Who Really Killed Blockbuster?
The last Blockbuster on Earth was supposed to close this year. Its owner, Ken Tisher, once had five stores in his franchise. Store by store, he closed each one as the recession, and then the confluence of market shifts that killed off other video stores, caught up with his. Before 2019 came, he thought it would likely be the year he would close the only one still standing, in Bend, Oregon. But in summer 2018, another franchise owner closed the last of his stores in Alaska, making the Bend store the last Blockbuster in the U.S. This year, it became the last in the world. The store’s very precariousness has led to a sales surge. People from around the world want to visit the planet’s last Blockbuster before it’s gone. That makes Tisher sort of like a zookeeper caring for the last animal of its species. “And who knows how long people will be interested in coming to look at that animal,” Tisher told me. “I’m just enjoying the run.” Read more at Retail Dive.
