With Store Closing, There’s Just One Blockbuster Left on Earth

The last Blockbuster on the planet is alive and well in Bend, Oregon.

blockbuster
The last Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon. (Yelp)

And then there was one.

After Blockbuster Morley in Australia announced it would be selling off its collection of DVDs and Blu-Rays before closing its doors for good at the end of the month, Sandi Harding, the general manager of a Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, realized her store was going to be last of its kind on the planet.

Though she expressed her condolences, Harding was happy her store is still in the rental game. “We’re proud to still be open,” she said.

Having the title of the last Blockbuster on the planet could even be good for business and attract nostalgia-seeking customers from across the country and beyond.

On a local level, Harding’s Blockbuster is able to stay open because it offers rental options customers can’t find anywhere else. As she said, classic older titles are the store’s “bread and butter.”

“You can go to Redbox and you can get the new titles, but they don’t have the older ones,” Harding said. “Netflix and Amazon don’t have everything, either.”

When the company was at its peak in the early 2000s, Blockbuster had more than 9,000 stores across the nation. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and was bought by Dish Network.

By April 2017, only 10 Blockbuster stores remained open in the United States.

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.