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Originally Posted by mr. tegu
Did they buy them out or just force them out of business?
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National Video spent a great deal of effort changing the deals with studios from one where stores paid 70-100 bucks for each tape, and kept all the rental proceeds to a new model where the franchise got the tapes for 10 bucks and split the rental fees with studios after a small cut to National Video corporate. It allowed the individually owned stores to stock more tapes especially of new releases.
Then Blockbuster came along got the same deal as NV with the studios and opened stores a block or less away from almost every National Video and had corporate cash levels to stock shelves. All's fair in business with supply and demand I guess, but they even had an ad campaign sort of like "they can't possibly have all the new releases you want, but we are huge and we can, so walk a few doors down." Smart, successful, and really sad for the other guys. National Video sold to another company (not BB) at the corporate level, but it was kind of too late and most of the stores closed.
On another note, remember when people used to rent VCRs from Blockbuster along with the tapes? Hilarious to think about now.