Thursday, September 27, 2012

Wow! What a Difference! - What is Your Blockbuster Today?

Former Blockbuster Video in Buckhead 
Many have tweeted, commented and messaged me to do this post and after plenty of planning, research and a couple of Netflix rentals, here it is. 

Blockbuster Video - Then and Now

At its peak, the video rental chain had over 4000 domestic stores and billions in sales.  The first Blockbuster opened in Dallas, Texas in 1985.  In 1994, at the height of its popularity and growing annually by leaps and bounds, Blockbuster was acquired by Viacom for over $8.4 billion.  The chain continued to grow and expand, opening new locations seemingly daily, in every neighborhood and most of the time, in centers with a grocery anchor.

The company was blindsided by the emergence of mail order rentals like Netflix that emerged in the early 2000s.  With competitors like Netflix offering both hard copy disks mailed to consumers as well as streaming media, Blockbuster started to see its sales nosedive by the late 2000s.

During the fall of 2010, the company announced it would file Chapter 11 bankruptcy and would close a significant number of stores.  Dish Networks won a competitive auction for Blockbuster in the spring of 2011,  and said they hoped to keep 500 locations open.

In its heyday, Blockbuster had nearly a hundred Atlanta area locations, today it has three.

According to the Blockbuster website, current active bricks & mortar Blockbuster stores are located in Alpharetta, Hiram and Norcross.  Additionally, Blockbuster Express, a service similar to Redbox, is now independent of Blockbuster LLC and is actually managed by Redbox.  Express kiosks are found mainly in and around drugstores, grocery stores and convenience stores, and certain other high traffic locations.

Many Atlanta area Blockbuster stores were formerly Turtle's Records and Tapes which as its name suggests, was a business that became troubled prior to the rise of Blockbuster.  

Below is a list former Blockbuster Video locations I've compiled with what they are today --- The list is not exhaustive and may contain slightly outdated material, please comment and update as you see fit.


1799 Briarcliff Road (Sage Hill) - Snap Fitness and Emory Village Flowers & Gifts

2161 LaVista Road (Toco Hill)- AAA Car Care Plus

3519 Northside Parkway - Smith Ace Hardware

2099 Peachtree Road (Was combo video and music) The Fresh Market

2140 Peachtree Road  ( Relocation after move, minus music)  Genghis Grill Lime Fresh Mexcan Grill

3655 Roswell Road (Tuxedo Festival) -  Lotus Hair Artisans and FLIP Burger Boutique

882 Ponce de Leon Ave.  - WellStreet Urgent Care

Dunwoody Club Dr. @ Mount Vernon Rd. (Chick-fil-A was rejected over drive-thru issues, may end up a bank)

2350 Spring Road - ?

2900 S. Cobb Drive ( nearly 21,000 s/f) - vacant Assorted surplus store

2002 Howell Mill Road - demolished, now Chase Bank

2900 Delk Road - Vacant

4195 Roswell Road in Marietta  - Advance Auto Parts

3870 North Druid Hills Road (Shamrock Plaza)  Vacant prime corner space

2115 North Decatur Road -  Petco

3983 LaVista Road (Northlake Festival) Uniform City and vacant

4363 Lawrenceville Highway Tucker (Cofer Crossing) T-Mobile and vacant

1575 Mount Vernon Road - WellStreet Urgent Care

1496 Buford Highway in Buford  - Vacant as of my last visit

3875 Peachtree Road (Cherokee Plaza) - Big Peach Running Co./Canyon Burger

3944 Peachtree Road - Mattress Firm

2152 Johnson Ferry Road (Empty)

5920 Roswell Road - Egg Harbor Cafe

6660 Roswell Road - Wellstreet Urgent Care

1544 Piedmont Ave. (Ansley Mall) -  Pet Supermarket

10945 State Bridge Road - WellStreet Urgent Care

3425 Cascade Road - Beauty & More + Papa John's Pizza

3479 Chamblee Tucker Road (Embry Village) Endcap and vavant

3466 Holcomb Bridge Road - ? Demolished and now a Chase Bank

7878 Roswell Road -  (The Shoppes at Morgan Falls) - Endcap and vacant

6575 Sugarloaf Parkway - Panera Bread

5885 Cumming Highway - (Sugar Hill Corner) Endcap and vacant

425 Sigman Road - Demolished and rebulit as freestanding CVS Pharmacy


Blockbuster Music aka Wherehouse Music 

2099 Peachtree ( The Fresh Market)

Northlake Mall (Finish Line)

2146 Henderson Mill Road - Briarcliff Village ( Party City)

1057 Ponce de Leon Avenue ( The Zac Team Vacant )

1531 Piedmont Avenue ( multiple users? )

2980 Cobb Parkway #132 ( Multiple users? )

3625 Satellite Boulevard (Verizon Wireless)

Lenox Square ( taf - The Athletes Foot )

Perimeter Mall ( LOFT ? )

1496 Church Street ( Moe's and others )

Town Center at Cobb - FYE Vacant?

Movie Gallery, one of Blockbuster's main competitors, along with Hollywood Video has been reborn into MovieGallery.com, a movie blog.

What has become of your neighborhood Blockbuster? 

8 comments:

SB said...

This is awesome Eli! I've been here for 5+ years now and sadly/surprisingly know 90% of these former BB spaces. I didnt know Sage Hill had one tho and also didn't realize in some cases that they were former BB like the Petco on N Decatur or the Pet Supermarket in Ansley. They happened so quick that I completely forgot they were BB.

Atlantan99 said...

Hey Scott,

I tried my best to capture most if not all of the ITP locales. Obviously somer were pre the massive closures that took over the past two years or so. Pretty remarkable the variety of things that have come from their demise.

I was just up in the Lake Lanier and Buford areas and it seems that a lot of the far out ones remain vacant. Guess we'll have to wait and see for WellStreet to get there as they took a good number of BB locations.

Thanks for reading!

Anonymous said...

2900 S. Cobb Drive ( nearly 21,000 s/f) - vacant

This one is a store that sells various "stuff". They seem to sell a lot of Kirkland Brand (Costco) items. They also have some Piggly Wiggly brand stuff too. Then they also sell furniture and clothes. I can't think of the name of it, but it's all new stuff.

Jill said...

Eli - the one on Holcomb Bridge Rd was demolished and is now a Chase Bank.

Jill said...

The former Blockbuster on Holcomb Bridge was demolished and is now a Chase Bank.

Atlantan99 said...

Thank you Jill. I have updated the post to relect that.

Thanks for reading!

Jay said...

Hi- if the 425 Sigman Rd location you refer to is the one in Conyers, actually the old blockbuster video is still an abandoned structure. The stand alone CVS is across the street. This building was originally a stand alone Eckerd Drug back in the day, then turned into Rite Aid, then after a fresh coat of paint, currently turned into CVS. The blockbuster outparcel was originally opened as a local video store called 'The Video Tree'. These were the days when half the store was 'beta' and half 'VHS' Then they were bought out by Blockbuster sometime when I was in high school I think- early 90s.

Atlantan99 said...

Hi Jay,

Yes, I believe that is the location. The current status of that property was received from a third-party and I apologize for the inaccuracy. Thank you for reading this blog and for the correction.

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