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Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

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Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#41

Post by bombcar »

ghaff wrote: post #17
rubyn00bie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I personally hated blockbuster because they sent me to collections over like $9 in late fees I didn’t know I had. People have fond memories but I have nearly none of video rentals. Long lines, poor selection, and over priced… along with bullshit “late fees,” I can say I am happy they failed. Truly video rental stores were not great, and I dunno why people remember them like they were.

Mostly rose-colored glasses nostalgia probably. Being able to rent a movie whenever[0] you wanted to and watch it at home was extremely transformative in a way that someone who grew up with streaming (not you I realize) would find difficult to appreciate. A lot of movies weren't even purchasable as a practical matter (priced to rent) at the time. [0] Well, if they had it and it was in stock.

They'd even rent VCRs and DVD players, which was a big deal early on when they were multiple hundreds of dollars.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#42

Post by nend »

hinkley wrote: post #27
corrral wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That part was great. Getting charged late fees because you didn't have it back at 8:00AM sharp (or whatever) sucked.

They also had quite a markup on those snacks. Not movie theater levels, but a lot higher than the convenience store.

I don't really view that as evil though, just basic market dynamics.

Similarly, CVS sells cheerios for $7 a box. I don't think CVS is evil, sometimes I'm just lazy.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#43

Post by acheron »

legitster wrote: post #9
karaterobot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, ironic because Blockbuster is what killed off the mom and pop stores it now stands in for in our collective memory of the 90s. I actually liked our local Blockbuster, and have fond memories of it, but only because it was run by the same employees from the independent video store it drove out of business. I liked that one even better.

> Blockbuster is what killed off the mom and pop stores Is there a source for this? Usually, both rise and fall together with consumer demand. When I grew up, Blockbuster was one of a dozen options in town. As an example, there are more independent coffee shops today than before Starbucks expanded.

Yeah that's how I remember it too. In one town we lived in, we always got videos from the independent place. My main memory of Blockbuster is that one time my parents went there instead, and they gave us the wrong movie, which my sister and I were very disappointed by.

In another town we lived in, the video rental place was a local chain with fewer than 10 locations, maybe just around 5. I don't remember if a Blockbuster even existed locally.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#44

Post by munificent »

bluedino wrote: post #19
artificial wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of smaller bookstores prior to the era of Borders and Barnes and Noble dominance. pours one out

How are they still in business, by the way? It seemed like they were just a Starbucks location with a ton of overhead, I thought we'd seen the last of them when pandemic shut everything down. I loved B&N by the way, more computer-related books than WaldenBooks, but not as many as Borders.

> How are they still in business, by the way?

They've broadened out into being general "gift stores". My local Barnes and Noble has a large toys section (mostly LEGO and educational stuff), board games, puzzles, music (lots of vinyl), stationery (fancy journals).

It's essentially "stuff introverts like" in a nice space.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#45

Post by bombcar »

ezekg wrote: post #21

I miss Blockbuster. We had a small haven here called Family Video, but they unfortunately closed down due to the COVID lockdowns/lack of foot traffic. It was my family's spot to grab a Friday night movie and snacks, even through the pandemic. We were super bummed to see it go. Streaming just doesn't match the experience of browsing movies IRL. We'd usually leave with a few movies to watch that week, including a kids…

Our rental store closed before Covid (the owner basically got tired of it and retired, it wasn't a big money-maker, so nobody took over). Our theater died just after Covid.

I wonder if you could combine them into some kind of "movie mishmash" where you could see new movies in the theater, rent older classics, or even buy new releases. Being able to stop in, grab a movie and hot popcorn, and drive home seems it could be a winner.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#46

Post by bombcar »

sevenf0ur wrote: post #32

Do you think he had to recreate blockbuster's central servers from scratch or did he get the blessing to maintain the old software?

Blockbuster is old enough that they probably didn't have "central servers" as such, more like a local area terminal network that you'd manually update with CSV files when needed.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#47

Post by causi »

karaterobot wrote: post #5
kerblang wrote: post #3

It's sort of bizarre that an entrenched, widely despised corporate behemoth thoroughly deserving its own demise has turned into an anachronistic mom-and-pop shop that just gets by. But isn't this the worst of both worlds? It's dystopian nostalgia. Maybe I just have too much of a grudge against the 1980's...

Yeah, ironic because Blockbuster is what killed off the mom and pop stores it now stands in for in our collective memory of the 90s. I actually liked our local Blockbuster, and have fond memories of it, but only because it was run by the same employees from the independent video store it drove out of business. I liked that one even better.

I loved when Blockbuster came to town because it cut the price of rentals by two thirds. I was not a wealthy child and being able to rent a game every few weeks was way better than every couple of months.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#48

Post by dasil003 »

vlunkr wrote: post #31
awacs wrote: post #26

Growing up in the 80s with VHS, Betamax, Laserdiscs (if anyone recalls), and being a dj in the late 90s when the thought of a "USB stick instead of traveling with all this vinyl was an impossibility", makes this whole nostalgia tour a fun one. I think we all forget though just how poor the quality was back then, and what we've become accustomed to, with VHS being 240 lines, DVD 480p, etc. It's like reminiscing about…

It's interesting that when we revisit older movies, all the way up to the 90s, we're watching them at much much higher quality than we did originally. Special effects, costumes and sets are all much more believable when you're viewing them on a little grainy screen. I think some older movies are unfairly judged by how they look on hardware that couldn't have existed at the time.

This is only strictly true if you're talking about television. The analog nature of film and its degradation along with the imperfection of human memory mean we can't really know for sure exactly how, for example, Lawrence of Arabia looked on the big screen in its contemporary transfers. But it was definitely better than anything seen on a television prior to at least 1080p if not 4k.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#50

Post by rightbyte »

vlunkr wrote: post #31
awacs wrote: post #26

Growing up in the 80s with VHS, Betamax, Laserdiscs (if anyone recalls), and being a dj in the late 90s when the thought of a "USB stick instead of traveling with all this vinyl was an impossibility", makes this whole nostalgia tour a fun one. I think we all forget though just how poor the quality was back then, and what we've become accustomed to, with VHS being 240 lines, DVD 480p, etc. It's like reminiscing about…

It's interesting that when we revisit older movies, all the way up to the 90s, we're watching them at much much higher quality than we did originally. Special effects, costumes and sets are all much more believable when you're viewing them on a little grainy screen. I think some older movies are unfairly judged by how they look on hardware that couldn't have existed at the time.

Theatres were a thing back then. But ye concerning TV you are right. My best example of that is playing Ocarina of Time on a big modern TV ... it was so much more impressive on a small ctr.
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