Store Closings increase

What does this say about the future of commercial real estate, as more and more is done online? I guess there is always room for another Tim Horton's here in coffee land.
Culture is becoming a Telus modem and a triple frap latte. God are we boring!

video store closures

The hegemony of movie distributors have almost full control of the movie houses.

It's not so bad in Vancouver where there is some choic but the other communities in the metro Vancouver area are left with the Hollywood pablum. One theatre's showings are no different from an other.

Video stores as well in most metro Vancouver communities are mainly the "big box" video stores, however, the little store with a variety of videos, including foreign and independent selections are also closing.

For those of us who live outside of Vancouver proper our options are even more limited.

In a newspaper article from a South Surrey publication a popular independent and small video store is closing after 30 years. A few kids held a lemonade sale to help out the store. The owner's problem like many others is the diminishing sales as electronic downloads become more popular (at least for mainstream hollywood blockbusters) as well as high commercial rents.

Perhaps what is needed are outlets online, similar to Videomatica and other smaller video stores, that have fast downloads of foreign and independent movies.

Expensive

Perhaps one problem was that Videomatica is very, very expensive?

The Internet Kills Neighbourhoods..?

How disingenuous and ill-informed is that!?

People didn't come to the store, the internet didn't stop them. The internet provided what Videomatica didn't, and in some aspects, wasn't willing to. The internet provided them a more reasonable, innovative, and convenient option.

Certainly competition plays a part in Videomatica's demise, as it did for some of the independent bookstores.

But to lay this at the feet of the new media is disingenuous. Videomatica, as one commenter already noted, charged too much. If you rented a TV series from them, unlike Blockbuster, for example, you paid full price for every DVD.

They didn't provide discounts (aka incentives), for example, for educators who could have extended their consumer base, and been return and consistent customers.

Personally, I found there was always the attitude that the store was doing 'us' a favour; like it was a privilege to rent from them. It wasn't and isn't and, so, at least in part, you reap what you sow.

There are many innovative independent organizations that adapt to the myriad of changes the world goes through. Videomatica hasn't, and it cannot lay the blame on anyone else's doorstep anymore than we should mourn it as a hub of a community.

Sorry, that's just not even reasonable; and, yes, I'll miss them none-the-less.

Blame the internet

Thousands of us outside the myopic city of Vancouver could not access this video store. We can access the internet. So the upside is more people have access to classic and alternative films via the internet at lower cost. Not to mention the fact that Steve Burgess gets to publish in alternative media via the internet that people outside Vancouver can access. So cry me a river about another video store closing. My little burg once had four video stores. Now we have one, an independent outlet with a very uncertain future.

Wasteful Business

Driving to rent a video is one of the most energy inefficient things that people will ever do. It is really silly using a 1500 kg vehicle to transport something that just weighs a few grams. Even worse, to rent and return it requires 4 one way trips. If it is 5km from home to the video shop, the energy used to rent and return the video by car would be enough to transport that disk around the world.

It is time we stopped doing such energy wasting activities.

The Internet Helps Great Neighourhoods

What a ridiculous title. By allowing people to work in cafes, the Internet is actually creating more lively neighbourhoods. People are also working at home more meaning more people are able to go to neighbourhood businesses during the day.

More Ill conceived and hollow opinions from Tyee writers

Steve Burgess not only fails to unveil a single intelligent observation and idea in his feature, but reveals the weak, left wing tinged, luddite inspired viewpoints that would render us back to the Stone Ages. Instead of concluding the internet is an evil monolith that needs to be controlled, Burgess should have asked some hard questions to the people behind Videomatica.

Burgess stupidly states, "One wishes the Internet could just kill off the porn theatres and leave the rest standing but that's not the way things work in the pitiless world of Adam Smith."- does Burgess wish for some "People's Committee of the Internet" to decide socially good uses for the internet? Is Adam Smith's capitalism really pitiless? Or does he forget what capitalism has done for the internet? Maybe Burgess, Mayor Robertson and Adrian Dix can tell us what is good and bad for us?

Videomatica deserves to perish because it failed serve its customers. Despite all the nostalgia and love, too few customers actually used Videomatica. And like all left leaning Canadians, Burgess falls into the trap of arguing that everyone owes Videomatica a living. All of the obscure movies that Burgess claims that Videomatica carries are available on Amazon or can be bought on ebay.

Burgess should have asked Videomatica, for example, why they didn't execute an early netflix model by improving their online site and innovating a physical delivery system that didn't involve a bricks and mortar store. Instead, Videomatica managers were frozen like deer in front of headlights. Think that millions in the lower mainland have easy access to much more video than Videomatica could ever offer. Instead Burgess offers a pitiful argument defending a dinosaur.

Rather than excoriating the success of "... a new kind of retail extinction driven by Web-based giants like Netflix and Amazon.", Burgess should consider that Netflix and Amazon were at one time, smaller businesses than Videomatica. But, by serving real and changing customer needs they became much bigger and did a better job helping the community.

And has Burgess been locked in a time capsule underneath his floorboards? He says, "The end of Videomatica comes as a particular shock, since the 30-year-old store is more than just a sentimental favourite. It has long represented the reliable fallback option for hard-to-find items." Has anyone told him about this new invention called the internet, where you can discover hard-to-find-anything without leaving your house? A shock? Only if you haven't used a computer for the last 15 years.

And what's this talk about Videomatica's "peerless library" and a "govt takeover"? Why should taxpayers care about an obscure videostore? Should this be another critical issue like the homeless?

Did Burgess or the editor conceive that inappropriate title about the internet killing great neighbourhoods? The internet has built huge global communities.

"...replied Burgess stupidly."

Bobby, I love those helpful constructions of yours! "Burgess stupidly states..." Touche! If only I had noticed I was stupidly stating. I just wish there was some sort of Word program that underlined the stupid-stated sections.

One point I've made before which bears repeating: headlines are not written by those who write the articles. Not always an issue but a headline can put a certain spin on a story. Rac, I think you are reacting to the headline rather than the article--there's nothing in it about cafe culture or the Internet's effect on that. The article mentions only the effect the Internet is having on video stores and certain other businesses. On the other hand I don't get your point about driving to video stores. Why blame the store if you didn't ride your bike or take transit?

Rangergord, you make a very good point that the article overlooks--the online democratization of movie access. I do think that something valuable is lost when stores like Videomatica close, something that is at present not completely replaced by online services. But it's true that this is the parochial viewpoint of a Vancouver resident.

As to those who say Videomatica went out of business because it was snooty and expensive, why then did Blockbuster go bankrupt? Snobbery?

P.S...

Correcting my last post--Videomatica is not out of business just yet. They say they likely will be within months.

Ah, yes ...

"Stupidly stating."

I love stupidly stating.

I do it a lot.

But not, I think, quite as vociferously as good ole open minded and ever-polite Bobby Peru.

/jus' sayin'

Mail Order vs Internet

rangergord's criticism that people outside of "myopic" Vancouver cannot access the store is not well-founded. Videomatica has a mail order branch operating under their brand.

This type of operation may still be somewhat successful as huge chunks of the world still have poor access to high-speed internet which is needed for streaming and downloading.