Columbia House Owner Files for Bankruptcy

[ChrisSmolinski]

The owner of onetime mail-order music giant Columbia House filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, seeking to sell what remains of its business after almost two decades of declining revenue.

Filmed Entertainment Inc. filed for chapter 11 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, citing the advent of digital music and dramatic changes in technology that are threatening to render CDs and DVDs obsolete.

The company's revenue peaked in 1996 at about $1.4 billion, according to FEI director Glenn Langberg, but has declined almost every year since. Last year, net revenue was just $17 million.

Full article: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/columbia-house-owner-files-for-bankruptcy-20150810-00846

[Zoidberg]

Yet another business so deeply invested in an outdated paradigm it couldn't reinvent itself.  Imagine if they'd taken a hint from Napster or Amazon early on.

Even at their peak of profitability Columbia House seemed like such an anachronism I couldn't figure out why anyone bought from them.  Too often businesses like that resorted to sneaky, predatory "value added" crap crammed onto bills that went unnoticed for months.

If I had to guess, I'd bet their main customers were folks like my grandparents who lived much longer than earlier generations, with plenty of disposable income but limited mobility.  They were just old enough to fondly remember the old mail order businesses like Sears, Wards, Burpee gardening catalogs, etc., and young enough to appreciate the burgeoning TV home shopping networks.  I've had to wean my mom away from mail order catalogs like Haband, which operate in a marginally shady way, selling good quality items at reasonable prices, but cramming despicable predatory profit-building schemes into the orders of unwary older folks, such as "added value" coupon booklets of dubious value.  Those shady practices only serve to kill off the few remaining old school mail order and TV order businesses.

As that generation of shoppers died, so did the customer base for outdated businesses like Columbia House, Blockbuster, etc.

For the most part, good riddance.  Dead weight businesses that couldn't or wouldn't adapt, and too often resorted to sneaky, predatory practices to compensate for profits lost to discounted prices.

[ff]

Even at their peak of profitability Columbia House seemed like such an anachronism I couldn't figure out why anyone bought from them. 

But Lex - where else can you GET TWENTY CDs... for a BUCK? 

You are wise to have interceded in your Mom's mail offerings habits.  I did the same with mine a few years back.  An elderly lady just down the road from me shot through her entire savings, investments, and stock portfolio "doing" Haband, Blair, QVC, et al after her husband died.  The kids didn't have the nuts to interfere.  Now she has no assets and the family home is on a reverse mortgage just to keep the monthly bills paid.  Damn shame...

[Fansome]

Here's another well-known company done in by the Internet. This was quite a shock to me; I won't know what to do with myself on plane flights anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyMall

[myteaquinn]

My sister and I have been trying to find a priest to perform an exorcism on our mother to rid her of the QVC demon. Unfortunately we can't find a priest that wants to put in the overtime. Were not sure how much she has pissed away, but I'm not planning on an inheritance.   

[Pigmeat]

How will future generations of children learn about being legally robbed without Columbia House?

By the time kids discover "Buy Here, Pay Here" used car lots in their mid to late teens, it's too late to wise them up. Perhaps mandatory service with a carnival during the summer after middle school could be the solution?