Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2017 10:16:33 GMT -5
I've usually been of the mind that Netflix/RedBox was what did the deed. But thinking about it I realized that I stopped going to Blockbuster probably 5 years before it died off. So I think DVDs definitely suffered the fatal blow, to an industry that was in the process of being swallowed up by Blockbuster. Although, had Blockbuster been smarter, rental businesses may not have died off quite like they did. Before DVD, TV season/series sets and special features (commentary tracks, whole subsections of extra videos and interviews) were unheard of, or existed in very minor ways that could fit on a VHS tape. Those, I think, made VHS pointless and also created more incentive for people to own rather than rent. Reasonable DVD prices right off the bat probably hurt rentals (why rent a DVD for $3 for a few days when you could own it forever for like $15?) even moreso. Netflix/RedBox hammered the stake in a dying body that was struggling to live on but could do nothing sensible to stop that final strike. These days, local rental stores (I know of one...like 20 miles away from me, which I'm tempted to go into some day just to see what it's like) seem to exist because of its management knowing how to stay in business...
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mizerable
Fry's dog Seymour
You're the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest.
Posts: 23,475
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Post by mizerable on Jan 5, 2017 10:42:17 GMT -5
I remember when I went into Blockbuster around like 2003, and the new releases were like $5. And I think it was like $7 to rent a game for 2 or 3 days. What a load of shit.
I miss Blockbuster and I don't miss Blockbuster. I was exposed to a lot of great movies and games through renting, but the prices always seemed way too high for a gamble. Nothing like renting Out Fighter for the SNES because the asshole working there lied to me that it was a good game. Wasted my entire weekend and a few dollars I had, which was never much to begin with. I got ripped off so many times.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2017 11:46:45 GMT -5
No, people were still renting DVDs. It simply comes down to the fact of why are going to go through the hassle of renting a movie, making sure you return it on time, them possibly not having the movie you want, etc. when you can just watch it without leaving your house for less money. This. I will say that I do miss the video store. Just the image of walking into the video store, seeing the collection of films and video games, talking to the employees about a particular film or game, and sometimes just the possibility of running into a friend or making one in the process made the going there exciting in my opinion. It's a shame that streaming, Netflix, and other forms of technology essentially just made people more complacent and kept them inside rather than them going out to find what they want. Sad,y this is what is happening to the world in general though. They don't go to music stores anymore either, and even just a lot of day to day shopping is being done online. And now people talk to their friends online more than just hanging out with them at each other's houses. It sucks, but it's the world we live in now.
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Post by Ishmeal Loves Kaseyhausen on Jan 5, 2017 11:48:43 GMT -5
On our last trip to western New York, my wife and I were driving through a somewhat rural town and we came upon a rental store. I about lost my shit and my wife had no idea why.
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Post by YAKMAN is ICHIBAN on Jan 5, 2017 13:10:58 GMT -5
Blockbuster had a great perk with its DVD mail service for awhile - you could return the discs to store and get a free rental.
Once they stopped that, I switched to Netflix and never went to Blockbuster again.
Family Video is a regional Midwest rental chain which I like and frequented when I lived in Michigan. They had free kids movie rentals!
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Post by wildojinx on Jan 5, 2017 17:57:09 GMT -5
I do admit to missing the days of browsing in the video stores. I rarely rented new releases and spent most of the time in the actual gallery racks and picking up the more obscure and older films (especially in the horror genre), something that cant be done with Netflix (theyre starting to get less and less films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and most of their obscure stuff is more recent direct-to-video fare, no chance of checking out rock n roll nightmare or terrorvision).
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Post by paulbearer on Jan 10, 2017 0:22:00 GMT -5
Paal Granlund (who met Elvis several times btw) used to run video rental stores but gave up last yr , there just wasn't a market for it any longer in Oslo (or rest of Norway for that matter) TX Chainsaw was totally banned but sometimes stores would rent them out under the counter , so to speak
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