Dollar Tree being only a single dollar on everything.
I didn’t know Dollar Tree existed further back in the years like the 80s. But, I didn’t discover the store until like late 2000s. That store was a godsend for my then mostly broke ass. Sure the quality of products could’ve been better and the food selection could’ve been better, but they were there for me and others who’re strapped on budgets.
And it was a good 16 years while that lasted. It is a little annoying at times to shop there and know it is no different than Dollar General and Family Dollar. But it could’ve been worse.
Netflix being the only streaming offering.
Yeah, once Netflix and other streaming companies discovered exclusive content it all went to shit.
The entire point was to have content distribution separate from production, and available in one place.
Streaming was supposed to ‘replace’ cable television, because people were fed up of forced commercials, unavailable content and restrictions on cable television.
Well, streaming got maybe some of that corrected. However, it has turned itself into a hydra where the content is here, there and over there with price tags on every service. Ads are now forced onto us but we now have “control” over them, I guess (if you don’t ad-block).
So it’s like cable television all over again.
The whole streaming thing is capitalism in a nutshell.
It forces innovation that creates awesome thing
It’s never happy with the amount of money it makes, so it keeps pushing harder and harder until the awesome thing turns into shit, and on its way of turning into shit it pulls up the ladder behind it so new competitors have a harder time competing.
It’s definitely been warped and beaten, but I at least appreciate that it’s a far more open system than cable, and thus there are ways to escape the worst of it for those who try. I let my Netflix sub expire, and instead have turned to library apps and PBS - there’s still far more content than I’d ever finish.
I miss the mailed DVDs…
I remember Brooklyn (NYC) Public Libaries had DVDs you could borrow. They even have foreign language TV shows lol.
I used to live off the video game equivalent of the video disk delivery service…. I forgot what it was called, but that was the shit where basically you could “rent” a game but keep the game as long as you wanted unless you cancelled your membership. That was the shit.
GameFly maybe?
Maybe… I don’t remember. But it was the shiiiit!
Oh they’re working on bringing that back.