I've stopped renting because the store I'd been renting from closed one of the last of its two stores. There are few alternative ones, and they don't hold a lot of appeal for me...Blockbuster, for example. It's sad. I'll miss it. I wish your store could have survived and been a success, DDK.
But I think the brick and mortar places are on their way out, save, perhaps, for crafty places like the one Dreadylocks mentioned, or maybe the family video type stores out there. DDK, I noticed that it was K-mart at issue, not Walmart. I googled it and found out, apparently(?), that Walmart hasn't invaded and conquered Australia, yet. Wow! But, I believe that all of the big boxes like K-mart and Target learned from Walmart's cutthroat tactics. I don't doubt that the greed of the studios' and the distributors' was involved. It's really interesting to hear from someone like you who was on the frontline of what's been happening. But I can't help (cautiously) wondering if maybe it was K-mart who was really the bad guy. From what I've heard -and Walmart was the pioneer in this regard- is that extortion is the M.O. of these stores. A store like K-mart can say, "Hey, Mr. Distributor or Mrs. Supplier, we will buy such-and-such, product from you [in this case the latest dvd releases] and you will sell it to us for fourteen dollars, or else: or else we will punish you buy not buying said product from you. In fact, maybe we'll cut you off and not buy anything from you, at all. See how you like that! Now, give us what we want...or else." Okay, that might not be precisely how dvd purchasing works for these people (
), but the point is that I don't think we should underestimate the bullying and extortive power of these gianormous stores/corporations.
Fifty dollars a new release dvd? Ouch! I'd be glad if it had helped someone like DDK stay in business, but...damn. I can't afford to buy dvds as it is. Me wouldn't be a happy camper.
I think the real culprit is simply the march of technology along with new businesses utilizing those new technologies and offering ever more convience for patrons. I haven't tried Netflix yet (I don't need another monthly charge on my credit card --and I certainly do not need one on my bank card!), but apparently a whole lot of people have, and they love it. What do you do?
Sorry if this is too off topic here since it's not about film, but this thread reminds me a lot of a bookstore closing in my town lately. You can ask the same questions about the future of books...you know, real books...you know, as in books made out of paper and ink and which you can hold in your hands, etc. Maybe you, too, have a Borders Books in your town. Maybe you have a number of them, if your town is large enough. One of our town's two Borders was one of the stores that recently got the axe.
Here's a nice little article about it, if you're interested in that sort of thing:
http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=32797
I think that that article is all the more interesting because what the digital age is doing to the video market (seems to me, at least...isn't it?) parallels a lot what it's doing to the book industry. Doesn't it? Sort of? At the very least, both industries are clearly going through pain and contortions as new digital and other technologies emerge. Oh sure, it's really difficult to imagine any near future in which there are no physical books around, being sold and bought, etc. But, are the brick and mortar bookstores, in large part, also an endangered species? Is it too melodramatic of me to suggest a not too distant future in which physical books, new ones, anyways, can only be found, for many of us, in the small book sections at K-mart, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, or our supermarkets? No doubt we will be able to get whatever real book we want mailed to us by Amazon for long into the future. Speaking of Amazon, I've been meaning to check out Amazon's new movie service thingy. Sorry.
Come to mention it, let's not forget the significance of Amazon. Wow, it almost seems now like Amazon has been with us for all the ages. I don't mean to knock Amazon. I use Amazon. I like Amazon. But it has to be pretty relevant how Amazon has affected the video and the book industries, including what's become of them presently as well as what their futures hold.
The question of the future of movie theaters is really interesting. Maybe it's true that they'll have to offer attractive extras or have unique character like Dreadylocks's video rental store or like aceofspade70's and sonnyboo's ideas. We happen to have one of Robert Redford's Sundance Theaters here. Godbless him. It's cool that he chose this town. It is a nice place. The theaters are nice. The seats are pretty comfortable, etc. There are amenities like alcohol served and a restaurant upstairs. Its mission, I think!, is to offer the community a more diverse indie, foriegn film, and art house selection of movies. But, you pay a premium to enjoy these things. I guess the idea was that they'd be reaching the well educated, professional, and affluent university crowd in the area. It's a good idea. I don't know how well it's been working out for them. The thing is, though, it was the Marcus chain that had previously offered those kinds of film choices for a more reasonable price in a nearby shopping mall (as well as there being a couple or a few screens run by the mall Sundance took over). It was too old. It needed more space and renovation. It needed to be modernized. Sundance did do that. But the downside is that their lofty niche market approach doesn't seem to have much to do with any kind of egalitarian spreading of more film diversity and culture. You have to be able to afford it. Plus, they don't have nearly as many showtime options as the chains. Well, that's not to knock it, exactly. It is what it is.
Anyways, whether I live only one more day or another few decades, it's difficult to imagine all theaters disappearing...though, not beyond imagining, either. =D
But I think the brick and mortar places are on their way out, save, perhaps, for crafty places like the one Dreadylocks mentioned, or maybe the family video type stores out there. DDK, I noticed that it was K-mart at issue, not Walmart. I googled it and found out, apparently(?), that Walmart hasn't invaded and conquered Australia, yet. Wow! But, I believe that all of the big boxes like K-mart and Target learned from Walmart's cutthroat tactics. I don't doubt that the greed of the studios' and the distributors' was involved. It's really interesting to hear from someone like you who was on the frontline of what's been happening. But I can't help (cautiously) wondering if maybe it was K-mart who was really the bad guy. From what I've heard -and Walmart was the pioneer in this regard- is that extortion is the M.O. of these stores. A store like K-mart can say, "Hey, Mr. Distributor or Mrs. Supplier, we will buy such-and-such, product from you [in this case the latest dvd releases] and you will sell it to us for fourteen dollars, or else: or else we will punish you buy not buying said product from you. In fact, maybe we'll cut you off and not buy anything from you, at all. See how you like that! Now, give us what we want...or else." Okay, that might not be precisely how dvd purchasing works for these people (
), but the point is that I don't think we should underestimate the bullying and extortive power of these gianormous stores/corporations.Fifty dollars a new release dvd? Ouch! I'd be glad if it had helped someone like DDK stay in business, but...damn. I can't afford to buy dvds as it is. Me wouldn't be a happy camper.
I think the real culprit is simply the march of technology along with new businesses utilizing those new technologies and offering ever more convience for patrons. I haven't tried Netflix yet (I don't need another monthly charge on my credit card --and I certainly do not need one on my bank card!), but apparently a whole lot of people have, and they love it. What do you do?
Sorry if this is too off topic here since it's not about film, but this thread reminds me a lot of a bookstore closing in my town lately. You can ask the same questions about the future of books...you know, real books...you know, as in books made out of paper and ink and which you can hold in your hands, etc. Maybe you, too, have a Borders Books in your town. Maybe you have a number of them, if your town is large enough. One of our town's two Borders was one of the stores that recently got the axe.
Here's a nice little article about it, if you're interested in that sort of thing:
http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=32797
I think that that article is all the more interesting because what the digital age is doing to the video market (seems to me, at least...isn't it?) parallels a lot what it's doing to the book industry. Doesn't it? Sort of? At the very least, both industries are clearly going through pain and contortions as new digital and other technologies emerge. Oh sure, it's really difficult to imagine any near future in which there are no physical books around, being sold and bought, etc. But, are the brick and mortar bookstores, in large part, also an endangered species? Is it too melodramatic of me to suggest a not too distant future in which physical books, new ones, anyways, can only be found, for many of us, in the small book sections at K-mart, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, or our supermarkets? No doubt we will be able to get whatever real book we want mailed to us by Amazon for long into the future. Speaking of Amazon, I've been meaning to check out Amazon's new movie service thingy. Sorry.
Come to mention it, let's not forget the significance of Amazon. Wow, it almost seems now like Amazon has been with us for all the ages. I don't mean to knock Amazon. I use Amazon. I like Amazon. But it has to be pretty relevant how Amazon has affected the video and the book industries, including what's become of them presently as well as what their futures hold.
The question of the future of movie theaters is really interesting. Maybe it's true that they'll have to offer attractive extras or have unique character like Dreadylocks's video rental store or like aceofspade70's and sonnyboo's ideas. We happen to have one of Robert Redford's Sundance Theaters here. Godbless him. It's cool that he chose this town. It is a nice place. The theaters are nice. The seats are pretty comfortable, etc. There are amenities like alcohol served and a restaurant upstairs. Its mission, I think!, is to offer the community a more diverse indie, foriegn film, and art house selection of movies. But, you pay a premium to enjoy these things. I guess the idea was that they'd be reaching the well educated, professional, and affluent university crowd in the area. It's a good idea. I don't know how well it's been working out for them. The thing is, though, it was the Marcus chain that had previously offered those kinds of film choices for a more reasonable price in a nearby shopping mall (as well as there being a couple or a few screens run by the mall Sundance took over). It was too old. It needed more space and renovation. It needed to be modernized. Sundance did do that. But the downside is that their lofty niche market approach doesn't seem to have much to do with any kind of egalitarian spreading of more film diversity and culture. You have to be able to afford it. Plus, they don't have nearly as many showtime options as the chains. Well, that's not to knock it, exactly. It is what it is.
Anyways, whether I live only one more day or another few decades, it's difficult to imagine all theaters disappearing...though, not beyond imagining, either. =D
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