If there was one business that I thought would be well and truly shut down because of the Coronavirus then it would be the rental video market, but it turns out that the last Blockbuster in the world is still open for business up in Oregon.
Featured Image VIA
The store’s general manager Sandi Harding explained that when the pandemic started, she set up a roadside pickup service where customers could pick up their pre-ordered and sanitised DVDs inside a sealed plastic bag. This went pretty well for a few weeks, but she now feels like she can re-open, allowing a maximum of ten people at any one time in the store and taping out social distancing reminders on the floor.
Here’s what she had to say to VICE about the situation:
Everybody would be converging in the same area, everybody wanted to see the John Oliver stuff, or everybody wanted to go to the new release section.
I wasn’t able to keep people apart, and I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t going to work.’
I had a customer come in and she said, ‘I am so grateful that you reopened, because I couldn’t flip through Netflix one more time.’
The longer it goes on, the more stress there is for everyone, and the more I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, can we really sustain this?’
But we’re still making plans and pushing forward and we’re the last one for a reason. We don’t go down without a fight. So we’re going to keep fighting for a while.
I mean I would probably say to them that it’s probably time for them to give up the ghost because who the hell rents videos any more these days, but it seems like there’s a demand for this kinda stuff up in Oregon so I guess they’re right to keep it going. Best of luck to them – it’ll be a sad day when they shut up shop for good.
For more of the same, check out when the last VCR manufacturer closed down. RIP.
