Yeah...But Which One?

 

My sons and I found ourselves yesterday in a Game Stop store. If you're unfamiliar with the store, it's full of video games, game-related items, and pop culture knick-knacks. It's Geek Nirvana. My sons were looking for things to buy. To be honest, when I go inside, I see things that would be cool to have, but since I'm not a big video gamer, I usually leave the store having bought nothing for me.

But, I did see a couple of items I thought maybe I'd want.

Mini-Pop keychain figures. Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas, in party attire.

Dumb and Dumber is one of my guilty pleasures. It's a classic film...crude, yes, but a classic. The fact that part of it was filmed in Utah and has some local actors in it that I know is a bonus.

I thought about getting a keychain, but which one? 

The obvious answer is Lloyd. Jim Carrey is a comedic genius. Jeff Daniels puts in a good performance, but next to Carrey, almost anyone would pale in comparison. As I held them both, I felt I could not split them up, and I didn't need, nor was I going to buy two keychains (truth be told, I didn't need even one keychain...). Plus, since it was a keychain, I was going to put in on my keyring. Two would be too many.

There were a few others from which to choose, but none as awesome at these two. My son was checking out the one thing he picked, and as an impulse, I grabbed a keychain on the rack and bought it. Was it Harry? Was it Lloyd?

Nope.

I walked out with C-3PO.

A solid choice.

When Will Game Stop...Stop?

My kids wanted to go to Game Stop tonight so we loaded up the Pontiac and headed south. And as I walked through the doors I wondered just how long Game Stop will be Game Stop. Don't get me wrong--it's a great store. If you want a game, there's a good chance they got it. At least, that's been my experience.

If you're unfamiliar with the company, Game Stop is known for selling, for the most part, video games. They have knick-knacks and foo-bahs too. But their bread & butter are the games. I don't know business. I don't know how successful the company's been or what their five, ten, even twenty year projection are. The organization may be in great shape--the best shape, in fact. They may be so stable that they're buying up other companies (which, they have--they bought Simply Mac...).

But if we go back in time about ten to fifteen years, there was another company that seemed destined to be in business forever. Anyone remember Blockbuster Video? I'll bet MBA programs teach on the fall of Blockbuster. I'm sure the information's out there to find out why exactly the huge organization fell.

So why wonder if Game Stop will follow the Blockbuster business model? I don't know--just a thought. But the other day I was in a thrift store and I noticed they had a very nice DVD selection, and not just those movies nobody wants. Some were very good, even kids shows. I asked myself, "Self, why are there so many good DVDs still available at this thrift store?"

It's because the home movie market in changing. People are watching more on-line and streaming shows. And then there's the cloud services. I haven't done the research, but I think that's what's happening. Will this happen to the gaming industry? Will we need places like Game Stop in the future? Maybe in ten or fifteen years we'll either still be going into a store to buy new and used video games (as well as knick-knacks and foo-bahs...) or we'll have pieces of plastic with the names of stores on them reminding us of the times we got in our cars, walked through the doors, and browsed the merchandise. Time will tell.