Blockbuster’s closing of a Plano store not a casualty of movie war

by Blair Lovern

So I'm sitting in my house not long ago, minding my own movie watching business when my wife Liz comes back from running errands. She's gripping a flier in her hands from the local Blockbuster store on 15th Street in Plano. It's closing. Later I called them to check on the end date (Feb. 25) and told the guy who answered the phone, "Man, that stinks. It's so close to us."

"Yeah, we hear that a lot," he said.

Oh, dang well.

I wondered if the closing was a casualty of the brutal online movie business war between Blockbuster and Netflix.

Nope. Just a business decision, says Blockbuster spokesman Randy Hargrove. Blockbuster thinks customers in the area can best be served by the store at Parker and Independence, which is two major blocks North and one major block East of the 15th Street store (In other words, that's just too much Blockbustering for a couple city blocks.)

But recently I read something about the companies that was most interesting. I thought the Blockbuster/Netflix war would be/is a bloodbath. It's actually the opposite, says the Netflix man in charge. The companies seem to be feeding off each other, reports Motley Fool.

Says Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: "America is fast becoming a nation of online renters. Netflix and Blockbuster combined now have over 8.5 million subscribers, and the space seems likely to grow to 12 million subscribers this year. Together, the two companies are growing online DVD rental faster than either could on its own."

I was like Mr. Spock when I read that: Fascinating.

Blockbuster introduced Total Access this past Nov. 1 and it's been a successful move so far. In the fourth quarter of 2006, the company added more than 700,000 subscribers.

Hargrove said Blockbuster business plan is to continue to make the stores a main focus of revenue growth. "Our stores are more important than ever in the grand scheme of things," Hargrove said. "It's been a terrific program. Because you don't have to wait for a DVD in the mail, it essentially allows customers to double the number of rentals they can make."

That's true. Although, you don't get anywhere near the selection in a store that you do online. But I must say that the reason our household switched to Blockbuster from Netflix was because we could take the movie to the store and clear the online queue immediately for the next movie.

As the Fool story points out, Netflix has a healthy superiority complex and still wants to kick Blockbuster's sweet blue and yellow patootie. For now, though, Blockbuster's rear is bruise-free.