The End of the Local Video Store?
The age of the video store is coming to a close. Unlike many of you, I’m old enough to recall the VHS vs Betamax fight and the start of the video stores. First they were little local mom & pop stores which become, at times, local chains. Then we saw the rise of places like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. The demise of the local cinema was predicted by many.
Recently the Hollywood Video at Jefferson & Broadway, next to the ‘can’t touch this’ Schmid Fountain, closed its doors. Earlier, the Blockbuster a tad further South on Broadway closed as well. Blockbuster locations on Chippewa as well as Kingshighway @ MLK have also shuttered their doors. There are probably numerous other examples throughout St. Louis and all across the country.
Perhaps they should have added a drive-thru window?
The choices for the movie fan these days are great, far better than standing in some generic retail space looking at row after row of video cases. First, the cinema is still a special treat with places like the Moolah, Chase and Tivoli. Cable & satellite offer more channels than ever before with new releases coming much sooner than they used to. Online rental models like NetFlix are amazingly fast and the interface is quite addictive. And finally, for a buck, you can rent movies via a machine from companies such as RedBox and MovieCube.
If you’ve not seen RedBox or MovieCube it is an interesting delivery method. Situated inside of places like McDonald’s or Schnuck’s these machines taking all of 5-6 square feet of floor space are quick and efficient. Today’s retailers need to increase the revenues received on a per square foot basis and large areas with videos simply don’t cut the mustard anymore.
It is interesting to see all these changes in the video market, something that didn’t exist 30 years ago. Many storefronts, often built for these places, are left scattered around the landscape. Some will remain vacant while others will find new uses. This is yet another reason why the building form should be a higher priority over the use of a structure. The use will likely change over the years but the building form remains in place as long as the building remains standing. As a society, we cannot afford to change buildings for each and every change of use.
I recently put post on one of my blogs about why we chose to forgo our trips to Family Video for Netflix and Gamefly. It all comes down to selection, price and convenience. I have a greater selection, lower price and much more convenience going online based on our consumption of movies and games. Tough to compete.
I too wonder what will become of those gawdy movie rental places with their bright blue awnings when they are gone away.
I have to agree with that. I personally go for a combination of Netflix and a quick run to the McDonalds on Tucker for Redbox if I want a movie tonight. I haven’t been in a video rental place in years.
Remember Whiz Bam on South Grand? They used to deliver movies on bicycles around the neighborhood. A bygone era indeed.
It is a sad era.
The Blockbuster we used to go to closed earlier this year…then the Hollywood closed last month.
While we to do the netflix thing…it’s about running to the store and having a selection of virtually thousands of titles to choose from…everything from new releases to old loved favorites.
We are so busy with life that usually when we do have a night to watch a movie (it’s not planned) we like having a choice of movies. With netflix you have to already have the movies in your possession. Then what you might have isn’t what you might be in the mood for at the time.
I view this as another likeness to “mom/pop” stores at each corner. Everything is distributed out, no customer service. No one to ask “Hey, did you like this movie?” or “Ok…I’m in the mood for…what do you suggest?”
Will the next step in reduced customer service result in a push pad for each table at a restaurant….you simply press the number of meal you want, then a cart will roll beside you (maybe in an amount of time you think is OK) and you have to take the food and such off yourself…then after the meal, you just punch in your CC number (or these days the big thing is to “wave” your card”) and you leave without talking to anyone at the restaurant.
Ok..that example might be a bit exaggerated, but very close to the feeling of ordering videos online from netflix or going to a red box and pressing some buttons hoping that the right movie is dispensed.
Alas…We were branded a service industry society not that long ago…what are we now?
We go to Blockbuster to buy movies more than anything. The kids dont know the difference and they typically scratch them anyway, so why pay full price right (5 for $20)? I am a rewards member and monday through Wednesday you get a free favorite with a new release rental, plus free favorites and new releases during the month. I have to say I will keep going to the store, even if I have to drive to get there. Right now I can walk up the street to Holly Hills and Gravois. Granted, the selection sometimes bites. I am ususally busy so I am playing catch-up all the time and dont get the most recent releases which are typically gone by Tuesday night.
Jason
Bill – I would object to a restaurant that didn’t have human servers. But the video store is a whole different matter. With the Redbox, you can go to their website, browse the movies available at your nearest location, rent it online and know that it will be waiting when you get there. If nothing appeals to you, you don’t even have to go to the store.
I am a total ignoramus regarding new release movies because I literally never watch television – we don’t have cable or an antenna that gets us any reception. So browsing in a video store is a frustrating and pointless thing for me. With the Redbox, I can view trailers, and even hop over to Yahoo movies to read reviews and the comments of other people who have seen it.
I have only one complaint about the Redbox: I *hate* getting stuck behind somebody who hasn’t “pre-rented” online, waiting ten minutes as they and their children browse through all the offerings. It would be nice if they had another keypad on the side which only worked for pre-rental customers. Otherwise, I think it’s a wonderful system.
Of course, even the Redbox will be obsolete in not many years from now, as web-enabled televisions will receive streamed movies right through your DSL line. And of course, it’ll be a buck a pop, just like the Redbox.
“While we to do the netflix thing…it’s about running to the store and having a selection of virtually thousands of titles to choose from…everything from new releases to old loved favorites.”
.
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I’m not sure which video store you went to, but the reason I started with Netflix some 6 years ago was because the video store had 30 copies of the latest Adam Sandler “comedy”, but if you asked for “Some Like It Hot” (for example), the 16-year-old-pimple-covered clerk looked at you like you were from Mars.
“Of course, even the Redbox will be obsolete in not many years from now, as web-enabled televisions will receive streamed movies right through your DSL line. And of course, it’ll be a buck a pop, just like the Redbox.”
I get something like that now through Charter’s OnDemand. It’s actually got a great selection of free movies.
And RP III’s absolutely correct that video stores were totally lacking in what I wanted to watch. Foreign films or classics? Unless the foreign were new releases, forget it.
There are many reasons why video stores are going out of business:
1) Rude, indifferent employees. I once stopped in to a Blockbuster to check if they had a particular movie. I asked an employee if they had the movie in question, and they quickly said “no” without so much as looking at me (or their database).
2) Overstocking bad, but new, movies. You can go to Blockbuster and find 100 copes of the latest Will Smith bomb, but you can’t find Silence of the Lambs (the above movie in questions) or other classics. It seems obvious that Blockbuster receives some sort of kickback from the movie studios to push crappy movies that bombed at the box office.
3) Censorship. Blockbuster refuses to carry NC-17 movies, or anything THEY deem offensive. I am forced to take my business elsewhere.
4) Absurd rental lengths/prices. At my local Blockbuster, you have to pay $5 and you get the movie for five days. I don’t need the movie for five days! Why couldn’t I pay a dollar and get it back the next day?
> Will the next step in reduced customer service result in a push pad for each table at a restaurant….you simply press the number of meal you want, then a cart will roll beside you (maybe in an amount of time you think is OK) and you have to take the food and such off yourself…then after the meal, you just punch in your CC number (or these days the big thing is to “wave†your cardâ€) and you leave without talking to anyone at the restaurant.
Sadly, in the T-terminal in Atlanta’s airport, there is a Burger King with two wiz-bang touch screen machines that take your order, money and patience. Humans still assemble the order (wrong) and call your number as they fling the tray! It is slower and more prone to mistakes so far. Also, it always prompts for the upsell on EVERYTHING. That adds countless screen redraws and time. Very annoying.
Blockbuster dying doesn’t really bother me. They were only a source of mainly low skill service jobs and a few retail management positions. Those employees can find similar jobs in the area fairly easily. Better uniforms too! Khaki pants are harsh on some people.
I just wanna say…yet another great reason to shop thrift stores. I’ve gotten some great movies to watch and pass on to others, often for as little as a dollar and almost never more than three.
It’s your one stop shop.
I’ve been with Netflix for years now. I abandoned Blockbusters, etc. to get the better selection. And if you don’t have the right kind of movie in your possession on the night you need to have a kids movie night, for example, you can always do a “watch instantly” for no extra fee.
I sound like an advertisement for Netflix, but I love it. I think Steve’s original intent was to talk about not having single function buildings. There are so many buildings out there abandoned as they aged – about 15 years for a big box store. And this has nothing to do with outmoded uses, just not built for the long haul. When the air conditioning and heating systems, the roof, etc. reach some short wearout time, seems like it is time to just abandon the building and leave the neighborhood with a useless hulk surrounded by a gigantic parking lot.
Except for Family Video, I’m not aware of any unique architecture associated with video rental stores – they pretty much always lease space in existing structures, so yeah, they fit the mold of encouraging flexibility in the design of commercial architecture. Sure, Blockbuster has their blue awnings and Hollywood Video has their “earthquake” signage, but they’re usually stuck on the front of a space in a generic strip mall. And, yes, some new strip malls used video rental stores to anchor their leasing efforts 10-15 years ago, but they rarely were designed specifically for these tenants.
If you want to discuss architecture that “makes a statement” (and limits flexibility), you’d be much better off focusing on fast-food and casual-dining restaurants. I always have fun trying to “guess the tenant” when I see new ones going up in the ‘burbs – Texas Roadhouse has one of the easier forms to identify in its early stages. As for the video rental “industry” itself, I agree, they’re becoming dinosaurs, along with, unfortunately, most record/8-track/cassette/CD/DVD retail stores – advances in online delivery, combined with the ability to pick and choose song by song (I-tunes, etc.) have made these stores so last century, and probably not for the better.
Still, the real question of urban form remains less about any specific architectural style and/or accomodating specific retail tenants and more (much more!) about “accomodating” the automobile. While much of our older urban retail architecture has some interesting architectural detailing, many times it’s not all that much different from a lot of the detailing happening in many new “upscale” retail projects. The huge difference is simply context – up against the sidewalk versus plopped in a sea of parking! But, as you well know, I’m truly conflicted on how to “solve” this “problem”. Until we come up with a better personal transportation device that 90%+ of us our willing to embrace, most retailers are going to do their best to go to where their customers (and their cars and trucks) are . . .
> The huge difference is simply context – up against
> the sidewalk versus plopped in a sea of parking!
I’ve asked it before, I’ll ask it again: Wouldn’t it cost the same to build the store up against the sidewalk and put the parking lot behind it? If so, why is there such strong resistance to doing it?
My understanding is simply visibility (of signs) from moving vehicles combined with perceived safety. It’s hard to read signs that are close to and parallel with street from a moving vehicle (the book “Learning from Las Vegas” is one good explanation of this mindset) combined with the tendency in more urban and urbane areas to limit both sign size and to prohibit projecting signs (that would be easier to read, but until recently, have been deemed as clutter and/or “ugly”). There’s also a perception (among retailers and many shoppers) that you need a straight, well-lit path between one’s vehicle and the front door of the business in order to feel “safe” – no parking “in back” and walking around to the real front door (as in Maplewood), better to (if we have to) put backs of the stores along the public street and sidewalk and face the parking lot (as in Rock Hill). The combination yields the typical strip mall anchored by a grocery store – big, signs, parking in front, deliveries in back, pedestrians be damned – “are there actually any out there?”
Retailers are creatures of habit, many times bad ones. If it “worked”, even slightly better somewhere else, them by damn, we’re gonna do that on every new store and try and do it on every existing location. Single-color LED displays? Sure! Multi-color LED “TV’s”? If we can get away with it! A bigger sign than my neighbor/competitor? Of course! Rows of parking perpendicular to the front door(s) (not parallel)? Believe it or not, a requirement for any supermarket and most big boxes. It’s all about making it easier for DRIVERS to spend their money – the reality is that in nearly every situation, 90%+ of any retailer’s customers ARE going to DRIVE there, so all other “arrival”/travel options become more of a nuisance than a real need to be served. The ONLY times this doesn’t hold true is in real downtowns (where you have a significant number of pedestrians) and in those rare instances where retailers are battling for every last customer – think Wal·Mart’s accomodations for Amish customers.
I know all this sounds pretty cynical – it is. But having been both a student of these issues as well as an architect working with, around and against them for 30-some yeasr now, I’ve come accept that it’s the reality we live in today. Combine that with a focus on “capturing” new customers (retailers) and sales taxes (government), not just here but around the country, and you can start to see why we’re up an unholy alliance that’s going to be very, very difficult to change. But, on the bright side, every war is won by a series of small victoriers, so there’s no reason NOT to keep pushing for better – with the price of oil headed the way it is, this type of thinking is gonna have change sooner or later . . .
The “architectural details” of those “upscale” strip malls and casual dining places are a far cry from the architecture of a century ago. Sure these buildings might look nice when driving by at 50 miles per hour, but get out the car and look at them close. Touch them, knock on them. Often these “details” are nothing more than plastic or foam molded pieces that are stapled or glued onto the facades of the buildings. These buildings are designed to be disposable and not actually experienced (except through a car window). Sure, they could built at the sidewalk, but then their shortcomings would be even more obvious as they are passed on foot. The problem is the attitude and belief that severe disinvestment in the public realm is okay.
i truly get a smile when the public begins to recognize the devastating results of a car culture in control. The “unholy alliance” and poor “architectural details” are obvious signs of a decaying community…lower standards have become quite acceptable.
No JZ, you’re not overly cynical, but really quite accurate. The decay is growing out of control as our dependencies for more of the same increases with auto dependency. We no longer care what buildings look like from the sidewalk (if there is one).
Most deal with this by moving further out to a “newer” community by selling their home and taking their dollars elsewhere. The communities left behind consequently face tighter budgets and decide that their future is a function of what works in attracting the car culture. Leadership sees strip malls, with parking in front, to be an obvious solution to getting those dollars back. The malls go up quickly and produce products and taxes quickly too. The inner suburbs around the deserted StL are perfect examples of this car culture.
Stay in your cars with the comfy seats and nice stereo, our world looks better from there.
Netflix is the bomb.
And for Bill …
The sooner Blockbuster dies the better. I hate browsing for a movie … in a store with limited choices. Netflix lets you see what’s in your friends que and what they recommend you see, you’re right movies are social. And Netflix has a number of ways to help you discover new movies and share them with friends. What I really would love is a video on demand service with the Netflix interface. I know Netflix has some video on demand stuff but I’m waiting for the day when you can download ANYTHING.
Fine dining restaurants will never go away … video rental places can’t go away soon enough. People don’t go to video stores for the atmosphere and ambiance and service … at least I never did.