Several readers emailed us this weekend with news that the Blockbuster on East Houston (part of the Red Square strip) is closing. Well, we've heard this before as far back as December 2009. BoweryBoogie heard the rumors too.
Plus, the store has been on the block for a year now, via JDF Realty... (And it appears Sleepy's is part any lease deal here...)
"All uses considered" according to the listing.
However, a Blockbuster employee confirmed the closure. The employee said that this Blockbuster has ended its rental service. (Yesterday people could only pick up one-day rentals.) The location will stay open through February for a liquidation sale, the employee said.
On Jan. 12, Dish Network Corp CEO Joe Clayton told Reuters that the company will be closing more U.S. Blockbuster stores across than it had originally planned, and will turn the remaining outlets partly into Dish customer-service points.
Dish bought Blockbuster last May in a bankruptcy auction for about $320 million, per Reuters.
And so, the DVD rental business is just about dead. Two Boots on Avenue A seems to be the only place left in the neighborhood to rent DVDs. Even the Blockbuster kiosk inside Duane Reade on 14th Street near First Avenue is gone.
Mondo Kim's is long gone... Cinema Classics is long gone... Intervideo Electronics on First Avenue will become a Subway (sandwich shop).
Of course, you can check out DVDs from the Ottendorfer and Tompkins Square Park branches of the New York Public Library.
You don't see news of a chain store *closing* very often here. They're usually the ones opening.
ReplyDeleteOh, come on. You can't seriously be lamenting the loss of a Blockbuster to the neighborhood, can you?
ReplyDeleteCome, now, Evil Gravy...I think we're playing both sides of the coin a bit, no?
@PSD
ReplyDeleteI'm only reporting that they are closing. I've never been a Blockbuster member.
And I'm making "Evil Gravy" T-shirts.
Can't remember the last time I went to a store and "rented a video". If I had to guess I'd put it at nine years ago, minimum. It's a minor miracle that store was open for this long IMO.
ReplyDelete"Evil Gravy": It's what's for dinner!
ReplyDeleteno tears for this one.
ReplyDeleteThere was actually a line for the DVD rental machine in Walgreens the other day. Perhaps this is why.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember the Saturday Night Live "Crystal Gravy" parody of the Crystal Pepsi commercial?
ReplyDeleteThat's what Evil Gravy made me think of.
evil gravy, many, evil gravy.
ReplyDelete