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The lost civic life of movie rental stores

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Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#21

Post by 01284a7e »

steveBK123 wrote: post #4

The end of interest-based 3rd places is one of the many things contributing to the compartmentalization / socioeconomic bubble of modern society. People used to frequent in person things like specialty retailers, arcades, hobby clubs, religious groups, etc. When you meet real life people in person based on shared interests, you make connections across socioeconomic groups. I just don't see nearly as much of this in t…

Putnam's "Bowling Alone" (2000) is about this, and it is something that has been in decline since the 1950s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#22

Post by afavour »

liveoneggs wrote: post #17
bix6 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was just talking with an older colleague about this. Work used to end Friday afternoon. The amount of emails I get (and send) over the weekend means there is truly never any off time.

reading and responding to those on the weekend is your choice

It isn’t, really. If it’s the expected norm in your job then there’s a real chance you’ll lose your job if you don’t do it. And particularly the kind of jobs market we see today that’s a real risk.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#23

Post by triceratops »

threetonesun wrote: post #20
panzagl wrote: post #3

Article should be titled 'The Lost Civic Life of Mom and Pop Stores'- no kid making $4.50 an hour is cultivating a third space atmosphere at Blockbuster, whereas any Mom and Pop place can do that, no matter what they sell.

I don't think that's really what we've lost. Blockbuster was a third space not because of its staff, but because it was a place you could say "meet me here" and hang out looking at movies with no (or very little) expected monetary output. Same as arcades in the mall, or cheap matinee movies. A better framing might be where would a teenager, today, say "meet me here" to their friends. I think you'll find there's many…

Malls still exist. As do public libraries, community rec centers, gyms, and pools.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#24

Post by Cthulhu_ »

steveBK123 wrote: post #4

The end of interest-based 3rd places is one of the many things contributing to the compartmentalization / socioeconomic bubble of modern society. People used to frequent in person things like specialty retailers, arcades, hobby clubs, religious groups, etc. When you meet real life people in person based on shared interests, you make connections across socioeconomic groups. I just don't see nearly as much of this in t…

The internet has largely replaced / substituted this, which has been a mixed thing. Like minded people in smaller niches have been able to find each other online for example, much more than IRL, and much more at long range / internationally. It's made the world a smaller place, at the cost of knowing people closer to home.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#25

Post by Cthulhu_ »

bix6 wrote: post #13
msisk6 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I see these sorts of stories I think about the civic life we're missing out on by not socially gathering with our neighbors to hunt down woolly mammoths with sharp sticks so we don't all collectively starve to death. The way things are going maybe we'll get back to those wonderful days. ;)

Sounds a lot more fun to me than sitting in front of a computer all day.

Availability and legality of wooly mammoths aside, what's stopping you? Pointy stick hunting sounds like a great weekend activity.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#26

Post by threetonesun »

triceratops wrote: post #23
threetonesun wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's really what we've lost. Blockbuster was a third space not because of its staff, but because it was a place you could say "meet me here" and hang out looking at movies with no (or very little) expected monetary output. Same as arcades in the mall, or cheap matinee movies. A better framing might be where would a teenager, today, say "meet me here" to their friends. I think you'll find there's many…

Malls still exist. As do public libraries, community rec centers, gyms, and pools.

Malls barely exist, at least compared to the way they did 20 years ago. I wasn't arguing all third spaces are gone, but even of the ones you did note I'd bet in most communities their funding/availability has decreased in that time period.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#27

Post by jjulius »

mirmor23 wrote: post #5

more romanticizing of the bygone era. late fees (due at midnight!), restocking fees, etc; some of these fees to the tune of a new dvd/vhs; good riddance.

Every era can be romanticized, and every era has its downsides. Just today, I could ramble on about the ever-increasing costs of streaming services as they reduce their available catalogs, ads forced upon users who have purchased the "ad-free" streaming bundle, UI/UX patterns designed to make cancelling difficult, things you've "purchased" no longer being available to you because the service no longer carries that studio's titles, paying up to $24.99 to "rent" a movie on Amazon for a mere 48 hours, the endless cycle of a service starting out "great" only to be enshittified, etc.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#28

Post by mirmor23 »

ghaff wrote: post #8
mirmor23 wrote: post #5

more romanticizing of the bygone era. late fees (due at midnight!), restocking fees, etc; some of these fees to the tune of a new dvd/vhs; good riddance.

A bit cruel and there were probably some indie stores that were different but I remember video rentals as a place where you went in, grabbed a movie, and left.

the big city that i lived in back then only had blockbuster or hollywood so my comment was about them; besides indie video rentals didn't have those kind of fees so, i was not talking about them. besides why cruel? market dynamics change and many businesses just don't make it..

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#30

Post by cube00 »

This must be from a different era. In the 90s, people at our store used to stare at the shelves in silence. You certainly weren't striking up conversation with strangers there.

The screaming and explosions from the movie trailers playing full blast on a non-stop loop throughout the store over the PA didn't help.

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