Blockbuster Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection as of today.
This doesn't affect current operations at present: open stores will stay open. However, "the closing of hundreds more stores" is in the company's future.
This move doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Netflix and services like it, offering rentals online and via mail, have made Blockbuster, even with its thousands of locations, a lot less necessary, while Blockbuster itself is burdened by the costs of those thousands of physical locations and employees.
I have a different reason for cheering Blockbuster's woes. In the 1980s and 1990s the chain was notorious for offering versions of movies that excised what the company deemed offensive content, but without telling customers the movies had been edited. This arrogantly moralistic behavior by a company that had shuttered all competitors in many of its markets disgusted me. Blockbuster may not have gotten into its current predicament as a direct result of that earlier misbehavior (and to be fair, I don't know if the company still does this), but I like to think karma is playing out here.
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