It would be a lot easier for your customers (remember us? We give you money) to find the movies they want if you know how to file them properly. For example, La Femme Nikita should not be filed under L.
Idiots.
This pisses me off too. At the videoclub near my place, there are a lot of movies in the ‘T’ Section, because of all the movies that start with “The…” :rolleyes:
What good is having a yellow pages, and putting all those businesses in it, all neatly grouped and indexed and everything, if the groups you put them in are completely obscure to the average person? When I want to look up a Watchmaker, I expect to find it under “Watchmakers”. I can’t even conceive of what wild-assed category you have (seemingly arbitrarily) decided to put “Watchmakers” under. I try to think like you, and find the category I’m looking for, but I’m just not up to the challenge. On the plus side, however, the yellow pages are just the right height to hold my floor lamp up so I can read on the couch nicely. :rolleyes:
“I could do without the customers in the video store.”
“Which ones?”
“All of them.”
Need I even cite?
I disagree. I don’t think the rule of ignoring “the” in titles applies to foreign films, nor should it. Many people know the translation of “the” in most major languages and would find La Femme Nikita under the F’s without a problem.
However, since it is a foreign language, it’s not fair to assume understanding by all the renters. The title is La Femme Nikita. It does not begin with the word “The” and therefore should be placed alphabetically on the shelves.
Try looking under JEWELERS
Well, my video store puts all the “numbered” videos before the As. Because after all, I’m apparently too fucking stupid to figure out that “8 Days & Nights With Teletubbies” would actually begin with “E” for eight. That drives me nuts, because I can’t always remember which movies spell out the number (and are filed alphabetically) and which ones used the number itself.
Let’s not get started on how they chooce to file certain movies under drama or comedy.
My beef with Blockbuster came with renting games. A game at Blockbuster with the instructions in it is a rare thing indeed. If you bitch about it, they say, “Well sometimes people rent them and lose the instructions.”
THEN SELL THEM THE GAME, DIMBULB! I can guarantee you if I rented Titanic and lost one of the tapes I’d now own half of Titanic. Yet if I lose part of a game, oh well, what are you gonna do?
The only reason I set foot in a Blockbuster these days is to rent a new must-see DVD. for all other video needs, like a good ol’ Chez Gobear Akira Kurosawa fest (did that not too long aga–had friends over, drank sake and ate Japanese takeout while we watched Rashomon and Kagemusha, I go to Video Vault, which is only a 20 minute walk from my place. It’s a video store in an old house, with different genres in different rooms in four stories. If it’s old and obscure, there’s good chance Video Vault has it.
As far as the OP is concerned, I’m with Ooner. Unless the store caters solely to foreign-language customers, who would view the “La” as Americans view “The”, then it should be filed under “F”. But in a Blockbuster, where most of the customers speak English, it should be filed under “L”.
This is why I don’t frequent video stores. Not only problems like Cranky and Legomancer described, but also inconsiderate customers who pick up videos, walk around, then decide they don’t want them and leave them wherever, making it impossible for those who really do want them to find them. Plus, $4-5 per rental is a bit steep. I subscribe to Netflix, where I can usually rent 10-12 movies in a month for only $20. I may have to wait a little longer for new releases, but I prefer my sanity.
Oh, and featherlou? I hear ya. Who uses words like “apparel” and “rubbish” anymore?
Ok, but would Pi (which just used the symbol for the title), be filed under P, number, or T (for 3.14159…)? 
Anyway, just be thankful your video store even has a system. The one in my neighborhood files most of them based on who stars in it, then has the rest scattered through a bunch of oddly-chosen genre sections.
And why do they put the “Sports” section right next to “Asian Eros”? Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Makes it easy to find everything I need for the weekend.
I think movie stores should adopt the universal filing system used in offices across North America that I learned in secretary school - no, wait, even the goldarned offices can’t get their poop together enough to all use the same filing system (most offices use the “Whoever was here longest and started filing things, never mind that she couldn’t spell and had a tenth grade education” system). Never mind.
No, let’s.
I was in Blockbuster the other day, and two of the movies they had filed in “comedy” were:
-
Something Wild :eek:
-
Hurlyburly :eek: :eek: :eek:
I have the best example of bad filing ever:
At a small local video store in Logan, Utah the movies are filed by the order they were received by the store (I think). The shelves are just full of empty cover boxes, all with little numbers in the corner, and their location on the shelves has absolutely nothing to do with time of release, genre, stars, anything! Casablanca is next to Halloween which is next to When Harry Meets Sally, which is next to The Mummy Returns.
The only way to find something that you’re looking for is the browse through a stack of papers that list ALL of the movies alphabetically, and either search out that number, or have an employee find it for you. Then they get the actual movie from behind the counter. Or you can just walk around randomly looking for boxes that catch your eye.
Oh, and they don’t use computers. The receipt is written, and a copy is filed. Another copy is given to you, and you have to return it with the movie so they know who you are.
While we’re at it, I would like to mention to whoever stocks my local video rental joint:
The prescence of Gerard Depardieu does not warrant “Green Card” as belonging in the Foriegn Film section.
I wonder how many video store clerks’ heads exploded when Se7en came out on video…
You’re a devious, devious bastard. I’ll bet I actually stay up at night thinking about this.
Right now, my answer is that it would go with the "P"s
At Blockbuster we filed it under “P”. All of the movie placements are handed down from Blockbuster corporate, who undoubtably engages in studies about which placements lead to the most rentals. Our only concern is that customers are able to find the movies they need- and if that means filing “Pi” next to “Beverley Hills Ninja”, that is what we’d end up doing.