I am Streaming services are just tired. I recently canceled my Amazon Prime Column on the topic has met with great interest and approval. It seems like I hit a nerve. It echoes from more and more directions Criticism of streaming services and Dissatisfaction with the subscription madness in general. From I said goodbye to Netflix over a year ago – and never regretted it. I sent more subscriptions into the desert. At the same time, a desire for the good old days has grown in me: me wants the video store back.
As a child, the video store was a magical place
As a child in the 90s was the Video store one of my favorite places. Especially in the small town in northern Bavaria where I grew up, because we even had a media library. So there were not only films and series on VHS and later DVD, but also Video games.
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Every Friday, my brother and I were each allowed to choose a film and a game when we visited the media library with our father. We then played and watched diligently over the weekend, and on Monday the rental media went back to the video store or media library.
They were good times, which – of course I know – through the rose-colored nostalgic glasses look even more beautiful today than they ever really were. And yet I've reached a point where I want one again Video library wish back – because Streaming disappointed me.
Streaming services were great and cheap – now they're lousy and expensive
Than the video store in my home country closed its doors forever around ten years ago, I don't care much about it and I haven't seen the inside of it for many years. Nowadays there is one Gym.
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We already had internet in the 90s, but it only became really fast and cheap thanks to flat rate contracts from the mid-2000s. Than then YouTube came along in 2005, I was immediately hooked on it, Videos on the Internet to look.
This later expanded from extensive YouTube consumption thanks to Watchever (does anyone else know that?) and from 2014 Netflix then also on classic films and series. Ten years ago it was clear to me: Streaming is so much better and so much cheaper, I'm saying goodbye to films and series on disc and relying entirely on it Internet consumption.
This worked well for a few years, was cheap, convenient and fun. However, in recent years have Streaming services are in decline.
I'm fed up with Netflix, Prime Video and Co.
Rising prices, the return of advertising, account sharing bans, declining quality of films and series, across many services fragmented catalogs: This is the state of streaming services in 2024. Hard to believe, but from Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus and Co. are classic television channels become, only via the Internet – and with Subscription costs.
I have so much of it fed up, that I have almost completely turned my back on streaming services. Instead I'm happy to buy and collect films and series on disc again, now up 4K Blu-ray for the best possible quality.
But I'm missing a crucial building block for my new old film happiness: one Video library.
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Streaming, no thanks: I want the video store back
Yes, there are online video stores, even today, but it's not the same. I want a actually enter the store, wants me from the Selection on the shelves be inspired. I would like the Take media into your hands and me with exchange ideas with other people interested in films and series, even if it's just with the staff.
A video store offers all of this, but unfortunately there are hardly any left. In Nuremberg it has The last video store unfortunately closed its doors in 2018 and in the direct neighboring town of Fürth the last video store opened just a few years later closed.
How many video stores are there in Germany today? It was still 2007 3,000 and an additional 1,000 vending machine video stores. In 2023 there were still sad ones 50 video stores left. And none of them in my city. Whether that change again becomes?
Comeback of the video store? Unfortunately it looks bad
A Video stores' comeback is extremely unlikely. Even if Streaming services are getting more and more expensive and worse it's easy for most people laborious, Films and watch series on disc again and then also visit a video store to rent them.
But I still carry the desire for a video store with me, if only as a reminder of beautiful days long gone. nostalgia can really blind the view, and maybe that's the case for me too. Maybe other people feel the same way too. Or what do you say: Do you want the video store back? Or do you have other answers to the rising costs and declining quality of streaming services? Feel free to let me in Comments know below this post.