Last Call

In a sign of the times, Blockbuster Video is closing nearly a quarter of its stores by the end of 2010.

The store closures disclosed in documents filed Tuesday show that Blockbuster is having to cut much deeper than it anticipated to save money and keep its lenders happy.

Blockbuster now expects to close between 810 and 960 of its U.S. stores through 2010, up from the 380 to 425 stores that normally would be closed. If Blockbuster hits the high end of the new target for store closures, it will represent 22 percent of its 4,356 U.S. stores.

The Dallas-based company has closed 276 stores so far this year.

Netflix is killing them, period, just as ten years ago Blockbuster's business model and buying power was putting the locally owned video store out of business.