ONLY once since I was "laid off" back in March.

OldHVEmployee

TheKingBoar

OMG the GOVERNMENT is preventing the functioning of a FREE MARKET with its SOCIALIST public libraries!

TechnoDestructo

jnews

That would probably handle it. Of course, we have OnDemand, so the likelihood of us renting anything there is pretty slim.

oldgraygeek

Can't compete againist Netflix or heck, even against the Queens Borough Public Library, when the two branches in our neighborhood already have newly released DVDs and we can borrow them for free!

azntg

VOICE YOUR OBJECTIONS TO YOUR BOSS AND YOUR BOSSES' BOSS.

If you are ignored, do not put up with it. Tell your boss you quit, kindly. Make sure he or she understands that you are not going to take a pay cut because of ridiculous seemingly uncontrollable cooperate policies and unreachable sales goals.

No matter how bad the economy seems, no matter where you live, I assure you that you will be able to find a similarly paying job with an acceptable amount of hours offered for new hires.

pecheckler

THIS

delphi_ote

humphrmi

No, if they're not doing well, it's because they've lost their MINDS.

TechnoDestructo

You cant really force someone to work at a different store. Look up your job description, if it doesnt say that in there then there is nothing they can do about you saying no.

parad0x360

ShadowFalls

Joedragon

CaptZ

pigeonpenelope

cmdrsass

B

Beyond that, who cares? It's a Hollywood Video is a business model that has been eclipsed by a better idea.

Move on, nothing here to see.

bmwloco

bohemian

Aladdyn

pigeonpenelope

juiceboxonfire

I never looked back. Renting at those stores is like getting a root canal.

ironchef

i miss back in the good old days when the hollywood video employees were like the kids in "empire records" and gave us all Starbuck baristas free movie rentals and magically erased our late fees.

pigeonpenelope

Oh and Hollywood will end up like blockbuster, where they have to try to merge their way out of bankruptcy, only to fail in the end. It will be a slow, ugly process. But it will happen.

ARP

Anyone know if that's still their policy?

BurnsyNY

B

i stopped shopping at hollywood video because of the insane prices.. they were more expensive then the locally owned competitors. if they're not doing well its because they have lost their niche.

pigeonpenelope