Blockbuster Hopefully Getting What It Deserves – A Death Blow
By
In reference to Don Reisinger’s CNET article on Say goodbye to Blockbuster
Many, many years ago I worked for a music store called Turtles. Turtles was bought out by Blockbuster in their attempt to break into retail music sales (which failed miserably).
When their takeover was complete, they made all of the Turtles employees sign several new contracts with Blockbuster. I was able to sign a couple of them, but there were a couple I couldn’t sign. One in particular stated that I couldn’t talk to the media ever. And by ever, I mean if I was on the street, not working mind you, and if anyone from the media wanted to ask me what time it was, I could be sued by Blockbuster for breach of contract (or whatever).
Now you’re thinking, that can’t be so! You must be kidding? Nope, I’m not kidding and it was so. I even had the luxury of putting their policy to the test. I refused to sign their contract and was therefore given notice of my termination. I had about one week left, before I was let go.
The beauty of working at a music store is that you get a nice discount on the music, so the last day I was supposed to work there, I decided to go in several hours before my shift started and use my discount. It just so happened that a news crew came by the store looking for music fans to comment on the Rolling Stones coming to town. They came into the store and asked if anyone wanted to be interviewed. I said yes.
So I came outside for the interview. Remember, I’m not working and I’m in street clothes. Before the interview started, the manager came outside and told me I couldn’t be interviewed by media. I told him I could and also reminded him that I didn’t sign Blockbuster’s contract. He looked really worried and insisted that I couldn’t be interviewed. I ignored him.
After the interview was over, the manager came out and said he had someone from Blockbuster’s corporate office on the line who wanted to speak with me. I said sure.
There was some bigwig on the other line who started to tell me how I couldn’t talk to any media and how I was in breach of their contract. I calmly explained to him that I could talk to the media and that I didn’t sign their contract. He was extremely irate. I was pretty sure that he wasn’t used to anyone talking back to him and my guess was that he was someone who surrounded himself with yes men. Although the conversation with him seemed to go on for quite a while, it wasn’t much of a conversation. It mainly consisted of him screaming profanities at me through the phone and me calmly telling him he was wrong and that I never signed their contract so I could talk to the media if I wanted. He eventually hung up on me.
Later that day, before I returned to the store to complete my last shift, the head manager called me – upset at what I had done. Apparently, the bigwig had told him that I cussed at him the entire time and that I hung up on him. My only guess is that he told him that to cover up his own behavior – thinking that I would have already told him what he did to me. The reversal of what actually happened both irritated and irked me. I guess that guy had more to lose. I calmly told my manager the truth and also reminded him that there are usually three sides to the story, their side, my side and somewhere in between is the truth. That, along with him knowing my character, was enough to calm him down. Needless to say, I was asked to never come back.
In the end, the irony of this story is that the news channel that interviewed me, intentionally misrepresented and misquoted me. So Blockbuster and scruple-less media can all go down in flames for all I care.
