The lost civic life of movie rental stores

Post by rafabulsing » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 11:38 AM UTC

xeromal wrote: post #198

rafabulsing wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, that's very interesting to learn. I've always thought the little flag was lifted by the mailman, so that the homeowner could tell from a distance that they got mail. Cool that it's actually the other way around.

I think that's mainly because the mailman might not notice that the mail in your box is not your mail being left over from when he dropped it off the day before. The flag lets him know what's remaining in the box is to be delivered. He could read the addresses but they have very busy routes!

Post by gnz11 » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 12:05 PM UTC

chrisco255 wrote: post #166

brightball wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, agreed completely here. I spent so many hours at our local mall with my friends growing up. It had an arcade, a movie theater, book store, game store, place to eat. Our parents could just drop us there for hours. Skating rinks and bowling alleys were also a solid option. It's one of the things that make it worth the time investment to follow sports, even if you're typically not interested in it. Getting people t…

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…

Post by balderdash » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 12:07 PM UTC

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.

Post by tsm » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 12:23 PM 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.

Post by JKCalhoun » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 12:30 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…