Alberta man opens free 'Blockbuster' on his front lawn

EDMONTON -

A St. Albert man has opened his own version of the once-popular Blockbuster Video stores on his front lawn - and it’s free.

The homemade wooden box, with the familiar blue and yellow sign, sits on Fairview Boulevard and is packed full of DVDs, Blu-Rays, and even some Xbox games.

The creator of the box declined an interview with CTV News Edmonton Thursday night because it’s “not his style,” to be on the news. But he said he got the idea after he was unable to sell off his stuff in a recent garage sale.

He said the neighbourhood is known for several free book libraries in similar front-yard boxes, so he adapted the idea into something fresh.

Neighbours Maxine Mikkelsen and Lois Croken stopped by Thursday to browse the box.

“I think it’s pretty cool, and the name, to call it Blockbusters adds a nice dimension to it,” Mikkelsen said.

“We definitely used to go to Blockbusters. It’s easier now (to stream movies). But I do miss it, my kids were at that age where it was exciting to go pick out movies.”

“I miss it. It was fun, with the kids,” Croken added. She said she sometimes helps herself to books from front-yard libraries and said she may use the “Blockbuster” too.

At its height of popularity, Blockbuster had more than 9,000 stores worldwide, according to Wikipedia.

The company closed 146 Canadian Blockbusters in 2011, including 6 rental locations in Edmonton, when it went into receivership.