… has finally arrived in my town. Both common Hollywood Video locations are closing down and selling off the inventory - selling it off, and not moving it offsite (as what happened to most of the decent Circuit City merchandise).
I think everyone knows it’s been a long time coming for all the obvious reasons, but since the latest innovation hit, those “Red Box” 1$ a day rentals at convenience stores and supermarkets, the end has come. And if you add the plusses and minuses, i think a world without B&M video rentals is a poorer for the lack of choice, even if the video rental market was a borderline scam.
As an aside, i think this is going to kill the premium being imposed on Blu Ray titles. I don’t foresee many spending 6$ on a Blu Ray new release when they can get a Red Box DVD for a 1$.
My local Blockbuster is closing, which sucks because it’s like 5 minutes from my house. What’s great is that it wasn’t unprofitable or even the least profitable in the region, corporate just wanted to close one store in the region and their lease just happened to be up. The building owners were insisting on a longer term lease than BB was willing to sign, so they said screw it, you get the short straw.
Thanks to Netflix I haven’t rented a movie in years and years. I honestly couldn’t tell you where the closest rental store even is.
It’s too bad that the people working for those companies are losing their jobs, but the whole concept of going to a store to rent a video seems antiquated to me because the tiny selection, the price, the hassle of going there twice per movie (pick up/drop off), the late fees, and the lack of viewer ratings are all inferior to the service Netflix has provided me.
The only exception I can think of, for reasons that rental stores are better than Netflix, are impulse rentals, when you decide at the last minute that “Hey, now would be a great time to go rent a movie”, but thanks to streaming that is becoming less of an issue.
I assume you must mean the choice to drive to the rental store on a whim, and not the horrible selection available in the store, right? I haven’t been to a video rental store for years, and won’t miss them at all. I even used to work in one.
The sooner we get to an all-streaming model, the better.
I think that something is to be said for going to the video store and perusing the aisles looking for fun movies is what I go to the rental places for.
Only if it matters to you whether you get to hold a box or not. I browse Netflix instant all the time, and feel like I get all of ups without the downs of the B&M.
but netflix doesn’t work. You search there, and have things suggested to you. You aren’t walking the aisle and seeing that kooky looking movie and making comments to your friends. Or seeing that gay porno and asking your friend if that was the one he was in.
Also, netflix takes 2 days for you to get your movie. I can’t just drive to the shop, look around, and take something home.
My friend (who incidentally was the one from the porno) and I were looking over netflix together and we found some good movies and he was like… We should watch that!! To which I replied… Sure, let me add that to my queue and we can watch it in 2 days!
That is the beauty of 4 star. It is their mission to have every movie but the shit ones. Their foreign section is almost as large as the domestic one. You name a movie… they have a copy.
A couple months ago, my girlfriend was looking for a copy of opera Carmen, (the placido domingo version) and they had it! (Along with 2 other versions)
I am not poo-pooing on Netflix (I love the service and have been a subscriber for a while).
There is still a spot for a good ol trip down to the video store in my mind.
Also, instant streaming can suck a big fat one until they get more stuff on the service. They almost never have the new releases, and most of the crazy weird exploitation era or random japanese gore fest movies I want are not available (Though some notable ones are).
Limited availability? This movie is only available on instant till the end of the month? Fuck that shit.
Yeah, the instant/digital selection is pretty poor yet, but it shouldn’t be too long now where they’ll have everything and studios release to it the same time they release the packaged version.
The only video rental place I ever liked was Video Library in Lenexa, KS. It was a family owned joint with a huge selection that started stocking anime years before you could find it anywhere else, had a massive selection of video games spanning the NES to the present (at least they did when I moved away from KS at the start of the PS2 era) a ton of older and hard to find movies and, of course, the cornerstone of any local video rental place, a fuckload of porn.
No Blockbuster or Hollywood Video has ever compared.
We have netflix, but I love my video store. It’s just a local neighborhood place down in a basement, not a blockbuster or a big store. They have a great selection, and the owner is friendly and always gives recommendations or will hold you up at the counter to chat about whatever movie you’re renting. Plus at $3 a rental it’s a pretty good deal.
Edit: I say we have netflix, but really my fiancee has netflix. She has a queue and I’ll watch things she gets if I’m interested. I’ve tried netflix myself three separate times since college and it’s never worked for me. I always end up not wanting to watch the movies I have, so I send them back because I want the next ones, but then when I get those I’m not in the mood for them so I send them back, etc. If I’m in the mood for a movie I much prefer walking down the street and picking up whatever I feel like watching that night.
I think Hollywood Video went under altogether. Every location in my city closed fairly suddenly within a month of one another recently, they didn’t even announce the one by me was closing, it just was locked up one day, and a week later it was empty. That has to suck for the employees.
While I won’t argue that Netflick isn’t awesome, there was still something to be said for a B&M video store. The Hollywood by me was right next door to a pizza place, and often on a Friday night if the weather was bad I’d call home and ask the kids if they wanted to do movie and pizza night, then stop on the way home from work. Having that option available on impulse was really nice. Even with Netflix streaming it’s not the same because the whole family can’t gather around the computer in the office while eating pizza (yeah, I’m a luddite, I don’t sling my PC video to my TV).
Also, if one of my kids came down sick it was nice to be able to run up to the video store and grab them a couple of movies to watch while they lay on the couch recovering. It’s impulse rentals like that which made my local store worthwhile, but I can certainly see how that model wouldn’t keep you in business, and how Netflix and Redbox killed the video store (cue up the Buggles).
