??!! Broadway Video Lives to Make Me Feel Dumb
posted by February 16 at 13:22 PM
onI once had to take an alphabetization test to get a temp job working at a bank. It turns out that, even though I am not a good speller, I am very proficient at putting files in order. So you can imagine my massive consternation upon trying to find anything at Broadway Video. The order of letters is just one among BV’s many organizing schemes. The videos are also organized by subject, author, actor and genre. So, when I recently went on a hunt for When We Were Kings, the staff first directed me to “Documentary, Misc.” No luck. I looked for a boxing tag amid the subject-organized documentaries. No luck. Finally, we found a subject tag for Muhammed Ali. And then, it was only on VHS. I am convinced the staff have done this to remind me of my shortcomings.
Comments
WWWK's is probably the greatest sporting movie/documentary ever made.
Yeah, I don't really get the over-specific classification that goes on in the smaller video stores. I love Rain City, but why should you have to know who directed a movie (and to know that that director is worthy of his own section) in order to be able to find it? What's so wrong with the old comedy/drama/action/horror/sci-fi/kids system?
The point is you had to ASK someone to guide you there. In the age of Netflix when the local video store is an endangered species they gotta keep their jobs relivant somehow.
Monkey, I see your point, but the problem with having to involve a store clerk with your search means you also have to give up your prerogative of being able to browse titles anonymously, without having to involve an itermediary in your search and decision process; sometimes I'm looking for some guilty-pleasure B titles (like, say, Class of Nuke 'Em High) and I really don't want to have to ask out loud where to find it. This is somewhat analogous to having to ask in a grocery store where the tampon or condom aisle is located.
Yeah, I had the hardest time finding anything starring Daniel Craig and Clive Owen and then, ta da, I found the special British section under the Foreign section. Nevermind that the usual assumption is, if it's in English, it ain't foreign.
I do love their second video $1 special on weekdays though.
There is a blockbuster and a hollywood video... oh, 5/6 blocks away... they are actually closer to where you work then Broadway Video.
I actually like the way the movies are arranged by actor, director, country of orgin, etc at the indy video stores. And, why not take a chance and watch a movie you have heard nothing about but stars a favorite actor, done by a favorite director, etc. That level of service is absent from Blockbuster.
But Blockbuster and Hollywood are all about the in-and-out shopping. The indy video stores are about slowing down and enjoying the process of the selection.
I actually also get a twisted kick out of folks who will go to Scarecrow then loudly complain about why it isn't laid out like Blockbuster... DUH!! Ya' ain't in Blockbuster dude, you went to Scarecrow because it isn't a Blockbuster and nothing is stopping you from going there RIGHT NOW!!
or they are just annoying movie geeks determined to thwart you....
Last year I wanted to rent "Lord of the Rings" from BV. I looked under the director and every actor but couldn't find it. I asked a clerk and he told me to look in the "Hobbits" section. Yes, a hobbits section.
I'm not saying it's rational. I don't even know if that's why they do it that way. But it's exactly the reason I love Netflix so damn much. Video stores drive me nuts. If I want to see Daniel Craig or Clive Owen (in my dream world they'd make gay porn together) all I gotta do is search for them by name and PRESTO! there listed is every movie they've made that's available.
Now I understand I have to wait a couple days to get. That's fine with me because that means I DON'T have to stand confused in Hollywood Video for three hours.
i can't find anything there. the damn place drives me apeshit. whose weird fucking idea was it to set the store up in this way? it was no knee-jerk reaction of NetFlix or any other thing, they have been using that insane system since God was a little girl in pink ribbons. i never go there, if i can help it. but did you know Courtney Love still has like $35 in late fines there? For never return "Sid and Nancy". O, the sad poetry of it.
I had no problem finding a Spike Lee joint. =)
daniel craig and clive owen tossing each others salad for 90 minutes would sell about a kajillion copies...call me dudes, to set it up...
Oh, that place drives me FUCKING INSANE!!! Everybody on earth knows the alphabet, why not use it? A few genre classifications (new releases, tv, scifi, drama comedy, and then us the motherfucking alphabet within each section. Brilliant!
Or, if you are going to arbitrarily organize movies by actor (by ACTOR! and who decides where ensemble pieces are filed?), then at least have a searchable map like at Scarecrow. Broadway Video, you are fucking insane. It pains me to patronize your store, and yet I do it out of some stubborn anti-corporate loyalty. Damn you.
YES! YES! Hey Broadway Video: Screw you and your ridiculous cataloguing system. Where the fuck am I supposed to find "Boogie Nights"? Did you decide to put it under "Paul Thomas Anderson", or "Mark Wahlberg", or maybe "William H. Macy"? Or maybe it was one of that small handful of videos you just decided to alphabetize? Did it ever occur to you that people might first think to look for it UNDER THE LETTER "B"? Perhaps we wouldn't have to be constantly asking the staff "Where's X? Where's Y?" and they could spend more of their time reshelving things, cleaning up the place, and giving us dirty looks. Oh, and stop using whatever that cheap-ass fucking DVD cleaner you use is. It makes your discs skip, and I know I'm not the only one that this happens to.
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