We found another old Blockbuster Video store on our travels last month.
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| A QuikDrop Box at the former Blockbuster Video store in Wisbech |
Luckily the former Blockbuster Video shop on Norfolk Street in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire still had a visible QuikDrop box in the entrance doorway.
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| At another former Blockbuster Video store! |
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| A QuikDrop Box at the former Blockbuster Video store in Wisbech |
The shop is now Lumira Snack Bar. But between the time of it being a video shop and today it was also The Entertainment Centre. A sign for that business is still on show on the rear of the unit on West Street.
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| Lumira Snack Bar in Wisbech - a former Blockbuster Video store |
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| Sign for The Entertainment Centre in Wisbech - itself a lost shop and a former Blockbuster Video store |
Blockbuster Video
The first Blockbuster Video store opened in Dallas, Texas, USA in 1985.
At its peak in 2004 there were more than 9,000 stores around the world. 500+ of which were in the UK.
Blockbuster ceased operations in the UK in December 2013. At the start of that year there were 528 Blockbuster locations in the UK. The number dwindled until October when only 264 shops remained. The remaining stores closed on the 16th December.
There is now just one Blockbuster Video store left open. It's in Bend, Oregon, USA.
However, the UK's high streets, shopping precincts, malls and retail parks still hold traces of the brand. And we've been to most of them!
We've now been to 27 former Blockbuster Video stores since we found the remains of the Fallowfield shop near to us in Manchester.
- Abingdon, Oxfordshire
- Ashton, Bristol
- Barnsley, South Yorkshire
- Basingstoke, Hampshire
- Billingham, Teesside
- Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester
- Chester, Cheshire
- Chorley, Lancashire
- Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
- Colne, Lancashire
- Fallowfield, Manchester
- Felixstowe, Suffolk
- Filton, Bristol
- Great Moor, Stockport, Greater Manchester
- Hastings, East Sussex
- Leigh, Greater Manchester
- Luton, Bedfordshire
- Marple, Greater Manchester
- Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire
- Nuneaton, Warwickshire
- Oldham, Greater Manchester
- Prescot, Lancashire
- Shanklin, Isle of Wight
- Southampton, Hampshire
- Telford, Shropshire
- Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
- Wythenshawe, Manchester
Lost brands
I've spent a lot of the last two years reminiscing about 'the good old days' before the coronavirus pandemic hit the planet. One of my areas of interest is in old retail brands - I'm a marketer by profession and two of my first jobs in the 1990's and the year 2000 were at Tandy and Toys R Us. It's been fascinating to find remnants of a number of lost, dead and defunct brands on the high street and at retail parks.
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