Wayne Huizenga-- Part 5: Back to Waste Management and Then to Car Rentals and Sales

Wayne Huizenga sold Blockbuster to Viacom in 1994 for about $8 billion.

Still not satisfied to retire and live on all that money, in 1995, he got back into the trash hauling business by buying Republic Waste Industries Inc. for $27 million.Mergers and acquisitions soon followed.  He renamed the company Republic Industries as it branched out, buying Alamo Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental.

Republic, under Huizenga's leadership, then started AutoNation, a national chain of auto dealerships.  At its peak, it had 375 dealerships in 17 states.

Republic Services was spun off in 1998 to control the waste management portion of its portfolio, a sector that had grown to about $1 billion in annual sales.  he remained its chairman until 2002.

Quite a Man.  A Real American Success Story.  --Cooter

Wayne Huizenga-- Part 4: Bought the Blockbuster Chain and Grew It

He could have retired nicely, but that bored him.  With the money, he started buying dozens of small businesses like hotels and pest control companies.

In 1987, a business partner got him to check out Blockbuster, a small chain of video stores.  Video stores were usually small locally owned .mom and pop operations.  At the time, Huizenga didn't even own a VCR.  When he saw the Blockbuster stores it opened his mind to the idea.

The stores were clean and carried 10,000 titles, ten times more than most video stores at the time.  He loved the concept and thought it could become the McDonald's of video.  He and his two partners bought 43 % of the business for $19 million and he became chairman and president.

By 1991, the chain had grown to over 1,800 stores.

A Real Businessman.  --Cooter

Wayne Huizenga-- Part 2: "You Just Have To Be In the Right Place At the Right Time"

He was one of the guys everyone else watched in the business world because of his knack of getting in on the ground floors of money-making endeavors.

He built Blockbuster Entertainment into the leading video rental chain by buying competitors and cracked Forbes' list of 100 richest Americans, becoming chairman of Republic Services, one of the nation's top waste management companies and AutoNation, the nation's largest auto retailer.

For a time, he was a favorite among South Florida sports fans as he went on a spending spree and his Marlins won the World Series in the team's fifth year of existence.  (Mortifying Cub fans around the world.)  But then that turned to disdain when he dismantled the team after that season.

--Cooter

A Very Interesting Man: Wayne Huizenga (1937-2018)-- Part 1: Blockbuster Video and Sports Teams

From the March 25, 2018, Chicago Tribune "Owned teams, trash haulers and video stores" by Steven Wine and Terry Spencer (AP).

"College dropout Wayne Huizenga started with a trash-hauling company, struck gold during America's brief love affair with the VHS tapes (I still use VHS tapes to record TV shows) and eventually owned three professional sports teams.

"Huizenga owned Blockbuster Entertainment, AutoNation and the world's largest trash hauler, and was founding owner of professional baseball's Florida Marlins and NHL Florida Panthers.  He bought the NFL Miami Dolphins for $138 million in 1994."

Died March 24 at age 80.

The Marlins won the World Series in 1997 and Panthers reached the Stanley Cup final in 1996, but, to his chagrin, the Dolphins never reached the Super Bowl during his ownership.

And, how he became so rich is quite a story as well.  He was what they call a self-made millionaire.

More On That In My Next Post.

As Video Stores Ride Off into the Sunset-- Part 2

Christopher Borrelli doesn't remember when the last time he walked into a video store, rented a movie, took it home and then returned it. he uses Netflix and streams movies through Xbox.

Not only do I not remember my last visit to a video store, I have never used Netflix and what is Xbox? For that matter, I have never even looked at a DVD here at home. I only use VHS tapes. They still work fine. But, I am not one to jump on a technological bandwagon and have to be dragged kicking and screaming into such things, usually only because I can no longer use what I am accustomed to.

However, Borrelli, does have some warm thoughts about little independent mom and pop video stores like Specialty Video on Broadway in Chicago. He says it looks like the very first video stores. These are places where the workers are just as happy to turn the shopper on to different stuff than they came in for.

These stores are like the old mom and pop stores where people would come in and talk shop about records. I had two )Full Cyrkle in Crystal Lake, Il. and The Record Rack in Goldsboro, NC) that I liked and would spend hours in just talking and looking for little nuggets.

I doubt that I will ever get into video stores like I did record stores.

The only video store I went to was Rollins Video which started up in Round Lake Beach, Illinois, by a resident. He did so well, he had to move to a bigger store and even opened another one in Antioch.

Like They Said, "They Can't Take That Away from Me." --DaCoot

As Video Stores Ride Off Into the Sunset-- Part 1

From the October 20th Chicago Tribune "Deserted Aisles" by Christopher Borrelli.

We are fast approaching the time these once ubiquitous stores join the ranks of the old mom and pop record stores and disappear thanks to public tastes.

Christopher Borrelli asks the question, "What have we lost when we lose all our video stores."

"We've wrung hands over the closing of local bookstores, and we've lamented the demise of record stores. But video stores---should we care."

He believe video stores were always colder and less lovable.

For those of you who have never been to one, this is where you would go into the store, pick a movie and rent it for an allotted time. And heaven help you if you returned ot late or forgot to rewind it.

The emergence of Netflix spelled the end of it. The biggest video chain was Blockbuster, which at its peak of almost 5,000 stores, has filed for bankruptcy as has Movie Gallery (which owned Hollywood Video). However, there are still 3.425 Blockbuster stores left, but for how long?

Never Went To 'Em Much Myself. --DaCoot