There were once four Blockbuster Video locations in Berks County, one being the above on Route 724/Lancaster Pike in Shillington. The others were at 4860 Penn Ave in Sinking Spring near Redner’s Market, 3262 N 5th Street Highway in Muhlenberg Shopping Plaza, and 3985 Perkiomen Avenue in Mt. Penn/Exeter.

Blockbuster, was an American-based provider of home movie and video game rental services through video rental shops, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater. Blockbuster became internationally known throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,300 people worldwide, including about 58,500 in the United States and about 25,800 in other countries, and had 9,094 stores in total, with more than 4,500 of these in the US.

Competition from the Netflix mail-order service, Redbox automated kiosks, and video on demand services were major factors in Blockbuster’s eventual demise. Blockbuster began to lose significant revenue during the 2000s, and in 2010, the company filed for bankruptcy protection. The following year, its remaining 1,700 stores were bought by satellite television provider Dish Network. While the Blockbuster brand has mostly been retired, Dish still maintains a small number of Blockbuster franchise agreements, which allows some stores to remain open in a few markets. – Source

There are still a few Blockbusters around, but if you want to visit one you might need a plane ticket. Most locations are in Alaska, two are in Oregon, and one in Texas. They are still very successful in Alaska due to certain streaming and internet services still not being offered there. The only way to get movies in some parts of Alaska are still a Blockbuster video store!

My future children will never know the excitement of walking into a Blockbuster Video on a Friday or Saturday night to pick out a movie for a friend sleepover, family movie night, or date night. For that reason, we can officially file Blockbuster (and family video rental stores in general) under “Nostalgia”.