Right now, there are three remaining Blockbuster stores in Dallas proper. That's down considerably from the gazillions that once crowned street corners during the heady days of VHS, before movies could be conveniently dispensed from a red box or instantaneously zapped onto your telephone, and that number could drop even further.
Dish Network, which bought the struggling rental chain in April 2011 announced today that it will be closing 300 locations and laying off 3,000 employees. That leaves about 500 outlets remaining in the United States.
Why? A Dish spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that the stores in question are performing poorly or are nearing the end of their leases. He refused to identify the stores marked for closure.
It might also have something to do with Blockbuster's failure to effectively compete with Netflix, Redbox and the like, though the spokesman insisted that Dish continues "to see value in the Blockbuster brand and we will continue to analyze store level profitability and -- as we have in the past -- close unprofitable stores."
That doesn't bode well for the 500 remaining locations.