People talk about how much more selection you have online, and yeah sure it's great that I'm able to buy some B-movie from the 70's off of Amazon, but what about those "not in the know." People don't browse Amazon the same way they browse in a brick and mortar store. People who are shopping online know what they are going for and they expect to get it instantly. They're not likely to go through the racks and stumble upon something they hadn't heard of before, but which looks pretty interesting, and which they end up enjoying. I would gladly give up my ability to buy some obscure Erich Romer film if it meant that more people in their local video would come across Chinatown by accident.
I remember going to Blockbuster when I was younger and not always coming out with the movie or game that I came in for. That wasn't a bad thing! I was exposed to a lot of good movies/video games that way, but that opportunity is gone the more and more people move towards online sales and digital distribution. People just expect instant gratification, which is not healthy mentally/socially, and also doesn't lead to good cultural exposure. Most film/book/music buffs in the 90's probably had access to the resources to get themselves 90%+ of the various products they wanted, whether through catalogs/stores/libraries/etc, so in exchange for getting access to that extra 10%, and to make life more convenient, we've given up the ability to expose great culture to others. There's a lot of products for sale on Amazon, but most people aren't going to take advantage of that opportunity. They're just going to go after what's most popular.
--
"Ahem! There is *sand* on my *boot*!"--Kefka
Black Turtle beat me, Yesmar in the Fall 2010 Guru Contest!