2007-04-12: I hate the internet
by Meguey
It's snowing/slushing here, and we have a guest 10 year-old over night. What better than to go to our firendly locally owned independant video store! So I bundle all four boys in the van, drive the 3 minutes in the nasty slush, and bam! Right there on the door is a brght pink paper with the following wirds:
Yes, the rumor is true. Video To Go will be going out of business. We're sad, too. Netflix has made a huge hit in this market, and our profits are down 40%. Our last day for rentals will be April 29, and we'll be selling off our inventory the first three weekends in May. Thanks for all your years of support.
G$#^&@(^%#@!!!! Netflix??? WTF!!! I don't want Netflix, I want my awesome, funky, more diverse than you can imagine, independant locally owned video store, where I can get Rocky&Bulwinkle cartoons and old Bette Davis and the new disc of House and all the National Geographic specials and films from any of 50 different non-English-speaking nations. I feel like someone just announced the bulldozing of my neighborhood playground to put up a Wal-Mart.
I'm making a list of the movies I want to buy, and calculating how much we can afford to spend. Stupid f'ing internet, with it's stupid f'ing Netflix.
Poop.
2007-04-13 13:30:47 Brennan
I was sad when our local video store went out, too, but that was seven years ago, and Blockbuster was to blame.
2007-04-13 14:26:37 Julie, aka jrs
We had a Mom & Pop video store almost across the street from us. It was wonderful. They would get to know the regulars and make excellent recommendations. And you couldn't beat it for convenience. They went out of business years ago.
I refuse to go to Blockbuster and I haven't succumbed to Netflix. We've been borrowing DVDs from the library, or friends, or break down and buy them. Since I've recently become in charge of acquiring a specialty DVD collection for the library, I have needed to show some restraint in what I order.
2007-04-13 22:59:52 Meguey
The thing is, I love watching movies, I just don't need to own them all. I hate the idea of having to inter-library loan DVDs, then tape them if I'm not in the mood for them when they are available. Argh. And V2G has the best collection I've ever seen or heard of.
2007-04-14 01:56:27 Emily
OH NO!!!
I worked at VtG for 5 years. They are the best video store in the area, and likely in the region. They have an incredible collection of foreign, gay and lesbian, alternative and mainstream films. This is a real blow.
They've been having financial difficulties since before I worked there. The owner hasn't drawn a cent from the store for a very long time. They had recently opened a porn section, which I figured meant things weren't getting better, but porn really brings in money for a place so I hoped it might even help.
Guess not.
Frack. That really sucks. I wish I could do something to help them.
2007-04-15 00:45:08 Meguey
Well, I'd say make a list and a budget and send the rest of the household down on May 4.
2007-06-20 22:50:57 misuba
(There is also GreenCine.com, which improves on netflix in the indie-and-weirdness department at least a bit.)