Video stores may be driving themselves out of business

Time to rant.
At the video store last week, a place I don’t visit as often as I used to because I see most of the films I really want to see in the theater upon their release, I noticed all the new releases no longer offered a five nights for $3.50 option.
That option – better known as the purple-sticker option – was previously available on half of the discs for all new releases in the store. The other half was one night only for $2.50, also known as the yellow-sticker option.
I only used the yellow-sticker option when I knew I was going to watch the movie that day and could return it the next day. Otherwise, the purple-sticker option was the better deal for me because I could take my time in watching the movies, especially if I rented three or four of them.
I rarely use Red Box, a vending machine set up in several locations in this area that distributes films that can be rented for $1 per night, and although I’ve used mail video distributor Netflix in the past, I’m not currently a subscriber. Both of these services have caused the closure of many video stores, including one in Stevens Point earlier this year, and they are sure to close others as people choose them for their convenience and cheaper costs.
The video store has always been my preferred choice, because I love walking in, getting greeted by a person and then having the luxury of being able to browse thousands of selections without distractions from the outside world. It’s something I’ve been doing since a young child when my father brought home our first VHS player along with the movie “Romancing the Stone.”
While video stores have changed over the years, especially with the conversion of VHS tapes to DVDs, the basic premise has stayed the same: shelves lined with movie boxes. Those boxes are meant to be read to help a person determine whether or not the movie should be rented or put back on the shelf to collect more dust.
Giving up a video store is something I thought I’d never do. But now that the purple-sticker option is gone, I’m seriously reconsidering this thought, especially when I found out the reason my favorite option was eliminated.
“Why are you no longer offering the purple-sticker option?” I asked.
“We discovered it was causing us to lose too many customers to Red Box,” the clerk told me.
I was baffled. “What? How?”
“Well, people would go to Red Box if a purple-sticker movie was all out.”
I thought about her statement for a second. “So now my only option is renting a film for one night at a price $1.50 higher than Red Box. That makes no sense from a business standpoint for you guys. Now people are going to go to Red Box without even stopping here.”
The clerk was clearly not the person who made the decision, so she didn’t have a response. I added the purple-sticker option was what enticed me to come to the video store over Red Box, and now that I didn’t have this option, I was going to go to Red Box. I told her to let the authorities-that-be their decision was causing one more person to stay away from the video store.
I asked a few of my coworkers whether or not the video store was making a smart business decision. They agreed it wasn’t wise, although they noted they’ll continue to use the video store over Red Box and Netflix because at least the video store employs local people.
My argument is these local people will soon be out of a job if their managers continue to make such stupid decisions, because not everyone will think as nicely as my coworkers.
I didn’t go to Red Box that day, as I didn’t feel like driving from Plover to Stevens Point. I’m glad I didn’t, because that evening the backlight in my LCD high-definition television burned out, leaving me without a television to watch any movies I may have rented. Maybe it was karma for walking out of the video store and questioning its business decision, but I don’t think so.
Not to start another rant, but it’s probably a ploy by television makers to get people to buy new televisions every few years. Apparently, through online research, backlights burning out is a common problem that often occurs shortly after the television’s warranty expires. It’s a simple fix; however, getting the part to do so takes some doing and television repairman charge more than the value of the television to do the repair.
I’m determined to do it myself. In the meantime, though, I’ll probably have to purchase another television to watch those movies I’m not renting from the video store or anywhere else.