Alaska is closing the last of its Blockbuster stores. Here's what it was like to visit the last frontier of the video-rental chain before it went extinct.

Ky K. / Yelp

• Blockbuster's last locations in Alaska are finally closing, the video rental chain announced in July. 
• Alaska was Blockbuster's last frontier, thanks to the state's long winters and generally slow WiFi.
• Now, it appears that only a single Blockbuster will remain open in all of the United States: one store in Bend, Oregon.
• To hear the full story of the life and death of Blockbuster in Alaska, subscribe to Business Insider's podcast, "Household Name."

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Blockbuster is finally going extinct in Alaska, long the video-rental chain's last frontier. 

Roughly a dozen Blockbusters remained open across the United States in 2017. Now, just one remains after Blockbuster Alaska announced in July that the last two stores in the state would be closing up shop.

Alaska was long Blockbuster's last frontier thanks to long winters and slow WiFi. However, even that couldn't keep people renting DVDs forever. 

"Let's be real, you have Netflix, you have Redbox," Blockbuster manager Kevin Daymude told reporter Emily Russell in an interview for Business Insider's podcast, "Household Name."

"The economy is tough right now," Daymude said. "So, people are still renting — but they aren't renting as much."

Prior to Blockbuster's closure in Alaska, Daymude said that tourists would show up at the store, eager to get their nostalgia fix. 

For Blockbuster lovers desperately missing the store, and for video-rental virgins raised on Netflix, here's what it's like to visit the Alaska Blockbusters: 

If you've traveled to Alaska in the last few years, Blockbuster's iconic blue-and-yellow signs may have grabbed your eye.

Yelp/Jill I.

The blocky letters and bold colors stand out on the horizon.

Yelp/Lorento D.

Inside, everything looks the same, with rows and rows of movies.

Yelp/Guy B.


See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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SEE ALSO: The manager of the last Blockbusters in Alaska speaks out on the death of the chain, nostalgic tourists, and Russell Crowe's jockstrap

LISTEN: How did Blockbuster survive in Alaska for so many years?

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