I don’t blog much anymore because I rarely have anything to blog about. My days are spent watching movies and chatting online while intermittently looking for a job. In a typical week, I watch my six movies at a time from Netflix then hit up the local Blockbuster on Tuesdays for about 6 more movies, mostly one week rentals that are rent one get one free. For $15, I could walk out with 6-8 movies that I’d return later in the week when I head out to get more. And with no late fees, if I kept something a day extra, it was no big deal.

Overall, I’ve never been a huge fan of Blockbuster. It’s a 20 minute drive just to get there, the movies tend to be scratched, some to the point of being unplayable, and the organization in there is terrible, making it near impossible sometimes to find a specific movie. Since I tend to look for a lot of obscure titles, often what I’m looking for isn’t even there, adding to my frustration, though again, thanks to terrible organization, it could totally be there and I’m missing it because I say it’s Action while you say it’s Drama.

The thing that keeps me coming back every week, though, is for $3.98 I can get an older movie for a week or a new one for two days and even if I’m a little late on the return, there are no late fees. This is especially important as I have to drive 20 minutes to get there, so if I’m a day late because I wanted to finish it all before making the trek, I know it’s not going to cost me. Even better, three days a week I can come in and rent a free one for every one I pay for, which means I often walk about with 8 movies for $15. I don’t understand how Blockbuster makes money off this, but it makes me happy.

Well shame on you, Blockbuster, for fucking up the rotation.

Imagine my surprise today when I picked out my movies this morning and head to the rental counter. I had picked six movies to rent and Planet Terror to purchase. I picked all weekly rentals (or so I thought because none has the “2-day” sticker on them), figuring that I’d bring them all back on Friday when I would be in the area for another appointment. They would all be coming back early, but I’d be done with them by them. So I put my movies on the counter and the lovely lady who I see every time I’m there asks me if I’ve heard of the new rental policy. I can tell by the look on her face that she knows I won’t like it. She was right.

The new policy is that all new releases are $2.99 and all weekly releases are 99 cents. Oh, and you only get them for one day. They must be returned by close of business the next day. And late fees are back to the tune of 99 cents a day. Mathematically speaking, this works out to an increase in prices. Under the old policy, $3.98 for a movie worked out to $1.99 a day for a 2-day rental and 57 cents a day for a weekly release. The difference? One dollar a day on new releases and 42 cents a day on older movie. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up considerable. Once you’ve had a movie out for 10 days, then you own it. You can still return it up to 30 days out, but then you have to pay the late fees up to that day.

When asked why this policy has been put into effect, the clerk told me it was a way to increase turnover of movies because they could be rented more times if they were returned quickly. She also informed me that this all began because studios have been providing Blockbuster with less copies of movies to rent in order to force a copy to turnover more times. So Blockbuster is forced to pass those shortages on to customers by punishing them for not getting a movie back right away.

Seriously, movie rentals aren’t worth it to me if I’m going to have to waste an hour and an eighth of a tank of gas everyday just to avoid late fees. Why bother when I can make up for the shortage by just bumping up my Netflix to more movies a month than I was previously getting.

So good job Blockbuster. In your attempt to make more money, you’ve lost a customer who rents 6-10 movies a week. And even better, the money I won’t be spending in your store is not going to Netflix, you’re competitor.

And while I’m already discussing Blockbuster’s failings as a company, lets discuss Blockbuster online. Because I was having so many in-store rentals, I considered switching from Netflix to Blockbuster Online (aka BO). The problem: at most, BO will give you 3 movies at a time, with Netflix I’m currently getting 6. Now with the new in-store policy, I’m bumping my Netflix to 8 at a time, which is the max. Sorry, Blockbuster, you lose again.