It's taken everyone until 2020, but, at last, we've reached
the apotheosis of 2000-and-lateness as a society. Like a prehistoric insect
caught in amber, there's one Blockbuster store left in Oregon. Because the
universe has a weird sense of humor, the store's listing on Airbnb is helping to keep it alive.
This final twist in the years-long death spiral of the once
state-of-the-art rental company is so deliciously ironic that it's difficult to
site a historical parallel. It's like if the Winchester gun company started a
zoo to display the last Western buffalo. First, the digital revolution
relegated Blockbuster to the supermarket clearance bin of history. Now, in kind
of a morbid way, Airbnb, a member of the internet avant-garde, is turning this
Blockbuster into a trophy on display, like a taxidermy severed head above a
hunter's fireplace.
The proprietors of the last Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon—like
that last unit of Japanese imperial infantry fighting a quixotic guerilla war
in the Philippines 20 years after WWII because they never received the
surrender order—have kept their franchise going, despite the near-complete
market penetration of online streaming services. Thanks to their tireless
efforts and to a core following of movie hardware diehards performing a rearguard
action, their store's still kicking.
They've also converted part of the old store into a kind of
Potemkin living room, complete with pullout couch and (spookiest of all) a VHS
and DVD player (ask your grandparents what that is). Beginning today, exclusively
residents of Deschutes County, Oregon, can stay a night in this veritable
anachronism for just $4.
If you're from Deschutes Country, the opportunity sounds
like an unparalleled chance to relive the 90s in style. The only the thing that
could make a Blockbuster sleepover more 90s/early aughts is if you pocketed
your pager, donned a pair of Doc Martens, and then laughed so hard you fell off
your dinosaur.
