Yuba City Blockbuster store going bust

The Blockbuster video store on Stabler Lane is one of nearly 1,000 locations that will be closing as the chain transitions from traditional rentals to cheaper, more accessible options.

Closing sales began Monday at the Yuba City location in the Feather Down shopping center and will continue to the final day, Jan. 10, said company spokesman Randy Hargrove.

Movie and game rentals are no longer offered but the entire inventory is for sale and the Colusa Avenue and Gridley locations remain open.

Blockbuster plans to close as many as 960 of its 7,100 stores by the end of 2010 in an attempt to reverse losses and better compete against rivals such as Netflix and Redbox, according to documents filed in September with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Stabler store has been open since July 1999.

Blockbuster, like Hollywood Video and other movie rental stores, has been facing struggles in recent years with the advent and ease of renting movies by mail, online, through cable and satellite providers and at self-serve kiosks.

The downsize would leave the movie retail chain with about 20 percent fewer stores in the United States.

The vast majority of store closures are within a close proximity of another Blockbuster, and the chain is trying to help customers with the transition, Hargrove said.

"They can still get entertainment from Blockbuster," he said.

Stabler Lane customers will be offered a discounted rental card they can use for the next four weeks and a free two-week trial of Blockbuster's rent-by-mail program.

Among the chain's attempts to revitalize itself is a foray into installing rental kiosks at other merchants' stores, a selling model made popular by Coinstar's Redbox.

Blockbuster already has 500 kiosks in place and hopes to have 10,000 spread throughout the nation by mid-2010.

There are no kiosks in Yuba-Sutter, but it is a possibility for the future, Hargrove said. NCR Corp. is handling kiosk locations.

Blockbuster also remains committed to movie selection as a way of keeping up with what customers want, he said.

"We are all about new releases," Hargrove said. "That is what we are going to stay focused on."

Blockbuster hopes to offer employment opportunities at other stores to the seven or so employees at the Stabler Lane location, he said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ashley Gebb at 749-4724 or agebb@appealdemocrat.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.