and Netflix, Red Box, and On-Demand killed the Video Store.
Yesterday I was leaving my local CVS, and I noticed that they had installed a Red Box machine outside of the store. I began to get nostalgic (as I too often do) about going to the video store, renting a movie, watching it at home, and then bringing it back. As much as I love being in an era of instant gratification, I miss it. Maybe it's being able to feel the tangible object that you paid money to watch, or maybe it's the memories that go along with going to my now long-closed video store Airport Video. Or maybe it's the fact that I always wanted to work in a video store growing up as a part-time job, but now I'll probably never get the chance because they're all closed.
Now, moving away from that personal digression: Movies, television, and really anything that was made on film and relatively popular is now easily accessible with the click of a few buttons on a remote or a computer. Thousands of movies are available at an instant. I would know, I've got 8 bucks coming out of my bank account every month for my Netflix. Even movies that are out in the theaters can be found (illegally) online if one knows the right places to look. It just amazes me that maybe 10 years ago, for a nice round number, so little of this stuff existed.
All of this quick advancement makes me think: What could possibly be next? Can getting movies/tv shows/media get anymore convenient/instantaneous than it has already become? How?
I still miss my local Blockbuster, and I think there might be one open store in a half-hour radius from me but it has been rendered completely useless by Netflix and even those instant Blockbuster machines.
ReplyDeleteI don't like waiting for Netflix to come in the mail, I want to go to the store and browse the movies and come home with something I want to watch right then.
Technology really is changing so rapidly. Soon, the movie theater might not even exist, movies will be released straight to the home computer.. who knows.
I wonder if things like netflix watch instantly and amazon video on demand services will kill off redbox, and if so will that in turn lessen the need people have for dvd players and blu ray players if they can just watch online and stream to their t.v.?
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