Blockbuster Video

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See Gone, But Not Forgotten

Blockbuster Video is a national chain video rental store that used to have numerous locations in the Rochester area.

Blockbuster was purchased by Dish Network in 2011. In November 2013 they announced they would be closing all 300 Blockbuster retail stores by January 2014. The three remaining Rochester locations held their last day for rentals on November 9, closed to the public on November 10, and briefly reopened on the 15th for giant closeout sales.¹

Awards

• Voted "Best Video Rental Store" in City Newspaper's 'Best Of' awards in 2002.²
  

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2008-02-23 20:34:32   Re: the UNheralded return of late fees to Rochester Blockbuster Video stores...the clerk on the phone said they placed a sign explaining this policy up 30 days before it was enacted, and took it down 30 days later. Are we to blame if the clerk didn't make this new policy as clear as the dozens of commercials we viewed on national TV? We're to blame if we didn't patronize the store during that 60 day period when the new policy (probably in fine print) was announced? —MikeSmith

2008-05-17 23:05:39   Poor selection of independent films and anime (yeah, I'm showing my geekiness). Blockbuster in my mind is only good for the latest releases. I far prefer Video Barn or Penfield Public Library (although I'm a bit biased as far as the library goes since I'm an employee, haha). —AdrienneDahler

2008-12-18 12:46:39   I gave up on this place when 2-3 year old movies were still on the New Arrivals shelves and when I couldn't find the movies I wanted. Hello, Netflix! —BatGuano

2009-05-28 02:22:10   Blockbuster was a bit slow in getting on the DVD bandwagon a few years back. That got remedied in the years since, but when I was out West I noticed that Hollywood usually had a better selection. Blockbuster is almost single-handedly responsible for the death of the NC17 rating. A rating which was intended to allow adult films of substance a rating other than X. What's odder about this is that they generally carry unrated films with similar content (that generally are not as good films as those that would get the NC17 rating). —TimRoy