Before the age of streaming, thanks to such moguls such as Netflix and Hulu, there was the humble institution of Blockbuster.
90s kids will remember well the days when Friday nights were spent wandering around Blockbuster with your friends, trying to decide on the perfect movie while your mom waited impatiently in the car to drive you guys back home. Then of course, there was the snack section, where you’d pray your mom had given you enough money to cover the rental fee plus a packet of Red Vines.
Now those days are just a nostalgic memory for us Millennials, as Blockbuster further implodes on itself. There were two stores left in the world. One was near Perth, Australia and the other was in the US. But the Australian one has recently closed its doors for the final time. So if you ever get an urge to relive the memory of your youth, you will have to travel all the way out to Bend, Oregon.
Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy back in 2010, and since then the franchised stores have been on a slow but steady decline. The general manager of the Australian Blockbuster says they fought until the bitter end.
While speaking with Australian Associated Press, Lyn Borszeky, co-owner of the Perth store said, “We put in a pretty good effort to be the last one in Australia, I suppose, but it was going to happen eventually and now is the time.”
The Bend store seems pretty proud of its achievement though, and they have rightfully earned their stripes.
According to their Twitter account, they have been serving their small town since 2000, and they don’t plan on closing down anytime soon.
Of course, we moan about the loss of a reminder of our glory days, but we’re porbably partly to blame for Blockbuster’s demise, since we’ve all bought into streaming hook, line, and sinker. Convenience can do that to a person.
However, after finding out the news about Blockbuster teetering near the end, people have started becoming members of the Bend Blockbuster – apparently that’s a thing – with people from as far as London and Taiwan joining.
For now, the Bend store is staying where it is, in part due to the fact that the managers also own the land that it’s on, which means there’s no rent to pay. But perhaps a mix of nostalgia and social media can keep it going in the streaming age, otherwise Blockbuster will be lost to time forever.