Blockbuster closing Salisbury, Kannapolis locations

Salisbury's Blockbuster store is selling off DVDs and videogames before it closes Feb. 19.

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Blockbuster stores in Salisbury and Kannapolis will close Feb. 19.

Employees at the Salisbury location, 850 Jake Alexander Blvd. W., found out last week the store would close. The store stopped renting movies and video games Sunday and has everything in the store on sale.

Blockbuster, which once operated two locations in Salisbury, is the last free-standing movie rental business in town.

The Kannapolis store, 821 Cloverleaf Plaza, has been in the process of closing for two months, an employee said.

Blockbuster declined to comment on any one particular store.

“Blockbuster continues to evaluate the performance of each store location individually,” said Danielle Johnson, spokeswoman for Dish Network, which bought Blockbuster last year. “As we have said in previous statements, we remain committed to maintaining only those stores that we believe we will be able to operate profitably.”

Post readers commenting on the story on Facebook said they already get their movies elsewhere.

“Surprised it lasted this long. Netflix, Redbox...” Sacha Roberts said. “So many cheaper options.”

Dish Network Chief Executive Joe Clayton earlier this month told Reuters the company would close more Blockbuster stores than originally planned.

Clayton said at the Electronics Show in Las Vegas that all unprofitable stores would come under the knife, according to Reuters.

Stores can close for a number of reasons, Johnson said in an email, including a store reaching the end of its lease, a store too large in size, or property owners unwilling to reach a reasonable lease renewal.

“For employees of any closing stores, we intend to relocate as many employees as possible to other stores,” she said.

It was not clear how many people work at the Salisbury and Kannapolis stores.

Blockbuster continues to focus on a DVD mail service that competes with Netflix. One of the perks of Blockbuster’s mail service has been in-store exchanges for customers who didn’t want to wait for a new movie or video game to arrive by mail.

Salisbury and Kannapolis customers soon will no longer have that option.

Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.