The rise of the internet and digitization has had a huge impact on the high streets. I can remember a time when I was in a record store every week to buy the latest CDs and the amount of money I spent on them. With the arrival of MP3s and the streaming services, these stores could no longer stay profitable and mostly disappeared. The same was also the case for the video rental stores. It was great to spend a lot of time there looking for movies that would surprise you. The only entertainment stores that still exist are the stores where you can buy video games. But this last dodo also seems to be slowly pushed off a cliff with the increasing popularity of digital purchases on both PC and game consoles. Not for Resale dives into this world to see why the owners of gamestores have not yet closed the doors and what their expectations are for the future.
All turn out to be enthusiasts who already collected themselves and decided to do so in a physical store. They mainly sell retro games for Atari, Nintendo and Sega and have a fixed group of loyal customers who want to relive the games from their childhood. Nostalgia dominates here, but some owners also know that when the group of people who grew up with certain games are no longer there, their store will no longer exist. As one of them says, you used to be happy with a beautiful vinyl record by Elvis, but now (almost) nobody wants it anymore. Although I am also nostalgic for the older games (and still have several), I am slowly selling everything. It’s nice to have, but if you don’t look at it anymore you don’t really miss it when it’s gone. And it will be the same with these shops unless they are able to renew themselves, although that is not an easy task in the current market. Not for Resale is an interesting documentary that shows the harsh reality of our move to digital.
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