Lately I've been missing video rental stores. I think they're becoming extinct.
Back when I was a bachelorette, there was a really awesome store called Video Images that was directly under my awful studio apartment. It was mostly VHS but had a mind-boggling selection. There was a "cult/indie" aisle, a "musical/music doc" shelf, and a decent foreign film collection. Its 80s-riffic horror section was constant fodder for my friends' weekly Shitty Movie Night. If it wasn't for that store, I might not have seen Everything Is Illuminated, The Reflecting Skin, or the cinematic classic Rock N Roll Nightmare. A world without Jon Mikl Thor's mighty pecs is a sad one indeed.
Needless to say I was heartbroken when the owner retired. I bought some of my favorite tapes, but I felt like a vulture. At least then there was Blockbuster, which even if the hapless employees couldn't recommend me a movie, you could find something there. Now there isn't an honest-to-blog video store within a 45 minute radius, if that. All our Blockbusters went under, and now we have a few redbox kiosks scattered across the city.
So you might ask why a video store is even necessary in 2010. Hell, the word "video" is in the title - who the hell needs a dusty VHS when you've got Netflix? I guess I'll go with my old curmudgeonly battle cry "it's just not the same!" There's nothing that really replicates the feeling of going into a video store and grabbing a DVD or VHS based on the cover alone. Netflix is almost too good at pinpointing what I'd like; I kind of miss being underwhelmed by an awful B-movie.
Mostly, though, it just weirds me out that generations of kids are going to grow up and have never set foot in a video rental store, that some culture landmark of my childhood is going to be completely foreign to everyone after me. Millions of slumbers parties are going to be denied an older sibling renting Monkey Shines and the nightmares that follow.
3 comments:
Crazy. I was just talking to a friend about that earlier this week and how I was curious as to when all video rental stores would become extinct. I can't argue with the ease and affordability of Netflix, though. Damn them for being so good at what they do!
I don't really have a problem with the video stores going under... I guess I feel worse about the locals closing, but I will not shed a tear for Blockbuster, who in my opinion, made RedBox and Netflix so enticing. If Blockbuster didn't charge $5 to rent one movie, people wouldn't have looked for a change as quickly... Maybe it's not at the fault of Blockbuster... maybe they had to have prices that high to stay afloat, but I doubt that.
I typically didn't rent many B-movies, but since Netflix instant watch, I have no extra monetary investment and have watched such jewels as "Redneck Zombies" and "Oranges: Revent of the Eggplant". I definitely wouldn't have paid money at a rental store to see them... well, probably not anyway.
I guess another note is, I'm a fairly casual movie watcher... I definitely wouldn't consider myself a film-buff.
I think if these places would've managed to tap in to the beauty of getting movies in your mailbox they might've lasted. That was part of the huge appeal of Netflix - a huge selection right at your fingertips & a movie in your mailbox a day or so later. They've even got online streaming, & the ability to stream over an X-Box. Which is amazing. It's almost as good as having a video rental store built in to your TV that you don't have to pay for.
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