I went to the Stranger Things popup in Vegas. Not gonna lie, I had a good time. It was like an amusement park exhibit with the classic gift shop at the end, but the prices didn’t seem inflated. If I was interested in buying merch, I’d rather go to to one of these than just order it online. I’m not saying it will be successful, but I don’t hate them for trying it.
If they get good prices for the location, I think this is actually a really good idea.
Most of the time, you are a hot topic selling stranger things shit. Whatever. Buy some shit for your kids.
But when something like tiger king or squid game or whatever becomes a cultural hit? Just look at how every single big youtuber tried to do a “real life squid game” event. People will love to go to an “escape room” style situation where you spend an evening playing a live action video game. And you likely cover the profits for the entire year in a few weeks.
i also hate that they’re gonna hire real people, to staff and manage the places, and those people are gonna start slowly convincing themselves that maybe it’s not stupid to wake up and get dressed and go to work so people can buy an orange is the new black sweater. which is really sad, the quiet desperation of it all. people’s livelihood now depends on this garbage.
What’s next, Netflix announces new “Netflix Direct” service where for a monthly fee they run a physical wire to your house that plugs right into your TV to deliver streaming content? 🙄
I don’t get why this is so confusing. This is basically a rotating theme restaurant/theme shop. Disneyland, Universal Studios, the new Nintendo park, etc. aren’t really about the rides or food either. Will tourists buy Stranger Things tchotchkes and Bridgerton merch? Sure, we’re a hyper consumeristic society that loves pop culture doodads and experiences. I somehow get the feeling this will fail, Netflix’s brand has lost its luster recently, but I don’t think this idea is totally out there.
I’m not confused why they’re doing it, I’m confused why they think b&m stores are the way to go. I’m sure they can subsidize any potential losses from other money making areas but why not just sell the merch online? Storefront overhead ain’t cheap.
While I completely agree, there’s a bit of a draw to certain experiences around shopping. Some instances:
FAO Schwarz in NYC
Nintendo flagship store in NYC
Tiffany & Co. in NYC on 5th Ave
LEGO store in Leicester Square London
Basically look up a list of Flagship stores, even Microsoft and Samsung have ones. They’re more of an experience and bragging rights than just walking in a random Walmart to get merch. Sure, you can just order it online, but it’s not the same.
Because it’s not about immediate sales, it’s about marketing. They’ve been between major culture defining hits for a while, but imagine if such a store existed when Squid Games was at its peak. Create a few instagrammable moments at two locations, a place for hyped fans to pilgrimage, and that’s much cheaper than TV advertising. Not saying it’ll be successful, but I think there’s some logic to this.
if they sold DVDs of Netflix’s shows that would actually be pretty nice, but I doubt they would be OK with allowing anyone to actually own their media.
I cannot imagine a customer base that’s so ecstatic with Netflix’s service that they’re willing to give the company even more money by buying overpriced ultra-processed meals and branded coffee cups. Why people continue to sell their souls and open their wallets to these companies is beyond me.
And there’s nothing wrong with being a Pokeslut. When a hunky Pokemon trainer throws their balls my way, I’m always up for a little Squirtle in my Caterpie.
Who runs the Stranger Things experience? I bet it’s them under a different name or maybe sold the rights? Regardless of who owns it, it was super popular here in Seattle.
You can’t? Look at Disney World or Universal Studios. Sure they have rides, but a lot of it is the experiences involving people’s favorite movies/shows.
I can definitely see people interested if they get that part right.
Imagine getting a drink in a tavern from The Witcher. Or a fancy dinner in a palace setting from The Crown or the mansion from Umbrella Academy. Imagine going through a haunted house based around Hill House. Running an obstacle course from Squid Game. Themed escape rooms or live action shows based off Stranger Things or Black Mirror.
That’s not even getting into merchandising. Sure, people are probably not going to flock to buy a Queen’s Gambit chess set. But Castlevania or Arcane collectibles? Dragon Prince plushies? Literally anything from Netflix’s sizable anime collection?
There’s a lot of ways they could do it wrong. In fact it’s more likely they get it wrong than right. But I’m not going to dismiss the idea right out the gate, I do see the possibilities.
If they sell cosplay customes based on popular shows, you know people will be queuing up to throw money at those made-in-china products.
Having the rights to ship out the offical crap could be a gold mine for them.
Just take Squid Game. It’s a regular training suit and they already exist as costumes and they’re easy to copy, but you can’t find the real one because of all the copies.
Same idea as the Universal Studios parks. Just without the park, because the income is all in the souvenir shop anyway.
Sell their souls? 😂 you live in a completely different world than most people. hsrdly anyone views it that way, they view it as paying $18/month or whatever it is now
Best date nights always started with a trip to Blockbuster.
I remember renting an N64 with Majora’s mask and pulling an all-nighter so I could finish it during the two-day rental period. It was a good time to be alive.
I remember when you couldn’t choose what to watch except for a handful of options, and you had to show up at the right time to watch what you chose. And there was no option to avoid ads.
I didn’t expect to be doing the old man routine in my mid 40s, but here we are.
It wasn’t that going to Blockbuster was an inconvenience. Those things were like modern day Starbucks where you don’t even bother to check a map. You just drive in one direction for three or four minutes and find at least two. Hell, the one we went to was across the parking lot from the Pathmark and it was pretty common for mom to send me and my sister to go pick out a movie or a game while she went through the checkout line.
The reality is that there just wasn’t a good alternative. Some people would use mail order catalogs but those came out with enough of a delay that it was never worth it. This month (or quarter’s) magazine arrives three weeks after Mission Impossible has hit VHS. And by the time the order is sent and arrives, it has been another two weeks. And then you either have a video for a week longer than you need or you need to remember to go to the post office on Monday.
It was The Internet that made this viable because you could see what was available the moment it was available. And your order was instant so you only had the shipping time to worry about.
But also? Once The Internet became available, there was almost no need to stare at shelves to figure out what movie you wanted to watch (I hear Harvey Keitel hangs dong in that one) because you could do exactly that from the comfort of your own home… so long as you weren’t expecting a phone call.
And it is not like people ever truly hated the idea of physical stores. Clothes shopping online is still a mess and that is why Amazon specifically have easily reasealable bags so you just buy three sizes of pants and return the two that don’t fit.
But also? Once you know the sizing for a given brand/range of clothes, you don’t need to do that anymore. You know what to order in what size and it will fit. Maybe you have to try stuff on if you try a new brand/store but…
Which becomes a problem because all those brick and mortar stores are now getting a few sales a month, rather than a couple dozen per day.
Which is also one of the things that make me (mostly) proud to be a climber. Obnoxious trust fund dirtbags aside, the vast majority of us will try to buy at least some of our hardware and gear at an REI or (better yet) an actual local store. Because yes, we are getting gouged a bit. But it means that the store will be there when we need to decide between four or five options or get fitted for snow shoes or whatever.
This has been the Infinitely Unfolding Paradox of Enjoyment that we’ve been experiencing since the Industrial Revolution. And it’s only become more acute as time has gone on. Things are becoming easier to access, we have more information than ever, it’s right at our fingertips, we have endless entertainment, we expect to be enjoying 100% of endless content—but this has made us angrier than ever at content we don’t enjoy, less able to enjoy the available entertainment, always looking for something better, he information at our fingertips is making us angrier and less satisfied (also somehow more misguided and ignorant—because that information is mixed in with absurd amounts of disinformation and it’s given an equal playing field), and our ease of access comes with an endless desire to access more and more while finding less and less we actually want.
Things are technically getting better, enjoyment is becoming a pinpointed prescription…but more and better is making us lesser and worse.
We need the bad to more enjoy the good. We need the inconvenience to enjoy the convenience. We need a lack of technology to enjoy the available technology.
Really, what this all boils down to is this:
Capitalism is destroying everything. In so many words. And if anyone can’t see how everything above is linked with capitalism and its driving force of profit (and endlessly growing profit, at that), I dunno how to help you. But I assume everyone on lemmy is pretty much very, very aware of this.
Back then it was something to do. Now we’ve gotten rid of all those things to do for the sake of laziness, but we have nothing left to do but sit around the house and watch/play downloaded movies/games. And everyone wonders why they’re bored and no longer have any friends.
Those weren’t necessarily seen as inconveniences at the time, because people had not experienced the “easier” alternatives to compare to. They were just seen as the way things were, and people made the best of them just we do with day to day activities now.
Going to the video rental place was part of the weekend routine for me, blended in with shopping etc. One of the rental places I used to go to also sold music, and tickets for local events. They also had a bunch of posters and notices up about local happenings. Customers would often bump into friends and acquaintances while browsing. The rental place also had a letter box that returns could be dropped in when the store was closed, so rentals would often be returned Monday morning on the way to school/work.
Media distribution has now changed a lot from then, and it’s become easier and more efficient. But it’s also changed how we interact with media, and with our communities, and perhaps not always for the better.
All the time and attention that digital everything saves us has been turned into ad space.
Doing something real like driving to blockbuster for instance used to be your time. Sights, sounds, someone’s hand in yours, a song on the radio. We used to own those moments, for free. Those things were your memories. Trading all that for “convenience” seems like a bum deal to me. Maybe I’m just getting old.
Gonna be honest: if your idea of date night is frantically playing a game for 24 hours straight to try and get your money’s worth, you are going to have a VERY small compatibility pool.
Cool, more identity tracking. Wonder how they will enforce this? Anything not enforced is just another window to click through. They might use this as a spring board to make more privacy violating policies. Hope it doesn’t pass…
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