One of the last three Blockbusters in Alaska is closing its doors.
The store in Soldotna had its final day of rental business on Sunday, according to a post on the Facebook page for Blockbuster Alaska. An inventory sale there starts Tuesday.
"We regret to inform our customers that our Soldotna store will be closing," the post said. "The sale will go on throughout the month of May and into June on all rental items and fixtures."
[Even in Alaska, Blockbuster is fading. 'We're just managing the decline as best we can.']
This is just the most recent Alaska Blockbuster to fall. Locations in Wasilla, North Pole, and Anchorage have also shut their doors in the past few months. There's only one other Blockbuster left standing in the U.S. outside Alaska. It's in Bend, Oregon.
The Soldotna location at 44376 Sterling Highway is the only Blockbuster on the Kenai Peninsula. The other two Blockbusters in the state are in Fairbanks and the DeBarr Road location in Anchorage. Another store in Anchorage, at Old Seward Highway and Huffman Road, recently closed.
Justin Trickel, store manager at the Soldotna location, said he doesn't think video streaming services like Netflix led to the closure, because "there's a lot of outlying areas around here that cannot get internet at all." He attributes it more to Alaska's economy.
"It's just, it's gotten to the point — we have the same amount of people coming in but they're just not spending as much because they can't afford to," Trickel said. He's not sure exactly when the last day of the sale will be.
[No, you can't try it on: Anchorage's last Blockbuster now owns Russell Crowe's jockstrap]