When was the last time you hired a movie? Not from your couch but actually went to a video rental store and hired a movie over the counter? I sure can’t remember.

I walk past a rental store a couple of times a week on my way to and from work and it’s extremely rare that I actually see people inside.

This particular store has probably been around as long as I’ve been alive…. or at least as long as I can remember. On a Friday and Saturday night (before the internet went main stream) you wouldn’t be able to move inside and would quite often have to pre order a new release movie weeks in advance.

The old family tradition of Saturday night at the rental store picking a movie to watch is dead and buried. Not that I think that is a bad thing because trying to agree on one movie between four people was a frustrating experience.

It’s quite amazing to think that I’ll have to explain to my kids (who are 3 and 18 months old) what a video rental store was, what a video was and the fact that we waited weeks to see a new release movie. They’ll be frustrated if they have to wait minutes.

It’s actually rare to even find a video rental store these days. They have actually been physically replaced by vending machines that sit outside supermarkets, like the one I saw today at Melbourne Central.

Netflix and online streaming are now the dominate players in the family home entertainment business. The decline of the video rental business is just another example of the disruptive technology revolution that we live in.

Like many other business (newspapers, travel, photography to name a few) it’s time to adapt or die.