My favorite video store has been sold and taken over by Demons from the 9th Circle of Hell.<\/p>\n
Hoboken has a Blockbusters (which I refuse to frequent) and a Hollywood Video which is all well and good – but their selection focuses on the last 10 years of movie history as opposed to the last 100 years. And that doesn’t work for me and my taste. If I want to see It Happened One Night<\/i>, it’s nice to know that I can, if I want to. My old video store had it. They had every Bogart film. They had many Cary Grant films. James Cagney. Hepburn. It was a treasure trove.<\/p>\n
And best of all – it was run by movie geeks. People who actually knew about movies. You go into Blockbuster and half the time those people look at you blankly if you bring up a movie that wasn’t … well … a blockbuster from last summer. Those people could work anywhere<\/i>.<\/p>\n
My video store had closed down for the last week, and I thought it was just that the movie-geeks wanted a vacation. But I swung by there on Saturday … and immediately knew something was different.<\/p>\n
There was a new rug put in, first of all. There was a fish tank next to the check-out counter. Loud hip music was BLARING. There was this cheesy contraption over in the corner which … hard to explain … but there were fake flames going, and some kind of wind machine, making the fake flames waver about.<\/p>\n
My old video store had no artifice. It was a dump. Flourescent lights, rickety shelves … the walls covered in movie posters …<\/p>\n
The whole newly decorated place was different. Too clean and generic (well – generic except for those fake flames.)<\/p>\n
A girl was behind the counter. Which was also a sign. Only guys worked there before. She was young, “hip”, and had a nose-ring. I wasn’t the only person baffled – there were a couple of other confused-looking people wandering around, trying to figure out what the hell had happened.<\/p>\n
The girl came out from behind the counter, friendly, “If any of you have any questions …”<\/p>\n
I said, “Are you guys … new owners or something?”<\/p>\n
“Yes.”<\/p>\n
“So … will my account that I used to have still be good, or …?”<\/p>\n
“No … and we’re not renting movies right at the moment … we’ll be ready for that in a couple of weeks … and once that happens, you can set up an account with us again.”<\/p>\n
I didn’t like the fake flames, or the fish tank. I did not approve. I missed my geek-boys who used to laugh at me when I rented The Big Sleep<\/i> for the 3rd time in a 2 month period. Would this hip nose-ring girl understand that?<\/p>\n
But here’s the clincher – and – for some reason, I KEEP THINKING ABOUT THIS:<\/p>\n
She said to me, excited, her face open, fully expecting that I would leap for joy, “We are only going to keep romantic comedies in stock. That’s our thing. The new name of the store is “Romantic Depot” – so we’re going to focus mainly on romantic comedies.”<\/p>\n
I have one thing to say: EUUUUUUUUUU<\/p>\n
I kept my counsel and said, calmly, “The main reason I used to come to this store is because of all the old movies – Will you be keeping those?”<\/p>\n
She shook her head regretfully. “No. No more old movies. We’re selling all of those off.”<\/p>\n
Selling off all old movies, all kids movies, all dramas … and only keeping “romantic comedies”. I just … have a visceral dislike of this.<\/p>\n
I promptly bought 4 old films (Sunset Boulevard, The Talk of the Town, Suspicion, and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer<\/i>) for the whopping total price of 10 dollars.<\/p>\n
I have so many thoughts about this.<\/p>\n
My main thought is that that is a stupid business model. I could be wrong – but I don’t think it’ll last. Maybe it would last in MANHATTAN, where you can get as specialty-focused as you like, because there are so many other options for people. You can have a store JUST with gay and lesbian films, or horror flicks, or kung-fu movies in New York City. As a matter of fact, your business will flourish. But in Hoboken? With romantic comedies<\/i>?<\/p>\n
What on earth could be the rationale? That there are so many chicks in Hoboken?<\/p>\n
But … what about the guy population?<\/p>\n
And what about the chick population who either doesn’t care for romantic comedies — or has eclectic taste – or occasionally wants to branch out and see Aliens<\/i> or something like that?<\/p>\n
Also … what exactly COUNTS as “romantic comedy”? Do they think that women won’t want to see, oh, The Insider<\/i>? Or Schindler’s List<\/i>? Why limit yourself?<\/p>\n
What were they THINKING?<\/p>\n
I’m mad. I’m sad.<\/p>\n
And judging from the looks on all the other old customers wandeirng around confused (most of whom were women), I wasn’t the only one.<\/p>\n
Romantic Depot? Does The Sting<\/i> count? How ’bout Bonnie and Clyde<\/i>? No?<\/p>\n
Not my scene at all. They’ve lost my business, and I’m going to have to find another place to get my fix.<\/p>\n
Bummer.<\/p>\n
Dumb idea, it seems to me.<\/p>\n
Also, I’m going to miss the gentle teasing of my movie-geek guys. They were cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My favorite video store has been sold and taken over by Demons from the 9th Circle of Hell. Hoboken has a Blockbusters (which I refuse to frequent) and a Hollywood Video which is all well and good – but their … Continue reading