Family Video Trip

It has been a long time since I had been into a video store. When I was a kid it was an event to go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie with my family. Every weekend when there was nothing to do my brothers and I got the opportunity to roam around and look at R rated movies and see what was out there even if we couldn’t watch it. So, when I went into Family Video in Shelby North Carolina it was a bit of a flashback. I can remember a time when my family and I would roam around the store looking at all the different sections of movie genres, arguing about which few to pick out, and my brothers and I begging for a box of candy. Though I might not have always got the movie I wanted, everyone was able to find something they wanted to watch. This more recent experience visiting a video store was a bit different considering it has been at least ten years since my last time in a video store, and Netflix and Amazon type platforms rule the home video world. However, I found that the difference between my trip to the video store and scanning films on Netflix and Amazon is not what one might expect. The initial discovery or interest in movies I would like to watch is easy with an online platform because I can search for it. With a video store like Family Video, I got to relive the now archaic experience of looking at movie covers, roaming sections of genres, and finding movies I might not find online. This is the big difference for me between my trip to Family Video and using an online platform like Netflix. In fact, I preferred the ability to find other movies and roam around the store because it is easier to search for something in my taste rather than scanning the “most popular” section on Netflix. I found movies in the video store that I would never find on Netflix simply because Netflix doesn’t have it, or I have to go down some internet rabbit hole in order to find it.

The online platforms offer loads of movies without a doubt, but only movies that are popular with other people. It makes sense that Netflix, Amazon and other platforms would put those types of films there because they make more money from it and gain more interest. Though, this is the reason I think that video stores like Family Video still survive. Old movies, new off camber movies that I might not find online, and movies you know that you can’t find online are in the Family Video and I find that to be relevant to people today. Movies that come out on Netflix are either from the recent past, or the really big hits from way back, but that’s about it. Family Video offered entire sections of past and recent movies that cover the entire spectrum of possibilities, and I think that people still enjoy that. Not to mention the ability to ask the movie buff at the front what he thinks about it, and get some candy on your way out.

I really enjoyed going to the Family Video store. I found it to be a bit of a reminiscent joy to go through the aisles and pick up movie after movie and most of the time decide what movie I want to watch based on how cool the cover looks or the section I got it from. The movie store offers that kind of personal browsing and experience. It almost made it more enjoyable for me to go out of my way, roam around the store for a while and get some candy before I left just because I got to reap the rewards of my efforts in a sense. I think that there is a place for this old style of film selection and one that I hope doesn’t die, at least not in the near future. Sure, it is hard to beat the convenience of Netflix and Amazon, but just because it’s convenient doesn’t mean it’s better. I like to compare this experience to my Jeep. A silly comparison I know, but my Jeep is loud, awful on gas, and the stick shift is a pain in traffic and super steep hills, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I could easily swap my jeep for some Toyota that is dead silent, parks for me, and does everything but makes me coffee, but I don’t want that. I want to hear the motor rumble, I want to switch the gears around as I please and feel the bumps of the road. Just like I don’t want to have a movie put in my face because it’s the “most popular” and I don’t always want to sit on the couch and press a search button. Sometimes, yes, but most of the time I would rather deal with the “inconvenience” of driving to the store and roaming around until I found a film just as I would rather drive my “inconvenient” Jeep. The easy way doesn’t always mean the best way and after my trip to the Family Video store, I was reminded of that.