Blockbuster Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Blockbuster

Pros – you get 5 free movie rentals a week and you get the movies before they are released to the public.
easy job, you get to talk about movies all day!

Cons – dealing with customers when they swear up and down that they returned a movie but its not in the store.
selling movie passes and online memberships.

Advice to Senior Management – update the computer systems!!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blockbuster

Pros – On the job training, even if you are starting as csr, you get manager skills.
7 free movies a week, wich is great for movie buffs.
Friendly enviroment.
Easy to work around schedule.

Cons – No retirement plan.
No commisions on sales.

Advice to Senior Management – keep it up.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blockbuster

Pros – As a full time grad student, I took a part-time job at Blockbuster on the side. This has been, by far, the best McJob I've had. A good part of the reason is because I love movies, love watching them and love talking to people about them. Getting free movie and game rentals is pretty awesome, and I get to watch movies before they're released on video. It's an easy job, and after awhile everything becomes muscle memory. I love the people I've worked with, and it's usually a lot of fun to work. In the past, my previous manager was extremely lenient and understanding about my time limitations, from schoolwork to school breaks. From what I understand though, he was an exception and Corporate isn't nearly so lenient.

Cons – If you work for a corporate store, everything operates top-down. An employee's/store's/district's performance isn't tracked by how well they actually do, but by how much they sell an arbitrary quota of whatever product they are pushing that week. For example, bundles of snacks or video game presales.

The store managers are constantly threatened with firing by the district manager, and the district manager is always being threatened by his or her boss. They are also in a lot of financial trouble right now, so stores are constantly closing and thus job security isn't that great for a lot of stores, and with the remaining stores things are getting shuffled from the current restructuring and the influx of new employees from the closing stores.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on a good business strategy rather than what feels like desperately trying to make a few dollars and cents. Try to actually encourage customers to shop there instead of resurrecting late fees and doubling prices. Recognize performance in the general sales ability of managers and employees instead of ability to follow arbitrary rules.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Blockbuster

Pros – The pay is good for what you do. You scan, enter names, organize and clean. You meet tons of people.

Cons – Friday evenings get nasty as drunk people come in to get discs. Some will be rude for sure.

Advice to Senior Management – Overall it was good. One can't expect much from retail management. They are themselves stressed to the hilt.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blockbuster

Pros – This is a great industry. If you like movies, retail management, merchandising, and purchasing decisions, this is a great place to be. There are a lot of opportunities in the franchise operations to take advantage of the ideas of the franchisor, but to then tweak them or change them completely. We get to decide on new products, test different ideas, change merchandising plans, and have a lot of flexibility to sort of run the business as if we owned it.

Cons – A little worried about the long-term effects of technology on the retail store business.

Advice to Senior Management – We would appreciate it if you would share with us the complete Profit and Loss statement of the business, so we can understand all concepts of business operations, including depreciation, amortization, interest expense and taxes.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blockbuster

Pros – Blockbuster is a very laid back and low stress job. It's great for those who need a start in the job world, or those looking for some extra cash (either as a second job or while at school). The work hours are VERY flexible, and you can book days off with relative ease. It's also a great place for anyone with a love of movies or video games (free rentals, and discounts!), The people there, whether co-workers or management are very easy to get along with. I find it to be much like a big happy dysfunctional family (I mean that in a good way.)

Cons – The only downsides to working at Blockbuster would probably be the relatively low pay (I wouldn't count on supporting yourself working at Blockbuster alone), and the fact that it is not a very glamorous job (Nothing you would want to brag about to others).

Advice to Senior Management – The one thing I've noticed working for Blockbuster is that a lot of the equipment we use is getting fairly ancient (and just barely works). I think they must use the method of not replacing anything until it totally breaks down. I think that the stores would look better to the customers (and be nicer for the employees) if the computer systems (monitors, keyboards, printers, etc..) were given an overhaul once and a while.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend