Blockbuster Latest Business to Close on Village's West Side

The village's one and only  store will close by April, one of 182 being shut down by the troubled video/game rental company as it struggles in the wake of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Stock is being liquidated at the the . store, with games and new DVDs currently marked down 10 percent and Blu-ray movies discounted by 15 percent. Prices will continue to be lowered as the April 9 closure date nears, an employee said.

The closure comes less than a month after , another retail staple on the village's west side, announced its closing because of financial stress due to bankruptcy. 

In the last two years, the Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc. has closed nearly 1,000 stores, according to a story by The Associated Press. Late last year, the company announced it would shutter 72 more stores by year's end and another 110 stores in early 2011, the story said. The Plainfield store is one of the latter.

And more store closures could be on the horizon. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the company may sell itself for $290 million to a consortium of debtholders, who may in turn file for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy. The deal, which is being challenged by other debt holders, calls for 600 more stores to be closed by the end of March, the report said.

Experts say the demise of the movie rental company, which once dominated the market, is tied to its inability to compete with Netflix, which lets you order movies by mail or directly to your computer; Redbox, which rents videos via vending machines; and cable video-on-demand, where you can rent movies through your television.

Calls to the Blockbuster corporate office were not returned.