Op-Ed: It Affects Us All

I wrote this for work after getting the go-ahead to start writing opinion columns. My opinion column debut in the Sunday, July 31, 2011 edition of the Sweetwater Reporter was about the immediate and pending fallout of losing the town's one and only rental store, Hastings.

It affects us all
By Belinda Serrano

We took the Broadway exit as we pulled into town from Abilene that Saturday night. The sun had fallen and the lights from the signs glowed like giant fireflies in an open field. But when we passed the Taylor convenience store and we read the letters below the green sign, we were stunned.

"Store Closing Sale".

A banner with the same words hung right next to the Hastings building, barely visible as we whizzed on by and turned to head to the house. I sent out a text to my Facebook and Twitter accounts-- "Store Closing Sale at the local Hastings?! What happened?"

In that instant, we as a family had lost some things. Gone were the new release rentals for movies, gone was the hunt for the newest Just Dance game on the Wii to ridicule ourselves with at home, and gone was the use of in-store credit that gave us free favorites or reduced rentals.

Even more so, gone was the chance for my Dad to legally loiter inside, finding a chair to read books and waste his free Saturday afternoons away as a means to break away from the workweek--something he always talked about but never did.

The Sunday evening news reported that we in Sweetwater weren't the only ones in financial turmoil. The Plainview location was to fall to the same fate in mid-August, leaving people unemployed and beyond our family's entertainment demise, the reality of locals losing their jobs was much more harder to swallow.

Yes, they could take a part time position in Abilene, the reports said, but with this economy and gas so high, the question was raised--was it even worth it to them?

The weekend ended, and for me, I tried to joke it off. "Thank God Sweetwater doesn't have a Borders," I tweeted, "because I don't think anyone could handle that AND Hastings both closing..." But the humor subsided as we reported the closing, almost pouring salt into the wound of those who would be without a job in less than a month.

So the frenzy of losing our only rental store has faded a bit, but when August 20 rolls around and Sweetwater is left with only the Redbox location and the seldom recognized Blockbuster rental machine, then we'll all be reminded once again that not only a small majority of us is left with these minimal options.

It affects us all.

Our families are impacted, the unemployed feel the brunt of it and the community has fallen victim to the demise of the movie rental store: going all the way back to a Lamar Street locale (which while I don't remember the name, I do remember frequenting a small play area inside as a child), to losing Blockbuster and now bidding farewell to Hastings.

In the instant-gratification society we live in today, Netflix has come into our homes to satiate our immediate cinema desires--which I don't condone because I'm a user myself. But as everyone knows, there's about a month waiting period before finding new releases streaming, so instant-gratification goes out the window and we're left with our favorite reruns, thus leaving us to grow in patience.

So what can we do? Is there any way we can speak up and ask for the chance for more options? Because, we haven't just lost the movie and video game rentals. We've lost the chance to even purchase the games and movies along with an incredible selection on a variety of music, board games, magazines, novels, cookbooks and children's literature, among other choices.

We need options, we need choices and we need to be heard. We probably won't be able to get Hastings back, but let's ask the powers that be in town to give us another shot in the world of entertainment. Let's be heard and say that the younger generation has lost a place to spend time in, and that the older generation--like my Dad--can no longer get lost in a cozy chair and a good book to waste the day away.

...Let's be vocal and call for another movie/game rental business to call Sweetwater its home.

Belinda Serrano is a staff writer with the Sweetwater Reporter. Comments on this editorial can be emailed to bserrano25@yahoo.com or editor@sweetwaterreporter.com.