Here is the final Blockbuster in the state of Louisiana. I took a detour and found this awesome relic of the past, but sadly it was closed for the night.
According to the article below, you still have time to visit this store before it officially closes before the end of October 2015. About 25 Blockbuster stores are still open in the US. The Blockbuster website shows the majority of those stores are located in South Texas.
New releases were still being advertised on the road sign.
Another one bites the dust I guess. I can’t say that I’m shocked that another Blockbuster Video is closing. It’s interesting that Blockbuster is still doing pretty well in South Texas. Perhaps Blockbuster has a lot of Spanish movies there that aren’t available via streaming? Perhaps good broadband Internet isn’t available/affordable enough for the local residents? Perhaps there is more of a culture for still visiting video stores there. I don’t know, it’s hard to say. Of course, Kmart is still doing pretty well on the Texas-Mexico border.
ReplyDeleteI guess the owners of the remaining Blockbuster stores are good at keeping their stores stocked with products that appeal to their customers. Since these stores are not bound by corporate product standards they can stock anything they would like to. Maybe one day I can visit one of these stores to try and figure out their niche.
DeleteI wonder if Kmart enjoys the success it does along the Mexican border because Sears (which has a presence in Mexico) is the owner of Kmart. Correct me if I'm wrong but I would imagine someone in Texas near the border would have to drive quite far to the nearest Sears (traditional mall Sears, that is) so maybe Mexican Americans in the border region find Kmart due to its Sears connection to be a slice of home.
DeleteI think that one guy owns all the Texas ones. I remember reading an interview with him like a year ago. He says they aren't as profitable as they once were but they still make money.
DeleteMAJOR UPDATE
Deleteit appears the at home on dunvale has closed and the store is being demolished. I think this was the first sam's club in Houston I completely missed this.
That is very interesting. I wonder why they bothered converting the store if it was going to be demolished. Maybe the structure had some kind of damage that needed to be fixed.
DeleteI think I read the same interview from around the time that the corporate stores closed. I think the days of the last remaining stores are numbered, but they continue to survive.
DeleteIt may be true that some of the South Texas Kmarts are located far from Sears stores, but that's not true with all of them. I did some research about the South Texas Kmarts a couple of years ago so I don't remember all the details (I made a reply about it somewhere on this blog, but I don't remember where), but at least a handful of the South Texas Kmarts are located right by malls that have a Sears store.
DeleteIt's hard to say why those Kmarts are seemingly doing well. Perhaps there's just so many shoppers from across the border that they can do well. I know Kmart (and Sears for that matter) used bilingual signage in their stores before some other chains, but I'd imagine that everyone has bilingual signs down there by now. Perhaps Kmart puts sales circulars in the newspapers across the border or something. Maybe they advertise a lot on TV and radio too. Maybe Kmart sells unique products that have appeal to the cross-border shoppers. It's hard to say, but it's interesting that those Kmarts continue to persist when most other Kmarts in the state went away a long time ago.
Kmart made some strange decisions on which markets they exited during their bankruptcy. If they had not left Texas and several other booming areas, the company may be in better shape today. Tourism and cross-boarder consumers are probably the biggest reason why retail and restaurants do so well in deep South Texas.
DeleteIt’s hard to say why Kmart dumped so many of their Texas locations. One guess I came up with is that Kmart had a lot of new locations in Texas. Some of them were newly built regular Kmarts (like the I-45 and West Rd. location), some were newly built Super Kmarts (like the one in Humble), and some were stores that were acquired from Venture (like the Willowbrook Mall area store). Perhaps those were expensive leases/purchases and Kmart wanted to get out of them through bankruptcy. Another guess is that the competition from Target and Wal-Mart was too stiff in the major Texas cities so they wanted to get out. It’s hard to say. Maybe someone else has more insight into the matter.
DeleteWe will probably never see Kmart grow again to these areas, but at least we can drive to one in a few short hours.
DeleteWhen they announced their closing recently, they blamed the same thing the main company did: Redbox. This was indeed an independent store, but the lack of support and its location (when built, it was across the street from Wal-Mart and Delchamps. Walmart moved away and we know what happened with Delchamps) ultimately led to its demise.
ReplyDeleteThe shopping center across the street has definitely seen better days. There is also the cinema almost next door to the Blockbuster which is a strange place for them to have built a store. I remember when Delchamps was all over Louisiana, how things quickly change.
DeleteThat shopping center was built differently than it ended up. The original Wal-Mart was actually a Woolco. It ran inline with Delchamps and K&Bin instead of behind the Delchamps. That store was built later.
DeleteOne of these days I need to check out Opelousas in the day. Both times I have driven through have been at night so I have not been able to see much of the area.
DeleteIn Pennsylvania, I can name at least three ex-Blockbuster stores that became Wine & Spirits stores. Believe it or not, in Pennsylvania the state government owns all wine/spirits stores. Until 1970 the stores were all "counter" service stores, where all the items were kept behind the counter, so browsing was impossible. And their wine selection was absolutely pitiful until they started opening "superstores" in 1990.
ReplyDeleteI guess that state makes a lot of extra profits that normally go to a business owner or corporation. I wonder if this is the only US state that manages the wine/spirits of the entire state.
DeleteNope, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah, Ohio, and Ontario (yes I know it's in Canada, but it borders New York State so I bring it up) all have a similar system. Thing is, I hear Pennsylvania has the most "pain in the butt" state stores and laws of all of them. Unfortunately the PA state store chain is the only one I have shopped at, so I really can't comment on the others.
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