Something to keep in mind:
as I write this out I am currently downloading the last couple of
episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Why? Because the brand new
disk I bought is so screwed up the last couple episodes are
unwatchable.
Each generation is a tween
generation. My dad had to go the the movie theater to watch movies.
Then he stopped doing that because in the 1980's you could buy them
and watch them on TV. His dad got to live in a time period in which
we went from the horse and buggy, to cars, to watching a man walk on
the Moon, on TV!
My generation saw the
computer go from a $2000 typewriter to a $200 movie theater. Going
from however much the Encyclopedia Britannica cost to free on
Wikipedia. Now you can recycle those voluminous volumes and make more
space for movies, books, magazines... ...but, you can now get all
that on your computer.
I must say, I'm going to
miss looking at my book shelves and seeing them full of all the books
and movies I bought. I look over and see Arthur C. Clarke, Terry
Pratchett, J.A. Jance, House, The Closer, G.I. Joe, Transformers: Victory, Haruhi Suzumiya, Oh My Goddess, Rosario Vampire, and lots
more. Soon it's going to be terabyte hard drives. Even then, how long
is it going to be before the online storage companies can give you
terabytes of storage? With all this you can by stuff on the web, how
long is it going to be before all brick and mortar stores disappear?
Suncoast and Borders are gone. Best Buy is cutting way back. Even
Hastings slacking off on stocking the newest greats.
Why buy a movie, book, or
video game that you really only use once and it sits on a shelf
taking up space that you can use for something else? A thumb drive
the size of five cents worth of cents can hold all 18981 cents (not
counting tax) worth of 450 square inches of Rosario Vampire books.
(How long are we even
going to still have pennies anyway?)
What I'm going to miss a
lot is the thrill of the chase. Going from store to store all over
town and all over several towns. Searching for that one place that has
what I'm looking for and rewarding them with my money. While I'm in
each place no doubt I will find something else that grabs my
attention and I might buy that as well. I went into one place looking
for Yuki-Chan and came out with Madoka and Outland. Ironically that
is what annoys me about iTunes and Amazon. I type in my request and
they give my hundreds of suggestions other than what I'm looking for.
Don't misspell it. They'll just say we don't have Paula Madako. In a
real life even if you don't have the right spelling, at least you'll
be in the general area. Of course the may file Haruhi under H.
The thing I will miss most
of all is supporting my local businesses. I really believe in that. I
want them to stay open and do what they do best: make money and give
people jobs. If I and everybody else buys Family Guy on iTunes, why
should Hastings, Best Buy, or even Wal-Mart hang around? I've already
seen a lot of cutting back. The economy has been crappy for the last
five years, but with Netflix and Amazon on the scene, it gets harder
and harder to justify stocking stuff that barely sells.
Thinking about it a little
deeper, there's a lot involved in tracking down Family Guy Volume 10.
I get in my vehicle that I bought from a local dealer. It needs gas
which I buy locally. (Okay, I admit, not so locally because my town
doesn't have the best prices, it's the next town over.) My car's
dirty, and I'm not using MY water to clean it. So of to the car wash.
I usually use an automatic wash because that way I can get a good
coat of wax and tire shine put on. The automatic car washes, the gas
stations, and car dealers all employ people and pay them for their
services. Of course I pay them for their services. Oh, and I forgot:
in order to buy that vehicle, I needed a loan. So off to the bank.
Look at all those people
and local businesses that I have already supported and I haven't even
made it to Hastings, Best Buy, or some used video store that bought
out all of Hollywood Video's stock.
Then again what do I do if
all 5 Wal-Marts, 5 Hastings, both Best Buys, all the second hand
books and videos, and numerous pawnshops don't have what I'm looking
for. Or worse yet, disk three of Makado is crap? That leads into next
time's discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment