By this point, it’s starting to look like the last Blockbuster in the world, in Bend, Oregon, is going to outlive us all. Deadset, despite the fact it’s now legit the last Blockbuster, this one just keeps finding ways to keep going.
Yeah, it’s like a franchise that just keeps on plugging away. After the other two Blockbusters that had defied the laws of progress folded, many thought this one wouldn’t be far behind. They were wrong. So far, not even Covid-19 has managed to make it close its doors indefinitely.
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Of course, it’s pretty easy to hyperbolize the reasons why and make out that it’s some sort of freak of nature, and that’s why we like to do it. Because let’s face it, if the apocalypse, the rapture, or the return of the dinosaurs ever sends humanity to doom, the last Blockbuster in the world wouldn’t be a bad place to sit out at the end of days.
During the close-down, they managed to re-catalog all the titles, put down social distancing markings, and give the store a good clean. Once they reopened, it was back to business. “I had a customer come in and she said, ‘I am so grateful that you reopened because I couldn’t flip through Netflix one more time.”
Honestly, as we said, it’s hard not to mythologize what’s going on there. Whichever way you look at it, though, it is pretty incredible that a mainstream movie rental business is still going strong. You could see it happening in a niche field, but with all the big genres covered by streaming services and the dreaded downloaders, there’s gotta be something special going on. Let’s hope it stays that way.
