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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

#271

Post by endemic »

srj wrote: post #171
chrisco255 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in 1982 you could mail a letter from your house, order shoes from a catalog, and order delivery food to your house. Admittedly, your choices were basically pizza, subs or Chinese for that type of delivery, but still, DoorDash mostly competes with cooking at home not with going out to restaurants (in fact, it has become more common to dine out than it was in 1982). I do lament the decline of brick-and-mortar reta…

At some point UPS / FedEx became much faster. I recall ordering things in the mid 90s and it taking weeks or months to arrive. That definitely tilted shopping toward retail brick & mortar.

"Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping"

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#272

Post by vel0city »

williamcotton wrote: post #256
chrisco255 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are arcades in Austin that charge a cover and just allow free play (typically subsidized by beverage sales). But some have the Dave and Busters model. The games are definitely more expensive than they were. In 80s and early 90s a $2 or $3 stack of quarters would grant a fair amount of entertainment.

Do you mind sharing which ones?

Not Austin, but in DFW there's a local chain called freeplay arcade. Its a ~$13 cover charge and then unlimited gaming.

https://freeplayinc.com/

While not totally covered by a cover charge, there's also an arcade called Nickelrama. Cover charge, and then all games cost like 1-6 nickels.

https://nickelrama.com/

There's a brand called Cidercade (used to be very affiliated with a cidery), they've apparently got a location in Austin as well. Similar story, $12 cover, all games included.

https://cidercade.com/

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#273

Post by Peacefulz »

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.

As I age, my desire for friends for friends' sake diminishes. If someone doesn't offer something to my life that I value, I'll have a hard time putting energy into them.

It was so easy to make strong bonds as a kid, captive with other kids in a building most of the time. Now there is a cost:benefit I have to weigh a persons worth to me against.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#274

Post by iteria »

beloch wrote: post #230
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…

Stop using Amazon and see what happens. I stopped using Amazon early last year (because Canadian). I was forced to find local shops for the stuff I was getting online and, to my surprise, a lot of those specialty retailers are still out there. Some are a bit more expensive. Some are, surprisingly, not . At many places, the staff are still a fantastic resource. There's a world beyond Amazon that's still out there, ali…

The question becomes how long do I have to drive? I feel like your idea only works in a city. Target stopped carrying a soap that worked for my kid and that was it for options as far as stores with specialty soaps that aren't abour perfumes and scents. After that, it's scouring Facebook for a local person who makes it and hoping they decide to keep their hobby going (the ine I found didn't ). Then I'm back to Amazon.

That's assuming I can find a local person or shop. Sometimes I luck up like I found a guy who sharpens basically everything with a blade. I found a tailor who is willing to make fulfill these insane request I have like create me a set of mini-crab sheets made from bamboo. But then, I can't anyone who sells a safety can opener or a jar opener that actually works well (most are crap). Toys feel impossible if you don't want plastic crap. So on, so on. Buying local is a really hard when you're in a small town. I think 100K or more is the sweet spot where it's probably possible.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#275

Post by ohyoutravel »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #222
Loughla wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you're joking, but I think it was implied that OP called the people.

Right. I think the underlying question is, how do you get to know these people in the first place? Isn't this the whole point of the discussion? How do you initially get to know people?

Yes this is the meta point I was working at. OK any of us can call our friends to come over, how does one make the friends in the first place!

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#276

Post by beloch »

iteria wrote: post #274
beloch wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop using Amazon and see what happens. I stopped using Amazon early last year (because Canadian). I was forced to find local shops for the stuff I was getting online and, to my surprise, a lot of those specialty retailers are still out there. Some are a bit more expensive. Some are, surprisingly, not . At many places, the staff are still a fantastic resource. There's a world beyond Amazon that's still out there, ali…

The question becomes how long do I have to drive? I feel like your idea only works in a city. Target stopped carrying a soap that worked for my kid and that was it for options as far as stores with specialty soaps that aren't abour perfumes and scents. After that, it's scouring Facebook for a local person who makes it and hoping they decide to keep their hobby going (the ine I found didn't ). Then I'm back to Amazon.…

Yes, you'll fail to find some things locally and have to order it online. The key is not to go to Amazon first, because then you're guaranteed not to find the local alternatives.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#277

Post by BrenBarn »

I could write a really long thing here about my thoughts on video shops. Suffice it to say that there was a video shop in my town that I went to a lot as a kid, and continued to go to occasionally during college and into my late 20s. The shop had opened in 1979 and stayed in business until 2018 --- an astonishing run that spanned essentially the entire era in which renting movies from a brick-and-mortar store was a thing. At the time its impending closure was announced, I hadn't been in for several years, and I still deeply regret not patronizing it more while it still existed.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#278

Post by saltcured »

ryandrake wrote: post #192
saulpw wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, cut us some slack, we were raised by Boomers.

Scarily enough, I bet every generation since Gen-X has been largely raised by Boomers: Gen-X and Milennials largely had boomer parents. Many kids in the later generations are effectively being raised by their (Boomer) grandparents because their parents are either not involved or absent because working too hard. For most of my 13 year old kid's friends, I only know their grandparents. Never see the actual parents.

It's a lot more spread out than that since women have so many potential reproductive years.

There are families out there still with 18-20 year cycles and could pretty much tick off every generation.

And families like mine that more or less skip every other: Silent -> X -> Z -> ???.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#279

Post by joe_the_user »

sublinear wrote: post #226
joe_the_user wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was around for many of these things. At different points in my life from the 70s to the 90s, I'd hang around arcades, the local coop bike shop, a hobby shop that specialized in D&D and occasionally an alternative video rental place. It was honestly miserable. Shops seldom facilitated socializing but when that was it, some people did it. (religious groups are in a completely different category, I think and one didn'…

Thank you for saying this. I'm in my late 30s, so I only experienced the tail end of it. I remember everyone was stressed out all the time. Attitude was sorta: "I did not drive all this way just for you nor to be told...". Karen was not just that one lady. It was everyone. Customer service was objectively worse in most places than it is today. Hearing screaming babies and feeling carsick all the time was just a fact…

Yeah,

Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone talks about the decline of community in America but the decline of community inside shops isn't mentioned because it never really existed. Taverns - yes, community once exist there but that was destroy by Prohibition, ie a long time ago. Cafe community in the US actually grew into existence in the 90s in my observation of the US.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#280

Post by chrisco255 »

vel0city wrote: post #272
williamcotton wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mind sharing which ones?

Not Austin, but in DFW there's a local chain called freeplay arcade. Its a ~$13 cover charge and then unlimited gaming. https://freeplayinc.com/ While not totally covered by a cover charge, there's also an arcade called Nickelrama. Cover charge, and then all games cost like 1-6 nickels. https://nickelrama.com/ There's a brand called Cidercade (used to be very affiliated with a cidery), they've apparently got a locati…

Cidercade on Riverside in Austin is one of the spots I was thinking of. They have a pretty good selection of old arcades.

There is also Pixel Palace in Round Rock that has no cover but most games are 25 cents.

Austin Toy Museum has a bunch of arcades ($17 entrance fee). Austin Pinball Collective for mostly pinball.

Pinballz is good too but expensive and does the Dave and Busters model, however, most of their classic arcades are cheap to play.

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