[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Blockbuster video (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 11/14/2016 12:04:57 AM EDT
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Blast from (the not so recent) past!
I know the reasons why video rental businesses went the way of the dodo bird, but does anyone who is old enough to remember perusing the aisles of Blockbuster Video, recall how great it was to actually SEE all the things available to rent? I KNOW you can get all of it on your Firestick (I have one), or On Demand, or Netflix, etc... But I used to find stuff just walking around I would never had thought to "search" for, under todays terms... Nor would those vids even be remotely close to being a "recommended movie" on todays digital media... |
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I used to work there -- started out at a customer service representative (what they called everyone who wasn't management) and then became assistant management.
Part of the job was to straighten every single box cover and movie behind it every night. It made the place look neat and orderly plus let you pick up trash idiots left, look for items out of place, and so on. Between that and the quarterly(?) inventory, where you had to scan every single item for rent or sale, and restocking returns you got to know the place pretty well. I was at one of the bigger stores and knew everything like the back of my hand. If you were looking for a specific movie, more times than not I could direct you to that movie on the shelf while still at the counter checking out other customers. Don't miss all the "I had it in on time" people though. |
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Back in the days...
My wife and I would go there all the time and wander around until we found something, then we'd head back to her place and I'd watch a movie or two while she slept and then she'd ask me what happened. Or she'd wake up halfway through and ask me to explain what was going on. |
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Holy shit. I worked there in 2001/2002 and I'm pretty sure they still showed us that video. |
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Quoted: Video stores are still a thing in rural America. Very much a thing. People just assume that Internet fast enough to stream a HD movie must be everywhere. I live on the edge of the Seattle metro area down by Mt. Rainier. I would kill to have a video store down here. Our Internet is so shitty that most of my posting here is with my phone. Yes, I can drive about 20 miles to a place with a Redbox but that shit gets old and despite having DirecTV, there isn't shit on that either other than the same 5 movies shown on repeat. I also download stuff through the Amazon video app to watch later and if NetFlix finally lets people do the same on their service, I might re-subscribe. FWIW.....Grandpops ran a very successful video shop in Hawaii during the 80's. His collection of porn was quite impressive once I figured out how he disguised it all (he swapped out the cassette cases and marked the label with a very small black Sharpie dot). Seeing your first DP at 14  (before the advent of 24 hour HD porn available for free on the Internet). |
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Quoted: All the good games were always out and I'd leave pissed the fuck off because I didn't get to rent anything. Fuck you Blockbuster. You let me down so many times True. If you didn't have a connection at the store, you had to play the game of driving to different stores or trying to convince the staff to tell you when it was due back so you could time getting there when it was returned. I thought I was a lucky shit when a buddy of mine got a job there during High School. Getting to watch movies before everyone else, knowing that a game would be there because he would stash it for me, and hitting on his slutty assistant manager. Good times...... |
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Quoted: Remember wanting to watch something and they only had 2 copies of it, and both were already checked out? Fuck that shit.  That's when you look through the stack of just returned videos on the counter waiting to be restocked. Or ask an employee nicely if they would check the drop off box for the title you were looking for. 
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| I remember the last time I was in a blockbuster. It was after they started that 'no more late fees' promotion, and I left town forgetting to turn in my DVD. When I got home I had a letter that I was going to be sent to collections, so I brought the DVD back, it was probably 7 days overdue and they informed me that I didn't need to return it, because it turns out I somehow automatically purchased it from them for like $30. I gave it back anyway and asked them politely to go out of business, which they did shortly thereafter. Now it's a medical center. |
| I still miss my Blockbuster at least for games i do. The summer gaming pass was bad ass but i can't remember how much it was per month. It allowed you to rent 1 game at a time and keep it for as long as you wanted. I fondly remember going 2 times a day if the game i rented was shit. |
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We were a Family Video household. The one right around the block is still open but I haven't been inside in years. I mostly rented video games while dad looked at the movies. I 'member browsing the shelves for Sega Genesis games, then Playstation games, then PS2 and XBox games. By the time the PS3/Xbox 360 era rolled around I had pretty much stopped renting.
This one time I sniped a copy of the original Dawn of the Dead from some lady who looked like she was getting ready to reach for it .
This other time, my older brother and his girlfriend rented the South Park movie when it came out. When they were done, I took it into my bedroom to watch since I was 8 or 9 at the time and assumed my parents wouldn't approve. I then left it up there for a very long time . It sat there collecting dust until one day I heard my dad answer the phone, pause for a moment, then shout, "What movie?!" into the phone . I don't remember how long overdue it was, but I feel like it was at least two weeks.
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Or you had the lazy dickhead who didn't check your movie in when you turned it in at 10pm and you got a late fee, after a couple of those, I quit renting movies.
I worked at a movie place for a year and I was adamant about scanning the movies the first chance I got. |
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1 of our old Blockbuster stores is now Anytime Fitness and the other is a mattress store. The other video store we used a lot, Premiere Video is now a Japanese steak house. Premiere was great with video games. Big selection. Only video rental stores we have now are Family Video. They popped up around 2-3 yrs after Blockbuster pulled out of town completely. They are doing good apparently. When we got our 1st vcr, we rented tapes from the supermarket my parents always went to. Loved horror movies and they had a HUGE selection of b-movies. Some of them were a lot scarier than the big production ones. |
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I remember, and I definitely know what you mean. I spent countless hours wandering the aisles finding movies to watch. Who knows how many I found that I never would've watched otherwise. I miss it too. Streaming or whatever is fine if you know what you want to watch, but it sucks for finding good movies you've never heard of. |
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They filmed that video in my store in Ft Lauderdale. I was a manager there from 1990 to 1995. The girl actually worked there, her name was Candie Hoffman. I actually have a video floating around from a 1992 Halloween party we threw across the street from the store at one of the CSR's apartments. She was dressed like a slutty nurse. At one point I got drunk and tried to bungee jump off the third floor using a garden hose. Alcohol may have been involved. Come to think of it, we used a video camera from the store to film the party. |
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Quoted: They filmed that video in my store in Ft Lauderdale. I was a manager there from 1990 to 1995. The girl actually worked there, her name was Candie Hoffman. I actually have a video floating around from a 1992 Halloween party we threw across the street from the store at one of the CSR's apartments. She was dressed like a slutty nurse. At one point I got drunk and tried to bungee jump off the third floor using a garden hose. Alcohol may have been involved. Come to think of it, we used a video camera from the store to film the party. Quoted: They filmed that video in my store in Ft Lauderdale. I was a manager there from 1990 to 1995. The girl actually worked there, her name was Candie Hoffman. I actually have a video floating around from a 1992 Halloween party we threw across the street from the store at one of the CSR's apartments. She was dressed like a slutty nurse. At one point I got drunk and tried to bungee jump off the third floor using a garden hose. Alcohol may have been involved. Come to think of it, we used a video camera from the store to film the party. |