Renting movies...

More from last month's ice storm...I thought of Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" as I walked by this spot in Midtown's Piedmont Park.

...and speaking of movies...

I was the hold-out in this country on Netflix. I know it's great. I know you can have "all the movies you want" for under $20/month. But I also know that a huge part of me is instant gratification-based; I couldn't just sit back and see what movies from my list might be available for the weekend. If I want to watch a movie, I want to watch that movie NOW and I'm going to go out and get THAT movie. Now.

With Netflix, if a movie is a really popular one, it might not be available for a while.

A certain movie rental chain fulfilled that immediate gratification need for me (being new to the blogverse, I don't want to step on any toes, so I'll just call the chain "FockFluster"). They had that "guaranteed" to be there slogan.

Well, now that "Lackluster" has decided to compete head-to-head with Netflix, they have have exchanged their "guaranteed to be" there ideology for a "no late fees" one. "Just turn it in whenever" they say.

So now at "Ballbuster", if a movie is a really popular one, it might not be available for while.

That happened to me this weekend while trying to rent "Ray". I went in on Sunday, no copies. The same on Monday and Tuesday. I even went so far as to wait outside the drop-off slot, asking people if they were returning a copy of it. No luck.

I asked the clerk if people had complained about movie availability since this policy change and he said "yes", but once people come in to get a movie, if their first choice isn't in, they just get their second choice. And "Flackmaster" gets their money either way.

Bummed, but not alone. "...eyed for antitrust." "...sued over late fees"