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Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

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Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#51

Post by solardev »

altdataseller wrote: post #30
Dig1t wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in the 90's and have nothing but warm fuzzy memories of renting a movie on Friday night and watching in the living room with my family, eating popcorn and candy. I think there's probably a lot of people who have that from their childhood.

Same, Growing up in the US, I also have warm memories of TGIF, where we'd watch Family Matters together as a family on Friday night.

Wait, did TGIF go away too?! :(

Lol, I grew up overseas and TGIF was where we'd go to celebrate "American style" as a family, like on the 4th of July or whatever. First time I ever had potato skins. Didn't even know that was considered an edible food source until that day. Blew my mind as a kid.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#52

Post by legitster »

ghaff wrote: post #18
legitster wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smaller bookstores are actually doing pretty okay these days: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/02/18/indie-bookstores-com... Mostly because Amazon decimated corporate chains, which freed up more market for independent stores.

Though independents are still a pretty niche business. Around where I am there are certainly far fewer of them than there were before the big chains became dominant.

I don't know. I'm in a pretty redneck county and even here there are dozen independent bookstores.

Most of them are tied to a coffeeshop though. But if you check your local map you might be surprised.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#53

Post by fetus8 »

solardev wrote: post #51
altdataseller wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, Growing up in the US, I also have warm memories of TGIF, where we'd watch Family Matters together as a family on Friday night.

Wait, did TGIF go away too?! :( Lol, I grew up overseas and TGIF was where we'd go to celebrate "American style" as a family, like on the 4th of July or whatever. First time I ever had potato skins. Didn't even know that was considered an edible food source until that day. Blew my mind as a kid.

Poster above you is talking about a block of TV programming called TGIF as well.

The fast casual restaurant chain still exists, and is definitely still cartoonishly embellished with Americana, and surprisingly decent food for what it is.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#54

Post by WalterBright »

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.

The local video rental proprietor told me when she was closing up for good was that Netflix destroyed her business.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#56

Post by hinkley »

nend wrote: post #42
hinkley wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Convenience stores also generally have a markup versus grocery stores. That they had a markup above that was always a bit questionable. My recollection is that over time they switched to some more niche candies, things you couldn't necessarily find down the street and so the apples-to-oranges problem gave them a bit of an excuse.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#57

Post by gnopgnip »

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…

I think the endgame will be like music licensing, with a max royalty set by the government with a short exclusivity period. This is why smaller companies like deezer and tidal can compete with Apple Music, YouTube music, Spotify and still have substantially all of the same music

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#58

Post by mikeocool »

WalterBright wrote: post #54
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.

The local video rental proprietor told me when she was closing up for good was that Netflix destroyed her business.

Anecdotally, I recall a brief moment in the late 2000's where the mom and pop shops had a bit of resurgence (or at least a stay on their execution) -- when Netflix DVD's by mail had put most Block Busters out of business, but before every movie was readily available on streaming services.

If it was Friday night, and you'd just sent back your netflix disc -- or you were looking to watch something that wasn't at the top of your queue, the mom and pop video rental place was your only option. At least in NYC, it seemed like this kept those places going a little but longer than anyone would have guessed when Block Buster was still around.

Though once streaming became prevalent they all disappeared pretty quickly.

Re: Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive

#60

Post by registeredcorn »

causi wrote: post #40
_fat_santa wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it, there are really two Blockbusters. One is an evil corporate behemoth, the other is the neighborhood video store that lives on in our memories. These guys aren't keeping Blockbuster running so much as they are keeping the nostalgic memory of it going. TBH I'm a bit surprised no one has tried to buy the Blockbuster brand from Dish and restart the company. I feel like you could effectively run one much…

I don't purchase movies anymore but I could see myself going to a store to rent a 4K blu-ray to get the commentary tracks. Those are hard to come by online.

That's one of the things that kills me about present day distribution. There is such a massive hole in not getting to hear from the creators the way you could with DVDs. Shows like The Simpsons, etc. have offered a massive amount of information presented through commentary, that wouldn't otherwise be known.
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