[a sign of the times]

Kensington video, which is a San Diego institution, is going out of buisness. In this age of Netflix, I can't say I'm all that surprised. It's a shame, since Kensington has such a varied selection-stuff that is hard to find elsewhere-though you can find it-on Amazon, probably-but it's expensive!

It's surprising to me where they have good selections of DVD's and Blu Rays.Barnes and Noble's DVD/ Blu Ray selection is pretty ho-hum.. except for their selection of Criterion DVD's-they have a lot of those(but they're expensive!)

San Diego needs someplace like Amoeba Music that has a HUGE selection of music and movies-we kinda had that with Lou's Records, and to a lesser extent with Off The Record, and the place that went in where Lou's used to be in downtown Encinitas.

Lou's used to be *the* place to go-I spent  SO much of my allowance there when I was a teenager!

But then they started hiring people that have an attitude and that's when it went in the toilet, IMO. Then they moved to Leucadia with the two buildings. Now they're crammed into one of the buildings. It's not as great as it used to be, and I won't be surprised if they close and go strictly online in a year or two.

There is a lot of talk about about how the big box stores are killing the mom and pop stores/coffee houses. Not that I am OK with the big box stores coming into areas where there are a perfectly good book or coffee store. However, I don't think the mom and pops(which get praised for being customer friendly) are, always.

San Diego has Warwicks. which has stayed in buisness in spite of the economy. There have been plenty of great bookstores(like Bookworks in Del Mar and Earth Song, also in Del Mar) that,sadly, didn't make it.

The thing with Warwicks is that they really have  made their store customer friendly-and it's not just books-one side is books-quite a good selection, actually-and the other side is stationery and gifts. It's incredible, and very unique as bookstores go.  One of my favourite bookstores is Chaucer's in Santa Barbara. It's in a strip mall, but it's amazing!