The Last Corner Video Rental

Ok so it isn't really the last ma and pop video rental place and it really isn't on a corner, but a title like "So Goes My Youth" seemed to depressing and obscure "The Death of Small Business" is too all encompassing and "Observations From An Evening Walk" could be entirely too ordinary or just plain metaphysical (read dangerously philosophical). So this evening as I'm taking my evening constitutional (half hearted attempt at working towards a healthy lifestyle) I passed a video rental store that was in the process of posting "Going out of Business" inventory liquidation sale signs.

I was surprised they lasted this long.

My older brother worked for a chain called Erol's Video back when he was a teenager. The chain seemed to pop up overnight, pretty much the same way all the corner video stores did. That was in the 1980's shortly after the VCR really became a household item. One would have thought that the independent video store was doomed even then. Then Blockbuster video hit and went about gobbling up almost the entire rental business.

Still the independents persevered. People were loyal despite the higher prices and limited selections. Dealing with Blockbuster was always a problem. Either they were charging you some outrageous late charges, or the people were rude and unknowledgable. Whereas you could go to the local place and if they didn't have the move you wanted, there was a pretty good chance they would order it special just for you. The independent business could not tolerate a lazy, belligerent, unknowledgable employee. That business was their life blood. Such an employee could kill it.

Now there is netflix and by necessity blockbuster by mail. No longer do we need to bother walking up and down the aisles wondering what to rent because all of the copies of the latest hit movie release are already rented. We just make a list of all the movies we want to see, in what order, and disc arrives in the mail in relatively short order. No late fees. No taking the movie back to the store even though you had not found the opportunity to watch it yet. No more bored teenagers making snide remarks about your cinematic choices.

Heck the one thing the independent had left was the shady back room. The big chains wouldn't touch adult materials because family friendly means more money. Now there are mail rental services for adult entertainment dvds. No more stigmata of going into the closed off room. No more worrying about being seen perusing filth. Just click on the obscene title of your choice and it arrives in a few business days. (For want of a credit card, and a place of my own so as not to have the stress of worrying about ones parents opening the smut mail, "Richard! Skanks Gone Wild midget style has arrive!")

So the rental places can no longer even dream of competing. The market has completely dried up. Now it is time to sell off all the partial demagnatized vhs tapes and slightly scratched dvds then disappear into obscurity. In a few years we kids wont believe us when we tell em how we used to walk up hill both ways in a snowstorm to get to the videostore in time to return Terminator before the store started calling five to ten times a day letting us know that we still have their video.

I'd lament this great loss some more if it weren't for the fact that I'm probably going to go for an early walk tomorrow so I can get their before closing. It is a perfect opportunity to clean out the science fiction section. Buckaroo Bonzie here I come.

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