San Clemente Will Be Blockbuster-less by April

The Blockbuster video rental store on South El Camino Real closed last week, and is slated to close for rentals this week, a store employee said.

The Pico store will allow patrons to rent until Thursday morning, said the employee, who did not give her name, in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.

The store will stay open only to sell their DVDs and Blu-ray videos until April, the employee said.

Blockbuster corporate communications did not immediately return calls for comment.

Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September, according to a news release from the company, and has been closing brick-and-mortar stores throughout the country.

According to the Associated Press, Colbalt Video Holdco, a company created for the transaction by several hedge funds teaming up, has made a bid to buy the national rental chain, which has been facing competition from NetFlix, streaming movie subscription services and Redbox DVD rental vending machines.

San Clemente has at least two Redboxes, one in each of the Albertson’s grocery stores on Pico.