Close Shop

My brother and I are members of our friendly neighborhood Videocity shop for several years already. We would rent CD's (not DVD's because these are not available at this outlet), at 30 pesos per movie back then. We were still young then and were with a limited budget, and would just ride a tricycle to the store and back, so we would rent just one or two for up to 60 pesos total. Ironically, unlike most other goods the prices of which rise every year, the video rentals dropped to as low as 15 pesos per movie or even 25 pesos for two, just when we were old enough to rent more than two movies and would not mind driving a car.

Recently, when downloading from the internet became more than just a fad, my brother found it a hassle to take a trip to Videocity to rent a movie and – the part he hates most – going back there to return what he borrowed. Would not it be much more convenient to make some clicks with your mouse and, viola, a movie! And being the engineer/mechanic/techie that he is, he found a way to connect some wires from the PC to his TV and sound system so that we can watch these downloaded videos on his TV and the sound coming out of the stereo speakers. This may not be a big deal for most people our age, but for me it is! Imagine typing this blog entry on OpenOffice Writer with the TV as monitor!

We have one rule, though: Never download a Filipino movie! Support our local entertainment industry! No, he is not very fond of local movies, not at all, but recently, we both thought of watching this funny local movie from last year. We first thought of buying the original DVD or VCD but spending 300 pesos to watch a movie at home once is just too much. So what's our last resort? To go to our friendly neighborhood Videocity shop! And surprised we were: they will be closing shop soon, Deember 31 to be exact. For the next few days, the store will be just selling the used CD's at very cheap prices. No, the movie we were looking for was sold already.

Why did this happen, video rental stores closing shop like this? Maybe because of people like my brother and I, who find it inconvenient to take a trip to the store for a movie to be watched at home anyways. With the closing of our this Videocity shop, what my brother and I lost is not the joy of watching movies, which we can do in other ways, or some money, which is not much anyway, but part of our childhood, of long walks and tricycle rides.