Blockbuster Wants You Back, Lowers Prices

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After taking a beating from Netflix and Redbox, going bankrupt and getting bought by the Dish Network, Blockbuster is trying to lure customers back with lower prices. Now all you’ve got to do is find a Blockbuster.

(More on TIME.com: Dish Network Wins Blockbuster with $320 Million Bid at Auction)

Effective today, thousands of Blockbuster movie rentals cost $0.99 per day. Just-released movies cost $2.99 for the first night, and other new releases cost $1.99 for the first night. The price for additional nights is $0.99 for all movies.

Blockbuster is also running a free movie promotion, where if you rent a single movie for $2.99, you get unlimited free rentals of movies priced at $1.99 or less, one at a time, through July 4.

The price changes are an obvious attempt to win customers back after they’ve quite clearly forgotten about Blockbuster. The rise of cheap video rental options from Redbox and Netflix, along with on-demand streaming via game consoles and other set-top boxes, has steadily eroded at Blockbuster’s business. The last time I stopped by a Blockbuster — to rent a video game with some friends a few weeks ago — we were the only ones in the store besides the cashier. She told us that if we wanted anything that wasn’t in the store, we could have it delivered by mail. It was kind of sad.

Blockbuster’s business model is clearly in trouble, and adjusting prices isn’t going to turn things around. The unlimited rental offer, which requires you to shuttle back and forth to the store for each new rental, only underscores how outdated Blockbuster seems in the digital age. It’s still a good deal, but with Blockbuster down to just 1,700 stores nationwide — from 3,300 U.S. stores when the company filed for Bankruptcy last September — making those trips could be more inconvenient than ever.

(via SlashGear)