Video store options near Broadway/Hildebrand, McCullough/Hildebrand area?

[Silverheart80]

Signs of the times: the Blockbuster stores at Hildebrand and McCullough as well as Broadway/Austin Highway are both toast. Totally liquidating and closing down. This is on the heels of the best video store in town -- Hollywood Video at Sunset Ridge -- shutting down a few months ago. That one was great because it had all kinds of documentaries, foreign films, old TV shows, and music vids that Blockbuster chains don't carry.

Two questions:
1. Any other brick-and-mortar video store options in those immediate areas?
2. Any guesses why this particular area has been so hard hit by video stores closing?

By contrast, Blockbuster plans to maintain at least 28 other locations in SA, so it's not like video stores are vacating SA, and it's not like the area in question doesn't have money (Alamo Heights/Monte Vista/Terrell Hills).

My guess: more people doing video-on-demand, Netflix and the like. It's already well-reported that Blockbuster is having massive financial trouble, and may have to file for bankruptcy.

Have resisted Netflix because I like being able to walk up and search selections, and play vids on portable DVD machines while I work, as opposed to one central hard-wired point. I'm no fan of Blockbuster, but it's always nice to have a decent video store nearby. Maybe on-demand and Netflix are the only ways to play in future.....too bad....seems like less options for the consumer....just curious what others living in this area think....

[Dex]

More discussion here:
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148983

[Silverheart80]

Thanks, Dex.

Yeah, I've kept up with that thread all the way to the most recent posts.

Started this thread because it's locale-specific, whereas that's a more general national thread. Didn't want this question to get lost in that discussion.

[mouse]

http://btjunkie.org/browse/Video/page1/?o=52&t=0&s=1

[JudynTX]

Netflix. :tu

Do you all remember when Blockbuster first opened? You needed a credit card to open an account. :rolleyes

:rollin

[Slydragon]

2. Any guesses why this particular area has been so hard hit by video stores closing?

it's not like the area in question doesn't have money (Alamo Heights/Monte Vista/Terrell Hills).



Answered your own question, These places have money so they own pc/laptops/Xbox/PS3/etc and all these are able to rent or buy movies. Kids crying for a movie and he can rent right from his Xbox with the parents credit card or if the buy him M$ points.

I see BB staying open in the less nicer areas because they don't have the cash for all that or they just don't have Internet. So they hop in a car and go to BB to rent movies.

"But what about redbox for them" Chances are they have bad credit and don't have a credit card to rent from them, I sell a shit load of the re loadable cards at work and the first question I always get is "Will it work in the redbox" that's the only reason they want it. They not gonna apply for a new credit card and let the bill collectors find the new address they live at.

[Re-Animator]

Netflix. :tu

Do you all remember when Blockbuster first opened? You needed a credit card to open an account. :rolleyes

:rollin

Don't forget the 2 dollar VHS rewind fee. :toast

[Silverheart80]

Sly --

Thanks. I told my wife much the same thing you said here. Was hoping I was just being cynical and hoping someone would prove me wrong. Instead you corroborated what made sense. Follow the money, and you find the truth. Same goes here. Easy.

It's too bad. I'm not terribly broken up to see Blockbuster go, but I'm always sorry to see a consumer option fall by the wayside in favor of less. Hollywood Video, while still a chain, offered a really diverse wealth of material -- often obscure stuff I'd never heard of before -- and I was really disappointed to see that one go.

Bookstores are an interesting parallel. If you look at the shelves of a bookstore, the shelves aren't any smaller or lesser, but the options of available titles are. More volume of the targeted bestsellers are available than ever before, but less of the midlist. Bottom line -- less options, less quality material for the reading consumer. The promise of ebooks is that the midlist will find a resurgence but I find this highly doubtful as there's still costs of rights, design, art, editing, and marketing involved to successfully release a title. Just because printing is eliminated doesn't mean a book's production costs are markedly reduced and that it's easy to publish a book. That's a myth.

So to carry that parallel to films, I wonder if the phasing-out of video stores will mean an equal diminishing availabilty of midlist films, documentaries, foreign films, indies and the obscure, as I'm not convinced these will be available via on-demand. It's more profitable for companies to heavily target "sure things" and make those the available options rather than offer diversity. That's a bad thing for us, and I wonder how many folks realize it. It'll be interesting to see how this goes.....I hope I'm wrong.

Thanks again.

[mouse]

^ You can always tell the book readers by their well formatted and semi long winded postings! :toast

[The Reckoning]

meh

[Frenzy]

Signs of the times: the Blockbuster stores at Hildebrand and McCullough as well as Broadway/Austin Highway are both toast. Totally liquidating and closing down. This is on the heels of the best video store in town -- Hollywood Video at Sunset Ridge -- shutting down a few months ago. That one was great because it had all kinds of documentaries, foreign films, old TV shows, and music vids that Blockbuster chains don't carry.
.

One BB on huebner n Nw military closing too.

[JudynTX]

Don't forget the 2 dollar VHS rewind fee. :toast

:lol :lol And the late fees. :td