I was in Best Buy last weekend because I wanted to actually see the size of something in front of me before I bought it, and the store just seemed so empty. One corner of laptops with several empty shelves. One wall of TVs. A section for cell phones. Even the video game section was mostly racks of gift cards for games that you could then download, rather than actual game disks. I spent way too much time and money in Best Buy as a teenager. I'd stop in on Friday afternoons after my summer job to flip through the CD racks. I bought everything I needed to replace the stock stereo and speakers in my clunker Oldsmobile, a job I enjoyed spending a weekend on when removing the dashboard proved a larger than expected process. I don't know if it's even possible to replace the stereo in a modern car with all the touchscreen dashboards and such. It's probably extremely American to miss a big box store for what it once was, but it was pretty sad walking through there.
Yep. I was just writing about Best Buy’s e-waste recycling program, and how aggressively they don’t allow people to salvage anything interesting/valuable. It’s ironic that an electronics store that sells increasingly little is now in the business of collecting and destroying old things. One of those things that doesn’t matter that much but feels symbolic. Like the casino replacing Bethlehem Steel.
My fiancee is from Bethlehem and she says driving past there always just feels weird now. Her dad didn't work there but it was still the identity of the city.
I am intrigued about Third Places but far behind on my homework. My initial thoughts about Oldenburg based on a reading of the introduction is that he imagines all Third Places as public places and that could be an internal problem or a problem for urbanists. In addition to needing to read the book, I need to read sociologists on "social trust."
I was in Best Buy last weekend because I wanted to actually see the size of something in front of me before I bought it, and the store just seemed so empty. One corner of laptops with several empty shelves. One wall of TVs. A section for cell phones. Even the video game section was mostly racks of gift cards for games that you could then download, rather than actual game disks. I spent way too much time and money in Best Buy as a teenager. I'd stop in on Friday afternoons after my summer job to flip through the CD racks. I bought everything I needed to replace the stock stereo and speakers in my clunker Oldsmobile, a job I enjoyed spending a weekend on when removing the dashboard proved a larger than expected process. I don't know if it's even possible to replace the stereo in a modern car with all the touchscreen dashboards and such. It's probably extremely American to miss a big box store for what it once was, but it was pretty sad walking through there.
Yep. I was just writing about Best Buy’s e-waste recycling program, and how aggressively they don’t allow people to salvage anything interesting/valuable. It’s ironic that an electronics store that sells increasingly little is now in the business of collecting and destroying old things. One of those things that doesn’t matter that much but feels symbolic. Like the casino replacing Bethlehem Steel.
My fiancee is from Bethlehem and she says driving past there always just feels weird now. Her dad didn't work there but it was still the identity of the city.
I am intrigued about Third Places but far behind on my homework. My initial thoughts about Oldenburg based on a reading of the introduction is that he imagines all Third Places as public places and that could be an internal problem or a problem for urbanists. In addition to needing to read the book, I need to read sociologists on "social trust."
Fulton raises some interesting questions here.