The last Blockbuster Video shop ceased trading in the UK on this day in 2013.
Blockbuster Video entered the UK video rental market in 1989 following the purchase of Ritz Video.
In 2013 there were over 500 Blockbuster locations in the UK. Throughout that year the number dwindled until October when only 264 shops remained. On the 16th December 2013 all stores ceased operations.
It's amazing that there are still clearly visible remnants of the brand on the high street and on retail parks ten years later.
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| If you're lucky, and know where to look, you might find a QuikDrop box hiding in plain sight |
The first Blockbuster Video store had opened in Dallas, Texas, USA on the 19th October 1985.
The very last Blockbuster Video store in operation is in Bend, Oregon, USA.
We live near an abandoned Blockbuster Video store here in Manchester. It's always an eerie, interesting and nostalgic thing to drive past the old shop at Fallowfield Retail Park.
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| Blockbuster Video in Fallowfield, Manchester |
The sign about the closure was still visible on the window there before it was boarded up earlier this year.
At its peak in 2004 there were more than 9,000 Blockbuster stores around the world. 500+ of which were in England, Scotland and Wales. Interestingly in Northern Ireland the Xtra-Vision brand was used by the owners in-line with the Republic of Ireland.
Blockbuster certainly wasn't the first video rental shop brand, but it was at one time the market leader.
Blockbuster Video store locations we've visited on our travels
Our interest in lost brands and retail history has taken us to several former Blockbuster stores:
- 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
- Failsworth, Manchester
- 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
- Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
- Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
- Wythenshawe, Manchester
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