Blockbuster closing 960 stores before end of next year

I remember when I was a teenager I used to go to Blockbuster so many times a week to rent games and anime all the people that worked there knew me by my first name. At one time, it was a truly awesome service, but now that you can just go to a website like Netflix or Goozex and load up a queue of stuff you want to watch and play and never have to leave your house, well, stores like Blockbuster are on the decline. It’s kind of sad, as I have such fond memories of it, but all things change, right?

GamesIndustry.Biz reports that Blockbuster will be closing 960 of their 7000 stores before the end of 2010. They describe this move as a way to “improve four-wall profitability”. A spokesperson made a comment to CNet in regards to the changes:

All these stores are candidate stores … although we may in fact close that many stores, if we can renegotiate leases or remodel stores to make them more profitable, that number might go down.

Well … it’s still a lot. I wonder if stores like this will still be around in ten years? Unless they radically alter their business model, I’m thinking maybe not.