I would like to talk about a common thing people say that really is not correct. The first thing is everyone insists that Netflix killed their favorite local mom and pop video store or the Blockbuster at their local grocery store. This is incredibly not true for someone like me who covers the tech news daily.
Netflix if you remember did the DVD by mail business with the tagline “no late fees keep the movie as long as you want.” Many people jumped on this bandwagon but a lot did not as well. Netflix’s online streaming at that time was limited to pretty much B movies and no series on their streaming service. Blockbuster started to offer the same kind of services rent movie no late fees to compete and things were still going ok for video store industry.
Netflix had another hurdle to contend with which was they had to wait 60 to 90 days to start shipping new releases which still gave video stores and Walmart’s a chance to rent and sell new releases to make money.
The thing that really killed the mom and pop video stores was on demand. When companies like Time Warner and other cable providers let you rent new releases on the day they came out without having to go to the local video store.
Then Apple popularity of the iPhone really was the final blow to video stores. The fact you could rent a new release right on the go using iTunes without even needing to be home was the final blow to video stores and a big hit to cable companies.
Amazon, Google, YouTube and many others would start selling and renting new releases on mobile and cloud-based platforms and that becomes the end of the video stores. Many people say it was Netflix that killed video stores I don’t believe that Netflix was the entire reason but was a large part of the end. Netflix was able to offer a large selection using a subscription-based model unlike the old model of rent and pay.
I think many things contributed to the video store dying out but much of it was to online media and an outdated business model that movie industry hung onto as long as they could.