Another Blockbuster is closing this month, this time in Waipio, as the owner of the troubled video rental chain attempts to return the business to profitability.
Blockbuster Inc. is liquidating its Waipio location at 94-800 Ukee St. The store has seven employees and will shut down on Sept. 16, an employee who asked not to be identified told the Star-Advertiser on Tuesday. Company officials didn’t return calls for comment.
The company has been holding a close-out since Aug. 6, running through mid-September. The location also has shorter hours of operation, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, closing two hours early; and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, closing an hour earlier.
Blockbuster’s remaining stores on Oahu are in Kahala, Ewa Beach, Wahiawa and Kailua. It also operates in Kihei and Kahului on Maui and Hilo on Hawaii island.
Owner Dish Network Corp. closed stores in Pearl City, Kaneohe and at the Kamehameha Shopping Center in Honolulu in July 2011. Earlier that year, outlets in Mililani, Waianae and Salt Lake were shuttered, along with a Hawaii island store in Kailua-Kona. Locations in Kapiolani and Kapolei closed earlier this year, according to an employee.
A Blockbuster spokesman told the Star-Advertiser last year that leases for the stores were not assumed by Dish Network as part of a sales agreement in April 2011.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the sale of Blockbuster’s assets to Dish Network Corp. for $320.6 million in an auction. At the time, Dish agreed to acquire leases for about 500 Blockbuster stores, ensuring the video giant would continue to have a presence in the marketplace.
The video rental chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2010, after mounting losses due to increased competition from services such as Netflix and Redbox. The company, established in 1985 by a Dallas software entrepreneur, has lost market share in recent years and put itself up for sale after a failed attempt to reorganize in bankruptcy.
Blockbuster has since shut down more than 1,000 money-losing stores nationwide.
