The Last Blockbuster in Texas Has Finally Shut Its Doors

In more shocking news: there was a Blockbuster still open in Texas? We thought El Paso might be the last place in Texas that had a Blockbuster open until a few years ago, but it looks like it was really Edinburg holding on to those VHS tapes. The city had the last Blockbuster video store in the state of Texas and the former movie rental giant is closing down. So how many Blockbusters are left in the US? Six to be exact- six in Alaska and one in Bend, Oregon. The last Texas Blockbuster will be doing like the rest, and liquidating their entire inventory, which has led to long lines of movie goers rushing in to buy their favorites at deeply discounted prices. The Edinburg location boasts an impressive 17,000 titles at their store. Blockbuster was founded in Dallas, Texas back in 1985.

The President of Border Entertainment, Alan Payne, was on hand at the store in Edinburg during the liquidation sale and talked about Blockbuster's history in Texas:

“It grew from no stores in the 80s, to it becoming a real part of American culture all over the country by the mid-90s, but by the 2000s it started to decline. We got to see the beginning, the peak, and now, unfortunately this is the end. It was an event to go to a Blockbuster store on a Friday or Saturday night and most people if they weren’t going to the theater, that’s what they were doing — it became a community gathering spot where people came and talked movies, had a good time and went home, watched the movie and ate popcorn. For a long time it was just part of what people did on the weekends.”

The store will be open for another two to three weeks, and customers are rushing to try and grab titles that are hard to find online or for a reasonable price.