The lost civic life of movie rental stores

Post by carabiner » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #111

SoftTalker wrote: post #107

This seems counter to my experience and memories. I'm old enough to remember the pre-VCR days so lived through the entire rise and fall of video rental. These stores were never a community gathering place or anywhere that you really met people. You'd go in, browse for a bit, pick a movie, pay and leave. This was the same at the locally owned shops and later when Blockbuster arrived and put all the local shops out of…

Yeah - the article does over-glorify. I did frequent one rental store where I could chat with the person behind the counter about movies, but none of the others.

Post by BjoernKW » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:42 PM UTC

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…

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:44 PM UTC

carabiner wrote: post #131

BeetleB wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - the article does over-glorify. I did frequent one rental store where I could chat with the person behind the counter about movies, but none of the others.

Seriously. I just remember as a kid seeing my school bus driver browsing the adult video section. I'm sure he did not want to find "community" there.

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:11 PM UTC

darth_avocado wrote: post #132

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…

Lack of cheap real estate is the root of all problems. Some will point to private equity buying up everything and ruining (baseball, bowling etc.). If you had cheap real estate, you can still operate a business and compete, but once your landlord raises rent every year regardless of how your business is doing, even the successful ones have to pack their bags. So many successful businesses in my city and the neighbori…

Post by pstuart » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:32 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #124

pstuart wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of experienced that but the relationships were more superficial than I'd have liked. If the "shared interest" is happy kids together it doesn't directly translate to the adults shared interests. But then again, maybe it was just me being me.

It's a good jumping off point, but becoming friends requires time and work. When we're young, we have nothing but time spent together. As adults, who spend an hour at the local park with some kids, those relationships require more effort to grow. We have a few friends we've made through our kid, and it definitely takes more work to maintain - but it's been very worth it so far.