Only a single Blockbuster remains open in all of America. Here's what it's like to visit.
Yelp/Scott K.
- Blockbuster has just one store that remains open in the United States, located in Bend, Oregon.
- The retailer announced in July that the final two Blockbuster locations in Alaska are shutting up shop, leaving the Bend location standing alone across the US.
- To hear the full story of the life and death of Blockbuster in Alaska, subscribe to Business Insider's podcast, "Household Name."
- Read on to see what it's like to visit the last Blockbuster in America.
Blockbuster's last stand in the United States is in Bend, Oregon.
In July, Blockbuster announced that the last two stores in Alaska would close up shop.
"Let's be real, you have Netflix, you have Redbox," Kevin Daymude, a Blockbuster manager in Alaska prior to the stores' closure in the state, told reporter Emily Russell in an interview for Business Insider's podcast, "Household Name."
"The economy is tough right now," Daymude said. "So, people are still renting — but they aren't renting as much."
The closure leaves just one Blockbuster location left in the entire US.
The holdout is in Bend, a city in central Oregon with an estimated population just shy of 100,000. As the last Blockbuster locations across the US have closed — with two other Blockbusters in Oregon closing in recent months — travelers have begun making their way to Bend in a nostalgic pilgrimage to the video-rental chain.
For Blockbuster lovers desperately missing the store, and for video-rental virgins raised on Netflix, here's what it's like to visit the final remaining Blockbuster in the US:
Blockbuster was able to keep stores open in Alaska longer than most of the US thanks in part to its long, cold winters and slow WiFi.
Yelp/Shawndra W.The Bend location, however, seems to have found success thanks to a mix of strong finances, loyal customers, and nostalgic tourists.
Yelp/Scott K.Bend's Blockbuster sign is instantly recognizable and a guaranteed nostalgia trigger for any child of the '90s.
Yelp/Scott K.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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