Posted on 02/23/2010 11:18:29 AM PST by raccoonradio
Convenience, choice drawing consumers to other movie options
On a recent weekday, Ken Moore browsed the new release wall at Hollywood Video but he couldn’t avoid the “Store Closing’’ banners that draped the inside and outside of the Quincy store.
“I’m like a dinosaur,’’ said the father of two from Milton. “People tell me ‘You’re still going to the video store?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah.’ ’’
Moore is a part of a growing minority of movie renters who shun the convenience of instantly uploading moves online or grabbing a DVD at supermarket kiosks in favor of roaming the aisles of the big-box video rental stores such as Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. At a time when mainstream video store chains are being challenged like never before by the growth of on-demand cable movie rentals and Internet-based mail delivery outlets, these cinephiles are like nomads, driving farther and farther to find another video store when their neighborhood shop closes.
“The trend for video stores is, in some ways, going in the same direction as neighborhood bookstores, in that they’re closing,’’ said Gloria Boone, a media and advertising professor at Suffolk University. “Between choice and convenience, it really is dooming the local video stores. It’s their death knell.’’
The shuttering of movie rental stores has become common in recent years as closings have quietly dotted city neighborhoods from Dorchester and Porter Square to Abington and Quincy.
Earlier this month, Movie Gallery Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection and is closing 760 of its Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video (including five in the Bay State), and Game Crazy stores nationally, according to the company website. Blockbuster Inc., which owns Blockbuster Video, closed 300 stores last year and will shutter up to 600 this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Don’t you end up with a lot of videos?
I liked the local video-rental stores in the ‘80s, as they often had a nice variety of vintage fare... classics, silents, foreign films, old serials, 50s/60s horror sci-fi schlock, etc. Always something fun to discover. But some time in the early-1990s, all the stores around here seemed to weed out all that variety, and concentrate entirely on ‘new releases.’ So, I gave up on them entirely. Haven’t rented anything since those days.
In the past decade, I’ve just been buying discs, so now I have my own library of favorites to tap into any time I want.
The only thing holding up online rental is selection. Once I can get anything online that I can from a store it’s all over, and they know it.
I still love the song about Travis Crabtree :-)
Hundreds..
I’m the opposite. When you can rent a new release for $1 (or less via monthly fee), what’s the point of buying for >=$10 when you’re only going to watch it once, maybe twice, and have to dedicate shelf space to it forever after.
Short of dirt-cheap ($2 or less) specials, I only buy premium/box-sets of the few movies I especially like and particularly want to own (Blade Runner, Brazil, Watchmen, etc.), as much for the extras as for the main title. I should start dumping what I do own and won’t watch again (few would pay enough for those aging DVDs to warrant the bother of selling them). I’ve got too much stuff, and about 1/3rd of my stuff is media.
Thanks for the tip, just added it to my instant queue.
Maybe it will inspire my teenager to quit putting in so much time playing call of duty 4 modern warfare.
No. The fees that appears when all too many B-workers just didn’t check in the dropped-in movies during their shift. It finally got so bad I had to
hand deliver to them directly and physically watch them log them in.
If you never had this happen you musn’t have rented from them much. Either that or you manage one if their stores. Ha ha.
Is it any wonder why they are failing? =
. Why spend $6 at Blockbuster when you can rent the exact same DVD from Redbox for a DOLLAR!
I hope Redbox begins to rent Blu Ray movies in their kiosks.. the sooner the better!
LOL. So busy looking at the words, I failed to note the context. You are quite correct, editors and proofreaders are apparently in short supply.
When Wayne Huizinga sold out to Viacom, the service deteriorated and prices increased. Netflix and Redbox were the nails in the coffin.
That’s why we just use RedBox.
I just noticed the hollywood video closing. I haven’t used them for years though, I use a local blockbuster.
But it would be no big deal to sign up for netflix. For a while I was on blockbuster’s “get movie by mail, return to store and get another movie”.
Now I do online surveys and earn free movie rentals, plus I belong to blockbuster rewards and get free movie rentals.
When Netflix gets their Wii connection working, I’ll probably start doing Netflix and downloading movies to the Wii to watch. It’s just easier than running to the store.
Saves gas, lowers reliance on foreign oil, good for the planet. A winner all around!
Considering what is available for free online, I’m always stunned when I drive past an adult video store (which in Houston is every third store apparently) and see cars.
I’m always thinking, “Don’t these poor guys know?”
I can live without Hollywood and Blockbuster. What is sort of sad is the end of the small, indepedent rental store. I sort of miss the act of going into a store like that, talking to the loser Quentin Tarantino wannabe who apparently lived there, and finding little films that I never would have discovered in a million years. I feel the same way about music stores.
Netflix is great when I want to see the latest Will Smith movie. But I don’t really know how the children will discover “Dolemite” under this new system.
UNless, of course I literally “ran” to the store, then I’d be getting exercise.
Not that that is likely to happen in what remains of my life. :-)
I used to read a fanzine by a guy in Va. who worked for them and his nickname for them was C-— S——r video :)
I don’t know if Netflix still has Gargoyles. It is out of print (but I did manage to find a copy for a friend used at a store for around $6 although I think it goes for more on ebay).
It got re-issued recently...
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