Blockbuster Online Launches

Forbes.com, Wired, and Fool.com announced that the Blockbuster Online service is now live.

Blockbuster and Netflix are both claiming 25,000 available movies, but Blockbuster's pricing is lower for unlimited rentals per month:

3 movies out at a time is $19.99 vs. $21.99 for Netlix

5 movies out is $29.99 vs. $33.99 for Netflix

8 movies out is $39.99 vs. $49.99 for Netflix

Blockbuster also gives you 2 free in-store rental coupons with the online subscription.

Netflix does have a lower-priced offering that gives you 4 movies per month, 2 at a time, for $14.99.

Interesting tidbit from the Forbes story that hints about Blockbuster combining the in-store and online subscriptions:

Blockbuster stores are stocked from a warehouse in McKinney, Tex. but the company built 10 regional centers to fill online orders and hopes to also tap store stock by next year.

This would give Blockbuster the advantage when you suddenly have the urge to rent a specific movie and don't want to wait the 1 - 2 days for the movie to arrive by mail.

Forbes also included forecasts for the DVD by mail market:

Online subscriptions accounted for $289 million last year, just a sliver of the $8.2 billion U.S. movie rental industry, according to Kagan Research LLC.

However, Kagan and other research firms expect online rentals to grow quickly. Kagan estimates growth to $605 million this year and $1.9 billion in 2008.

Netflix does have the advantage with 27 regional distribution centers (vs. 10 for Blockbuster), so most people will get their movies faster, but I expect Blockbuster to expand quickly.

I'm currently signed up for both, but will probably stick with Netflix (HackingBlockbuster.com? Nah).

Thanks to Tom & Joe for sending this in.

Comments

[mogloo]

So does anyone know where the Blockbuster distribution centers are located?

[aviationwiz]

I know 6 of the 10 Blockbuster distribution centers, they are:

Minneapolis, MN
Denver, CO
Dallas, TX
Seattle, WA
Sacramento, CA
Flushing, NY

[aviationwiz]

I know 6 of the 10 Blockbuster distribution centers, they are:

Minneapolis, MN
Denver, CO
Dallas, TX
Seattle, WA
Sacramento, CA
Flushing, NY

[mogloo]

OK, here's the full list:
Charlotte, NC
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Lansing, MI
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
Flushing, NY
Sacramento, CA
Santa Ana, CA
Seattle, WA

[db]

Hmm, I live in Atlanta, GA. Even though NetFlix has a warehouse here, it still takes 4 days to turn a DVD around. I wonder if Blockbuster will be any worse coming from Charlotte, NC.

Just because you live in one of the states that the distribution center is located in does not guarantee a speedy turn around. The turn around would depend on the availability of the dvd(s) you've requested -- if they're not available in your states distribution center they're going to come from another one. Luck of the draw.

[Nick]

I live in Bristol, CT and my distribution center is in Hartford. Which is 15-20 minutes away from me. If I drop the disc off the mailbox before pickup time the movie usually receive by Netflix in the morning and the movie got sent out the same day by them. So it takes about two to three days for me. Sometimes the movie will ship from a different distribution and that could add extra day. So far I'm very happy with Netflix service. I wll give Blockbuster a try if they have a distribution center in my state.

[Tammy]

I just wanted to comment about Netflix in Atlanta (Duluth) when I lived there last year I would send the movie in and then get it back like 2 days later....I never had to wait because I would watch one send it back then the next day watch one so on so forth. I did not like the fact that Netflix always had a long wait for good movies so I am trying Blockbuster and I now live in Chattanooga. I will keep you all posted!

[Don VanVelzer]

What I don't like about Netflix is that I can't sort a list of movies by DVD release date. I can on Blockbuster. I'm moving to Blockbuster since it looks like they also have a distribution center in Sacramento.

[Sav]

The hub isn't out of Charlotte, it's out of Greensboro, NC.

[JasonL]

After doing a search on new job listing and assemblying the previous 10 known sites, here is the complete 23 locations for the distribution centers.

Original 10
---------------
Charlotte, NC
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Lansing, MI
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
Flushing, NY
Sacramento, CA
Santa Ana, CA
Seattle, WA

13 New locations
-----------------
TX, Houston
MA, Worcester
MD, Gaithersburg
PA, Philadelphia
GA, Atlanta
NJ, Edison
IL, Chicago
MO, St. Louis
CT, Stamford
CA, San Jose
FL, Tampa
OH, Cleveland
AZ, Phoenix

Good luck on your turn around times...

[Fred]

I just joined Blockbuster and am not please at all with them. It is taking on average 7 days to turn a DVD shipped day 1 get day 3 send back same day they take 3-5 days to get back to them. The 1st DVD I got was shipped 1-3-2005 and I sent it back 1-4-2005 the got it 1-13-2005 so that makes turn around from one ship to the next of 11-12 days.

I am being shipped DVDs from Atlanta, GA and I live in Virginia. Don't know why they are not shipping for the Charlotte, NC or MD, Gaithersburg distribution center. Both are a lot closer.

[Chris]

I am also receiving Blockbuster DVDs in Virginia. But I have experienced slightly faster shipping, usually a 6 day turnaround. But I have received all my DVDs from Charlotte, NC and Cleveland, OH if that makes any sense. Maybe you're selecting some older DVDs or something? But Netflix has distribution centers in Richmond and Charlottesville, VA if you think it's worth the extra $3. For some reason I still experienced a 5 day turnaround from them so I stayed with BB. Maybe BB will ship quicker to VA when they start shipping from the 4500 stores???

[Scott]

Blockbuster also now has a distribution center in Kansas City, MO.

[Craig]

I was a blockbuster customer for four months but just quit and went back to Netflix. The service was getting worse and worse. It would take around 24 hours to ship the next movie and even though Dallas is much closer they started sending my movies from Houston which added a day each way. I asked them about it but they would not respond.

[brandon]

i give blockbuster 6-12 months before they are up to par w/ netflix...i like them but when the closest warehouse is 4-7 hrs away takes a while to ship but when netflix is only 30 minutes away takes about 2 totals days to get there and back..so thats my opinion

[mike]

I'm very disappointed with blockbuster online.
Extremely slow. Sometimes a week or more before They claim they just received a return! Then 4 days or more receive the next movie. I don't know what's up with them but I find it hard to have 3 out at a time no matter how hard I try. If you send 2 back at the same, one always seems to get lost for a few days.
I sent a few e-mails trying to talk with a supervisor or get a phone number to call so I can make a complaint. Never heard from anyone.
I'm ready to try Netflix.

[JLR]

re Netflix turnaround times: try returning the DVDs from a different mailing location. I live near a distribution center, but the turnaround takes 3 or four days when I mail it from home. After testing several, I found one post office and several street mailboxes which take only two days.

[mike]

Does anyone know a phone # for blockbuster online?
Please post it here.

[Eddie]

Signed up on 3-7, received my movies on 3-8. I live in Charlotte, the return postage address is Charlotte, there is a hub in Charlotte. So far, so good service.

[Dinah]

If you're curious about the reason for poor turnaround time, consider this... Blockbuster distribution centers only employ temporary workers from staffing agencies. A center has one manager and two team leads, but the rest of the staff is temporary. They refuse to hire because they don't want to pay for benefits, etc. Do you know how hard it is to motivate temp workers to reach numbers?

Consumers and the media need to put pressure on Blockbuster to change its employee relations policies. The temp workers have no reason to do a good job, since there is no chance of perm hire and the few mgrs who work hard to reach numbers are so miserable from working insane hours to make up for all the temps calling off, that they burn out in less than a year. The general distribution climate leads to poor service. I don't know how Netflix runs its distribution centers.

Anyone??

[Dean]

Been a Blockbuster Online member since Jan 2005.
Jan. DVD availability not bad, most top 20 picks available.

Today, Mar 18th 16 of 78 queued items are available. Most of my picks are 3-1/2 or higher member ratings. Priority item 32 shows be first available. The available items are movies from 40,50,60,70s.

Blockbuster is behind in their business curve, with a way to go to keep up with demand from distribution to DVD inventory.

I live in the Dallas area, Blockbuster Distribution registers receipt of a USPS mailed DVD in one day from my home mailbox and it takes two days to receive a DVD after I receive an email notification.

Another observation Blockbuster has not sent 3 DVD on the same day yet, 2 maximum and the 3rd DVD next day or later. Even when all 3 checked out DVD's are returned in the same mailing envelope.

With Netflix all three DVDs returned via mail on Monday and next 3 available DVD where received by Thursday.

The Blockbuster ecoupons is the only saving grace for Blockbuster right now, but this is becoming a weak reason for not going back to Netflix. Thin Ice.

Now I notice complaints registered via the Blockbuster contact us, is now responded with auto message return.

[Addict]

I hate blockbuster.com! I have been doing both and have been extremely dissatisfied with bb. Netflix, on the other hand, just keeps getting better. I've got a lot of "friends" that I can share with on netflix and their multiple queue option is great for my wife and me. If I ship DVDs back on the same day, I average getting netflix 2-3 days earlier. Even though blockbuster has negotiated a deal with the USPS (when you return a DVD, the USPS scans it to let blockbuster know that they have possession of it, and as soon as it is scanned blockbuster sends out your next DVD, before they actually receive the returned disc). However, becuase they have such a problem with availability, it never does me any good. They might scan it in and plan to ship my next disc, but there is always a "short wait" or "long wait". I just cancelled my blockbuster.com subscription and I am signing up for their in-store unlimited rentals (same price $14.99) This way I can go whenever I like and they have much better availability. I will however, also keep my netflix account (I'm addicted).

[Louie]

Netflix SUX for me. If I return a disc on the same day I receive it, it takes 7-8 days for a full turnaround.

If they ship on Monday, I get it Wed or Thurs and send it back same day. Because they don't work on the weekends or do USPS scanning, they don't get it until Monday or Tues. Then there is too many "shipping tomorrows" showing up as well.

Give me Blockbuster where I can get 5-6 a week on the 3-out plan and keep Netsux that does good to get me 5-6 every TWO WEEKS!!!

[rick]

has anyone tried to use the blockbuster in store coupons more than once (since you can print out multiple times)? How good is their ability to track?