> Heh. One thing I hate about Blockbuster (and yes, I rent from BBV)

Will somebody tell me why Blockbuster stays in business? There's a Blockbuster in our area, and it costs something like $3.50 to rent even a non-new release. I've made an intense study of all the video stores in our area, and there are a total of eight or so in our town and the ones around it. Every last one of them is cheaper than Blockbuster; two are as or more extensive; one other carries widescreen movies regularly and two others carry them incidentally; Blockbuster is one of only two or three that refuses to carry anything higher than an R-rated movie, and THE only one that carries quietly censored versions of "hard R" rated movies. In short, I can't think of one single darned advantage to renting from Blockbuster.

The place I usually go to -- Video Update -- has as extensive a library as Blockbuster, carries the occasional widescreen movie, charges all of 49.5 cents per video (2 for 0.99, and on Tuesdays that even includes new releases!), and you get to keep them just as long. I did go to the local Blockbuster a couple times, but only to pick up obscure movies I had searched for at all the other local places and couldn't find. Now that I've done that, I'll probably never go back.

I'm generally not a big "anti-big chain" person, but doing a point-by-point comparison between Blockbuster and just about any other video store in a thirty mile radius, it ranks at the bottom every time. So I don't understand why so many people go there. Is it different in your area, Stephen? Do they just not HAVE anything else out there in California?