I remember how there was no place like the video store. Back in the days of VHS, some of those movies, to buy new actually listed for around $80-100, except for the big Blockbuster mega-hits. And the smell of all those plastic VHS tapes and boxes always made the aroma of a video store unique to say the least. Picking through potential movies that you may have seen hundreds of times or some rare but potentially hidden gem that might be lying in wait for you. It was all part of the adventure. That adventure is now gone.
It started with the death of VHS. Don’t get me wrong, the death of VHS is a good and necessary thing. However, with these bulky albatrosses sent on their farewell tour and the advent of the nice slim DVD, the whole world changed. DVDs were cheaper to produce, less heavy and bulky so cheaper to ship, and faster to produce as well. I remember the slow crawl video stores had with switching to DVD. At first, it was really annoying because all the old movies would only be on VHS, so for awhile I never rented anything old. Eventually the DVDs crawled into the cheap sections and soon entire stores switched over to this friendlier media.
In the meantime, while video stores dawdled with updating their inventory, some smart people apparently started up Netflix. What a great idea it was. They dealt exclusively in DVDs, no VHS. Shipping was cheaper because of a thing known as media mail. So all we had to do was log online, pick our movies, wait for them to arrive and ship them back. Best of all, no late fees! No more having to travel to the video store. Sit in your home, comb through their selection and you’ve got years and years worth of viewing at a fraction of the cost.
I still liked the video store though. There was just something about viewing the boxes and covers and reading about them that couldn’t be beat. But the problem was, most of these stores never adapted their prices. Some stores did and that would always capture my business when they did $1 rentals. Blockbuster never did that, so I rarely wanted to visit them. There is also the need to have something RIGHT NOW. Netflix couldn’t teleport those DVDs, so if you and your friends were talking about a movie, you had to wait for your Netflix queue or visit the evil and heinous Blockbuster and pay their hefty fees.
With the previous thoughts in mind, along came another wonderful invention which in the course of a few years has completely changed the movie rental industry. It is called Redbox. Now, we have a rental that only costs $1 per day, so you have instant gratification and a reasonable cost, and plenty of places to return the DVDs to, since you can return it to any Redbox location. Genius! A few drawbacks, such as our terrible midwest winters which sometimes freeze those touch screens so bad you can hear them screaming “WTF is this???” That and you have a limited selection. But overall, a wondrous invention.
Finally, add in the fact that you can watch your favorite TV show and movies in numerous ways on your computer and it is officially over for the video store industry. The reason I’m talking about this is seeing the local Hollywood Video closing their doors. I hadn’t even considered renting from them in years, but I sure snapped up some deals on DVDs. But in a way, it brought back some of the nostalgia for those dark and smelly little video stores that you sifted through hoping to find a gem. Those days are gone thanks to DVDs and the internet. Will they ever make a comeback? Not in their current state, possibly never.
All of this poses the curious question of, what do people who don’t have credit/debit cards do? What do people without the internet do? Basically, cash is being eliminated from your rental equation. It all goes on your plastic. If you don’t have internet, your options went even further down. We’re almost starting to make these things all requirements for our society to function. This has positive and negative implications on us all. I guess we’ll find out when that ship has sailed. It ain’t that far away!
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