I just went to Blockbuster for the first time in at least 5-6 years. Since my not-yet four year-old son recently started watching R-rated movies I figured it was time to renew our membership.
Having had his interest piqued by The Clone Wars, LittleC-Nut recently saw the original Star Wars at his grandparents house (2 or 3 times). So tonight we rented the next chapter, The Empire Strikes Back.
It cost $5.44!
I couldn't believe it. Boy am I out-of-touch. Can't you buy these movies outright for something like $15?
I remember first renting movies in 1985 for $2 a piece.
Solving 2*(1+x)23 = 5.44 for x tells me that my video rental cost has inflated at a 4.46% annualized rate for the past 23 years.
I guess that's not too crazy.
They told me I could keep the flick for 8 days AND then there was another 7 day grace period. Wow.
In case you didn't know, Blockbuster is flailing - ravaged by Netflix, On-Demand cable movies, Hollywood's sh*tty output over the past decade, overexpansion(?), and an infinite variety of web entertainment (e.g. YouTube, FaceBook, and MySpace).
Crap, the stock is down to a measly $1.52 per share and STILL, 25% of its float is sold short.
That means not even a Jedi Knight could save it from meeting its destiny....
ZERO!
3 comments:
Just get Netflix and be done with it. You'll never have to search around in a video rental store again.
Rip and burn the keepers for the little critters to watch over and over.
Better not use 5.44 as your X-factor, or stuff will be quite f-ed-up. Perhaps 0.0544 is better for the X?
I guess I know what you mean. I just wanted to get a rare dig in when I could.
Your arithmetic is pretty solid. Screw Josh Weintraub and his questions about arithmetic. (See your post of many months ago about how he asked you arithmetic questions . . .)
DA
fcb,
I've tried to get Netflix but every time I go to their site I am underwhelmed by the movie selection. It ain't their fault that Hollywood has gone into super LCD (i.e. least common denominator) production mode over the past decade or so.
Plus I would never watch 4 movies a month. I read, blog, and watch a few shows on my color TV. Mi tiempo is scarce.
DA,
Are you checking my math? Well, you didn't find my mistake (since corrected) in that Rush Limbaugh post!
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