The lost civic life of movie rental stores • Hacker News Board

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#181

Post by chrisco255 » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC

cube00 wrote: post #30

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.

Occasionally it would happen. It definitely wouldn't happen every time you went in. But I do remember going in with my brother and sister and parents and haggling over what 2 movies we were going to rent for that weekend. That in and of itself was a lesson in negotiation and was part of the fun of the whole thing.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#182

Post by toofy » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 1:36 AM UTC

steveBK123 wrote: post #7

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 was thinking about the loss of local shops a lot recently. There's definitely a confluence of factors at play, and it's not just price economics vs online & big box. One thing I think is that theres just never enough time. Everyone is so over-scheduled. The white collar work day really has expanded vs what I remember my dad doing 30-40 years ago. There's more two income households than in the past. Parenting is far…

the time thing rings very true to me as blocker.

when i get off work i would absolutely (and do) shop at stores that are open.

i stopped 90% of online shopping a couple years ago so once i regained the lay of the land of where to get what, shopping at mom and pop stores is tough since they seem to close right when everyone gets off work.

larger chain stores seem to keep longer hours so they get more of my business than i’d like. even then i’m still happier than when i bought everything online, no question about it.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#183

Post by chrisco255 » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 1:36 AM UTC

pixel_popping wrote: post #58

I admit it, I've never returned that DVD, found it behind a couch years later, only told my mom a decade later.

Probably set her back $75 for not returning it.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#184

Post by chrisco255 » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 1:40 AM UTC

brightball wrote: post #175

chrisco255 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small town malls have suffered the most but a lot of large cities still have vibrant malls to shop at and hang out at if you happen to be a teen. Dave and Busters and other similar arcade/mixed entertainment centers are also way more common now plus random things like climbing gyms, trampoline places, etc. From what I can tell skating rinks and bowling alleys are still reasonably popular especially when you factor fo…

> Dave and Busters and other similar arcade/mixed entertainment centers are also way more common now One thing that I've realized as I have gotten older, arcades have changed a lot. Dave and Busters and other arcades are designed to extract money as quickly as possible. When I was younger, if you were good at a game you could keep playing so my friends and I got very good at these games.

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.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#185

Post by chrisco255 » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 1:44 AM UTC

ViscountPenguin wrote: post #176

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…

I've always found the concept of mailing a letter from your house really interesting. My understanding is that it's common in the US (which is why they have the little red thing on their mailboxes I think?), but I've never lived in a place where it's a thing. For such a capitalistic country, the way the US historically treated the USPS as a common civic good is really cool.

USPS is run as a federally owned business. It was traditionally self sustained by postage fees not by taxes, but it is nice that it was from our country's earliest days, a key piece of infrastructure.

Nowadays mailing any letter is pretty rare as most people communicate via text, email, etc but it is still absolutely possible to do so.

And yes the red flag is to indicate a letter needs to be picked up for delivery.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#186

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:02 AM UTC

benvanderbeek wrote: post #149

This week I found a book called “let’s go all around the neighborhood” and read it to my 3 & 4 year old sons. It’s from 1982. A girl and her mother walk around doing errands. Mailing a letter at the post office. Buying shoes at the shoe store. Playing at the park. Eating at a restaurant. Going to the library. Buying an eggbeater at the hardware store. Stopping at the fruit and vegetable stand. They interact with huma…

The move from “now you’ll be able to” to “now you’ll have to” is unfortunately often corporate-driven, and I wish it could be regulated somehow. I feel like we are all in some giant lab experiment, being coerced (can't quite say "forced") to use technology for things that are much better without technology, just so technology companies can thrive.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#187

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:05 AM UTC

Gud wrote: post #106

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It’s been a disaster. It wasn't a disaster until megaplatforms came alone.

Because back then the Internet was a hobby itself. Normal people(for a lack of better word) mostly weren't online.

You had to actually deliberately "go online." None of this always-on cable connection at home, let alone always-on wireless in your pocket. Nope, you had to deliberately decide "I'm going to go into the online world now." and then later "I'm going to go back to the real world." Much better IMO.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#188

Post by deeg » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:05 AM UTC

This has been going on for a while, hasn't it? Radio shows, and then the TV. People could begin to entertain themselves without going out. My grandfather talks about how his father and mother went out dancing every week. It's probably an exaggeration brought on by fading memories but we don't to seem to have that as much any more.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#189

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:11 AM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #163

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…

Join a club. Lions, Masons, knights of Columbus, Oddfellows, woodworkers guild, something like that. They're dying for lack of youth membership and they're still around.

Unfortunately, these clubs sometimes (knowingly or unknowingly) sabotage themselves when it comes to attracting young members.

A lot of these organizations, you go there to share an interest, and you walk in and they're not really talking about their interest. To be blunt: a lot of them are just a bunch of old men griping about old-man things, making old-man jokes that were acceptable in the '80s, bringing up (ahem) old-man politics... This kind of stuff is kryptonite to a 25 year old who wants to join your club.

This is pretty much exactly what the local HAM radio org was in the place I used to live. I went to one meeting and noped out of there pretty quickly.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#190

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:16 AM UTC

zbikowski wrote: post #129

SoftTalker wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually not for most people. This is a peculiarity mostly of the tech industry. Most people don't read their work email after 5:00.

I'm not sure what authority you have on this subject, but anecdotally speaking as a non-software engineer who would lump himself with "most people," when it comes to white-collar work, I have noticed that all of my colleagues are, at the very least, expected to read email during time off (weekend or PTO) if not respond. This applies to adjacent industries as well. I semi-regularly get email from firms (in the same ti…

I think this varies widely across industries and jobs. You're both right. I've personally seen both types of jobs. I quit one and joined the other.