Final Project Video Submission

The Life of the Video Store (Module 5)

In Module 4 we were asked to view a movie to be able to complete the assignment, but that requirement led to another discussion all together.  In finding the movie for the assignment my first thought was Netflix or Hulu Plus.  At no point in the thought process did I ever thinking about renting a DVD to be able to complete the assignment.  This was the case for a couple of reasons.  First, there isn’t a movie store in the town where I live, although there once was.  Secondly, do movie rental stores still exist?  While people may rent movies from the kiosks located in certain shopping areas, the movie rental business is a dead business.

The death of the movie rental business has happened in two phases.  First the emergence of the digital movies and video-on-demand captured the attention of society and focused on increasing returns through user convenience.  However, once these two video forces hit the market, the video store failed to adapt. 

The Red Queen Theory suggests that species or organisms that do not adapt and change with the surrounding environment will not survive.  Not only must an organism adapt to maintain its place in a certain environment, but also to survive against other organisms.  This is the case of the video rental business.  While the rental store may have adapted to stay somewhat competitive against other video rental stores, they did not adapt in a manner where they would survive the onslaught of the digital movie predators.

I must admit that the video store brings back certain childhood memories.  As a kid with the early gaming systems (SEGA and original Nintendo) it was a joy to go to the video store and rent the newest games. However, it was the opposite feeling when you went to the video store with your heart set on a video game only to find that they had rented out all of the copies.  While technology has afforded us the ability to get the videos and games we want virtually anytime we want them, video stores have become a victim of the Red Queen.

Interesting Information can be found at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-10-20/entertainment/ct-live-1020-video-stores-borrelli-20101020_1_video-stores-movie-gallery-specialty-video