I have been kinda bummed lately that all our two local video stores have closed. First Willow Video closed about 8 months ago, and then Rogers Video closed at the end of December. The truth is that I had not been visiting any of them with much regularity over the past few years, but that was not because I was switching to downloading everything, it was more to do with the fact that I have been buying so many DVDs of late, mostly TV series which typically have over 400+ minutes per set. Thats a lot of viewing. And then there are all the hockey games on TV these days, I usually watch/record 6 or 7 games a week. That is easily 20+ hours a week. And then, recently I have become a fan of the Turner Movie Classics station which I have been recording up to 4 or 5 movies a week onto my PVR. So, who has time to rent movies. But that didn't stop me from feeling some sadness as I watched all my local video stores close. Who my age doesn't remember standing at the new release wall of a local video store, with family/friends as you try to agree on what to rent? But with current rush to switch over to renting movies online and or doing what it seems most people are doing - stealing them online - it seemed that the trip to the video store was now a thing of the past. That is until tonight, when I noticed that the Willow Video store by my home, had reopened, after closing down 7 or 8 months ago. I guess it says something about my wife and I that we both got very excited about the store reopening. We of course had to check it out. I wasn't in the market for a rental, but I did end up buying a previously viewed copy of the TV show The War at Home for just $5, and I look forward to heading over the the video store on Monday for cheap Monday rental night. I'm not sure we'll have time to watch whatever we rent, but it'll be fun to stand there as a family and try to figure out what we can all agree on for a movie!
2 comments:
Nice post. I completely agree although I am writing this from Melbourne Australia. Growing up in the 1980s, I used to love the different vibe you'd get from small video stores whose collections mirrored their owner's tastes to a certain degree. Then Blockbuster attempted to move in on them and drive all the small guys out with untold copies of the latest new release and now time and the web has taken care of them also. A part of our childhood is evaporating. *sniff*
Sadly after a 5 month experiment, the Willow Video that reopened, has closed for a second time. I visited the store many times, mostly looking for cheap used DVDs, and never saw too many people in the store. I decided not to rent from them when I found out that they were doing one day rentals only - I hate the idea of having to watch something right away. I would have much preferred a multi day rental giving me the option of watching it when I felt like it. I also found rental prices a little too high. I'm not a business person, but it seems to me that I would have rented a lot if the cost was just $1.99 (or less) for a rental instead of $5. Sadly, the busiest I saw the store was on the two trips I made once they announced they were closing and everything was being sold off at close out prices.
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