Blockbuster administrator: "We are fighting in the trenches"

The lead administrator at Blockbuster has issues a grave warning to workers at the retailer.

Lee Manning told The Telegraph that 160 Blockbuster stores are likely to close in the near future, threatening 1,000 jobs. Blockbuster operated over 500 stores in the UK although over 100 have closed since administration began.

We are basically fighting in the trenches – but we get shot at by all sides,” he stated. We try and save as many jobs as we can. But we can’t save all of them. We have to deal with people that are in distress both emotionally and financially. With people who want their money back.

There is a real reason HMV and Blockbuster are distressed and that goes beyond the problems of the high street. That is much more driven by technology and the fact that the delivery method of their product had been fundamentally challenged by technology.

Simply put, there is less demand for the physical product when people can buy it easier and cheaper online. There is a technological revolution, And Blockbuster’s online business has been underinvested and that has caused their demise.”

It is a generation thing. My kids’ generation don’t want to buy CDs or have stereo systems. They want something easily accessible and they want something immediately.

You can’t change that. The people who buy CDs are 35 to 70 years old. And at some point they have either bought the CDs they want or they will be dead.”

UPDATED (12:23): UK store count corrected.