Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Stillwater Don't Need No Netflix

This last weekend my wife and I were down in Stillwater, Oklahoma for a two-year old's birthday party (cute pictures to follow soon) and afterward spent some time with my wife's brother, Ben. We decided to watch a movie and Ben suggested we stop by a local video store there in town called "Video Vault". Ben thought I would like the place and he was absolutely right.

Probably the simplest way to describe Video Vault is by saying it is a specialty video store. You could also say that Video Vault is the exact opposite of Blockbuster; in the way that Blockbuster promises to have all the latest greatest movies in stock (or at least they used to), Video Vault "promises" to have a whole bunch of old, odd, and unusual movies you may or may not have heard of, like, say, the Academy award winner for best picture from 1962. They got it. Its in the in "Academy Award" section which is near the "Anime" section which is near the "Organized By Director" section which is near the "Blacksplotation" section which is near the "Date Movie" section which is near the "Rent At Your Own Risk" section (whatever that is).

I'm a Netflix member so that I have access to virtually all the movies found in these sections that don't really fit the summer-blockbuster mold. If I had a store like this in Wichita, I would probably quit Netflix; Netflix provides by mail what this store provides in-person.

By the way, if we have a store like this in Wichita, it isn't in the phone book. We've got Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, a locally owned Blockbuster wannabe, and a bunch of "adult" video stores. (Why does the preface "adult" seem to connote "vice". "Adult beverage" = alcohol, "adult gaming" or "adult entertainment" = gambling, "adult video" = sex and pornography. Kind makes being an adult seem like a license to sin rather than the obligation to be responsible.) This being the case, I'm adding this to my list of potential things to do with my life: open a speciality video store in Wichita.

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