When we mentioned that we were in Bend, OR as part of our 50 state road trip, we had a few people reach out to us to let us know that Bend is home to the last Blockbuster on the planet.
They’d heard about it thanks to a documentary they’d seen on Netflix called The Last Blockbuster. We’d not watched it, but there was no chance we were passing up the opportunity to walk down nostalgia alley and so we headed there one afternoon.
From the outside it looked like a regular Blockbuster store.
On the inside it looked like a regular Blockbuster store too. That’s because it is a regular Blockbuster store. It’s now independently owned, but you can head there and rent a movie like in days of yore 😉
It was fun getting to walk around and reminisce of the days where you’d visit on a Friday night, hoping that they’d not rented out all the copies of the latest movie you wanted to see.
Most movies were only available as DVDs, although they did have some “retro” VHS tapes available to buy.
In addition to being a regular video store, the last Blockbuster store in Bend, OR also has a mini-museum area with exhibits relating to the documentary that was made about the store, along with actual movie items.
Many of those exhibits were items Russell Crowe had collected from his movies over the years and subsequently auctioned off after he got divorced. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver subsequently bought them and sent them to one of the few remaining Blockbuster stores at the time in Alaska. When that closed, they got sent to the last Blockbuster store in Bend, OR.
I highly recommend watching these two videos about what happened – I was literally crying with laughter by the time I got halfway through the second video!
I don’t remember seeing Russell Crowe’s jockstrap from Cinderella Man, but they did have his robe from that same movie in which he played boxer James J. Braddock. There was also the hood he wore as Robin Hood.
Russell Crowe’s vest from Les Misérables was on display too, as were the directors chairs he and Denzel Washington sat in during filming for American Gangster.
In addition to the movie items, there was all kinds of Blockbuster Video paraphernalia that might bring back some nostalgic memories from trips you made to rent movies back in the day.
Considering its status as the Last Blockbuster on the Planet, I’m curious if the store rents out enough movies to keep it going, or if it’s still open due to income earned from merchandise sold to people like me and Shae who only visit the store for its nostalgic value.
Shae and I stopped in there on our way to visit Deschutes Brewery and so had our dog Truffles with us. It was cool enough outside that she could’ve just waited in the car, but we asked the staff if we could bring her in if we carried her and they said we could.
We did take a quick photo though with her perusing her favorite movie section.
Just before we left, we bought a few little mementos like stickers. Shae got chatting to the cashier who shared that they still use the original Blockbuster Video computer system that they had back in the 1990s and early 2000s. As you can imagine, that’s probably quite dated now, so I feel sorry for them if and when they have to deal with software issues seeing as there’s no IT team as part of a big corporation to help out nowadays.
It was fun going down memory lane at the Last Blockbuster on the Planet in Bend, OR. Even though I grew up in the UK, we had loads of Blockbuster Video stores there and I used to love looking through all the movies trying to decide what to watch.
Shae had even fonder memories because she actually worked at a Blockbuster store on Long Island, NY about 20 years ago and she’s always been much more into movies than me. No matter what your connection to Blockbuster though, it’s definitely worth paying a visit to the last of their stores if you ever find yourself in Bend.
[…] Last Blockbuster on the Planet and Deschutes Brewery are both about 10 minutes away to the north, while the High Desert Museum is […]