It truly is the end of an era as two more Blockbuster Video locations close this weekend, leaving only one store left in the entire U.S.
The general manager of Alaska’s last two stores, Kevin Daymude, said this week they would be closing for rentals on Sunday, with a liquidation sale to begin Tuesday.
“It’s going to be crazy,” he told the Associated Press, adding residents were sad to hear the news with many remembering their favourite Blockbuster memories.
With the closures of stores in Anchorage and Fairbanks, it means the only Blockbuster left is in Bend, Ore.
The Oregon store’s manager, Sandi Harding, said they’re already “feeling the hype,” but hopes it also means a boom in business.
“We do really well on a day-to-day basis and we have a wonderful, great customer base here in Bend … But I’m hoping it means more people remember that we’re here and come back.”
As more people turn to streaming services like Netflix, stores like Blockbuster have had to shut their doors.
WATCH: One of the last Blockbuster Videos in North America closing up shop
The cause for decline is “not just any one thing” such as Netflix, or RedBox, or other methods of obtaining media, Harding explained.
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“I always envision a pie,” she said. “Blockbuster used to have three-quarters of it. They pretty much had the whole pie, most of the time, and then everything else has just come along and taken a little piece, a little chunk, to where we’re down to that little sliver.”
Harding said despite this, there is still something special about renting a movie that has been forgotten.
“You kind of forget what it’s like to go out and get that personal interaction, go out and touch the movies and walk around and talk to somebody who loves movies as much as you and having that face-to-face personal communication,” Harding said.
John and Hannah Caranta visited one of the Alaska stores this past week to rent some films and also to bring their out-of-town friends.
“We wanted to bring them to one of the only Blockbusters left in the States,” John told CBS affiliate KTVA.
He said there’s also an “adventure of walking through aisle by aisle.”
WATCH: Blockbuster Video in Alaska set to close leaving 1 left in U.S.
A majority of stores closed eight years ago with 300 more in 2013.
About eight remained as of January 2018, according to Blockbuster’s website, and now there’s only one.
Two months ago, the Anchorage store even got a gift of memorabilia from the host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” including the jockstrap worn by Russell Crowe in “Cinderella Man,” in hopes of saving the store, KTVA reports. But it still didn’t draw in enough to keep the doors open. as a result, Daymude told AVNews that the memorabilia would likely go back to the owner.
READ MORE: Dish to close rest of its Blockbuster stores in US
When the Alaska Blockbusters were still open, Harding said being the last in the lower 48 states, they still saw many people through their doors.
“We still had a lot of people coming through like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re still here,’ and, ‘How’re you still here?’ and, ‘I thought Blockbusters are all closed,’ so we had that all the time, constantly,” she said.
“I think that as long as we’re making money and as long as we can keep the doors open and still be comfortable, we’re going to be here.”
There are no plans to close their doors, Harding said, because of support from the community and the commitment from owners Ken and Debbie Tisher.
—With files from The Associated Press.
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