Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - RedBox pulling their rental machines out of Canada

JiriHrdina · 02-06-2015, 01:17 PM

I actually find it interesting how adult stores are the last ones to hang on.
I paid close attention to the death of the video store over the years. I worked in video stores all through college, and my first job after graduation was within the marketing department of Rogers Video (my big project was launching DVDs).
So I had more interest than most. Basically the way it went down in terms of who went first
- Small independent stores/chains: the ones with little selection/buying power and inability to keep costs down
- Larger non BB/Rogers chains – VHQ, Max Video, etc. Those went next
- Established/niche independents – Birddog, Hollywood Bollywood, and other neighborhood favorites. They held on for a long time
- BB/Rogers
- Adult stores.

So why have some adult stores hung on? I figure combination of having a wider breadth of products to sell – rentals probably doesn’t drive their business anymore. Second – I look at them as very similar to niche stores – they have a target customer that maybe is still served by them.

As is the case when most industries die – Rogers/BB just didn’t see it coming until it was too late. They perceived that customers would still see value in the browsing experience – and ignored the pain points that people HATED about video stores (e.g. late fees).

I would have loved to be in the board meeting where the big wigs at BB got together and said “Well folks – we are F****’d”.

The video business is interesting because basically from birth to complete death it was about 30 years. That’s quick.

02-06-2015, 01:17 PM	#55
JiriHrdina I believe in the Pony Power Join Date: Jul 2003 Exp:	I actually find it interesting how adult stores are the last ones to hang on. I paid close attention to the death of the video store over the years. I worked in video stores all through college, and my first job after graduation was within the marketing department of Rogers Video (my big project was launching DVDs). So I had more interest than most. Basically the way it went down in terms of who went first - Small independent stores/chains: the ones with little selection/buying power and inability to keep costs down - Larger non BB/Rogers chains – VHQ, Max Video, etc. Those went next - Established/niche independents – Birddog, Hollywood Bollywood, and other neighborhood favorites. They held on for a long time - BB/Rogers - Adult stores. So why have some adult stores hung on? I figure combination of having a wider breadth of products to sell – rentals probably doesn’t drive their business anymore. Second – I look at them as very similar to niche stores – they have a target customer that maybe is still served by them. As is the case when most industries die – Rogers/BB just didn’t see it coming until it was too late. They perceived that customers would still see value in the browsing experience – and ignored the pain points that people HATED about video stores (e.g. late fees). I would have loved to be in the board meeting where the big wigs at BB got together and said “Well folks – we are F****’d”. The video business is interesting because basically from birth to complete death it was about 30 years. That’s quick.