A friend mentioned in passing that she had rented a DVD from Family Video and didn't care much for the way management had laid the sotre out, with DVDs classified in terms of how recently they released, rather than by genre, at least for more recent titles. That got me thinking about the general decline of the availability of DVD rentals in Carbondale.
When I moved to town in 1989, if I remember correctly, there were 3 locally owned video rental places, plus Blockbuster. Over the last two decades, Hollywood Video and Family Video both moved to town, amidst some controversy as both located in areas of town (across the street from each other) that had served as rental/residential areas. for decades. All of the independent rental places closed down, as did Hollywood Video several years ago and Blockbuster last year, leaving only Family Video and Redbox as the sole sources of physical DVD rentals.
This mirrors what has happened in the DVD industry as a whole, as companies shift more to online and streaming, there are fewer places to walk in, browse and rend a DVD for the night. As internet access speeds up, people find it easier to go online and download a movie immediately. Rather than make the trek to the video store, click a button on your computer and watch it on the monitor, or, if you had it hooked up, hook your PS3 up and watch the movie on your TV. As household cable penetration increases, even video rental kiosks like Redbox will go away.
When I moved to town in 1989, if I remember correctly, there were 3 locally owned video rental places, plus Blockbuster. Over the last two decades, Hollywood Video and Family Video both moved to town, amidst some controversy as both located in areas of town (across the street from each other) that had served as rental/residential areas. for decades. All of the independent rental places closed down, as did Hollywood Video several years ago and Blockbuster last year, leaving only Family Video and Redbox as the sole sources of physical DVD rentals.
This mirrors what has happened in the DVD industry as a whole, as companies shift more to online and streaming, there are fewer places to walk in, browse and rend a DVD for the night. As internet access speeds up, people find it easier to go online and download a movie immediately. Rather than make the trek to the video store, click a button on your computer and watch it on the monitor, or, if you had it hooked up, hook your PS3 up and watch the movie on your TV. As household cable penetration increases, even video rental kiosks like Redbox will go away.
This posting ignores the fact that such new developments really result in limitation of choice. Not everything on VHS went to DVD and the same is true for Blu-Ray. However, independent outlets exist for the important world of South-East Asian films not generally available in most DVD rentals unless they are bloated Mainland China epics and South Korean gangster films. Netflix is also not really comprehensive. Outlets such as Asian Cult Cinema, Five Star Laser, and yesasia.com. will still provide welcome alternatives for those who will not be satisfied with the complete works of Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler via streaming.
ReplyDeleteDidn't really ignore it, just not part of the post. You are correct, the traditional video store does allow you to browse and possibly find something you weren't looking for and specialized sits on the internet accomplish the same thing but you have to know they are there.
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