Our hometown video store, not connected to any video store chain, has closed. I feel like we had a hand in the store closing.
Brian and his family have entertained our area since I was young. First, they owned the small movie theatre. It was downtown and had all the things you remember from "the old days". You know the ones, broken seats, sticky floors, the wonderful balcony. It always smelled of stale popcorn. This theatre hung around for years. They even started renting out movies in the mid 80s. People were more mobile and were going to La Crosse to the multi-plexes. The ones that had 4 movies at once. Woohoo. They closed the theatre and opened a video rental store. This was in the late 80s I think.
They also owned the drive-in. I miss this the most. We could grab some food, take the kids and go see a double feature. When we were in high school, we stuck people in the trunk to get in. It was a great place. Just like the drive-ins you would see in the movies. Towards the end of the drive-in phase they stopped repairing the silver voiceboxes and you just tuned in on a radio station. They closed this in the mid 90s.
The family moved their video stores to various buildings around town. They also had a few stores in neighboring cities. We followed Brian and were faithful customers, that is until Netflix. We would spend around $30 every weekend on videos. You probably think how would losing you as a customer affect a business. Well, multiply that by many, many family over the years switching. If you could spend $18 a month, for unlimited, no late fees, no having to go to the store to get them, you would change too.
Brian couldn't compete with Netflix or the other online rentals. Convenience and saving money always win. Netflix is wonderful. We make our lists, they send them to us, we send them back. We average 15 movies a month. That makes it around $1.20 each. That is a huge savings. Plus, they have 100s of 1000s of movies. Many, many obscure movies.
We went to the sale that Brian was having before he closed. He is always very nice, happy to help. Always has a smile on his face. I think he truly loved dealing with people. I asked him what he would do now. He said he wasn't sure, he had never worked for anyone else before. Brian is around 40 and now starting his life over.
Good luck Brian, our family wishes you luck! You will be missed, even if we didn't see you often anymore.
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2 comments:
Yep it happens. One by one. I have not succumbed to Netflix yet. BTW, how can you watch 15 movies in a month?
We have a membership for 3 movies out at at time. I usually watch 3 - 4 of them sent in the mail. Michael, Jake, and Zack go through the rest of them. Also, you can watch them online, so that is where most of mine come from. My laptop is pretty quick and the picture quality is great.
I didn't use my online movies in the count. I can usually watch a couple a week. I don't have a life remember.
Burn without Reading should be burned without watching. Friends with money should go bankrupt. Winter Passing sucked so bad, I passed it off after 20 mins. Smart people was stupid.
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