Curious Blockbuster coupon

Organichu

so i have a friend who is a keyholder for Blockbuster

she gave me this coupon a couple months back



(i covered the serial because hey who knows, maybe by some crazy magic she could get in trouble which i don't want)

this thing is awesome... any movie or game (new release or not) is 99 cents... and i can use it as many times as i want per visit

she said she's used hers (she had a couple, gave some to family) for a few years now and it apparently has no expiration date

she says 'an old assistant manager gave me a handful of them and says they were from a catalog of some sort'

so... we're just both curious

i don't want to ask too many employees because i don't want my coupon to be revoked, but mostly because i don't want my friend to get in trouble for disseminating them if they're supposed to be for employees only

by being firm with the employees at various blockbuster (being honest, saying i have no idea where it came from, but it is valid and i'd like my discount applied) it always gets honored... but basic level employees at several blockbuster don't know its source

neither do two different store managers

someone sate my curiosity?

ApexMirage

I'm pretty sure what you blocked out is only the numerical representation of that bar code that's still in plain sight, just FYI. I'd blank that out too.

Organichu

done, thanks

matt has a problem

I worked for Blockbuster about 10 years ago. I'm assuming, as they've only gone downhill since then and I doubt they'd be spending tons of money on a new system, that they're still using the same system which allowed individual stores to create and print barcodes and coupons. Looking at that one, it looks like it's in the old membership card plastic. I'm assuming that someone figured out an internal corporate code to make anything 99 cents, printed up a bunch, stuck them in the membership card holders and passed them out with authoritative-looking copy on them.

There was a lot of down time at Blockbuster 10 years ago, and that's when they were at their peak, so knowing how badly the company has fallen apart it's a safe bet that employees get bored as heck and screw around with the system.