Blockbuster has just closed two of the three last remaining stores in the United States. Both of the stores that were shut were in Alaska, one in Anchorage and the other in Fairbanks.
Blockbuster Alaska announced on Thursday the closures of the two stores and issued a goodbye message to all of its loyal customers.
There is now only one Blockbuster store left in the US, located in Bend, Oregon.
Sandi Harding, general manager of the Bend store, told CNN, “It’s pretty exciting that we are the last holdout”. Harding said they were surprised to find out they were the last open store in the U.S.
The Bend store manager explained that tourists and loyal customers have helped the store remain open for business. It has a broad selection of movies, from old titles to recent ones. Every Tuesday, new titles are added so that its selection stays relevant and keeps customers happy.
People are posting on Twitter memories and feelings of nostalgia that this news brought.
https://twitter.com/BlakeLogan/status/1017835539184209920
There is a Blockbuster video store alive & well in Bend #Oregon . What on earth? #LifeafterDeath pic.twitter.com/c2C5Nz33Gi
— On the wagon man (@ReubenGabriel) August 7, 2017
Just found out that there is in fact ONE #Blockbuster video store still standing in the United States, somewhere in Bend, Oregon to be exact. That is so amazing!
Anyone remember when Ethan Hawke recited "To Be or Not To Be" in a Blockbuster store in "Hamlet (2000)"? pic.twitter.com/h4OmJZY8MK— Daniel William Clark (@DanielWClarkDWC) July 13, 2018
It wasn’t that long ago when Blockbuster was the king of movie rentals. In 2004, the company announced that it had 9,000 stores – its peak.
However, as video-on-demand services, such as Netflix, started becoming more popular, Blockbuster struggled to compete against them.
In 2010, Blockbuster declared bankruptcy and in 2011 the company sold 1,700 of its stores to Dish Network.
