The Ghost of ILM

Circuit City store #238 always seemed like a bit of an anomaly to me. It’s off the highway and located in the canal district of San Rafael, one of the more affordable areas of the town and mostly populated by Mexican immigrants and various warehouses. Not the best place to put a high-tech store, you would think. Still the store always had a decent inventory when I visited – not great, but always very decent. My theory was that the store owes most of that good selection to a single nearby business: the mysteriously named Kerner Company, which is just a rather well-known cover for the old Industrial Light and Magic offices. Must have been good neighborhood for Circuit City – if you have a company of several hundred technophiles right across the parking lot, business must be pretty damn good around lunch time. Especially on Tuesdays, when new titles are released in the US.

ILM moved to their new offices a few months ago, and I didn’t pay much mind to the Circuit City store, anyway. But the other day, when searching for some good Blu-Ray and HD-DVD titles in surrounding stores, I decided to give that Circuit City a try. I really didn’t expect much; but I felt like browsing a selection of HD-movies-that-I-do-not-really-need-but-will-buy-anyway-because-I-have-Blu-Ray-and-HD-DVD-now. I hadn’t had much luck at other San Rafael stores, so this one became a viable choice.

Well, things have changed at store #238. The first thing I saw when entering the store was a prominent section of Spanish movies and music, titled “Regional Mexican” – something I don’t remember seeing before. Acknowledging the neighborhood, I guess. And hey, why not. But what pleasantly surprised me was the comparatively large selection of HD movies! I saw Blu-Ray and HD-DVD titles in this store that I had never seen in any other store in San Rafael. The late blessing of having had ILM around, I think. The store still gets quantities of the old inventory, but there’s nobody around to buy that inventory anymore. Because – and I say that without any prejudice or ill intent – I don’t think that most inhabitants of the San Rafael canal district are the most likely early adaptors for the new HD movie formats.