Can video rental stores ever make a comeback?

Can video rental stores ever make a comeback?

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No

Only if internet died

only if they have a porno section behind a curtain in the back

well with amazon etc having given a wallop to brick and mortar (though not as big a wallop as netflix gave blockbuster and video rental stores) and now deciding to go BACK to that, who knows

Why would they? They only logical reason in which they would, would be if it were part of a themed retro type business. Otherwise, there really is no need for them.

>you will never realize your dream of working as a clerk at a video rental store and talk about movies all day with customers

I see a few. There are ones in my city that have big selections of foreign and art house stuff. Some ethnic corner stores have dvds you can rent.
They also exist in small towns.

i'd like to come on her back

If you were to make a movie rental place, it'd have to feature a lot of rare movies/TV shows/anime series, not newest releases you can find on red box.

Kind of like local bookstores, know your client and have knowledgeable workers

This is wrong. New releases are what keep stores in business.

>tfw the video rental store near my house closed down last week, ten years too late and the last of its kind
she put up a good fight, but it feels bad man

this scene gave me goosebumpos

no

there are no new releases that redbox can't out price you and out convenience you on

>be me
>go to video rental store
>look through movies to download
>get back home and start kazaa
>download movies that seemed interesting
>wait 9 days

good old 2001

I worked at blockbuster for a good while back in the day and even right before liquidation we were a very profitable store
it was literally higher ups being stupid that killed it
here are just a few decisions that killed it:
they invested HEAVILY in the Wii u when it came out and we had tons of Wii u games
no one rented them, all we would get was returns because normies didn't know the difference between Wii and Wii u
because of this they decided not to purchase ANY new video games around the time fucking GTA V was released
he would have literally hundreds of calls a day asking if we had it
CSRs were forced to sell fucking dish network to customers and they would get frustrated as fuck with us about it
even with all this bullshit we were still profitable
and dish was just like fuck it and closed us down
there are a good 3-5 mom n pop movie rental places where I live that have been there for years and still rake in the dosh
normies don't know how to pirate or what to do when the movie they want isn't on netflix
plus the novelty of the experience of going to a store and renting is real

I legitimately miss my local video store. It was such a fun experience. It felt like you were actually doing something. Streaming shit just makes me feel lazy and degenerate after a short while.

get a load of this qt

youtube.com/watch?v=Pc_yHON1oiQ

Only in a postapocaliptic future.

I didn't realize blockbuster made it that long. I remember Movie Gallery going under in early 2010, and that was the last time I was in a movie rental place

Over summer break, literally every day I could, I used to bike up to Hollywood Video / Blockbuster (the location was both, I think Blockbuster bought the store after Hollywood Video) and rent 2-3 movies / seasons of shows because we had that monthly deal, up to 3 movies any time for as long as we want, no extra charge. I watched every shitty horror movie I could, and every season of South Park, King of the Hill, Seinfeld multiple times, the Simpsons, all those shows. I loved it. The employees must've thought I was really fucking weird, because I'm pretty sure I didn't talk much and would spend nearly an hour looking around. Fuck me, those were the good old days. I miss them.

only if they start renting girls

Most states have a program where local libraries have a shared inventory, and you can borrow almost anything you can think of. Only problem is that there's usually only one copy any particular thing in the entire state, so wait times can be a while. I've borrowed a shitload of HBO and Showtime shows.

>>wait 9 days
> catch a virus

Unfortunately, no, it's a fucking tragedy. Not just that, but general mom&pop stores, small businesses, anything that relied on asynchronous communication (i.e. non-instant "delivery of content" as the neoliberal shills would call it nowadays) etc.

Culture is fucking dead.

No but I'll help you out.

1. Look up a bunch of VHS covers.
2. Torrent as much of those movies as you can.
3. Record them onto VHS.
4. Print the covers on cardstock and insert them into VHS cases.
5. Buy shelves and put your movies on them, covers out.

Should be a fun rainy day activity.

You still see record stores in certain parts of major cities.

I bet one could get a bunch of used VHS tapes and DVDs and open some kind of retro-themed rental shop in Portland or some other hipster neighborhood in a major city.

nobody wants this novelty tech because VHS tapes deteriorate terribly and DVDs aren't even completely superseded yet.

For some reason Family Video is still around, I have one close to my house.

Blockbuster is still a thing in Alaska.

yeah dude the franchise ones are still open

>Need to buy a DVD as a gag gift for a friend.
>Find a hole in the wall store.
>"Do you have X movie?"
>"Yep."
>Stand in awkward silence.
>"Okay, uh how much is it? Can you point me in the direction?"
>"Oh, we only have it for rent. You can rent it for $5 for 5 days."
>Awkward silence. I'm waiting for the punchline.
>"O...okay, you too."
>Leave.
>Find it on Amazon for $3.

There's a video store in Seattle called Scarecrow that specializes in all kinds of obscure, art house, classic, documentaries, educational/instructional and other hard to find movies.

Plus like every mainstream movie ever. They even have a little mini theater you can rent out for private events.

Blockbuster is still going. There are two in Anchorage. Was a total blast from the past when I walked into one. Forgot you had to register to rent movies. Fuckin' stupid.

You can probably make a hipster coffee shop with free wifi and also sell some obscure kinos as an extra income.

hahahahaha
> calling assholes telling them to return late videos
> they won't
> assholes who steal tapes / discs
> assholes who wipe their asses with the tapes / discs / boxes, seriously, THIS DISC HAS HUMAN FECES ON IT
> people who TAPE OVER RENTAL TAPES
> endless arguments WHY CAN'T I RENT THESE THREE FOR THE PRICE OF ONE I AM A SPECIAL BUTTERFLY GOD DAMN YOU I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE OWNER
> kids screaming / vomiting / pissing / shitting in the cartoon section

you have obviously never worked in retail.

youtube.com/watch?v=ORp-RRSwtmU

THE NOSE KNOWS

>leaving the house
>paying for media

Fucking video cassettes. I grew up having to rely on stores like this for entertainment.
Hiring a popular movie that has been stretched and abused by so many people, the crappy resolution, the horrible sound. The three billion adverts before the film started. Fuck that, I'm glad the media is dead.

>go into stupid store
>there's nothing there
>fucking leave

I nostalgia about it too, but it was mostly the above

She looks like my cousin

post pics of pusy

No. But I think a 90s store filled with VHS, SNES games and 90s decoration would be a hit.

no, no it wouldn't you mong

I'm afraid i don't have any. I did dryhump her in various positions and almost fucked her though

>people who TAPE OVER RENTAL TAPES
Bought/rental tapes are usually write protected.

I still have some Family Videos near me. Renting isn't as fun as you remember.

I remember when I was a kid (god that feels weird to say) going to the local Blockbuster with my dad. I would take FOREVER to find a movie I wanted to watch. My dad would complain about that lol. We also went to this other video rental store called Avenue Video. It was a mom and pop store and I think there were at least two more in other cities/towns. Avenue Video eventually went out of business, which my dad predicted would happen, due to Blockbuster being "mammoth".

No. The internet and netflix have all but killed them. Only turbo normies go to them anymore. I still like them though.

I think they're comfy.

I preferred Hollywood Video to Blockbusters. They had lot more movies

And you were happy to get it too. It's all about perspective. It wasn't that shitty because there was nothing else. You had a good time anyway. It's just like back at the turn of the millennium when we had the gameboy color. It's shit by today's standards but fuck if it wasn't THE shit back then. I don't look back and think "wow that sucked ass you could barely even see the screen" no I had a lot of fun playing it because it was the best there was at the time.

Porn is always at the bleeding edge of technology. It popularised the printing press, was the driving force in the VHS/betamax wars, it presaged the decline of cinemas, and shops selling porno mags and DVDs were the first to be killed off by the internet.

no we buildings now

this is why I came to this thread

To add to that, even just in the case of the internet era, porn has been a driving force between getting pictures, and then video and live streaming online, as well as faster download speeds, online payment, privacy, and ID verification systems, content monitoring... You name it, porn does it first. You're more likely to see an uptake in holographic projection as a result of porn, than you are to see a few porn DVDs keeping video rental stores alive.

not watching D-VHS what are you poor or something

Learn how commas work. It's first grade language arts, pal.

I live 5 minutes from scarecrow. The selection is overwhelming and the staff suck. Everything is way overpriced too. A lot of the categories are confusing to navigate too. Oh not to mention that it's impossible to park in their tiny lot or anywhere near the store.

It's like yeah I'd like to see this documentary but I don't want to pay 17 bucks plus tax to watch it once and have it sit on my shelf as a reminder of a mistake.

>the selection is overwhelming

What the fuck is wrong with you

Not if you put a piece of electrical tape of a certain part of the cassette.

>It popularised the printing press
I don't think so buddy but the rest of what you say is somewhat true.

if you market it somehow to hipsters and keep operations small, sure.

Even if piracy died out completely, the internet covers everything your casual rent store can offer except with a cheaper price and an almost incomparably larger range of selection. So no, it won't make a comeback, unless internet itself or the big online stores stop existing (which won't happen).

a bit of tape can fix that then you can record hardcore tranny porn on that carebears tape

...

Yes, we were. I don't even know what that is.

>drive to video store
>embarrass yourself as you walk to porn section
>have awkward exchange with cashier
>drive back
>watch a porn dvd in glorious 480p

or

>find whatever porn you want in hd on some tubesite in minutes

this kind of shit would happen all the time at video rental stores as some former clerks from back in the day
youtube.com/watch?v=jiu0LPeLQPE

Same here. They had some obscure stuff like foreign films and anime.

I remember one closed down right next to my job (which oddly enough, had just informed us we were all soon to be laid off). Hollywood closed so fucking fast, they had a truck there that day and had it empty a few hours later. They left a sign that said "sorry we're shut down, if you rented anything, keep it". Work buddy of mine joked "Well, I'm laid off in the middle of the Great Recession with 13% unemployment...but at least I got 3 new Xbox games for free!"

There's still a plenty of video rental stores in Finland and they don't seem to be going anywhere. Only reason I and most people I know visit there is to buy bulk confectionery because they are cheaper and selection is more wider. I find it hard to believe that they survive only by selling candy to cheap bastards like me.

>wait 9 days to complete 700mb file
>turns out its a french dub
>download english subtitles and watch it anyway

he was overwhelmed by the selection. what the fuck is wrong with YOU?

The ultimate evolution of any brick and mortar store is to be turned into a vending machine. We already have Redbox.

Only if they stock the craziest dirtiest smelliest pornography

>work at rental store in 2000
>dude returns Road Trip
>only it's not Road Trip, it's an unmarked cassette with child porn
>cops on our shit for like a week before the guy got caught

What if stores offered digital codes for movies? Like every ten movies you rent you get one free digitally.

As a novelty shop

Yes, when 4K gets popular, 4K files are a pain in the ass to download and store for most people

>There's too many movies!

And I'm the one who's fucked up here?

The appeal of stores was that the staff could organize the shelves and make personal recommendations.

Netflix et al. still have not figured this out and rely entirely on shit algorithms and meaningless star ratings.

So, are physical stores going to make a comeback? No, but Redbox for massive size content like 4k and beyond will be necessary until we get our shit together and improve internet infrastructures.

Will we see staff picks and recommendations Incorporated into Netflix et al.? I fucking hope so. Why are there no features for user playlists or curation? It's free money Netflix your useless shit sucks

I could definitely see them coming back especially with how much stuff is already hard to find in physical media. I feel like a large number of movies are not readily available in any kind of streaming and are no longer on shelves. A retro store with a massive collection would do well, there's still so many people that don't understand torrents and torrents are the only way to find so, so many films these days.

Personally I prefer physical media because I use my computer for work so no risking viruses or using memory on a machine I need to keep clean or I don't eat. I don't want a thousand discs in shitty plastic cases with pictures of meme actors on them so renting is the cheapest best way to see random shit.