Blockbuster not closing, just virtual

Published 5:32 pm Thursday, January 12, 2012

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — When is a store shutdown not a closing? When you’re moving from bricks-and-mortar to the Internet.

At least that’s how video rental company Blockbuster LLC portrays it on signs at some soon-to-close stores. “Visit us at our new address, http://www.blockbuster.com,” the signs read.

“The signs say we’re moving, but we’re actually closing this store,” said manager Dan Drummond at the store in Wilton Manors, Fla., set to shut later this month.

Blockbuster’s “moving” signs could confuse some customers and backfire against the company, said two public relations experts.

For example, the sign showing a conventional mover’s truck could mislead some customers to think the store is re-opening in another mall, said Don Silver of Boardroom Communications in Plantation. Blockbuster might communicate more clearly, he said, if its artwork of the mover’s truck had wings to show the business flying into cyber-space, maybe with a promotional code to enter online for a free rental.

“Implementation can be everything,” Silver said. “You don’t want to mislead people. And Blockbuster has plenty of space at its stores to tell its story clearly. It’s not a vending machine.”

Companies must be transparent now, because consumers check the Internet for information — such as Blockbuster’s bankruptcy, its sale to Dish Network and its store closings, said Virginia Sheridan of M. Silver Associates, with offices in Fort Lauderdale and New York.

“It seems they didn’t execute properly,” said Sheridan. “And today, you just can’t do that. People don’t like to feel that they are being tricked or being fooled.”