I was reading an article in our paper yesterday about Blockbuster closing nearly 1,000 of their brick and mortar stores. I believe the same article is here. Anyway, it made me wax nostalgic on two things:
1) We haven’t wanted to drive to a video store in several years. We were already tired of slogging to the local Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, looking for the movie we wanted to be in stock, when we wanted it. We tried Netflix a couple of years ago and have been happy with them ever since. I don’t particularly like to get out and drive to get a movie, when I can have it delivered to me through the mail. And a plus for Netflix – we can watch a lot of things online.
Which brings me to my second point…
2) Just where the whole movie/tv watching thing is going. Waxing nostalgic – I’m old and apparently getting older all the time 😀 I remember the days when we had two rotary dial, plug in the wall phones in our house. There was no such thing as an answering machine, no phone you carry around with you. These days, my phone is always with me, I can text, surf the Internet, play games, keep my shopping lists on it, and a myriad of other things. We’ve sure come a long way. Same with TV and movies. Growing up, we had one tv and three channels. There was no such things as the remote control. Or more precisely, *I* was the remote control. If my dad wanted to change the channel, he just asked me to do it 🙂 My, how things have changed. Not only do we have the channels and programs we have now (not all good, in my mind, some of the stuff on TV is bordering on trash), and the chances to watch them. DVR’s, On Demand and soon, streaming video and movies will be the way to go. We already hook up my laptop occasionally to our big screen TV, and watch things from Netflix like that. I foresee us getting a device to stream tv, movies, etc one day in the not too distant future.
Anyway, it constantly amazes me about how far things have come in my lifetime. Yet, I get stuck in my ruts. I don’t like driving to a store to get a video, so we use the mail order one. So, we have not tried Redbox yet – have you? I understand the appeal, it’s cheaper and fairly easy, I’m assuming. I was not all that surprised to read in the article that RedBox is owned by Coinstar, the brilliant people who started putting coin counter machines in stores and stuff. I think it’s smart, as is Redbox. But, I just don’t want to have to get out and go to a store to get a movie. How about you?
Vote in the poll, if you want, and let me know!
[poll id=”16″]
Sadly, if I don’t see it in the theater, I will probably end up waiting til it shows up on tv. How’s *that* for old-fashioned?? Ha! I bet we rent about a half dozen movies per year, tops.
If we want to rent movies, Mike seems to prefer to go to the store. We did Netflix for a while and he seemed irritated that he never got to pick them but then he would never go to the site and add any to the queue! I will probably go back to Netflix for the fall/winter months to catch up on some stuff we like but mostly old TV series. IT is weird how much entertainment is available streaming now! Bizarre. I’m trying to figure out if we need a new entertainment center for his big TV b/c not all the components fit with the PS3! Go figure (thanks to a friend who told me about the great deal on that – haha!)
Redbox is awesome! Not only is it cheap, but it really is convenient, assuming you are going to the store anyway that is;-) You can find a Redbox at Giant Eagle, Walmart or Walgreens. It’s easy to use and you can return your dvd to any Redbox location. Plus, they offer codes to rent movies for free!
We’ve never tried Netflix. It seems like too much for us. We don’t rent enough movies to make it worth it.
We do Netflix, but I love going to the movie theatre for new movies. For Christmas, my husband always gives us a bunch of movie passes in our stockings and we use them throughout the year. To me, there’s nothing like seeing a new movie on the big screen. We usually go to Target first and get all of our snacks and Slurpees for the kids, so it makes it more affordable. We also have On Demand on our cable network.
It is still amazing to me that you can basically watch any movie whenever you want. I think of when I was growing up and we would scan the t.v. listing each week to see if our favorite movies might be on the late night. Anything John Wayne was a always a hit!
Ok, not to sound ignorant, but what is Redbox? We have been using Netflix for years and love it! So convenient and the selection is top-notch.
We use Netflix, but we also use Redbox on occasion. The only problem with Redbox is that it’s not all that quick when you have to scan titles. And the late fees can rack up fast if you forget to turn it in the next day on time.
I hardly ever watch movies. I just can’t find the time to sit and watch, to be honest. I do love a good sick day (not so much the sick part) so that I feel I can sit and watch a whole movie or three. I almost always watch On Demand.
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