In the age of #MeToo, You’ve Got Mail is just plain creepy. Tom Hanks is all-knowing, all-manipulating and Meg Ryan is his victim. It’s revolting. Why does everyone love it so?
12
@Philippa Kirby
I can only speak for myself, but I see the movie in an innocent sense in which a guy falls in love with a women on line through many emails, realizes it's Kathleen Kelly AFTER his chain of bookstores destroyed her own shop, and then tries to figure out a way to let her know that he is in love with her.
I never thought or saw anything creepy about this movie. But then I don't think Tom Hanks could be creepy if he tried. He's not a threatening nor scary kind of guy. Maybe that's one of the reasons why this movie worked. Besides, the chemistry between him and Meg Ryan is incredible. That's another reason why this movie worked. But then I never liked "Gone With The Wind". I never saw the attraction nor allure. In the end, I guess it's to each his/her own.
42
This is eerily similar to the speech Charlie Hunnam gave in the short-lived sitcom, "Undeclared"
Actually just watched this move last night and still loved it. The takeaway for me...Meg Ryan is a perfect, her physical comedic acting is brilliant...subtle, funny and charming. Chemistry with Tom Hanks is A+. Setting in NYC never gets old, missing the "old" days of Starbucks, dare I say, when it was clean and not over franchised. Yes the script was written with technology as the center, but if it was written today, she would know Tom Hank's character was Fox Books from Google, Instagram, or Facebook. We would then not have the brilliant scene at the cocktail party when she realizes who he is. The internet has dulled life, no more surprises. "You've Got Mail " was the calm before the storm.
40
@Mary
What a nice comment. And your closing sentence is so true.
14
A thought in the Starbucks slam; 20 years ago Starbucks was not the giant symbol of capitalistic, independent coffee chain killing monster that it is seen as today. It was still accepted as a charming, somewhat independent, upstart novelty itself - located only in the most hip of neighborhoods and not on every street corner and strip mall. It made perfect sense the character Kathleen was drawn to its quaint, hard to find atmosphere of adjective laden hyper personalized coffee and espresso based drinks
13
It is easy to be sentimental about the cultural products of the 90’s as it was the last time life was even remotely normal, or good anyway. Before the wars of terrorism, the financial collapse and the perversion of politics by the Republicans and on and on.
I miss the 20th century’s certainties.
23
The statement '....but it was also about capitalism' sounds like an afterthought or latent realization. But for me this was the movie's center and I hated it. Despite the onscreen appeal of Tom Hanks, the character Fox was a sleaze to court Shopgirl while knowingly working to put her out of business. But the absolute worst of the movie came at the end where Shopgirl, like a dolt, 'realizes' that the big store is actually better. The script caved in all directions....in the end Woman gives up career for a Man. The writers tried to save it by implying she was going on to better things-to be a writer herself. That didn't help me--by then my blood pressure was already too high. And...I knew NYC in the 60s and early 70s...before its small shop atmosphere was erased by chainstores and tall glass.
23
It’s also bad. Veeeerrry bad. Kind of like a paid for advertisement with awful jokes. It’s so bad it basically killed the romcom genre for years and ended Meg Ryan’s career in any real sense.
10
For this UWS-er, watching this movie is a walk down memory lane, especially the opening scene where Meg walks down Broadway in the 80s. I too remember them filming in the Starbucks on the corner of Broadway and 81st, in the funny little cheese shop in the front/antiques shop in the back on 69th/Columbus, at Cafe Lalo, the scene of many an UWS date night, and finally, Riverside Park at 91st St, an oasis of beauty in a frenetic city. Thanks to Nora Ephron, this slice of UWS pie will always taste great.
22
I must watch this DVD about four time a year. The music - "Remember" and "I Guess The Lord Must Be in New York City" by Harry Nilsson capture the essence and nostalgia of the movie. The directing, acting, New York location scenes are art to be enjoyed over and over again. Jean Stapleton, and young Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are pure entertainment.
15
Who could forget Dave Chappelle as the Fox Books manager/sidekick? Now that was funny. It had a great cast, and I love it. The old Fox dad/grandfather? The boats? The Nanny. I think one of my favorite lines "Never marry a man who lies!" I laugh thinking about it. F-O-X.
20
"There’s something soothing about these ’90s people and their ’90s problems. The central conflict of the film — an independent bookseller is big-footed by a chain — feels quaint now."
Quaint --
"The Shop Around the Corner" (1940)
The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan.
The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László.
Eschewing regional politics in the years leading up to World War II, the film is about two employees at a leathergoods shop in Budapest who can barely stand each other, not realizing they are falling in love as anonymous correspondents through their letters.
The Shop Around the Corner is ranked #28 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions, and is listed in Time's All-Time 100 Movies.
In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shop_Around_the_Corner#Plot_summary
And --
In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
In the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 American Technicolor musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It stars Judy Garland, Van Johnson, and S.Z. Sakall. The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Good_Old_Summertime
19
@Howard G,
And don't forget the Harnick and Bock musical, She Loves Me. It premiered on Broadway in 1963 and was the 3rd adaptation of The Shop Around The Corner. It was revived on Broadway in 1993 and in 2016. It was critically acclaimed and won awards. The story endures and it is charming. Our columnist is entitled to her opinion as are the numerous correspondents. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Loves_Me
7
To me the most chilling aspect of the movie is the way Tom Hanks (as Global Capital) seduces Meg Ryan: He starts wearing corduroys and fuzzy sweaters instead of business suits. He hangs out with Meg Ran and has feelings talks with her about the guy she met online until she trusts him as a friend, knowing the whole time that the guy she’s infatuated with is him. Then when he has gathered enough data, he strikes: the guy online asks to meet IRL. Tom Hanks shows up, the online and real life personas are united, they kiss, she is overjoyed. The man who crushed her business and lied to her serially, who pretended to listen to her feelings about this other guy, who utterly manipulated her in order to seduce her, becomes her Lover happily ever after. YGM becomes an allegory for the ways that corporations have leaned to befriend, surveil and manipulate us over the past 20 years. Prophesy!
37
@Sean McElroy Brilliant comment! Nora Ephron no less so. There was much more here than met the eye. You hit it right on the head!
4
Yes, capitalism is "creative destruction".
But, would you really want to live in a world where outdated business refused to die? You would ride your horse to work in the Holland Tunnel while listening to music on your low-fidelity Sony Walkman. Then, you'd go past the Crazy Eddie's which had a sale on wringer washing machines.
7
@Amy
Now we have businesses that sell merchandise that is built to break. Profit is literally more important than life. Capitalism is a dead end street.
11
Now we have businesses that sell merchandise that is built to break. Profit is literally more important than life. Capitalism is a dead end street.
2
@Amy: That sounds like it could be kind of a fun world!
4
This film was not very good by any measure, but it really failed at trying to be a remake of The Little Shop Around The Corner, a charmer by the master film making charmer, Ernst Lubitsch and still lovely to watch 70 years laters.
9
Oh, indeed it is a tragedy.
2
I hated the loss of her bookshop and never resolved the message of this movie. I couldn't get over the way the corporation consumed her shop and finally, her -- just an accessory at the end, in a corner of that empire.
No, I disliked this movie very, very much.
7
I don't know if its cinema ignorance or not, but it's decidedly odd to write an article about You've Got Mail and not even briefly mention that it is a loose (and far inferior despite the fine leads) remake of he classic 1940 Ernst Lubitsch film, The Shop Around the Corner starring Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullivan, and Frank (the Wizard of Oz) Morgan. It will be watched (at least by film buffs) long after You've Got Mail is forgotten by everyone. I watched this superb film again just last week as part of my annual personal Christmas movie festival.
17
@Marlowe,
For those in the San Francisco Bay Area, it's showing this Friday through Sunday at the Stanford Theatre.
3
Marlowe, I immediately thought the exact same thing! For those of you that are curious, TCM usually plays it every year around this time. I live in Vancouver and here (and maybe the whole West coast?) it’s scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on 12/24. A lovely MGM film. It was also remade as a musical in the 40’s with Judy Garland and Van Johnson as “In the Good Old Summertime” which I also saw scheduled sometime this week. Can you tell I love my Classic Films! In fact there are actually lots of great Holiday Classics on this week! Two favourites are “Christmas in Connecticut” (my home state) and “The Man Who Came to Dinner”! Happy Holidays on TCM! (no, I don’t work there!).
5
@Marlowe And Shop Around the Corner was also the basis for the exquisite 1960s Broadway musical “She Loves Me” starring wonderful Barbara Cook.
“You’ve Got Mail” was by far the least of all these adapatations.
It’s the only one where the male lead destroys the hopes and dreams of his love interest on the way to winning her as his mate. And everyone seems to think it’s just fine.
3
Big Box stores killed the independents, now online stores are killing the big box stores. Fortunately, independents are coming back. - along with the trend toward community living.
13
It was obviously a tragedy to me the first time (and only) time I watched it. A paean to corporatism, but also to women subjugating themselves to men for the sake of "love". I'm always dumbfounded that people think it's cute.
12
I worked at America Online when this movie came out, and the company took us all to see it in the theater. I remember being so happy. Like I was a freedom fighter at dawn of a new era where capital "T" Technology was going to bring everyone together and solve ALL the world's problems. Only later, looking back, did I realized the larger, darker message of the film, and its general schlockyness.
I like to think back on how I felt then, and how different it was from my own self image as someone who is, at the very least, wary of capitalism. I can't help but think of the Upton Sinclair quote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
8
I could never believe anyone liked this movie - it was so depressing and corporate. The love story made the corporate part worse not better. Hated it then and now!!!
8
Didn’t Kathleen do the story book reading in HER store? I don’t recall her doing it at Fox Books.
6
I also have qualms about this, and not only for the stated reasons, with which I agree. I just find it kind of icky that Joe Fox secretly knows who Kathleen Kelly is and puts her out of business while courting her. It's one thing to have an online romance where there is equality (e.g., if neither knew who the other was until the end), but I just could not get past the subterfuge. It is the worst kind of power play and I just can't find that dynamic acceptable.
(and with "Sleepless in Seattle," where that knowledge was short of reversed (because I know someone is going to bring that up), she did not have power over him, nor was she trying to put him out of business or anything else, so no, it isn't the same).
PS I love using libraries so does that count as harming bookstores?
11
I worked at an independent bookstore in the mid-nineties. In retrospect, it's almost quaint to think that we thought that chains like B&N and Borders were the greatest existential threats to the survival of our store (and to independent bookstores in general).
10
I have this weird aversion to Meg Ryan. I’m sure she’s a perfectly nice person, but as an actress, I find her mannered, cutesy performances unbearable. Diane Keaton gives similar mannered performances, but for some reason, while not being able to stand Meg, I really like Diane. So what has always been strange to me is that I absolutely love the movie You’ve Got Mail (can’t watch Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally because of her). I do prefer The Shop Around the Corner, which is also a great Christmas movie, but You’ve Got Mail is fun to watch and so nostalgic about a time that is so recent! I recall not that long ago, crying when I got the farewell email from Borders announcing their final closure. Lots of people thought of them as the big, bad big box putting independents out of business, but of course, they started as an independent. I remember how thrilled we were when a Borders came to Dayton and we had listening stations for music! And they never put our successful independent bookstore, Borders, out of business, so go figure.
2
I remember this same quandary came up when the movie first came out. A big chain squashes the little guy. And we've been talking about it with Walmarts and other stores for decades.
Fortunately, I have seen some rebirthing of the neighborhood boutique. A welcome sight.
4
As an UWS sider it is fun rewatching the movie with so many recognizable landmarks such as Riverside Park, Cafe Lalo, and Zabars.
It is amusing to see him as the IBM Thinkpad user and her as the MacBook user.
The story reminds you of stores such as Barnes and Nobles (and Borders) replacing the independent bookstores. Now we see Amazon displacing to some degree Barnes and Nobles and Borders.
5
This is one of my favorite movies, and I watch it nearly every time it comes on TV, which is often. I'd like to see it redone, and done well because there's a lot that could be developed through the premise of the story. Problem is, Hanks and Ryan often look very uncomfortable with their dialogue. It needed some rewrites to make it more believable and realistic. I'm not sure Ryan was the right choice for this movie. Her gestures look weird sometimes, and her overdone hair doesn't fit with the character. The main thing, though, is that Joe Fox throughout the movie is succeeding by manipulation and deceit. He should have been required by the story to learn something. In that scene where he visits Kathleen when she is sick, he should learn something when she says, "Things should begin by being personal." At the end, it's no problem at all that he has put her through a program of manipulation instead of talking to her. There need to be a few more scenes where she stand up for herself, and he gets a clue. This story could be so much better with a rewrite and new realization.
8
The meta-irony is that everyone will be ordering up 'You've Got Mail' tonite without a single thought about their local video store - simply because it's not a bookstore.
3
@SteveRR
Maybe I’ll look for the rom-com about the guy and girl who fall in love while packing up VHS tapes of a video store that is going out of business.
1
I'm a Sleepless in Seattle girl and we watch it before Christmas every year. You've got Mail never appealed to me as much. It lacked Rosie O'Donnel and David Hyde Pierce. But Hanks and Ryan are adorable as usual. I remember those days when Meg was America's sweetheart. Now she's just a cautionary tale. Time does go by.
3
You’ve Got Mail was timely in the purest sense: Within a few years changes in business and technology rendered it impossible. Yet it remains a wonderful tale of romance, love and a special part of New York (movie New York, which exists only on the screen). Much of its charm resides in the underlying material; it was the third or fourth remake of The Shop Around the Corner.
Now, if you’ll pardon me, I’m going to go home and watch it again
8
My absolute favourite romantic comedy bar none, and I thinks it’s so much better (and more plausible?) than Sleepless in Seatle ....
8
Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally both came out a bit too early to make a deep impression. But You've Got Mail. Oh, boy. I was a 16 yr old book nerd who got swept up by the romance of the bookshop, the music, and the city itself. So much so that when I visited NYC as a 20-something, I dragged my friend to H&H Bagels (RIP) and Zabar's, my mini food-based pilgrimage. To this day, if I see it on TV, I'll watch it through, with a recording on the DVR and the DVD as backups.
10
Wonderful movie, largely for making it seem hip to treat one another decently.
And yes, it's charming not only that Meg gets her "coffee" from Starbucks (in paper cups), but also that she types her cute email messages on a computer from a Fortune 500 firm renowned for using restrictively proprietary technology. I guess no one remembers locally assembled clones.
4
What I found most remarkable about the film was the lighting dial up speeds they were getting in 1998, when the rest of us were waiting what seemed hours to get our email, yet nobody in the film had a cellphone despite the fact that they were already quite common-cinema magic!
4
"...is about...the glory of fall foliage"
Funny thing, I lived in the UWS neighborhood where most of it was filmed (her bookstore was our local deli/antiques shop) & what sticks in my mind after all these years is the hundreds of faux oak leaves painstakingly tied to all the dormant plain trees on the local streets. Such a perfect Hollywood touch.
18
While I remain willing to browse (and purchase) at used bookstores, when I cannot find something specific, I end up going to online sellers for the edition in question. Amazon is handy. But there are also online sellers that sell used-books for reasonable prices. I would prefer to purchase from small businesses but in the end, it is where the item is available that gets my sale. It does not help that today's shop-workers are not always competent. Asking them questions feels, regrettably, like a waste of time.
You've Got Mail is a tragedy. Because Ms. Kelly's bookstore does close despite all the struggle. I love that she "fights" for it. Those scenes are marvelous. And inspiring. Yet, in the end, after "going to the mattresses", she still loses. She gets the guy. Thankfully, he remains employed at the film's end.
17
@Henry DickensThe Tragedy of all this is the acceptance by the majority of Americans that their economic system needs to work against their interests.
12
I hope this helps everyone reading but I always tell people that my favorite part of the movie is the fact that, Books of Wonder the real, wonderful children's book store that Meg Ryan trained in to research her role is not only still open but just opened a second location. The film marks one of the moments where fiction is more sad than our reality and the small, the unique, the authentic and earnest survived and thrived among the rise of the chains and Amazon. Thinking of it always warms my heart.
57
Being an obnoxious, angsty teenager, I didn't watch You've Got Mail until about 2006. Within moments of the corporate/small book store tension, I instantly thought of Amazon. Watching it again a few years ago, I chuckled at the distant correlation between AOL and Tinder.
For those watching this years from now, the romance will take second seat to the history lesson on the birth of large-scale book distribution and online dating.
5
Worth noting - independent book stores numbers are rising and rising fast. It has become a good business to go into.
29
Others have pointed out that this was a remake (and not even the first remake) of Ernst Lubitsch's "The Shop Around the Corner." Notice that the small bookstore is actually called The Shop Around the Corner.
In real life, the ending turned out much happier. Yes, Amazon wiped out Borders, but small book stores are actually thriving.
38
@Lincoln Spector The original film is so much better. I've never watched 'You've got mail' all the way through. It's just no match and it's not that good anyway. I didn't like 'sleepless in Seattle' either, but 'When Harry met Sally' is OK. Those movies just don't speak to me, I suppose. I also never mourned the demise of the independent bookstores either. Their inventory was marginal, the workers clueless, usually a waste of time to even go there. There was one bookstore that my husband and I liked, over 30 years ago now, off Austin Hwy in San Antonio, large inventory and knowledgable staff. Long gone when we moved back.
3
The contemporary economy of You've Got Mail has yet to become as precarious as that of the 1930's milieu of The Shop Around the Corner upon which it is loosely based.
8
Strangely, on a whim, I watched the movie last night on HBO; even the opening sequence made me a bit wistful, of being excited about having a new 56kb modem in my eMachines computer (with DSL (!) close at hand!), and the thought of connecting with a complete stranger—one that I didn’t have to meet at a bar, a coffee shop, a grocery store, or at work. Heady times, indeed.
I can’t believe that I’m nostalgic for the innocence of the 90’s, but...I am.
46
@RP Houston
Take a number my dear. There's lots of us out there who are "nostalgic for the innocence of the 90’s" too.
You are not alone by a long shot.
6
And those romantic horse and buggies disappeared with the advent of the automobile. I am personally for progress and technology.
2
And its attendant pollution, smog, environmental degradation and escalating competition.
1
Having met my wife on AOL - we have a soft spot, in our... heads - for this film.
It does have staying power, in layers. One of which, I was puzzled to not see in this review- great chunks of the movie can be attributed to the much earlier 1940 Jimmy Stewart (and more) "The Shop Around The Corner".
I can see this being added to "It's A Wonderful Life" as a staple for Christmas Viewing; it's very sincerely warm and fuzzy - and cutely annoying. And it would make such a nice gift set in DVD or BluRay; "You've Got Mail/ The Shop Around The Corner/ In The Good Old Summertime/ Parfumerie" together at last!
13
@Greenpa I have my DVR set to tape every one so that my family can watch each one of them and end with "You've Got Mail."
No need for DVD's anymore! Happiest of Holidays to ALL!
2
@Greenpa
Add a CD of the cast album of "She Loves Me!," origial 1963 Broadway cast or 1993 or 2016 revivals.
1
@Greenpa
You forgot "She Loves Me".
You've Got Mail, from this article, sounds as if it is an original. It is not. It is based on the play Perfumerie which game rise to the movie The Shop Around the Corner, the movie musical In The Good Old Summertime and, most importantly, the Masteroff, Bock, Harnick musical She Loves Me, considered by almost everyone to be on the greatest musicals. The original starred Barbara Cook and Daniel Massey. The 2016 revival starred Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi .
As Joe Masteroff has pointed out, the play and the musical are set in Budapest in 1936; a real tragedy was just about to unfold. Let's not let tragedy lose its meaning.
29
@Ed Weissman
You got it!!!!!
1
Funny, I saw this movie in the theatre when it was first released and was so disappointed with it compared to Sleepless in Seattle. I don't know what prompted me to watch it again--it was probably on TV one night when there was nothing else appealing to me. Now, it's a yearly classic for me, growing quainter and more charming with every viewing.
In film writing, You've Got Mail would be the quintessential bittersweet rom com: the protagonist doesn't reach her goal (keeping her bookstore) but finds other happiness along her journey (the romance with Joe Fox). I too see it as a bit of tragedy, though. The scene where Kathleen shutters her shop for good never fails to make me weep. "But the truth is... I'm heartbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died, and my mother has died all over again, and no one can ever make it right," she confesses online to Joe. Sad, nostalgia invoking, and indeed, prescient.
39
“Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
Nora Ephron
I love this movie. Every time it comes on TV I stop what I am doing to watch it. Meg Ryan looked so incredible. Tom Hanks is perfect in everything he does. But that opening line about sending someone "a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils" melts my heart because Autumn is my favorite time of the year. I can do love that smell of school supplies.
The only aspect of this movie that I loved more than the actors and the writing is the music. Every tune chosen was perfect! I miss Harry Nilsson. I miss his catchy, cute and wonderful tunes. I cry every time I watch that Christmas scene where "Remember" is playing in the background because when I decorate my Christmas tree, I too unwrap "funky ornaments made of Popsicle sticks and miss my mother so much I almost can't breathe." I can't seem to watch that scene without crying and missing my mother.
Thanks NYT for the nice reminder and write up about another one of Nora Ephron's brilliant pieces of work. I miss her and her books too.
101
I have seen 'You've Got Mail' dozens of times and I don't remember Kathleen reading during story hour at Fox Books. Are you sure about that? She does go in, bereft, and overhears a customer being misled by a dolt of a worker (Chris Messina!) and can't help herself from setting the customer on the right path ... but the only story hour I remember was in her own store. After her store closes she takes up writing her own children's book. I don't think we ever see her inside Fox Books again.
34
@Dsandy She reads at story time in her own store (when Joe and his "We are...an American Family" come in); after she has decided to close, she comes in to the children's section of Fox Books and sees the attraction of it and a bit tearfully answers a customer's question about Noel Streatfeild's "shoe" books. She definitely does NOT end up at Fox Books (she is writing at children's book at the end of the movie).
7
Agree. There is no scene of Kathleen Kelly reading in a Fox store. She did have a misty moment during which she did educate the dolt clerk. The writer of this article needs to watch again.
3
@Dsandy
I think you are absolutely correct. Kathleen Kelly is reading a book during story time at her own shop when Joe Fox and his 1/2 brother and 1/2 sister come into the store. When she walks into Fox Books, her overhears a question from a patron about a "shoe book" which the Fox Books employee cannot answer. She states to the customer, “I'd start with Ballet Shoes, it's my favorite; although Skating Shoes is completely wonderful.”
2
Wasn’t it one of her former employees who sits in children’s department reading stories? I thought Kathleen goes on to write/edit children’s books, fulfilling her real dream. I guess I’ll have to go back and watch it again.
18
@MD Monroe that's right! We hear about the male shop worker (Frank?) working at Fox Books, doing well. I am a You've Got Mail obsessive. I used to watch the DVD with the director's commentary turned on.
4
At least Kathleen's boyfriend got one thing right: typewriters are thriving in the 21st century.
2
@A reader I loved the book of short stories written by Tom Hanks titled Uncommon Type, with an ongoing typewriter motif throughout the stories.
5
@Allison The book is great, and I also recommend the documentary "California Typewriter." It is a ray of hope.
This is the reason I frequent the few indie coffee shops that remain
And the coffee and food is so much better than a Starbucks
7
@Bonnie Rudner
Starbucks’ genius, and the MAJOR reason for their takeover of local coffee scenes, has very VERY little to do with coffee…
99% of the time they have clean (and functioning) BATHROOMS!
When you gotta GO, Starbucks is the place to do it!
2
It is a tragedy that is currently playing out in the real world minus all the romance. There are no happy ending for the companies that shutter their doors because some big box store, and virtual shops cramming customers inboxes with offers of this that and the other at discounts unimaginable and unmanageable by the likes of Mom and Pop stores.
I saw in my own neighborhood growing up our little local department store shutter their doors while chains like Walmart, Costco and Amazon drive away the customers with empty promises and prices that empty the wallets of the thriftiest consumers.
Sad indeed and yes a tragedy.
17
@SweetestAmyC I have lived in many places and in most places that had a 'mom and pop' store only, it was awful for the customer. No reason to update inventory, high prices, because where are you going to go when the nearest mall is an hour away? Customer service? Ha! One of our duty stations was in a very isolated spot. I was so happy to find out there was a walmart there and this was before 'Super Centers'. The best thing by far was their sewing section. He let two women run it that had extensive sewing and quilting experience. One of the best and most affordable sewing shops I've visited (many times!).
2
Adam Smith attributed it to an "invisible hand". Schumpeter called it "creative destruction". Whatever you call it, markets move to satisfy demand (unless governments interfere). Could that be the movie's message?
4
@garyb1101Yes, that markets can be soul-destroying.
2
Great movie-- I think there are only a few cell phone scenes in it. I thought of the irony for years now as the bookstores (both independent and chain) go away. "Fox Books" would not be around now, either. As for Amazon stores, those exist? In NYC? With what in them? News to me. I wouldn't waste my time going in.
1
@Steve Amazon has a bookstore in the Time Warner Center and I hate to admit it but it's pretty well curated. And it was PACKED. People still love the feel of a good book in their hands, I guess (and hope).
2
@Steve when I watched the movie recently I figured the timeline for Fox & Sons Books would be 1998-2008, figuring that the recession would kill it off around that time. Maybe Kathleen gets the last laugh?
3
@Steve Happy to report that independent bookstore openings are on the upswing, going hand in hand with slowing sales of e-books and a steady rise in print-book sales. To name four within a few blocks of my West 76th Street digs, Book Culture, Books of Wonder, Amazon (ugh!), and Shakespeare & Co, the last opening earlier this month on Broadway (69th/70th).
2