Everything Must Go At Now Closed Blockbuster

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT

Kodiak’s only video rental store, Blockbuster, will be closing its doors in the near future, but not before selling everything in stock. Today kicked off the franchise’s closing sale, sending viewers home with videos, TV shows and video games for $15 or less.
Lyle Phillips manages Kodiak’s Blockbuster and said the closing is nobody’s fault, it’s simply a changing of the times and how people view their films. He said the internet has made watching movies or television immediate and easy, and Kodiak’s Blockbuster franchise is no longer profitable.
“We did the best we could to stay alive as long as we could,” he said.
Safeway and AC Express in Bells Flats will now be the only places available to Kodiak community members for video rentals, though on a much smaller scale. Phillips said some folks have expressed an interest in starting a new video rental store, but he’s not sure how well they would do. Blockbuster buys hundreds of thousands of movies for its franchises around the country, meaning it gets a substantial discount on those films.
“Basically they buy in bulk and still couldn’t make it work (in Kodiak),” Phillips said.
Sunday was the last day for people to rent videos at the store, and Phillips said anything not returned by Friday will be late. He said people need to be sure to get rented videos back to the store and pay late fees as soon as possible.
As for the sale, folks can stop by the store between noon and 8 p.m. in the next few days to score what Phillips calls “movies priced to sell.”
GCI is expected to move into the building that Blockbuster currently resides in, though it’s not clear when that move will occur.