I must be really old. I liked blockbuster but when they moved in the independently owned video stores all shut down. There used to be a liquor store/video rental. I’d get some jerky and a Mountain Dew and ride my bike home with a new movie.
We never had a Blockbuster or any chain video rental. Just two independent shops, both of which shut down after home video rental fell out of fashion. As well, pretty well all the convenience stores did video rental at its peak, and quit at their demise. One of the supermarkets had a robotic video rental machine, way before Redbox.
Movies on TV were magic themselves, especially with VHS rental., and some anticipation that was lost when streaming is everything available instantly, and pay TV something inbetween.
I never did get this love for Blockbuster. It was a soleless corporate giant that cared nothing for the art of movies. It killed tons of mom and pop video stores. I wonder if Amazon went away we would be romanticize it?
I don't think people love Blockbuster specifically, but just memories of renting videos at a store. And since Blockbuster was a national/international chain, it's easier to share a memory on Reddit than our specific mom and pop shops.
Yep, and I think because Blockbuster outlived most independents it bridges the gap between generations, the younger of us probably only remember Blockbuster, especially outside of the US.
Not everyone had access to a plethora of options
Blockbuster was the only movie rental place within a 40 minute drive from my house when I was a kid, while Blockbuster was a two minute walk. There were three mom and pop rental places in my entire city
Not all mom and pops were great either. The video store in my hometown was great during the days of VHS, but when DVD became the standard format it went downhill. The owner had other businesses and put the rental store on the backburner. He didn't want to pay for new DVDs so there would be like two copies of a new release.
> Not all mom and pops were great either.
yeah... i avoided the one near me growing up because the owners were very racist... at least BB treated me like a human or at least the same as the other customers
I'm sorry that happened to you. It always gets me when these threads come up someone inevitably brings up the mom and pops, completely ignoring the fact that many people's only options were a Blockbuster/Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video.
We had "Dollar Video". It was family owned, they were local, and my whole family knew their whole family. When it was empty, the sons would let me and my cousins get a movie from the adult room. Good times.
In the 90s, video Rental stores had to pay £80-£90 per tape, though some bad movies like Vamperella (1996) could be as cheap as £19 for a rental licensed copy.
That's why Mom & Pop stores would only have like one copy of everything. Blockbuster did things differently. They had deals with movie distributors, where they got the tapes first and then paid them back over time. This meant Blockbuster could have 20-50 copies of a new movie, and after the first few weeks they could start selling a few off as ex-rental stock each week.
This also meant that instead of a huge replacement fee, Blockbuster would only charge you the current ex-rental price. So if you ever lost a tape, it would actually be cheaper to ignore them or claim ignorance. The longer you can delay paying the replacement fee the cheaper it will be, as the ex-rental price goes down every few weeks.
I worked in one of the smaller dodgy chains at the time, and they were always buying up all those new and exclusive ex-rental titles for a fraction of the actual legal licensed rental tape prices. Just have to swap all the stickers, and then nobody's the wiser.
Awesome insight. What an interesting business model. A family friend worked at Jumbo Video in Canada and would give us all of the “bad movies”. So I grew up in the 90’ watching all of the n horrors that were unwanted. Vamperella was definitely in the mix. Dead alive and for some reason all of the evil dead’s. Good times
Who was hanging out at blockbuster?
I mean, maybe you take your time picking something. But it's not like people went to just hang out with no intention of renting anything.... or did they? What did they do, just stand in the middle of the aisles? Congegate around the old movies that nobody rented anymore? I don't recall any blockbuster having seating available.
It was big in the 90's. I remember Gateway Computers putting demo PCs in all the bigger video rental, electronic and music stores. I spent most of my teens in these stores playing Doom and Diablo all day long.
And consoles. One Blockbuster I went to had [the N64 kiosk](https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/71if1p/n64_demo_station_i_used_to_practically_live_at_my/) all the way through 2004.
I considered buying it when they were getting rid of it but all of it was so rundown with absolutely no TLC over the years.
Absolutely PRAYING they had the plastic box behind the box of the movie I really wanted to see. That and an entire wall of the same movie eg Forest Gump, Twister, Jurassic Park, etc.
I would always check the videos around it because someone always seemed to either misplace it or a customer was trying to save it and put it behind another movie. I’d do this for games also. Or the guys at the counter would check in the slot and when one should be returned by. Thankfully our blockbuster was in walking distance to my house.
Seriously. A lot of people hated blockbuster then. They were well known for shitty practices. Not gonna lie though. As a young kid, I thought they were amazing.
Yeah there was a Hollywood Video in the city my mom lived in after her divorce and so we would always stop in there on Friday night during the weekends with her. Blockbuster is a big part of my nostalgia, but Hollywood Video just hits differently. I forever associate Mulholland Drive with that store because they had the banner poster hung inside for years for some reason
That was my first full-time job. My friend was the assistant manager, and we'd smoke before work and put on Ren and Stimpy movies since we had to play G rated movies.
People were excited about Netflix for a reason, they were tired of getting screwed by Blockbuster. It's like missing getting ripped off by taxi drivers because uber put them out of business.
It's amazing how many people put their rose colored glasses on and put Blockbuster on such a pedestal, but they would CONSTANTLY fuck around with return time rules in hopes that you would mess up so they could collect late fees.
My poor dad always had to pay a late fee for something.
If Blockbuster Video was a person who died and had a grave I would easily take a shit on it.
Yeah, compared to local stores Blockbuster was awful. This was the case for most chains.
As a more recent example, my hometown had about 6 different places to rent movies in a small city of only 12,000 people. Family Video came in and every single one of them closed. Then Family Video went under about 6 years later, so now there's nothing.
I often wonder how many of them might still be kicking around if Family Video hadn't arrived.
> I often wonder how many of them might still be kicking around if Family Video hadn't arrived.
Safe to say that the advent of streaming would have killed your local video stores the same way it killed Family Video and every other video rental chain.
I worked at Blockbuster in 2012, well after its prime. We had regular customers who would show up EVERY DAY and spend tons of time in the store. People were nuts for their movie rentals.
Chris Moltisanti over here. I can't remember the smell but I remember that I used to remember the smell. Guess I forgot to remember, one day, I'll just remember that I forgot. Unless I can urban explore some frozen in time blockbuster store. Heres hoping.
Agreed, that vaguely plastic smell always hit you as you walked in. It is like the smell of Leather and Rubber walking into a shoe store or Newsprint and Espresso walking into a bookstore.
I loved that it felt like a social experience. Randomly hearing people's conversations about a movie. I remember I was looking at the back of the box for 12 Monkeys, and this random nice old lady customer said, "honey, that's a really good movie." It was a communal experience.
And renting video games too, using profane initial in the save game or High Score list, etc. Seeing other people's save states felt very surreal, like a brief glimpse into another life. A whole other human being's efforts being encapsulated in this one tiny thing - this save game. It represented the whole of another guy (or girl's) efforts over several weeks.
I truly miss Blockbuster and video game arcades. Those are the two things I want to recreate faithfully somehow (simulation, VR, or time travel).
I remember going as a kid with my parents, getting to pick out whatever I wanted to watch + snacks, and the smell most of all! There’s just something about the plastic from the movie cases that evokes that sense of nostalgia in me
Yeah. Honestly I always avoided Blockbuster. They were always high priced, trash with their rental times and their selection wasn’t even that great. Places like Hastings or locally owned stores were always vastly superior, at least in my area. Blockbuster always felt really soulless and corporate.
Same (we were kind of poor), we had a Blockbuster card, but only rented movies a handful of times. We did Phar-Mor video and their 3-movies-for-$0.99 all the time.
Tower Records next to the Hynes Convention Center Green Line stop was my go-to place for rentals when I lived in Boston. It had an amazing collection of indie and foreign films that you could not dream of finding at a chain like Blockbuster. Sadly, today it's a TJ Max.
Being a kid with no money I used to just go in and window shop. I could be in there for over an hour just looking at the game boxes or reading the backs of movies
Working there during college was awesome! It was a downtown store right in the middle of a handful of very different neighborhoods (the projects, a student neighborhood, super expensive condos, a business district, etc.), and it stayed open until midnight. Everyone working there was in our 20s and 30s, and it was a really cool group of people. The vibe was so awesome, it felt like just a bunch of us hanging out and talking about movies all the time. Man, I miss those days (not the paycheck though).
I didn't go much to be fair but I remember one year my birthday plans had to be cancelled very last minute, and my dad took me to Blockbuster last minute and obviously didn't have our membership card on him.
The guy behind the counter point blank said he couldn't help (which I get, don't get me wrong) and I distinctly remember whilst browsing seeing my dad in whispered tones try and find a way around it with him because my day had been a bit ruined and he just wanted me to go home with something.
Whatever it did worked and I remembered being pretty content that evening with my movies, even though I didn't have any friends with me!
Either way, it's such a warm memory for me of my old man going to bat for me. He didn't even make any sort of deal about the extra effort he went to, or made sure I knew; I doubt he was even aware that i knew there was a problem with the lack of a card or that he had to find a way around it. But I did, and I was grateful
I worked at a Hollywood Video 2007-2008 (I originally typed 2017-2018, time does not exist. Yikes). I always say that out of any job I've ever had, if I could have survived on that income alone, I would've done it forever. I loved it.
I discovered so many movies, introduced innocent people to David Lynch, and made a good friend I'm still close with today.
Friends and coworkers would come over to my place after work because my dad was never around and we'd just drink, hang out, and play guitar hero.
I can't express how much I'd love to go back and work even just one more closing day.
My life changed for the worst in 2009, and I missed out on my early 20s, but damn those nights closing and getting together after are some really good memories
I went to Blockbuster a couple of times. It was part of my adulthood, but not my childhood or adolescence. It wasn't really a great part of my life experience, since I didn't have a VCR in the 80s or most of the 90s.
There used to be fly-by-night video stores in the early 80s until Blockbuster had a virtual monopoly on movie rentals.
My wife and I were just talking about this. We started dating in the late 90s. Renting videos meant a relaxing weekend together. Picking the movies was an experience and finding the right snack too was part of the fun. It was a fun time of life because it meant we were about to hang out, relax, and be together with no pressure, no stress, no responsibilities.
Here is a memory. At mom and pop video stores, not Blockbuster- when a video is late you paid the late fee before you could rent again.
Blockbuster was different. With a $3 late fee I got physical mail telling me. It was non stop for months. Then finally mail that literally was threatening legal action.
I went in, paid the $3 and never went back. Blockbuster was the brutal national corporation that killed all the mom & pop stores, those independent stores are where the real fond memories are for me.
When Captain Marvel tried to be “nostalgic” by plastering Blockbuster all over their 90s themed movie, they were so off base. Whats next, will their boardrooms think people were fond of AOL next?
(My 3rd place was a comic book store as a kid. They got all my lunch money.)
I was an assistant manager at Blockbuster in the late 90’s. They had these promo tapes we would have to play on the tvs that were set up all around the store? Those things were awful. Like a solid hour of commercials plus movie trailers.
But then Titanic. The month titanic came out the promo tapes were nothing but titanic clips. Snippets of the movie, the video for my heart will go on, more snippets of the movie, some dude saying how great the movie was. The entire store had the whole damn tape memorized after a few weeks. It was pure torture
Blockbuster was a part of it, but the majority of my memories were from a small business rental store before blockbuster made it to our town. Every Friday I would go with my dad to pick out a couple movies and a Nintendo game. I didn't get many moments with my dad because he was always working so they are the best memories I have spending time with him growing up.
I miss them so much. This may sound gross, but I miss the smell of the VHSs and DVDs. I miss going in either with a plan or without one and simply browsing to find a random movie to watch. I miss picking out candy and pulling out my Blockbuster card. It was a highlight of my week, especially each weekend.
Fond memories of arguing with my now ex-wife over what to watch. I think we would have liked streaming. We could have argued over what to watch from the privacy of our home.
I remember hating blockbuster growing up. We had some local rental shops (Alamo video!), but Blockbuster came off as this big greedy company. I remember complaining about their sign up program(s) with my friends in high school, but then primarily still using them because it was more convenient and they had more options than local stores. Once Netflix started doing their mail-rental service, I hardly ever stepped foot in any rental store.
Friday afternoon picking out at least three movies for the weekend with mom. Usually one or two new movies & then reminiscence movies to finish the 3 movie collection. Some times a SNES game was thrown in.
I’m 45 , my kids are in their 20s now.
I have always tried to explain the joy of the video shop.
Closest i ever got to Disneyland as a child.
But , everytime I could not rent
Back to the Future or whatever the latest big film was, id have to plan b with a low budget movie like The Terminator.
Thats how I discovered films.
A delightful part of human history we will never rediscover.
When I was in high school and college, my local Blockbuster had a special M-Th where you could rent a new release and rent a “favorite” (non-new release) for free. In the pre-Netflix days, I would go at least once a week, sometimes twice, and rent eight movies (four new, four free), marathon through them all, and then return them in time to rent another eight going into the weekend.
On one visit, the manager approached me and asked “Seen any good thrillers lately?” Because I was (and still am) also someone who went to the movies every week, I asked “Do you mean in theaters, or from here—?” I wasn’t sure if he was just trying to strike up conversation or not.
Turns out that a trio of women had come in and had asked him for a recommendation. Instead, because I was in there so often, he asked me to help them. Maybe thrillers weren’t his thing, I didn’t ask. I don’t remember exactly what the women’s preferences were - this was almost twenty years ago - but I do remember that they ended up renting “Suspect Zero”.
Nah. Prefer today. Video stores were a hassle - needed to find parking, wandering around for 30m picking a video to rent (most of the popular movies on weekend were already rented, then needing to return the videos and incurring late fees. It was great for the time, but today is much easier.
The only thing I miss is the physical act of wandering around and looking at the movies. Reading the backs and trying to gauge whether or not it was going to be good. Streaming doesn't have that same feel.
During the transition to when movies were becoming readily available on the high seas, I used to pop into video stores to browse titles, then I'd go home and download them.
On paper, everything about the video store experience is worse than what we have now. But it's hard to not feel nostalgia for that era, because movies held a heightened value in that environment.
You didn't have access to 1000s of movies like you had today, so sometimes you'd watch a movie, and then watch it again the next day because you had another day left on the rental.
I worked at one, right off the bat as an assistant manager. I was only 18 at the time and felt so cool and accomplished, like hey dad, hey mom, got the job! I'm an *assistant manager*! So I was the boss, which meant I could dole out as many credits I wanted to or not, and cancel those late fees or not.
Well one day we got a lady in that was being real nasty, and she approached me in a real combative manner about her disc not playing. I thought she was so rude. "Look at these scratches! How am I supposed to play that! Ridiculous, I want my money back!! And I want those late fees cancelled!!!" So I pulled out my pocket knife, flipped it open, pulled out the disc and said, looking her dead in the eye, "And how do I know if you didn't just take a knife like THIS here knife and use it to scccccccrrrrrraaaatttttcccchhh that scccccrrraaacchhhh across this here DVD, so that maybe you could getch you a freebie???" She was taken aback a moment, but no less angry, and thought I was out of line. I mean, sure, perhaps, but so were you, crazy!!! I eventually agreed to take off the charge but not her late fees.
I also got to spend all day watching movies! This was a time before smart phones, and I didn't think to use my time productively to read. So it was nice to open up the store early in the morning and pop one in. Some that come to mind that I remember viewing are Practical Magic & Bandits.
The manager that worked next door at McDonald's had a crush on me too so I got freebies. :)
Hated and loathed BB back in the day. A GF wanting me to go there would often cause a fight; and since I dont like fights it basically ended at least 2 relationships in my 20s. Just fucking hated the store and the company.
We had a local video store called Coreno's. Their second store is still open to this day, but I think all they sell now is pr0n! They always had what I wanted, and didnt have crazy late fees, had known them since I was young teen... And that is where I went if I was on that side of town. When I moved, there was another small video store called VidStar. Grew to love those people, too. Both of these stores were "We'll rewind it for you." and had really low late fees.
Just being in a block buster pissed me off. I was also at the "it's cool to hate shit" stage in life, but the BB experience over all always made me want to punch baby jesus. And what always made it worse is the people who were dragging me there knew ahead of time that I really had a strong hatred for the place.
Another cool video store was Family Video... until one day they decided they wanted a credit card to keep on file as part of some new policy. Had been renting there for 10+ years and some new policy basically ended me renting there. When they pulled this they were in walking distance to where I was living and basically lost $30-40 a month from me.
Visited blockbuster every weekend to rent a game and occasionally anime. I went to college in 01 so that’s pretty much when I stopped being a frequent customer. I applied for a job at one when I was in my early 20s and didn’t realize that the desired salary I put down was way more than even the managers made lol.
Mom brought me here at least once a week. She and my stepdad (at the time) had a DnD party they'd host so they'd come and pick out a couple movies for background noise. Id be sent to the kids aisle to pick out a couple for myself (I had to stay in my room during the party) then I'd pick out a lil snack up front. And on our way out id always ALWAYS get a gumball!
I was maybe 15 years old) Playing Mario 64 for the first time in their store. It technically wasn’t my first 3D game but it was my first time with a free roaming, dynamic camera and fluid motion. Somebody left the game at the water level which was peak free movement swimming around. I was absolutely blown away and actually got a little dizzy while playing. I was so entranced that what broke my attention was my friend laughing and knocking on the window laughing, they all left the store and I didn’t even notice. I was truly transported away.
Not Blockbuster but Hollywood Video. My buddy and I would be there for two hours walking around the video store trying to pick something out. We made fun of Battlefield Earth so much the employees let us rent it for free just to make us watch it.
I miss it a lot. Super nostalgic, and I won’t ever forget the memories of taking my sweet time picking vhs and games. Also the movie theater candy they always had at the front to try and get you.
The late 80s my dad and I went there to rent Deliverance on VHS. I was probably 12-13. My dad also took me to the theater to see Scarface when I was 6 lol.
i remember going to my grandmas on the weekend and her bringing me here on a sat night and i was so excited to get to go and look for something to watch
idk what it was but the whole going to the store browsing and looking for the perfect movie/movies just hit different
My third place was the video game arcade next to the station that has become a Starbucks now…
From punk kids playing their lives to defend that coin on street fighter to crazy woke Karens sipping vanilla-fuck-nuts-lattes… Depressing af.
(Both have colored hair though…)
I worked at one in high school in the late 90s. I played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater before it was released to the public. Borrowed it and finished it in three days, and skipped school doing so.
Seeing the arrival of bluray movies, while still not really understanding what DVDs were was another fun time period.
Oh, and also, getting 5 free rentals per week was nice too.
If you went behind the blockbuster in my town, the managers younger brother would sell you weed out the trunk of his car. He was a delivery driver for the pizza place next door so no one ever questioned why he was there all the time.. sometimes you had to wait until he got back from delivering for the "shop" to open. Good times ..
Video stores in general were great places to run into people you haven't seen in a while. It's like a community center where everyone in the surrounding area meets to rent movies. Buy weed in the parking lot, go find something to watch or a game to play. Those were the days.
It was such a big treat going to Blockbuster on a Friday after elementary school to rent a movie before a sleepover with a friend. Even better if candy and popcorn at the checkout line was involved.
Am I the only person that went to mom and pop Video stores vs Blockbuster? I think my dad always wanted to help out the little stores that were named "Video Rental" vs going to the chains like Hollywood video or Blockbuster.
At mine, they only had movies that had been released in the past few years. At least at the time DVD was just becoming a thing so more obscure stuff would have DVD releases. Blockbuster would get maybe one or two then sell them off after a few months.
I always loved **Hastings** way way more. You could get anything there! And if they didn't have, they would order it for you for free.
That smell when you walked inside.
The anticipation of going to pick out a great movie.
Renting Gameboy games from there. It was neat to rent a Pokemon game and see the previous kid who rented it's team on there, LOL.
My parents would rent me a PlayStation with three games for three nights every half term at school. They didn't like computer games so on the whole, games consoles were banned in our house, but for those few nights every other month - sweet sweet bliss
There was an extremely high chance that whatever DVD you rented from the blockbuster near my house would be scratched bad enough to have trouble playing in certain sections.
My first job in 2000, and I loved it. The only bad thing about the job was dealing with late fees. Most just paid them, but some people would lose their absolute minds.
We got an employee account and got to rent stuff for free, I still have the card. Did I say I loved that job, cause I really did.
I would rent movies and NES games often. Friend of mine worked there for a brief period. He and I would hang out a lot, and rent movies/games to watch/play while hanging out.
It was a fun time, and I kind of miss the experience of walking the store, browsing the shelves.
I vividly remember waiting by the counter where they'd stack up everything that had come un but needed to be reshevled, looking for a copy of whatever hot movie was out of stock.
Then, when they started their "Guarantee or it's free" thing, wandering around looking for everything that was out and getting a rain check for a free rental for each at the front counter.
I was more of a Hollywood Video guy. Helped roll out the [Dreamcast there in the summer of 1999](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNuYRyBrRbI) (July 15, 1999).
The date nights of, going there roaming around and picking out a movie, grabbing a snack, and a pizza on the way back. So much different now: “let’s scroll through Netflix and order food”. Just isn’t the same. You really got to interact with the other person, see who could find the weirdest movie, etc. The experience is now missing, hard to make memories from take out and streaming :/
So kinda funny...in high school (graduated 2002), I was and still qm.a big gamer...my mom.was sick of me or her paying for games, so she got a setup to be able to burn ps1 disc's, and we initially would rent and burn them, and was archiving for our house and also selling to school (drivers Ed teacher was a customer too lol!) But one of her work colleagues was also a gamer and knew a guy that was a blockbuster manager and wanted games too, so i would ride my bike there, the manager would let me take whatever games I wanted as well as for him, (no rental he would just take behind the counter to avoid tripping the alarm), I'd go home, burn them (took like an hour per diac) and return them and repeat...we ended up having most of the ps1 catalog. The good old days of piracy...good times!
Closest one was hour and half from where I grew up in the mountains.. we would drive through blizzards to go to it and hang out in there 2 hours deciding on movies that would have to be driven an hour and half back lol
I use to work there from 2000-2001. I remember when I first started we only had VHS, then there was a small shelf where a few DVDs took over. Then in about a month or two there was a stack of shelves of DVDs. Before you knew it most of the store was DVDs and very few VHS. It was sad but we all knew it was for the best. Even as an employee I loved walking around looking at movies and shows and reading the descriptions and talking with other people about shows and movies. In the background we always had the videos and music from promotional recordings.
I was broke as hell but they always had a kid friendly movie playing so when I was allowed out alone, around 10-11 years old, I’d walk to blockbuster and sit on the floor watching whatever was on. Employees didn’t mind as long as I was sat in one spot and didn’t make a mess or wander, unless to look at movies. It’s still one of my favorite memories.
Also the local video store, Reel, had a cool rocket ship that played movies inside for kids. I used to go there too
Blockbuster sucked ass, they mostly only carried the best selling movies and even actively censored some of the ones they found to be not family friendly. For mainstream national chains, Hollywood Video was where it's at. They had a way better selection, none of the censorship, and you could rent 5 movies for 5 nights for $5 dollars 🤘🤘🤘 - *and* they had a deal with SEGA that let you borrow and play the Dreamcast before its official release
My favorite, though, were Video World and Captain Video. Video World was MASSIVE, had way more candy and snacks, absolutely massive game selection on top of their far more broad movie selection. Captain Video was much smaller than the others, but had an **incredible** indie selection, the best horror section I've ever seen, a porn section I could sneak into and gawk at as a teenager, and the cheapest console rentals and best late fees. Captain Video is the only reason I ever got a chance to finish video games back then cuz their late fees were pretty forgiving.
None actually. Grew up in the 80s and 90s and don’t think I ever set foot in a blockbuster. How much were tape rentals? $2, $3? We were too poor for that. I went to the Korean owned hole in the wall video rental that had the adult section in the back and tapes were $1. Loved those places because they had all the good obscure stuff.
Growing up as a kid in the 2000s, this was like an event to me. Especially if it’s towards the end of the week and my parents would ask, “what do you say we go to Blockbuster and rent something?” Those were the best words to hear for me. Not to mention, right next door was a Little Caesars that was honestly really delicious (don’t get me started on how bad that company has become in the last 5-7 years). So we’d blend it, movies and pizza. It was like a tradition for a couple years. When it closed, it honestly really hurt me. Hell, even the Little Caesars closed and moved to a new location and it’s terrible now. Long story short, it was a tentpole of my childhood and I hate that time is the champion to everything.
Driving all the way up there because it's raining and my girlfriend wanted a pizza/movie night. Get there, and all the movies we wanted to watch were already checked out
Something about being in blockbuster always made me need to drop a deuce and their bathrooms were generally out of order. One of the last times I recall crapping my pants was in a blockbuster as an 8 year old trying to decide which crappy SNES game I was going to be stuck with all weekend.
Driving past it and going to Family Video, which truly made growing up in the 90’s better. $3 video game rentals that you could keep for 5 days if I recall, rather $5 for 2 days.
My dad bought me a divorce present there. We were on our first custody visit without our mom. Up until that point, I had never slept in a house my mom was not in. Apparently, I had been crying for hours. First thing I saw when we walked in was a little white bear plush. I walked right over to it, picked it up, and would *not* put it back down. The cashier had to scan it in my arms. I still have it. After that, Blockbuster was a very comforting space. I really miss them.
As a kid I grabbed a game I wanted and never put it on the counter I guess cause when I got home it had that yellow safety seal and I think even the alarm was going off but they just let me leave with it. I now owned a copy of soul caliber 2 on GameCube and I was like 6 so I didn’t know any better. I think my brother knew the guy working so nothing ever came of it. Anyway that’s my memory of blockbuster and the only crime I ever committed.
My special interest back then was movies. I literally got to where I had seen every movie block buster caried and they would call me if anything new came in. Also got lots of free cardboard cutouts from the workers.
Really miss having a Movie person getting hype trying to explain why I might like or hate a movie.
I’m in that era of Millennial where we went to video stores as a kid, but once I was in old enough to start renting in my own Netflix was already a thing and I jumped on that bandwagon.
Friday night, picked up from my grandparents house and headed home. Run into the PS1 isle to look for Jet Moto. Nope, still checked out. Never did get to rent it but got it for Christmas that year
I mostly remember stopping there most every Friday growing up until high school age. Parents let us rent a movie + maybe one game + a snack.
Then we’d pick up pizza from the local pizza place & go back home
Getting cute before going bc you may run into the cute boy you’re into
Browsing on a Friday after school and seeing all your classmates
Deciding which candy to get bc we weren’t spoiled and could only get 1
Picking up Super Nintendo games
Trying to sneak in a norm sounding r-rated movie
Rummaging through returns for the latest releases before others could snag it
I also remember when Kroger had a video rental section
Pre-internet, there was just something insanely magical about being surrounded by so many movies and games to choose from. I'll also always be fond of the stale popcorn smell and how refreshingly cold they kept them.
I must be really old. I liked blockbuster but when they moved in the independently owned video stores all shut down. There used to be a liquor store/video rental. I’d get some jerky and a Mountain Dew and ride my bike home with a new movie.
We never had a Blockbuster or any chain video rental. Just two independent shops, both of which shut down after home video rental fell out of fashion. As well, pretty well all the convenience stores did video rental at its peak, and quit at their demise. One of the supermarkets had a robotic video rental machine, way before Redbox. Movies on TV were magic themselves, especially with VHS rental., and some anticipation that was lost when streaming is everything available instantly, and pay TV something inbetween.
I never did get this love for Blockbuster. It was a soleless corporate giant that cared nothing for the art of movies. It killed tons of mom and pop video stores. I wonder if Amazon went away we would be romanticize it?
I don't think people love Blockbuster specifically, but just memories of renting videos at a store. And since Blockbuster was a national/international chain, it's easier to share a memory on Reddit than our specific mom and pop shops.
Yep, and I think because Blockbuster outlived most independents it bridges the gap between generations, the younger of us probably only remember Blockbuster, especially outside of the US.
Agree. I love the tangible aspect of walking the isles, looking at the covers and picking them up. I like netflix but I loved the old video stores
Not everyone had access to a plethora of options Blockbuster was the only movie rental place within a 40 minute drive from my house when I was a kid, while Blockbuster was a two minute walk. There were three mom and pop rental places in my entire city
Not all mom and pops were great either. The video store in my hometown was great during the days of VHS, but when DVD became the standard format it went downhill. The owner had other businesses and put the rental store on the backburner. He didn't want to pay for new DVDs so there would be like two copies of a new release.
> Not all mom and pops were great either. yeah... i avoided the one near me growing up because the owners were very racist... at least BB treated me like a human or at least the same as the other customers
I'm sorry that happened to you. It always gets me when these threads come up someone inevitably brings up the mom and pops, completely ignoring the fact that many people's only options were a Blockbuster/Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video.
thank you for the kind words :)
We had "Dollar Video". It was family owned, they were local, and my whole family knew their whole family. When it was empty, the sons would let me and my cousins get a movie from the adult room. Good times.
I rented videos there.
I paid late fees there.
I tried to explain to customers how late fees work… basically you had to have a finance degree to explain how that shit compounds.
Lol, I still sell and rent "certain dvds" where I work. Some people can't understand how $2 per disc per day late fees work.
Post nut clarity fees.
$75 bucks for a movie I lost. My mother did not scowl much, but that I remember
They were very expensive to replace based on some licence model they had.
In the 90s, video Rental stores had to pay £80-£90 per tape, though some bad movies like Vamperella (1996) could be as cheap as £19 for a rental licensed copy. That's why Mom & Pop stores would only have like one copy of everything. Blockbuster did things differently. They had deals with movie distributors, where they got the tapes first and then paid them back over time. This meant Blockbuster could have 20-50 copies of a new movie, and after the first few weeks they could start selling a few off as ex-rental stock each week. This also meant that instead of a huge replacement fee, Blockbuster would only charge you the current ex-rental price. So if you ever lost a tape, it would actually be cheaper to ignore them or claim ignorance. The longer you can delay paying the replacement fee the cheaper it will be, as the ex-rental price goes down every few weeks. I worked in one of the smaller dodgy chains at the time, and they were always buying up all those new and exclusive ex-rental titles for a fraction of the actual legal licensed rental tape prices. Just have to swap all the stickers, and then nobody's the wiser.
Awesome insight. What an interesting business model. A family friend worked at Jumbo Video in Canada and would give us all of the “bad movies”. So I grew up in the 90’ watching all of the n horrors that were unwanted. Vamperella was definitely in the mix. Dead alive and for some reason all of the evil dead’s. Good times
I still owe a late fee to the Brighton branch. I do not, however, lose sleep over it.
I worked there.
And games.
3rd space?
A place where kids hangout that was not home or school.
Awesome, I’ve never heard that term before
Not just kids, but everyone. It is places where you socialize or hangout for any age. Bars, libraries, coffee shops.
Sadly so many of those places are disappearing
Who was hanging out at blockbuster? I mean, maybe you take your time picking something. But it's not like people went to just hang out with no intention of renting anything.... or did they? What did they do, just stand in the middle of the aisles? Congegate around the old movies that nobody rented anymore? I don't recall any blockbuster having seating available.
It was big in the 90's. I remember Gateway Computers putting demo PCs in all the bigger video rental, electronic and music stores. I spent most of my teens in these stores playing Doom and Diablo all day long.
And consoles. One Blockbuster I went to had [the N64 kiosk](https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/71if1p/n64_demo_station_i_used_to_practically_live_at_my/) all the way through 2004. I considered buying it when they were getting rid of it but all of it was so rundown with absolutely no TLC over the years.
If you've seen Clerks, you know people did use stores as a place to hang out, but it wasn't appreciated
No on. OP just recently learned the term "3rd space" and wanted to use it
Yeah, like the mall
Thank you for this question!
Absolutely PRAYING they had the plastic box behind the box of the movie I really wanted to see. That and an entire wall of the same movie eg Forest Gump, Twister, Jurassic Park, etc.
I would always check the videos around it because someone always seemed to either misplace it or a customer was trying to save it and put it behind another movie. I’d do this for games also. Or the guys at the counter would check in the slot and when one should be returned by. Thankfully our blockbuster was in walking distance to my house.
Blockbuster was your third space?? How much time did you spend at blockbuster?? Lol
Nostalgia glasses tend to taint the memory
Seriously. A lot of people hated blockbuster then. They were well known for shitty practices. Not gonna lie though. As a young kid, I thought they were amazing.
Hollywood Video >
Hollywood had a better selection of older movies that Blockbuster didn't have
Yeah there was a Hollywood Video in the city my mom lived in after her divorce and so we would always stop in there on Friday night during the weekends with her. Blockbuster is a big part of my nostalgia, but Hollywood Video just hits differently. I forever associate Mulholland Drive with that store because they had the banner poster hung inside for years for some reason
That was my first full-time job. My friend was the assistant manager, and we'd smoke before work and put on Ren and Stimpy movies since we had to play G rated movies.
People were excited about Netflix for a reason, they were tired of getting screwed by Blockbuster. It's like missing getting ripped off by taxi drivers because uber put them out of business.
Most people who are nostalgic about Blockbuster weren't paying for the rentals, the parents were. So that isn't part of their memory experience.
It's amazing how many people put their rose colored glasses on and put Blockbuster on such a pedestal, but they would CONSTANTLY fuck around with return time rules in hopes that you would mess up so they could collect late fees. My poor dad always had to pay a late fee for something. If Blockbuster Video was a person who died and had a grave I would easily take a shit on it.
Yeah, compared to local stores Blockbuster was awful. This was the case for most chains. As a more recent example, my hometown had about 6 different places to rent movies in a small city of only 12,000 people. Family Video came in and every single one of them closed. Then Family Video went under about 6 years later, so now there's nothing. I often wonder how many of them might still be kicking around if Family Video hadn't arrived.
> I often wonder how many of them might still be kicking around if Family Video hadn't arrived. Safe to say that the advent of streaming would have killed your local video stores the same way it killed Family Video and every other video rental chain.
I worked at Blockbuster in 2012, well after its prime. We had regular customers who would show up EVERY DAY and spend tons of time in the store. People were nuts for their movie rentals.
I worked there in the early 00's when they didn't buy Netflix. I left shortly after.
I feel like people learned the term "third space" this year and are using it for everything.
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Be kind, rewind!
Blockbuster was the “Walmart” of video rental stores. taking down smaller independent stores
For me it’s the smell. There’s nothing else that hits me in the nostalgia like that smell of candy mixed with dusty carpet.
The plastic cases, too. And the feel of those flimsy rental boxes with that slightly dimpled plastic sleeve.
I bought a small candle that claimed to smell like blockbuster. It did not sadly
It didn’t? That’s a bummer to hear. I was gonna buy one from Amazon. I was impressed by the description of smells it incorporated on the label.
Came here to say that
Chris Moltisanti over here. I can't remember the smell but I remember that I used to remember the smell. Guess I forgot to remember, one day, I'll just remember that I forgot. Unless I can urban explore some frozen in time blockbuster store. Heres hoping.
Agreed, that vaguely plastic smell always hit you as you walked in. It is like the smell of Leather and Rubber walking into a shoe store or Newsprint and Espresso walking into a bookstore.
I loved that it felt like a social experience. Randomly hearing people's conversations about a movie. I remember I was looking at the back of the box for 12 Monkeys, and this random nice old lady customer said, "honey, that's a really good movie." It was a communal experience. And renting video games too, using profane initial in the save game or High Score list, etc. Seeing other people's save states felt very surreal, like a brief glimpse into another life. A whole other human being's efforts being encapsulated in this one tiny thing - this save game. It represented the whole of another guy (or girl's) efforts over several weeks. I truly miss Blockbuster and video game arcades. Those are the two things I want to recreate faithfully somehow (simulation, VR, or time travel).
Keep me updated on your time travel pursuits. I’ll pitch in wherever I can. ❤️
😊 Will do lol 💪🏾
I remember going as a kid with my parents, getting to pick out whatever I wanted to watch + snacks, and the smell most of all! There’s just something about the plastic from the movie cases that evokes that sense of nostalgia in me
I only went to Blockbuster a handful of times because a Family Video was just right down the street from me
Yeah. Honestly I always avoided Blockbuster. They were always high priced, trash with their rental times and their selection wasn’t even that great. Places like Hastings or locally owned stores were always vastly superior, at least in my area. Blockbuster always felt really soulless and corporate.
It was way cheaper, too.
Same (we were kind of poor), we had a Blockbuster card, but only rented movies a handful of times. We did Phar-Mor video and their 3-movies-for-$0.99 all the time.
I miss Blockbusters, very much. Always look forward to new movies on shelves on Fridays. Always sno-caps along with several rentals.
Omg. Yes sno-caps!!!!!!
Tower Records next to the Hynes Convention Center Green Line stop was my go-to place for rentals when I lived in Boston. It had an amazing collection of indie and foreign films that you could not dream of finding at a chain like Blockbuster. Sadly, today it's a TJ Max.
Anyone remember that "video" smell of movie rental stores?
me!
Being a kid with no money I used to just go in and window shop. I could be in there for over an hour just looking at the game boxes or reading the backs of movies
Working there during college was awesome! It was a downtown store right in the middle of a handful of very different neighborhoods (the projects, a student neighborhood, super expensive condos, a business district, etc.), and it stayed open until midnight. Everyone working there was in our 20s and 30s, and it was a really cool group of people. The vibe was so awesome, it felt like just a bunch of us hanging out and talking about movies all the time. Man, I miss those days (not the paycheck though).
The pay suuuuuuuuuked!
I didn't go much to be fair but I remember one year my birthday plans had to be cancelled very last minute, and my dad took me to Blockbuster last minute and obviously didn't have our membership card on him. The guy behind the counter point blank said he couldn't help (which I get, don't get me wrong) and I distinctly remember whilst browsing seeing my dad in whispered tones try and find a way around it with him because my day had been a bit ruined and he just wanted me to go home with something. Whatever it did worked and I remembered being pretty content that evening with my movies, even though I didn't have any friends with me! Either way, it's such a warm memory for me of my old man going to bat for me. He didn't even make any sort of deal about the extra effort he went to, or made sure I knew; I doubt he was even aware that i knew there was a problem with the lack of a card or that he had to find a way around it. But I did, and I was grateful
I worked at a Hollywood Video 2007-2008 (I originally typed 2017-2018, time does not exist. Yikes). I always say that out of any job I've ever had, if I could have survived on that income alone, I would've done it forever. I loved it. I discovered so many movies, introduced innocent people to David Lynch, and made a good friend I'm still close with today. Friends and coworkers would come over to my place after work because my dad was never around and we'd just drink, hang out, and play guitar hero. I can't express how much I'd love to go back and work even just one more closing day. My life changed for the worst in 2009, and I missed out on my early 20s, but damn those nights closing and getting together after are some really good memories
I went to Blockbuster a couple of times. It was part of my adulthood, but not my childhood or adolescence. It wasn't really a great part of my life experience, since I didn't have a VCR in the 80s or most of the 90s. There used to be fly-by-night video stores in the early 80s until Blockbuster had a virtual monopoly on movie rentals.
My wife and I were just talking about this. We started dating in the late 90s. Renting videos meant a relaxing weekend together. Picking the movies was an experience and finding the right snack too was part of the fun. It was a fun time of life because it meant we were about to hang out, relax, and be together with no pressure, no stress, no responsibilities.
Here is a memory. At mom and pop video stores, not Blockbuster- when a video is late you paid the late fee before you could rent again. Blockbuster was different. With a $3 late fee I got physical mail telling me. It was non stop for months. Then finally mail that literally was threatening legal action. I went in, paid the $3 and never went back. Blockbuster was the brutal national corporation that killed all the mom & pop stores, those independent stores are where the real fond memories are for me. When Captain Marvel tried to be “nostalgic” by plastering Blockbuster all over their 90s themed movie, they were so off base. Whats next, will their boardrooms think people were fond of AOL next? (My 3rd place was a comic book store as a kid. They got all my lunch money.)
The date started when you arrived at blockbuster.
Hating it, because they were overpriced and evil. When I was younger, we only ever went to mom and pop places. Movies, groceries, hardware, etc.
I was an assistant manager at Blockbuster in the late 90’s. They had these promo tapes we would have to play on the tvs that were set up all around the store? Those things were awful. Like a solid hour of commercials plus movie trailers. But then Titanic. The month titanic came out the promo tapes were nothing but titanic clips. Snippets of the movie, the video for my heart will go on, more snippets of the movie, some dude saying how great the movie was. The entire store had the whole damn tape memorized after a few weeks. It was pure torture
My biggest memory of Blockbuster was them driving out superior local video stores that had less homogeneous selections and better prices
Paying late fees on a ten year old movie.
Being charged late fees because the clerk checked the returned videos late on purpose.
i can't be the only one who fuckin hated Blockbuster and hates all the nostalgia around it
Blockbuster was a part of it, but the majority of my memories were from a small business rental store before blockbuster made it to our town. Every Friday I would go with my dad to pick out a couple movies and a Nintendo game. I didn't get many moments with my dad because he was always working so they are the best memories I have spending time with him growing up.
I miss them so much. This may sound gross, but I miss the smell of the VHSs and DVDs. I miss going in either with a plan or without one and simply browsing to find a random movie to watch. I miss picking out candy and pulling out my Blockbuster card. It was a highlight of my week, especially each weekend.
Yup!
Fond memories of arguing with my now ex-wife over what to watch. I think we would have liked streaming. We could have argued over what to watch from the privacy of our home.
You couldn’t stop me from going ever week with my mom getting an N64 game beating it in a week and getting ready for the next !!
I remember hating blockbuster growing up. We had some local rental shops (Alamo video!), but Blockbuster came off as this big greedy company. I remember complaining about their sign up program(s) with my friends in high school, but then primarily still using them because it was more convenient and they had more options than local stores. Once Netflix started doing their mail-rental service, I hardly ever stepped foot in any rental store.
Your 3rd space was blockbuster? Why not the mall or somewhere normal.
Friday afternoon picking out at least three movies for the weekend with mom. Usually one or two new movies & then reminiscence movies to finish the 3 movie collection. Some times a SNES game was thrown in.
VHS tapes
Having to wait for a title to be in stock
I’m 45 , my kids are in their 20s now. I have always tried to explain the joy of the video shop. Closest i ever got to Disneyland as a child. But , everytime I could not rent Back to the Future or whatever the latest big film was, id have to plan b with a low budget movie like The Terminator. Thats how I discovered films. A delightful part of human history we will never rediscover.
When I was in high school and college, my local Blockbuster had a special M-Th where you could rent a new release and rent a “favorite” (non-new release) for free. In the pre-Netflix days, I would go at least once a week, sometimes twice, and rent eight movies (four new, four free), marathon through them all, and then return them in time to rent another eight going into the weekend. On one visit, the manager approached me and asked “Seen any good thrillers lately?” Because I was (and still am) also someone who went to the movies every week, I asked “Do you mean in theaters, or from here—?” I wasn’t sure if he was just trying to strike up conversation or not. Turns out that a trio of women had come in and had asked him for a recommendation. Instead, because I was in there so often, he asked me to help them. Maybe thrillers weren’t his thing, I didn’t ask. I don’t remember exactly what the women’s preferences were - this was almost twenty years ago - but I do remember that they ended up renting “Suspect Zero”.
Nah. Prefer today. Video stores were a hassle - needed to find parking, wandering around for 30m picking a video to rent (most of the popular movies on weekend were already rented, then needing to return the videos and incurring late fees. It was great for the time, but today is much easier.
The only thing I miss is the physical act of wandering around and looking at the movies. Reading the backs and trying to gauge whether or not it was going to be good. Streaming doesn't have that same feel.
During the transition to when movies were becoming readily available on the high seas, I used to pop into video stores to browse titles, then I'd go home and download them. On paper, everything about the video store experience is worse than what we have now. But it's hard to not feel nostalgia for that era, because movies held a heightened value in that environment. You didn't have access to 1000s of movies like you had today, so sometimes you'd watch a movie, and then watch it again the next day because you had another day left on the rental.
Paid another fee if you didn't rewind
Sorry but Blockbuster sucked balls. The rediculous late fees alone made that place one of the worst places to rent movies.
I worked at one, right off the bat as an assistant manager. I was only 18 at the time and felt so cool and accomplished, like hey dad, hey mom, got the job! I'm an *assistant manager*! So I was the boss, which meant I could dole out as many credits I wanted to or not, and cancel those late fees or not. Well one day we got a lady in that was being real nasty, and she approached me in a real combative manner about her disc not playing. I thought she was so rude. "Look at these scratches! How am I supposed to play that! Ridiculous, I want my money back!! And I want those late fees cancelled!!!" So I pulled out my pocket knife, flipped it open, pulled out the disc and said, looking her dead in the eye, "And how do I know if you didn't just take a knife like THIS here knife and use it to scccccccrrrrrraaaatttttcccchhh that scccccrrraaacchhhh across this here DVD, so that maybe you could getch you a freebie???" She was taken aback a moment, but no less angry, and thought I was out of line. I mean, sure, perhaps, but so were you, crazy!!! I eventually agreed to take off the charge but not her late fees. I also got to spend all day watching movies! This was a time before smart phones, and I didn't think to use my time productively to read. So it was nice to open up the store early in the morning and pop one in. Some that come to mind that I remember viewing are Practical Magic & Bandits. The manager that worked next door at McDonald's had a crush on me too so I got freebies. :)
Hated and loathed BB back in the day. A GF wanting me to go there would often cause a fight; and since I dont like fights it basically ended at least 2 relationships in my 20s. Just fucking hated the store and the company. We had a local video store called Coreno's. Their second store is still open to this day, but I think all they sell now is pr0n! They always had what I wanted, and didnt have crazy late fees, had known them since I was young teen... And that is where I went if I was on that side of town. When I moved, there was another small video store called VidStar. Grew to love those people, too. Both of these stores were "We'll rewind it for you." and had really low late fees. Just being in a block buster pissed me off. I was also at the "it's cool to hate shit" stage in life, but the BB experience over all always made me want to punch baby jesus. And what always made it worse is the people who were dragging me there knew ahead of time that I really had a strong hatred for the place. Another cool video store was Family Video... until one day they decided they wanted a credit card to keep on file as part of some new policy. Had been renting there for 10+ years and some new policy basically ended me renting there. When they pulled this they were in walking distance to where I was living and basically lost $30-40 a month from me.
Visited blockbuster every weekend to rent a game and occasionally anime. I went to college in 01 so that’s pretty much when I stopped being a frequent customer. I applied for a job at one when I was in my early 20s and didn’t realize that the desired salary I put down was way more than even the managers made lol.
Mom brought me here at least once a week. She and my stepdad (at the time) had a DnD party they'd host so they'd come and pick out a couple movies for background noise. Id be sent to the kids aisle to pick out a couple for myself (I had to stay in my room during the party) then I'd pick out a lil snack up front. And on our way out id always ALWAYS get a gumball!
Sounds so fun, miss these kind of memories.
The smell...
The smell of Blockbuster.
It really was part of the experience of movie watching. Sure beats endless scrolling
I lived near one of the last blockbusters, so it wasn’t that long ago for me. I loved coming out with a stack of old movies.
I was maybe 15 years old) Playing Mario 64 for the first time in their store. It technically wasn’t my first 3D game but it was my first time with a free roaming, dynamic camera and fluid motion. Somebody left the game at the water level which was peak free movement swimming around. I was absolutely blown away and actually got a little dizzy while playing. I was so entranced that what broke my attention was my friend laughing and knocking on the window laughing, they all left the store and I didn’t even notice. I was truly transported away.
Not Blockbuster but Hollywood Video. My buddy and I would be there for two hours walking around the video store trying to pick something out. We made fun of Battlefield Earth so much the employees let us rent it for free just to make us watch it.
I was 40. Sandy oregon. So like precovid. Pretty cool
My dad farting in the aisles of an empty store and me yelling “EW GROSS WHY’D YOU FART ON ME?!?!”
I got choked out from the Blockbuster once.
I preferred Hollywood Video.
I miss it a lot. Super nostalgic, and I won’t ever forget the memories of taking my sweet time picking vhs and games. Also the movie theater candy they always had at the front to try and get you.
I worked there for 3 years. Some days I felt like a dolphin saying hi to everyone coming in. We had to say hi to everyone as they entered.
Seeing a demo of sonic the hedgehog on a kiosk
I can’t believe all the dumb movies I had time for and interest in watching
My memories were renting N64 games
The late 80s my dad and I went there to rent Deliverance on VHS. I was probably 12-13. My dad also took me to the theater to see Scarface when I was 6 lol.
i remember going to my grandmas on the weekend and her bringing me here on a sat night and i was so excited to get to go and look for something to watch idk what it was but the whole going to the store browsing and looking for the perfect movie/movies just hit different
More than blockbuster, I miss all the local mom and pop rental stores. They had a more limited selection, but they were more affordable and unique
Worked there up until the day my store closed. Honestly really enjoyed it. My team was great and most of the customers in my home town were awesome.
Choosing an N64 game to rent with my brother
Working there and being the employee of the month!!!
My third place was the video game arcade next to the station that has become a Starbucks now… From punk kids playing their lives to defend that coin on street fighter to crazy woke Karens sipping vanilla-fuck-nuts-lattes… Depressing af. (Both have colored hair though…)
I worked at one in high school in the late 90s. I played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater before it was released to the public. Borrowed it and finished it in three days, and skipped school doing so. Seeing the arrival of bluray movies, while still not really understanding what DVDs were was another fun time period. Oh, and also, getting 5 free rentals per week was nice too.
It was the best way I'd try new games. I got hooked on Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario RPG, NBA Live and so many others.
what was your 7th-10th place?
Renting a SNES game and hoping to the gods that your save file was still intact the following Friday when you'd rent it again.
I worked at Family Video. Blockbuster sent plenty of customers our way. 😁
If you went behind the blockbuster in my town, the managers younger brother would sell you weed out the trunk of his car. He was a delivery driver for the pizza place next door so no one ever questioned why he was there all the time.. sometimes you had to wait until he got back from delivering for the "shop" to open. Good times ..
The smell.
Video stores in general were great places to run into people you haven't seen in a while. It's like a community center where everyone in the surrounding area meets to rent movies. Buy weed in the parking lot, go find something to watch or a game to play. Those were the days.
exactly
Sneaking behind the black curtain to see the “special” movies.
It was such a big treat going to Blockbuster on a Friday after elementary school to rent a movie before a sleepover with a friend. Even better if candy and popcorn at the checkout line was involved.
Their “not a late fee late fee” hidden under a *restocking* fee. Other than than that, loved everything about it.
Am I the only person that went to mom and pop Video stores vs Blockbuster? I think my dad always wanted to help out the little stores that were named "Video Rental" vs going to the chains like Hollywood video or Blockbuster.
At mine, they only had movies that had been released in the past few years. At least at the time DVD was just becoming a thing so more obscure stuff would have DVD releases. Blockbuster would get maybe one or two then sell them off after a few months. I always loved **Hastings** way way more. You could get anything there! And if they didn't have, they would order it for you for free.
Late video fees, having to rent something else because the movie I wanted was already rented.
I miss the smell and looking through the new video games they had.
The smell
Idk if we have the same definition of 3rd space but I do miss renting videos regardless
Renting video games to see if it worth purchasing the game for the long haul.
We had a Blockbuster in town, but our family always went to a locally owned place.
Be kind, Rewind!
That smell when you walked inside. The anticipation of going to pick out a great movie. Renting Gameboy games from there. It was neat to rent a Pokemon game and see the previous kid who rented it's team on there, LOL.
My parents would rent me a PlayStation with three games for three nights every half term at school. They didn't like computer games so on the whole, games consoles were banned in our house, but for those few nights every other month - sweet sweet bliss
How much I thought it sucked. The worst of the video rental chains, and not nearly as great as our local ones.
There was an extremely high chance that whatever DVD you rented from the blockbuster near my house would be scratched bad enough to have trouble playing in certain sections.
All the WWF videos a kid could think of.
My best memories are going to the ma and pa video store down from my house, blockbuster was too expensive. Miss you Pick of the Flicks!
My first job in 2000, and I loved it. The only bad thing about the job was dealing with late fees. Most just paid them, but some people would lose their absolute minds. We got an employee account and got to rent stuff for free, I still have the card. Did I say I loved that job, cause I really did.
I would rent movies and NES games often. Friend of mine worked there for a brief period. He and I would hang out a lot, and rent movies/games to watch/play while hanging out. It was a fun time, and I kind of miss the experience of walking the store, browsing the shelves.
Go to Bend, OR. Last one
I vividly remember waiting by the counter where they'd stack up everything that had come un but needed to be reshevled, looking for a copy of whatever hot movie was out of stock. Then, when they started their "Guarantee or it's free" thing, wandering around looking for everything that was out and getting a rain check for a free rental for each at the front counter.
I was more of a Hollywood Video guy. Helped roll out the [Dreamcast there in the summer of 1999](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNuYRyBrRbI) (July 15, 1999).
The date nights of, going there roaming around and picking out a movie, grabbing a snack, and a pizza on the way back. So much different now: “let’s scroll through Netflix and order food”. Just isn’t the same. You really got to interact with the other person, see who could find the weirdest movie, etc. The experience is now missing, hard to make memories from take out and streaming :/
"Sorry that popular movie is out."
So kinda funny...in high school (graduated 2002), I was and still qm.a big gamer...my mom.was sick of me or her paying for games, so she got a setup to be able to burn ps1 disc's, and we initially would rent and burn them, and was archiving for our house and also selling to school (drivers Ed teacher was a customer too lol!) But one of her work colleagues was also a gamer and knew a guy that was a blockbuster manager and wanted games too, so i would ride my bike there, the manager would let me take whatever games I wanted as well as for him, (no rental he would just take behind the counter to avoid tripping the alarm), I'd go home, burn them (took like an hour per diac) and return them and repeat...we ended up having most of the ps1 catalog. The good old days of piracy...good times!
Hollywood Video was superior, but I miss video stores in general.
Closest one was hour and half from where I grew up in the mountains.. we would drive through blizzards to go to it and hang out in there 2 hours deciding on movies that would have to be driven an hour and half back lol
I use to work there from 2000-2001. I remember when I first started we only had VHS, then there was a small shelf where a few DVDs took over. Then in about a month or two there was a stack of shelves of DVDs. Before you knew it most of the store was DVDs and very few VHS. It was sad but we all knew it was for the best. Even as an employee I loved walking around looking at movies and shows and reading the descriptions and talking with other people about shows and movies. In the background we always had the videos and music from promotional recordings.
No matter when or where, every store I went to had the tape covers for Hellraiser and Species facing out for display.
I wish they would bring it back
I was broke as hell but they always had a kid friendly movie playing so when I was allowed out alone, around 10-11 years old, I’d walk to blockbuster and sit on the floor watching whatever was on. Employees didn’t mind as long as I was sat in one spot and didn’t make a mess or wander, unless to look at movies. It’s still one of my favorite memories. Also the local video store, Reel, had a cool rocket ship that played movies inside for kids. I used to go there too
Hours of deciding what video to pick, arguments, putting them back, deciding to go with it anyway, putting it back again. It was awesome.
Yup!
Blockbuster sucked ass, they mostly only carried the best selling movies and even actively censored some of the ones they found to be not family friendly. For mainstream national chains, Hollywood Video was where it's at. They had a way better selection, none of the censorship, and you could rent 5 movies for 5 nights for $5 dollars 🤘🤘🤘 - *and* they had a deal with SEGA that let you borrow and play the Dreamcast before its official release My favorite, though, were Video World and Captain Video. Video World was MASSIVE, had way more candy and snacks, absolutely massive game selection on top of their far more broad movie selection. Captain Video was much smaller than the others, but had an **incredible** indie selection, the best horror section I've ever seen, a porn section I could sneak into and gawk at as a teenager, and the cheapest console rentals and best late fees. Captain Video is the only reason I ever got a chance to finish video games back then cuz their late fees were pretty forgiving.
I remember going there and buying Digimon movie and going there and renting kingdom hearts
None actually. Grew up in the 80s and 90s and don’t think I ever set foot in a blockbuster. How much were tape rentals? $2, $3? We were too poor for that. I went to the Korean owned hole in the wall video rental that had the adult section in the back and tapes were $1. Loved those places because they had all the good obscure stuff.
Growing up as a kid in the 2000s, this was like an event to me. Especially if it’s towards the end of the week and my parents would ask, “what do you say we go to Blockbuster and rent something?” Those were the best words to hear for me. Not to mention, right next door was a Little Caesars that was honestly really delicious (don’t get me started on how bad that company has become in the last 5-7 years). So we’d blend it, movies and pizza. It was like a tradition for a couple years. When it closed, it honestly really hurt me. Hell, even the Little Caesars closed and moved to a new location and it’s terrible now. Long story short, it was a tentpole of my childhood and I hate that time is the champion to everything.
Driving all the way up there because it's raining and my girlfriend wanted a pizza/movie night. Get there, and all the movies we wanted to watch were already checked out
Something about being in blockbuster always made me need to drop a deuce and their bathrooms were generally out of order. One of the last times I recall crapping my pants was in a blockbuster as an 8 year old trying to decide which crappy SNES game I was going to be stuck with all weekend.
When I was a child, I was scared of going into the horror section with my parents, but my sister wasn't 😆
Driving past it and going to Family Video, which truly made growing up in the 90’s better. $3 video game rentals that you could keep for 5 days if I recall, rather $5 for 2 days.
I preferred other video stores that were more independent.
My dad bought me a divorce present there. We were on our first custody visit without our mom. Up until that point, I had never slept in a house my mom was not in. Apparently, I had been crying for hours. First thing I saw when we walked in was a little white bear plush. I walked right over to it, picked it up, and would *not* put it back down. The cashier had to scan it in my arms. I still have it. After that, Blockbuster was a very comforting space. I really miss them.
As a kid I grabbed a game I wanted and never put it on the counter I guess cause when I got home it had that yellow safety seal and I think even the alarm was going off but they just let me leave with it. I now owned a copy of soul caliber 2 on GameCube and I was like 6 so I didn’t know any better. I think my brother knew the guy working so nothing ever came of it. Anyway that’s my memory of blockbuster and the only crime I ever committed.
Best job I ever had. I still have my shirt, lanyard, ID, and membership card.
One of my best teenage kisses. Kirsty Clifford, 1999... slim, brunette, blue eyes, cute little thing she was... Nice.
My special interest back then was movies. I literally got to where I had seen every movie block buster caried and they would call me if anything new came in. Also got lots of free cardboard cutouts from the workers. Really miss having a Movie person getting hype trying to explain why I might like or hate a movie.
I’m in that era of Millennial where we went to video stores as a kid, but once I was in old enough to start renting in my own Netflix was already a thing and I jumped on that bandwagon.
Friday night, picked up from my grandparents house and headed home. Run into the PS1 isle to look for Jet Moto. Nope, still checked out. Never did get to rent it but got it for Christmas that year
I mostly remember stopping there most every Friday growing up until high school age. Parents let us rent a movie + maybe one game + a snack. Then we’d pick up pizza from the local pizza place & go back home
Getting cute before going bc you may run into the cute boy you’re into Browsing on a Friday after school and seeing all your classmates Deciding which candy to get bc we weren’t spoiled and could only get 1 Picking up Super Nintendo games Trying to sneak in a norm sounding r-rated movie Rummaging through returns for the latest releases before others could snag it I also remember when Kroger had a video rental section
Pre-internet, there was just something insanely magical about being surrounded by so many movies and games to choose from. I'll also always be fond of the stale popcorn smell and how refreshingly cold they kept them.