The end of the VHS era

There's no real trade promotion message here, but I was fascinated by this story on the last distributor of VHS tapes -- the guy responsible for filling those bargain bins at the dollar stores -- announcing that he's giving up.

"It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt," said Kugler, 34, a Burbank businessman. "I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away."

The real interest in the article is simply reading about somebody who sees opportunity where the rest of us see a product that is far enough past the end of its lifecycle that it has started smelling a bit. He unabashedly describes himself as a bottom-feeder, but his bottom-feeding has done quite well for him: "I'm not sure a lot of people are going to miss VHS," he said, "but it's been good to us." And he's looking forward to reprising his success as DVDs are replaced by Blu-Ray.