Death of the video rental store!

[Dazey]

If anything, I feel it's making the film industry less capitalistic. Films are becoming less about the product and more about its artistic merit.

Instead of buying a film and deciding if it's good; you now have the option of watching it online before you make any decision to buy.

Yeah but it also makes the end product feel much more disposable to me. It's like when I had my Amiga years ago and it was the easiest thing in the world to make copies of the games to the point that I'd get bored of 'em after 15 minutes and move onto the next one.

[Guest NGOG]

Yeah but it also makes the end product feel much more disposable to me.

Why are people so invested in the product though? Why do you have to buy something to decide if you like it? It becomes less about a desire to behold a good film, and more about developing a hobby.

If I'm blown away by a film I'll be more inclined to buy the physical product. It's the basic instinct of an intelligent society. Hollywood can't be lazy anymore.

[Tater Totts]

No i just think a better way of going about expieriencing joy is in the moment, harking back to the past ain't joyful, it's depressing and wistful and a headfuck. Like the idea of reaching for the unobtainable, if the bastards unobtainable, who gives a shit? Oh the 90s, the 90s, do you remember the 90s?!?! It was shit, i was skint, i had to get the bus to school and wear a bottle green uniform, I had to wait outside cornershops asking builders and housewives to buy my fags for me and i couldn't get a fuckin' drink, the 90s was shite.

These anecdotes you remember, 'that time when me and our kid did this this and this', however plentiful tYhey are, are not the bulk of what even you were doing in the 90s I'm sure. I'm not trying to depress you young lad I'm just saying, compared to now, the past ain't shit, can you remember your fuckin' past properly, growing up in a fuckin' council gaff...look at you now, you got a proper good job, making good money, you got a crackin' bird...and you're harking back to thursday nights crackin' one out over a copy of Razzle and going down the video shop to get Ghostbusters out with ya mum?

I thought what with you being an Arsenal fan you would want to hark back to the days where you actually won trophies.

Nah, i'm having too much fun in 2014 topping the table and watching United and Spurs get bummed See you on fuckin' Saturday, cuntface

I will laugh so much come the end of the season when City or Chelsea win the league

[Dazey]

Nah, i'm having too much fun in 2014 topping the table and watching United and Spurs get bummed See you on fuckin' Saturday, cuntface

I will laugh so much come the end of the season when City or Chelsea win the league

I can't wait to be out in the streets with all my fellow Mancs toasting victory!

[Guest Len B'stard]

No i just think a better way of going about expieriencing joy is in the moment, harking back to the past ain't joyful, it's depressing and wistful and a headfuck. Like the idea of reaching for the unobtainable, if the bastards unobtainable, who gives a shit? Oh the 90s, the 90s, do you remember the 90s?!?! It was shit, i was skint, i had to get the bus to school and wear a bottle green uniform, I had to wait outside cornershops asking builders and housewives to buy my fags for me and i couldn't get a fuckin' drink, the 90s was shite.

These anecdotes you remember, 'that time when me and our kid did this this and this', however plentiful tYhey are, are not the bulk of what even you were doing in the 90s I'm sure. I'm not trying to depress you young lad I'm just saying, compared to now, the past ain't shit, can you remember your fuckin' past properly, growing up in a fuckin' council gaff...look at you now, you got a proper good job, making good money, you got a crackin' bird...and you're harking back to thursday nights crackin' one out over a copy of Razzle and going down the video shop to get Ghostbusters out with ya mum?

I thought what with you being an Arsenal fan you would want to hark back to the days where you actually won trophies.

Nah, i'm having too much fun in 2014 topping the table and watching United and Spurs get bummed See you on fuckin' Saturday, cuntface

I will laugh so much come the end of the season when City or Chelsea win the league

I was laughing at the beginning of the season at how yous lot were doing, i'm laughing now and i'll be laughing at the end of the season, just like i been laughing at Spurs the last decade Cuz whatever else happens with Arsenal we'll finish top 4, we'll play champions league football and you'll forever be in our shadow

[Tater Totts]

No i just think a better way of going about expieriencing joy is in the moment, harking back to the past ain't joyful, it's depressing and wistful and a headfuck. Like the idea of reaching for the unobtainable, if the bastards unobtainable, who gives a shit? Oh the 90s, the 90s, do you remember the 90s?!?! It was shit, i was skint, i had to get the bus to school and wear a bottle green uniform, I had to wait outside cornershops asking builders and housewives to buy my fags for me and i couldn't get a fuckin' drink, the 90s was shite.

These anecdotes you remember, 'that time when me and our kid did this this and this', however plentiful tYhey are, are not the bulk of what even you were doing in the 90s I'm sure. I'm not trying to depress you young lad I'm just saying, compared to now, the past ain't shit, can you remember your fuckin' past properly, growing up in a fuckin' council gaff...look at you now, you got a proper good job, making good money, you got a crackin' bird...and you're harking back to thursday nights crackin' one out over a copy of Razzle and going down the video shop to get Ghostbusters out with ya mum?

I thought what with you being an Arsenal fan you would want to hark back to the days where you actually won trophies.

Nah, i'm having too much fun in 2014 topping the table and watching United and Spurs get bummed See you on fuckin' Saturday, cuntface

I will laugh so much come the end of the season when City or Chelsea win the league

I was laughing at the beginning of the season at how yous lot were doing, i'm laughing now and i'll be laughing at the end of the season, just like i been laughing at Spurs the last decade Cuz whatever else happens with Arsenal we'll finish top 4, we'll play champions league football and you'll forever be in our shadow

We've been shit so far this season and are only two points off the top four so imagine what could happen when we start playing well. We might not win the league but top 4 is very possible, I mean stranger things have happened.

Atleast Wasted sticks to his convictions, after the City game you were doom and gloom and a snivelling wreck and now you're still top you're giving it large. You have more mood swings when it comes to Arsenal than Piers fucking Morgan. So sit down, smoke a spliff, relax in the glory of beating an under-performing Spurs side this weekend and lets see where everyone is come the end of the season.

[Guest Len B'stard]

No i just think a better way of going about expieriencing joy is in the moment, harking back to the past ain't joyful, it's depressing and wistful and a headfuck. Like the idea of reaching for the unobtainable, if the bastards unobtainable, who gives a shit? Oh the 90s, the 90s, do you remember the 90s?!?! It was shit, i was skint, i had to get the bus to school and wear a bottle green uniform, I had to wait outside cornershops asking builders and housewives to buy my fags for me and i couldn't get a fuckin' drink, the 90s was shite.

These anecdotes you remember, 'that time when me and our kid did this this and this', however plentiful tYhey are, are not the bulk of what even you were doing in the 90s I'm sure. I'm not trying to depress you young lad I'm just saying, compared to now, the past ain't shit, can you remember your fuckin' past properly, growing up in a fuckin' council gaff...look at you now, you got a proper good job, making good money, you got a crackin' bird...and you're harking back to thursday nights crackin' one out over a copy of Razzle and going down the video shop to get Ghostbusters out with ya mum?

I thought what with you being an Arsenal fan you would want to hark back to the days where you actually won trophies.

Nah, i'm having too much fun in 2014 topping the table and watching United and Spurs get bummed See you on fuckin' Saturday, cuntface

I will laugh so much come the end of the season when City or Chelsea win the league

I was laughing at the beginning of the season at how yous lot were doing, i'm laughing now and i'll be laughing at the end of the season, just like i been laughing at Spurs the last decade Cuz whatever else happens with Arsenal we'll finish top 4, we'll play champions league football and you'll forever be in our shadow

We've been shit so far this season and are only two points off the top four so imagine what could happen when we start playing well. We might not win the league but top 4 is very possible, I mean stranger things have happened.

Atleast Wasted sticks to his convictions, after the City game you were doom and gloom and a snivelling wreck and now you're still top you're giving it large. You have more mood swings when it comes to Arsenal than Piers fucking Morgan. So sit down, smoke a spliff, relax in the glory of beating an under-performing Spurs side this weekend and lets see where everyone is come the end of the season.

For someone who started off taking the mickey you're getting awfully serious here, before it was pisstaking I will be forever bull-headed about my team, thats what its all about...but my serious idea about their title aspirations is touch and go and rightly so...and nothing i've said even on here thats disputed my doom and gloom mentality, the most i could push out there for a brag was to say that we'd finish top 4, thats hardly givin' it large is it? Nothing i've said here is any like inconsistent to what I've maintained all season and thats simply to be sober and realistic about the reality of whats going on and that reality is the same one that you've highlighted, that there ain't room for a piece of fag paper between the top four...

But that don't mean I'm gonna sit here and let some dirty spud take the piss out of my fuckin' team when they been falling to fuckin' bits all season

[Tater Totts]

Like I said, falling to bits yet we're still two points off the top four, stranger things have happened

You forget that when I first got into football it was when Alan Sugar owned the club and we were almost relegated, I've never known a good Spurs side until the last couple of years so I would happily take falling apart and two points off fourth than the dark days of Sugar

Going a bit off topic now though so I will end it here.

[wasted]

I applied for a job in a video store. But the next week it became a self service video machine. That didnt catch on so it shut down.

[dalsh327]

I still see video stores open, but there's still specialty stores open, stuff they have on videotape that you can't get on DVD and a bunch of independent arthouse movies. It's like if you couldn't find it on Netflix or at Blockbuster, they'd have it.

I'm curious with the coming live/work communities that are slowly being approved, will we see a comeback of a music and movie store like Tower?

DVDs won't be phased out because there's still a lot of issues with streaming quality and you still have people renting discs, buying discs, and libraries spending a sizable amount of money on them.

I also think people are ready to ditch their cable service and just pay for internet because of the "shows being held hostage" bullshit.

[volcano62]

I have to admit when Blockbuster closed their operations in Canada a couple of years ago, it was really sad for me personally.

IMO if Blockbuster couldn't survive, the independent stores did not stand a chance either.

With that said, I understand the situation but I would have tried to adapt to the current era on a corporate level if I was in charge.

2 reasons I believe the video store is dead;

-It was at a point renting a video was 5-6$ (or more for bluray) or you can buy the damn thing for 15$. Video stores became greedy and too expensive. When I was a kid you rented for a 2$ and your biggest fear was forgetting to rewind the VHS

- Netflix, Hulu and other online alternatives. However Blockbuster could have easily implemented an online service.

[Guest NGOG]

Video stores became greedy and too expensive.

It's not that they're being intentionally greedy. They've got staff to pay, rent to pay, lights to keep on and crisp/sweet/ice-cream/drink slots to fill up. It's literally impossible for them to compete with online prices (as companies like Play don't have near as many unnecessary expenditures).

[volcano62]

Video stores became greedy and too expensive.

It's not that they're being intentionally greedy. They've got staff to pay, rent to pay, lights to keep on and crisp/sweet/ice-cream/drink slots to fill up. It's literally impossible for them to compete with online prices (as companies like Play don't have near as many unnecessary expenditures).

6$ to rent a movie is a turn off. If they lowered the price more people would more motivated to rent which would create more revenue to take care of their overhead.

[Lithium]

Video stores became greedy and too expensive.

It's not that they're being intentionally greedy. They've got staff to pay, rent to pay, lights to keep on and crisp/sweet/ice-cream/drink slots to fill up. It's literally impossible for them to compete with online prices (as companies like Play don't have near as many unnecessary expenditures).

6$ to rent a movie is a turn off. If they lowered the price more people would more motivated to rent which would create more revenue to take care of their overhead.

If only Blockbuster had hired you as their financial advisor, things might have gone better.

[Gordon Comstock]

When I was fairly young, like 6-7 in the late 90's, the town I lived in was still really small. My next-door neighbors family owned the local corner store (which also rented out movies) and the neighbor a few houses down worked at the local video store (they were literally right across the street from eachother). I used to go rent a video and get one of those stringy-licorice sticks every weekend Actually when I was a little older the people who bought the house on the other side of my family opened another video rental store, although by that time there was a smaller chain store nearby and I honestly don't know how their business lasted as long as it did.

[Angelica]

As a former employee of the most notorious Blockbuster in Sydney, the demise of the franchise (and video stores in general), is one I greet with some sadness. Although god knows, I stopped frequenting video stores and started downloading shit the second I left the job. There are a lot of very strange, largely unfit for society people at loose ends now though (former employees and customers alike).

Edited January 2, 2014 by Angelica

[Guest Len B'stard]

I remember when, down the lower high street this MASSIVE blockbusters opened, with 2 or 3 floors, massive bastard of a place right? Then one day it gets robbed and closes down, hadn't been opened that long but it got robbed the fuck up and ended up closing. They used to rent movies out for 3.50 a pop right? Then this natty lookin' place opens up round the other side of town called Video 2000, which rented all these movies at £1 a pop, which was a god send to me, rented movies left right and centre. Then one day i notice something, about 80% of their stock had a red stamp marked 'PROPERTY OF BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO'

I think they call that the Robin Hood effect!

[volcano62]

Video stores became greedy and too expensive.

It's not that they're being intentionally greedy. They've got staff to pay, rent to pay, lights to keep on and crisp/sweet/ice-cream/drink slots to fill up. It's literally impossible for them to compete with online prices (as companies like Play don't have near as many unnecessary expenditures).

6$ to rent a movie is a turn off. If they lowered the price more people would more motivated to rent which would create more revenue to take care of their overhead.

If only Blockbuster had hired you as their financial advisor, things might have gone better.

Don't be a smart ass with me. At least I would of actually tried to save all those jobs by trying something different instead of just closing the doors.

[Aaron_H]

- Netflix, Hulu and other online alternatives. However Blockbuster could have easily implemented an online service.

This is exactly what they should have done. They did, in the end, but it was way too late. They could have easily used their market influence to set the ball rolling in the early days. That and sorted out postal rental much faster.

[***Flawless]

I've only ever been in a Blockbuster twice in my life, although I don't remember it being very fun. I love having the internet at my fingertips and being able to watch most things I want, but I do miss popping in normal DVD's. It's much easier to find something online now than to get up and go get the DVD from the shelf.

[Aaron_H]

On a somewhat related note, I often watch things on Netflix rather than get out my DVDs, mainly because Netflix has things in HD and I'm too cheap to go out and rebuy some things on blu-ray when I can just watch them on there instead.

[volcano62]

On a somewhat related note, I often watch things on Netflix rather than get out my DVDs, mainly because Netflix has things in HD and I'm too cheap to go out and rebuy some things on blu-ray when I can just watch them on there instead.

lol I do the exact same thing and I'm also too cheap to re-purchase everything on bluray!

[The Sandman]

back in the 80's

[Iron MikeyJ]

Family Video is still holding strong here in the US. But its pretty much the last one.