By: Kaitlyn Boisvert
Posted In: Opinion
Photo credit: MCT Campus
It is hard to believe that I grew up in a time period where movies were watched through VCRS and video tapes. With all the new technological devices swarming our generation, offering multiple methods to consume media, it is very hard for me to even remember what the sound of a rewinding video tape sounds like. This is a major shock, since I spent a majority of my early childhood watching rented movies from Blockbuster.
I grew up in Bristol, Rhode Island, and I will never forget its local Blockbuster. Located in one of the town’s main plazas, the store was quite large but welcoming. Posters depicting scenes and characters from famous films lined the interior walls, the friendly employees were always willing to make movie recommendations, and there were even little pinball machines located near the entrance, to my childish delight. But what struck me the most were the golden poles that protruded from the top of movie shelves and straight into the ceiling. To me, the poles seemed to resemble those that extend from merry-go-round horses, and it is probably for that reason Blockbuster seemed like such a heavenly paradise to me as a child.
Going to Blockbuster became a sort of bonding experience for me and my father. We would go to the video store a good number of times each month, and spent about an hour inside. We would stroll through the store, pointing out films that caught our interest and attempted to discern which were good and which were bad. My father often would tell me about films he watched and enjoyed as a young boy, conjuring up stories that always enthralled me. When we finally made our selections, our choice would often be given the nod of approval from a cashier during checkout, and we would then take the movies home to enjoy. This pattern soon developed into a hobby, one that we grew to love very much.
For a while, Blockbuster still thrived, even as the times began to change. The company seemed to adapt to the changing times, beginning to offer DVDs and video game rentals. For a while, Blockbuster even sold good quality DVDs, for reasonable prices. The early 2000’s bestowed immense success to the company, and it developed an even more sterling reputation. It most certainly did not seem that Blockbuster, a well-respected company, could ever fall from its high level of success. Yet it did. The following years saw a decrease in Blockbuster’s popularity and productivity. Stores around the world began to shut down, and on September 23, 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy, twenty-five years after it first opened.
Although my father and I were very distraught when we noticed Blockbuster’s gradual decrease in popularity, not many people seemed very affected by the news. “So? Netflix is better! No more late fees! Who actually uses Blockbuster anymore?!” These were common responses met whenever I mentioned Blockbuster to people in the age of its dwindling presence. Blockbuster seemed to completely lose its charm in the age of rising technology.
The companies Netflix and Redbook are one of the main causes for Blockbuster’s downfall. When Netflix was first introduced, it received a light reception, but began to gradually grow in popularity in time. People began to realize that it was more convenient to order movies online and more inexpensive to pay the monthly renting fee for an unlimited number of DVDs to rent, none of which would ever have a late fee. As a result, people began to rely on those mail arrivals of Netflix DVDs as a source of movie entertainment. Netflix sky-rocketed in popularity, and Blockbuster started to become a thing of a past. It tried desperately to met up with the competition, with its online movie rentals, yet people no longer found it efficient.
Matters only got darker for Blockbuster, when the Redbox rental system also rose in popularity. This new system entailed installing machines throughout numerous stores in the country, offering a wide array of rentable DVDs for people to choose from. It offered people another convenient way to rent movies for a good price, and thus helped lead to Blockbuster’s downfall.
As popular and convenient as Netflix may be, my father refuses to even consider trying out the company’s free trial. Whenever Netflix is mentioned, his eyes drop and he softly voices his disappointment of Blockbuster’s closing. It’s definitely a touchy subject with him. I have to say that I feel the same way he does. The exception is that I have actually tried Netflix. After the heckling of my close friends, I tried it out. I immediately saw the benefits in Netflix, yet none of them fazed me. As efficient as Netflix may be, it just does not at all measure up to the fun of renting movies at Blockbuster. Even if it cost more money, Blockbuster offered more of a chance for people to bond, and the process of actually renting the movies from the store is just so much more exciting, fun, and personal. Maybe it is just me, but I really liked standing inside Blockbuster and feeling that I was surrounded by the greatest pieces of art ever released on the silver screen on display before my eyes. I also loved being able to get feedback and recommendations from the workers, who would offer a lot of assistance towards making great selections.
With Netflix, it is not the same. You merely pick a movie from a screen, so there is nothing really fun or intimate about it. You may receive recommendations, through the star rating, but this is totaled by a majority of other users, most of whom you don’t know or will ever know. Picking a movie is no longer really a bonding experience. You just keep flipping through options on a screen, and you don’t actually go on an exciting scavenger hunt for the perfect movie. Also, I feel Netflix also reflects how lazy we have gotten as a society. When we wish to watch a late-night movie, we don’t go out to search for it, we don’t even have to leave the house. We stay inside, click a few buttons on our computer, and it comes straight to us. This is what we like. This is what we want.
My father and I, although completely biased against Netflix, do occasionally rent from Redbox. Yes, it is very inexpensive and nice, but for us, it does not offer nearly as much as a bonding experience as Blockbuster had. For one, most of the Redboxes near our home reside in Stop & Shop supermarkets, and in each store there is usually only one machine. This often leads to someone waiting directly behind us, which always makes us feel rushed. We frantically push buttons, quickly scanning through the small number of available films, most of which are B movies or straight-to-DVD releases. The machine demands our credit card, and then requires us to provide an e-mail address. It does not ever provide us any recommendations or congratulates us for our good taste, like the Blockbuster employees did. My father and I often end up selecting a movie we end up disliking, and thus our nostalgia for Blockbuster always deepen.
Maybe Blockbuster was a trend that got old and is no longer missed by most people, but I will always feel that we have lost something dear. It makes me sad that the company that held such sentimental value to me as a child is shutting down, and not many people seem to care. More and more of Blockbuster’s stores are closing their doors. Not that many remain within the United States, and those still standing probably have big sales posters plastered on their windows, reflecting the company’s dire state of final desperation. A recent article in the New York Times claims that the Blockbuster website will still be active, with its online movie rentals, but it will just not be the same. The company will still keep some stores active as a way to get out of its bankruptcy, which is a wise and hopeful act, but it may not benefit the company that much, due to the immense competition with Netflix and Redbox. Yet I will always root for Blockbuster and wish it the best of luck.
I only wish the last Blockbuster could have been the one in Bristol my father and I used to go to. It closed down years ago, and quite recently I happened to come across it. It was completely dark and empty inside, yet the old shelves were still inside, with the poles still attached. I remember from my view from the front window, I could feel the solemn air of abandonment pulsating from the store, and as I looked at the interior of what used to be a happy Blockbuster, I could not help but feel that our generation has lost something special.
