Internet Killed the Video Star (but not at Key Foods)

While I was eating lunch today, I decided to read the newspaper so that I wouldn't get my computer dirty. I skipped down to read Sarah Bradshaw's column "Our Turn" in the Weekend Life section of the Poughkeepsie Journal. Her title of this week's column: "Online rentals lack give-and-take of video-store wars". She went on to lament two issues:

• that her husband has been sabotaging their Q list in Netflix, silently switching out her romantic flicks for his bank robbery genres, leading to bad surprises in the mail, and
• that they can't duke it out in a video store first, and then mutually decide on what to watch, and have a nice night of it.

I totally identified with the marital compromises that now need to happen in order to watch a good rental, but I've also been having my own inner turmoil with movie rentals these days. I recently canceled my Nextflix subscription because I'm tired of selecting online. I'm overwhelmed there, I feel like I'm missing things or that I have no patience to keep clicking next>next>next> to get through the selections, so I'm over it. I want a brick and mortar rental. I want to walk through the aisles, get distracted by the random movie playing on the TVs above, and carry home a decision that I arrived at through a physical hunting and gathering experience. My business partner at Collective-E forwarded this article to me today about information overload crippling decision making, and I think this the problem for me.

My Q list was all over the place. I was distracted by anything British, and anything educational or "smart". The last thing I got in the mail was a little known two-part British series with Emma Thompson, that I did not watch. So I rebelled and got Motorcycle Diaries. Come on. Really? Why did I do that?

So I canceled my Netflix subscription when I eventually wasn't watching any movies at all. I was renting, not watching, and then taking weeks to return. It was $9.99 a month, and I saw that little ping to my checking account, at the same time my ING Savings Accounts (Dream Fund, and Pets Fund) would also take out a little each month. I thought - why am I giving Netflix my savings money, if I'm not watching the movies? And don't tell me about Netflix's instant streaming option. I tried it, and I not only made even worse decisions (Katherine Heigl's The Ugly Truth killed it for me), but due to liscnencing restrictions, streaming Netflix can't offer all of the great flicks out there, and you get a bunch of guy movies. For guys, it's great.


When I moved to Beacon, I was delighted to learn that Walmart had such in-person rental, now that video stores are dinosaurs, and hardware stores don't have the spinning racks they sometime offered. Then, I learned that our own Key Foods on Main Street had The Red Box (or whatever it's called), where you browse through a screen and pick a rental for $1. Perfect! Well, not really, but it's something physical, and it's closer than Walmart. And the Beacon Library also has DVD rentals, but I have yet to check it out.

So I agree with Sarah, that I miss the video stores. We just went to the closing sale of Borders on Rt. 9. That was sad. Another set of aisles we can't browse, because browsing is typing and it's at Amazon. Babies R Us is right next door, and I continue to go there every two weeks. I have yet to order anything baby from Diapers.com, or even Amazon. I love these online outlets, and the savings they offer, the independent brands they carry, but there is something about walking around, seeing your neighbors, meeting new people even. Can't we have both?

Come on folks. Local establishments need our help. Even the big box stores. I'd take Blockbuster at this point! They need our attention and patronage. Over at Collective-E, we have a campaign called Buy Entrepreneur. It includes shopping at big box stores because independent brands are there as well. And even if they weren't, at least your town would get some revenue from the shopping!

That's the end of my rant. :) This blog post was not even close to a blip on my to-do list, but Sarah inspired me.