I often do not put too much stock in anecdotal evidence, but one cannot ignore what seems to be a trend among women between the ages of 35-50 years. At dinner a few days ago, a friends wife had complained about the closing of the Blockbuster location that was about 10 minutes drive from their home.

For years, she had frequented the store to pick up movies for the weekend, and eventhough she had been hit with a few late charges for returning the video after the due date, she liked the convenience of being able to watch a movie when she wanted.

Let's call her Maggie, she works 9-5 as a professional and has access to a computer at work. However, she recently signed up for a trial movies-by-mail service, and was quite pleased with the selections she got in the mail days later. Her main complaint is that she feels inundated with the pressure of having to watch movies against her plans, simply because she had to return them inorder to get new selections.

She and three of her girlfriends signed up for this service, and already they feel overwhelmed with the whole process. I had mentioned to them that there are services and gadgets that would allow them to watch movies streamed directly to a computer or tv. The reaction was quite astonishing, they were eager to try this new method, and to my surprise, all of them wanted to sign up for such a service.


My conclusion was that if these ladies who were frightened about technology were willing to give this a try, it just may be a revealing trend among this all important age group. And more importantly, evidence that video on demand is a reality.