A blast from the past: See inside the last remaining Blockbuster

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(KTLA) — Back in the day, Friday nights weren’t complete without a trip to Blockbuster.

At the height of its popularity, there were about 9,000 Blockbuster stores.

Now, there is just one.

The Last Blockbuster is in Bend, Oregon.

The last Blockbuster, found in Bend, Oregon. (Rich DeMuro)

Walking into the store is like taking a trip down memory lane: there are rows of movie rentals, the yellow walls, candy and snacks and even that familiar “Blockbuster” smell.

The store is the last of its kind. The people who work there try hard to keep it open, using a combination of nostalgia and merchandise to keep the memory alive.

Inside the only remaining Blockbuster. (Rich DeMuro)

The store has long since retired VHS rentals, these days you can only get DVDs. A rental is $4 and late fees are capped at $10.

You can even still open up a new Blockbuster membership, although cards are now handwritten instead of printed since the ancient dot matrix printers the chain used are now all gone.

Many visitors opt for a $2 souvenir membership card, one of the many ways the store stays in business.

It’s almost like a functioning Blockbuster Museum. General Manager Sandi Harding said that the top sellers are a hat and T-Shirt.

Harding has worked at the Bend Blockbuster since 2004, and even then, she wasn’t sure how many years of life the store had left.

Some of the Blockbuster merchandise available for sale, as well as various artifacts collected at the store. (Rich DeMuro)

A Netflix documentary titled “The Last Blockbuster,” released in 2020, breathed new life into the store and made it a stop for many traveling through this small Oregon town.

“Everything is exactly the same as it was 20 years ago,” said Harding. “People a lot of times think it’s because we have terrible Wi-Fi, that must be why we have a Blockbuster still, that is not the case.”

“Just to put it in perspective, about half the population would be in a video store every week,” explained Alan Payne, author of Built to Fail, a book about the rise and fall of Blockbuster.

Blockbuster wasn’t in a good position to compete with alternatives, including DVDs by mail and kiosk.

“It’s interesting to note that Blockbuster was really a broken company in dire financial conditions before Netflix ever started streaming,” said Payne.