Blockbuster's bankruptcy: What does the loss of video stores mean to you?

Blockbuster Canada, which includes this shop in Halifax, NS, has gone into receivership, begging the question of video stores' relevance in an age of broadband streaming.

Blockbuster, that giant of the once sprawling Canadian video store landscape, has gone bust.

An Ontario court placed Blockbuster Canada's operations into receivership Wednesday after it missed payments on its debt to the movie studios that supplied the company.

The U.S.-based firm is already a husk of its former self. When the chain filed for bankruptcy protection it was down to 3,000 stores south of the border, less than a third of its peak of 9,100 in 2004.

It has about 400 stores in Canada, which remain open for now despite their uncertain future. The rise of streaming-video provider Netflix, video-on-demand services and movie downloading have all contributed to the falling fortunes of traditional video rental stores.

The decline of video chains like Blockbuster has led to discussion about how independent neighbourhood video stores are faring.

CBC commenter solus909 has started renting movies from a local store again because of dissatisfaction with the online experience.

"I got tired of paying fines to Rogers for exceeding my monthly GB [gigabyte] allowance," the commenter wrote.

"I find downloading HD movies time-consuming and sort of a pain...and, as a movie buff, I was missing all the extras that are on DVDs."

Some film aficionados, like CBC Community member Matt Bingley, prefer renting from independent video stores because of the wider movie selection and knowledgeable employees.

"They point you in the right direction and very often lead you to the section you never thought about," he wrote.

"Also, in respect to the stores that aren't part of chains like Queen Video in Toronto, they have the best selection of off-beat movies that a big corporate franchise would never think about renting."

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Do you still rent movies from a store? If not, do you miss the experience? Is there an independent video store in your neighbourhood you support? What do you like about going to an independent shop?



(This is survey is not scientific. Results are based on the readers' comments.)