I went to the filmshop to get a few episodes of the first season of the Wire but their copy was out until tomorrow. I was thinking that if they had their db of dvd’s and tapes online I could have checked before going. But maybe that would not interest the owner of the shop, because people who go there to pick a dvd which is not there can look at other things and maybe take another one. So in a way it is good for the shop to not have their stock state available online.
And I also noticed that the shop is a place where people meet. It is a place of astounding social homogeneity, even electronic noise music concerts gather a more disparate crowd, the only place with an equivalent lack of different social statuses that I can think of is Rochelle Cantine in Arnold Circus. Poeple don’t miss an occasion to look around, observe other people postures and looks, check what films they are interested in etc… In the shop as well there is a small corner where people can put up adds for flat sharing, courses, etc… and it is overflowing.
So I thought of the following system: on the shop website you could post your email with a film title, the people working in the shop would print this on a card and display it in the shop. Any clients who goes to the shop and fancy it could look at the stack of cards, if he finds a movie that’s indicated on a card is in, he can take the card and send you an email saying, “hey … is available, you should picked it up it’s a great film bla blah blu”.
Or, a little more complex: the distributed film delivery system. You can login to the website, enter your name and adress and your credit card details, so the shop can bill you when you are not there. You can enter as well a list of films that you’d like to see and a list of friends of your that are members of the filmshop and that you trust. When your friends go to the film shop they can look up that list, if they find a film that you’d like to see they can borrow it and bring it to you, the shop charge your account and your freind drop the DVD on his way.