[citation][nom]wild9[/nom]Same here, itchyisvegeta I lived through the video rental explosion of 80’s, and can recall not only many video stores but also a plethora of mom and pop outlets selling their unique array of produce. Even gas stations starting filling their shelves with rentals. The one down the road had an older section where you could rent 5 older films for a small price, and keep them for a week. I loved it.We also had the ability to rent all the “video nasties” long before the British government got on it’s high horse and wiped the shelves. I’ll never forget renting the ‘Evil Dead’ for the first time..the buzz we got from picking up our copy was awesome. The whole family came round to watch and we all had a great time.Like you say, the video games starting coming and we were able to rent the latest titles, mainly on the Playstation 1 and Sega Megadrive (Genesis). Through all this I made some lasting friendships, including the people that ran the stores. When the bigger stores came in the atmosphere seemed less personal, with higher prices and more commercial media. Increasing rents and changing lifestyles eventually killed those off.I think times have changed so much now, it’s hard to describe to someone just what it was like to shop before the age of the high-speed Internet. What are these shopping towns like today? Dilapidated, dirty, uninviting. Filled with incessant traffic that only stops to fill up with gas, or demolished to make way for private housing projects. The video rental stores that did stay have mostly been turned into betting offices, real estate agents , greasy fast food joints or ex-catalogue stores. I don’t know if this a similar environment where you live but I’d say most English except the tourist hot-spots are like that these days.. faceless.Alas, I guess this is the price we pay for cheap, fast Internet, online media and ordering stuff online from some nameless entity working all the hours God sends in a distribution warehouse. Therefore I think Blockbuster’s demise was an inevitable sign of the times. For me the days of going downtown specifically to pick up a rental movie or game are long gone. I miss them.[/citation]
that's "middle america" for you , you hit the nail on the head my brit cousin , most of US is like this , either miles of nothing , or miles of little nothing towns filed with "ghost shell" buildings that used to be mom and pop buisness's , not sure about britain , but in the US this was mostly the fault of large corperations like wal mart and blockbuster, but in this new digital age we are stepping into these corperations wont last either at least not in teh physical buildings.
though if we look on the bright side , perhaps the death of the physical store will generate a wealth of land for sale , namely land for housing and residential areas. so perhaps there is not just a dark side to this, because with teh current population figures for teh whole world , land and housing is only getting more scarce.