Born To Run Into The Ground
November 16, 2013 9:30 PM Subscribe
Laments for Blockbuster in the style of Bruce Springsteen. Another dying American industry mourned.
Do people really miss Blockbuster this much?
posted by oceanjesse at 11:00 PM on November 16, 2013
posted by oceanjesse at 11:00 PM on November 16, 2013
oceanjesse: "Do people really miss Blockbuster this much?"
Actually, I think they miss the Bruce of that Born to Run/Darkness on the Edge of Town/The River/Nebraska era even more.
posted by chavenet at 12:21 AM on November 17, 2013 [9 favorites]
Actually, I think they miss the Bruce of that Born to Run/Darkness on the Edge of Town/The River/Nebraska era even more.
posted by chavenet at 12:21 AM on November 17, 2013 [9 favorites]
What is Blockbuster?
posted by manoffewwords at 12:41 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by manoffewwords at 12:41 AM on November 17, 2013
Ah well. There is always dancing in the dark.
posted by manoffewwords at 12:58 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by manoffewwords at 12:58 AM on November 17, 2013
I don't think people miss Blockbuster itself, more the passing of video stores in general. There was a point in the 90s when stopping by a store to pick up a couple of movies and hang out with friends was our regular weekend thing, and even if I hadn't been in a video store in more than a decade, there's still a little twinge of regret at another part of your past dissolving.
posted by tavella at 1:06 AM on November 17, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by tavella at 1:06 AM on November 17, 2013 [5 favorites]
They just closed the block buster by our house. The kids loved it and were sad to see it's passing. Even though we have all the movies available online, there is still something to the aisles and aisles of covers that makes it cooler than the point and click we are left with.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 1:38 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by psycho-alchemy at 1:38 AM on November 17, 2013
They say these stores are going boys and they ain't coming back.
I don't see anything wrong with a once mighty capitalist giant being undone and humbled by innovative and generally cut-throat competition. Seeing another corporate dinosaur being brought to extinction is even what one might call progress. Every time the brick and motar business model falls victim to cyberspace, this means fewer trucks and cars on the road to achieve the same ends.
posted by three blind mice at 1:42 AM on November 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
I don't see anything wrong with a once mighty capitalist giant being undone and humbled by innovative and generally cut-throat competition. Seeing another corporate dinosaur being brought to extinction is even what one might call progress. Every time the brick and motar business model falls victim to cyberspace, this means fewer trucks and cars on the road to achieve the same ends.
posted by three blind mice at 1:42 AM on November 17, 2013 [2 favorites]
It's like the death of music hall, and the death of the video arcade, and the closure of Woolworths. All rolled into one terrible model opera about the march of progress.
When will we learn that these terrible abusive corporations are our parents, and like our parents, we will miss them when they're gone.
posted by zoo at 2:06 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
When will we learn that these terrible abusive corporations are our parents, and like our parents, we will miss them when they're gone.
posted by zoo at 2:06 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Tavella is onto something. It is not Blockbuster or even video stores in general that people are nostalgic for; rather its the experience of place that people are already nostalgic for. The video store, like the bookstore and the record store are both all places that are being supercedef economically with online businesses but a social/communal experience from these online ventures is lagging behind their economics.
posted by KingEdRa at 3:54 AM on November 17, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by KingEdRa at 3:54 AM on November 17, 2013 [6 favorites]
Hell, even Woolworths was a communal experience, especially the ones that had lunch counters. I remember sitting there next to One-eye John eating chipped beef on toast with a hot cup of joe, while in the background the songbirds sang in the pet aisle and old ladies tussled over fake flowers.
posted by jeremias at 4:58 AM on November 17, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by jeremias at 4:58 AM on November 17, 2013 [6 favorites]
Reed Hastings says he started Netflix after being frustrated by excessive Blockbuster late fees. It's too bad whatever management was responsible has long since goldenly parachuted out. Our organization of corporations is weird and short-sighted.
posted by Hello Dad, I'm in Jail at 4:59 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Hello Dad, I'm in Jail at 4:59 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
I don't see anything wrong with a once mighty capitalist giant being undone and humbled by innovative and generally cut-throat competition. Seeing another corporate dinosaur being brought to extinction is even what one might call progress. Every time the brick and motar business model falls victim to cyberspace, this means fewer trucks and cars on the road to achieve the same ends.
This reminds me of my friends who protest Walmart not paying a living wage while holding a redbox rental in their hands.
posted by srboisvert at 5:21 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
This reminds me of my friends who protest Walmart not paying a living wage while holding a redbox rental in their hands.
posted by srboisvert at 5:21 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
I feel like the demise of Blockbuster started before Netflix really took off. Some of that has to do with Blockbuster in my life--the one near my dad (who was a great fan of video rentals) closed sometime around 2002. My dad moved and the Blockbuster near him clearly got killed off by Netflix. But the year the first person I knew got a Netflix subscription (2005 or 2006), my housemates and I still went to Blockbuster once in a blue moon and it seemed like its slide into oblivion had begun.
(I went to the South Bend, IN Hollywood Video a couple times in the summer of 2006, too. It didn't have quite the same desperate air about it, but it did have $1 (per week?) rentals for stuff that wasn't a new release, so was probably feeling the pressure. But being one of few businesses a short walk from from Notre Dame probably distorted their business a bit.)
posted by hoyland at 5:51 AM on November 17, 2013
(I went to the South Bend, IN Hollywood Video a couple times in the summer of 2006, too. It didn't have quite the same desperate air about it, but it did have $1 (per week?) rentals for stuff that wasn't a new release, so was probably feeling the pressure. But being one of few businesses a short walk from from Notre Dame probably distorted their business a bit.)
posted by hoyland at 5:51 AM on November 17, 2013
It's weird how short the actual run of video stores was, because it coincided exactly with my growing up. I remember video stores with separate shelves of Betamax videos, although we had a VHS and were treated to the fruits of winning a format war. There were dozens of video rental places, mostly mom and pop, driven out of business by Blockbuster in its rise. A lot of my large VHS collection was driven by going out of business sales at rental stores that had been hubs of the community before Blockbuster came along.
When Blockbuster started they actually competed on content for a while. The franchises around me had a tremendous selection of older films, foreign films, older TV, anime - when all this was very niche. When I worked at a Burger King in a plaza with a Blockbuster it meant I was always in renting something. After they had beaten the smaller chains on merit, though, they seriously decreased stock and just dumpstered hundreds of videos per store. Instead they focused on the new movies, which were of course more expensive to rent.
The DVD era really drove me away from Blockbuster. I was already at college when it started, and I remember how bad the DVD selection was, and how badly treated the rentals were - much worse than tapes, which employees could at least fix when the tape was broken. I was very briefly on BB's online service but it was dramatically worse than Netflix (slow shipping, bad selection, and it was unpredictable which DVD on your queue would ship) and the store selection was pathetic so the incentive of return at store and get a rental wasn't worth it.
Most people who you tell that Blockbuster is closing respond with a line like, "It was still open?" And my daughter will grow up without the video stores that filled my childhood. But are we really mourning Blockbuster, or the video store as a general idea?
posted by graymouser at 6:35 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
When Blockbuster started they actually competed on content for a while. The franchises around me had a tremendous selection of older films, foreign films, older TV, anime - when all this was very niche. When I worked at a Burger King in a plaza with a Blockbuster it meant I was always in renting something. After they had beaten the smaller chains on merit, though, they seriously decreased stock and just dumpstered hundreds of videos per store. Instead they focused on the new movies, which were of course more expensive to rent.
The DVD era really drove me away from Blockbuster. I was already at college when it started, and I remember how bad the DVD selection was, and how badly treated the rentals were - much worse than tapes, which employees could at least fix when the tape was broken. I was very briefly on BB's online service but it was dramatically worse than Netflix (slow shipping, bad selection, and it was unpredictable which DVD on your queue would ship) and the store selection was pathetic so the incentive of return at store and get a rental wasn't worth it.
Most people who you tell that Blockbuster is closing respond with a line like, "It was still open?" And my daughter will grow up without the video stores that filled my childhood. But are we really mourning Blockbuster, or the video store as a general idea?
posted by graymouser at 6:35 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
We're nostalgic for the faceless corporation that killed small video stores?
posted by Segundus at 6:38 AM on November 17, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 6:38 AM on November 17, 2013 [7 favorites]
Schadenfreudics gonna schadenfreude.
posted by codswallop at 6:52 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by codswallop at 6:52 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Meanwhile, in Canada the streaming options available are so limited as to beggar belief. Enjoy your media paradise, America.
posted by Gin and Comics at 7:39 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by Gin and Comics at 7:39 AM on November 17, 2013
Meanwhile, in Canada the streaming options available are so limited as to beggar belief.
Really? I'm in Canada and I'd disagree. While we don't have the American Netflix variety (though it's easy to get through proxy on the same account) there's still orders of magnitue more stuff readily available to you than in the days of video-store-only rentals at comparable or cheaper prices.
As part of my cable subscription there's thousands of movie titles available to rent, at a $5-6 range. Inflation-adjusted it's cheaper than renting a movie at Blockbuster was even 5-6 years ago. Even Canadian Netflix has more titles and seasons of TV shows than most mom and pop rental places did.
Online is a much better delivery system, as far as removing all of the manufacturing and distribution of little plastic discs, as well as the convenience of the digital side. Waxing nostalgic over browsing aisles is kind of odd...while I understand it, it seems like a weak reason for maintaining the bricks and mortar video store. Why not make a new tradition of going for a family/group walk before watching a movie instead of piling into the car and heading down to Blockbuster?
posted by jimmythefish at 8:28 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Really? I'm in Canada and I'd disagree. While we don't have the American Netflix variety (though it's easy to get through proxy on the same account) there's still orders of magnitue more stuff readily available to you than in the days of video-store-only rentals at comparable or cheaper prices.
As part of my cable subscription there's thousands of movie titles available to rent, at a $5-6 range. Inflation-adjusted it's cheaper than renting a movie at Blockbuster was even 5-6 years ago. Even Canadian Netflix has more titles and seasons of TV shows than most mom and pop rental places did.
Online is a much better delivery system, as far as removing all of the manufacturing and distribution of little plastic discs, as well as the convenience of the digital side. Waxing nostalgic over browsing aisles is kind of odd...while I understand it, it seems like a weak reason for maintaining the bricks and mortar video store. Why not make a new tradition of going for a family/group walk before watching a movie instead of piling into the car and heading down to Blockbuster?
posted by jimmythefish at 8:28 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Meanwhile, in Canada the streaming options available are so limited as to beggar belief. Enjoy your media paradise, America.
I'm pretty sure if this wasn't the case the internet duopoly would kill you on bandwidth surcharges anyway.
posted by srboisvert at 8:29 AM on November 17, 2013
when grocery stores go I'll be moving to the third world
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:10 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:10 AM on November 17, 2013
Waxing nostalgic over browsing aisles is kind of odd...while I understand it, it seems like a weak reason for maintaining the bricks and mortar video store.
I have to think from this -- Why not make a new tradition of going for a family/group walk before watching a movie -- that you don't get it. I'm a little nostalgic for browsing the aisles at a video store because of the many occasions where serendity intervened and I picked up something I hadn't planned on watching.
Cable on-demand isn't nearly as good as that because it's so heavily biased towards recent releases. Netflix is just terrible for this because whatever algorithm they have that picks out movies from their list to show you seems to pick ~200 movies and slots them into categories, so they sci-fi category is about 60% the same movies as the horror category is about 60% the same movies as dark psychological dramas or whatever is about 60% the same movies as... And Netflix's back catalog of older crap just isn't deep enough to reliably do this; their catalog is biased too strongly towards whatever's relatively recent and whatever they could get for cheap.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:11 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
I have to think from this -- Why not make a new tradition of going for a family/group walk before watching a movie -- that you don't get it. I'm a little nostalgic for browsing the aisles at a video store because of the many occasions where serendity intervened and I picked up something I hadn't planned on watching.
Cable on-demand isn't nearly as good as that because it's so heavily biased towards recent releases. Netflix is just terrible for this because whatever algorithm they have that picks out movies from their list to show you seems to pick ~200 movies and slots them into categories, so they sci-fi category is about 60% the same movies as the horror category is about 60% the same movies as dark psychological dramas or whatever is about 60% the same movies as... And Netflix's back catalog of older crap just isn't deep enough to reliably do this; their catalog is biased too strongly towards whatever's relatively recent and whatever they could get for cheap.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:11 AM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
> Meanwhile, in Canada the streaming options available are so limited
When I worked on a cable box OS company at the dawn of Video On Demand, the reason that Videotron (then one of the big cable cos in Canada. Other was Rogers) wasn't interested was that it had rental stores.
I see they still do.
Are they still a big force in cable TV & cable internet?
posted by morganw at 12:08 PM on November 17, 2013
When I worked on a cable box OS company at the dawn of Video On Demand, the reason that Videotron (then one of the big cable cos in Canada. Other was Rogers) wasn't interested was that it had rental stores.
I see they still do.
Are they still a big force in cable TV & cable internet?
posted by morganw at 12:08 PM on November 17, 2013
I have to think from this -- Why not make a new tradition of going for a family/group walk before watching a movie -- that you don't get it.
Oh I get it...but what do you want me to suggest as an alternative? Sulking?
posted by jimmythefish at 4:01 PM on November 17, 2013
Oh I get it...but what do you want me to suggest as an alternative? Sulking?
posted by jimmythefish at 4:01 PM on November 17, 2013
I suspect this conversation will never die: My great-great-grandson will ask his father, "Hey pops, what a fone were, eh?"
And pops will sigh, and say "Nebber mind you that, Whipsnap; say, how about you hop on your hoverboard and go run about wicher friends, eh?"
Pops will sit on the gravchair and plug in to the senso. He thinks about the days of his yoot, when he and his friends were wired, all day, all night, plugged in to the same holo. Yeah, the fone is gone forever, what with all the new techno coming out nowadays. Gone forever.
posted by mule98J at 7:02 PM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
And pops will sigh, and say "Nebber mind you that, Whipsnap; say, how about you hop on your hoverboard and go run about wicher friends, eh?"
Pops will sit on the gravchair and plug in to the senso. He thinks about the days of his yoot, when he and his friends were wired, all day, all night, plugged in to the same holo. Yeah, the fone is gone forever, what with all the new techno coming out nowadays. Gone forever.
posted by mule98J at 7:02 PM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Wouldn't that be "Schadenfreudians gonna schadenfreude," Codswallop? ;)
posted by Schadenfreudian at 9:44 PM on November 17, 2013
posted by Schadenfreudian at 9:44 PM on November 17, 2013
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