Requiem for rental stores.

This week, the last remaining DVD/Blu-Ray rental store in my city of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, a Video Ezy outlet, announced it will close this month. That was hardly surprising as the industry's been dying a slow death for years, but as an insatiable consumer it's naturally still lamentable for me. I suppose now I'll soon have no alternative but to this point I've never downloaded films, and I've only downloaded episodes of TV shows on "catch-up" websites after I've missed their broadcasts. Admittedly I'm too impatient to wait for them load, usually, and I've heard stories of viruses and whatnot coming from download sides. Plus, the artists themselves usually don't profit from consumers downloading media (even if certain people only in entertainment for the cash don't either).

But probably the prime reason why I've resisted downloading media for so long is that I just have always preferred the tangibility of having hard copies. I think that's due to my Asperger's preference for being able to truly feel things physically; with a DVD et cetera, you can open it up, flick through the sleeve or booklets, hold the disc in one hand, run your fingers around its edge and so on. Furthermore, having a big collection of hard copies and keeping them together just makes your place really look and feel more inhabited, especially to visitors. More inhabited means more homely; I just don't think you can achieve that with digital copies of movies or shows. Then again, they do consume far less space.

Another pro rental stores offer (or offered) would be the chance to actually go out, socially, and that way grab something to watch, with people to help you and mingle with. With so much addiction to social media and smartphones et cetera now (helpful though both of those phenomena can be), we can't get fully out of the habit of making direct, genuine face-to-face interaction.

But regardless, I digress. All good things, as they say, must come to an end, and the demise of rental stores obviously doesn't mean that of art or physical copies of it. I mean, God knows we can still thankfully buy them. It's just the end of an era, and that's always quite poignant. But I'm sure I'll be able to scoff some gems permanently at their closing-down sale, and while it lasted, it was a pleasure each time. Video Ezy Rockhampton, thank you and vale.