Plus, the class action lawsuit a while back about the whole ""take an extra day, but have it back by noon"" thing probably didn''t help.

And, oh yeah... Netflix.

Cool though. Kind of makes me want to start renting from Blockbuster again.

This is one of the most diabolical schemes that I''ve seen yet - no real surprise coming from Blockbuster. Rather than a ''no late fee'' policy, this effectively puts the return time at 1 month or they charge you $20 or so for the movie or even more for a game. Devious, yes, but did you guys notice the ''restocking fee'' associated with returning a movie? I bet it just happens to be the average amount that Blockbuster took in from a late fee.

I disagree that Netflix was the driving factor behind this. Remember that Blockbuster is also trying to smite the retail competition by aquiring their #2 competitor, Hollywood Video. With that much of the retail video market, they can sit back and rake in the cash from an established revenue stream, while Netflix dies from increased competiton from Amazon, Wal-Mart and, of course, Blockbuster - who can see that so much competition will eventually squeeze out most of the profits from the mail-order sector.

I think it''s less nefarious than that. I think it''s far more the ever-expanding distribution (and cheapening cost) of home DVDs.

I remember years ago with VHS, stores simply didn''t carry the kind of stock they do now in DVD. Stuff comes out on DVD much faster than it ever did before on VHS. The selection of movies from a store like Target now dwarfs what they used to carry years ago. This is especially true in smaller towns. In my old town of 30,000, it used to be that we could barely get a home video of anything except a select few movies. Now, Target and Wal-Mart carry a crap-load. Same sort of thing with games. Getting a copy of Baseball Stars for the NES was a herculean effort to track down a used copy. Now, it would be in Target''s glass case a couple days after release.

I think the expanse in selection, the swiftness in which ""new"" movies hit home DVD, and the price, leads people to just buy movies far more often than rent them.

The other big thing is the on-demand pay-per-view movies of satellite and digital cable.

There''s a lot more to it than piracy, I think.

I use netflix, and it really seems to depend. We''re on the ""3 at a time"" plan, and try to keep a steady stream of stuff coming in and out by staggering mailings. Some days we can mail a disc on a Monday, and have the replacement by Thursday. On rare occasions even a Wednesday. Yet other times we''ll mail a disc and not get the replacement for over a week. I''m not sure if netflix or the post office is to blame.

Regardless, for $18/month we easily get 12-16 discs a month. Seems well worth the price to me.

Seconded. Like TiVo, life without Netflix seems archaic in comparison. Limited selection? Late fees? Having to get in the car and tromp 5 miles up the road to get a movie? Madness!

Netflix is great, but I just don''t watch enough movies. I had it for about a year but then was paying $20 a month to watch 2-3 movies, just not worth it. Plus I like to buy my movies.

I have not rented at Blockbuster for at least two years, like someone else said, when you can BUY the movie for $15 or even less, why rent it for two days for $4.50? The only thing I have considered renting is games, bceause that $5 vs $50 to buy is a lot more reasonable. In a couple of places I''ve lived independent video rental places have gotten a ton of my business with $1.99 deals or .99 Tuesdays.

Heh, it usually takes 7 business days for me to turn over a rental with Netflix. Either the post office down here hasn''t upgraded their ponies in a while, or Netflix doesn''t have a distribution center in or around the Deep South. That''s really been the biggest stickler to me; We don''t always have our next 3 selections each weekend. On those days, Blockbuster looks like a great alternative. What''s been nice though is Netflix''s reccomendations, because I''ve managed to catch up on a ton of movies I''d forgotten about.

I woek at blockbuster and had a 3 hour meeting on this. There is so much fine print that it makes me scared....

Inquiring minds want to know!

Cell phone cam? Fax machine? scanner? write it?

No more late fees = the death bell ringing for Blockbuster.. where do you think they get all their profit margins?

When VCR tapes were retailing at $80 renting was a viable business. Now when the DVD goes on sale for $15 why bother renting?? Hollywood killed the rental off

I live right in Minneapolis and can mail out a disc on Monday and have a new one on Wednesday. Yes, that''s right, I RULE!!!!!!!!11