I remember my first foray into a video store. It was a tiny mom and pop shop in Olathe, KS. What invention! We didn’t have to see films at the movie theatre. Excellent! I rented The Breakfast Club for my 16th birthday party. Then the local grocery store, Dillions, opened a video store IN THEIR STORE. Very convenient. This was all before the Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos took over the industry. Who would have ever thought these flagships could be brought down by a mail order company and a red box.
Going to the video store is practically tradition for my kids. At least every other weekend I was in there with my whole crew. If I was feeling nice, they could each pick out a video. If I wasn’t feeling too nice, they had to compromise and share. My hubby and I wanted to go on a date…to the video store we went to get a few videos and games to entertain the kids while we were gone.
Last weekend, after basketball practices, we dropped by our local video store to stock up for the weekend. The boys were excited, already haggling over who would get what. This is what we saw when we pulled up — this from a store who was just trying to get me to invest in their yearly savings plan just a week earlier:
We all sat there with our jaws on the floor. No warning…just closed down. What are were we supposed to do now?? This was the last hold out video store in all of Temecula. Our weekends will never be the same.
I signed up for Netflix this afternoon. Apparently I can download movies straight to my Wii for a fraction of what I paid at the video store. Still…it’s sad to me. I hate to see businesses close. And a complete era of video stores obsolete.
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