Video Rental Stores

[Shorty]

Who else misses the novelty of aimlessly wandering around video stores for hours upon hours? It really makes me sad to see all of the Blockbusters and local independent video rental stores going out of business. Damn you, Redbox :aimmad:

Let's share the best and worst finds we've happened upon at video stores. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has been the best random find so far. Secret Window has been the worst that I can think of right now.

[Pike]

Remember back in the day when there was still a Betamax section at the video rental stores?

Also: the magic of walking up and down the SNES/Sega Genesis rental aisles. I will never forget that magic.

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/8179/350662-big_boss_salute_super.jpg

[Jinx]

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q345/maestra_suz/superstar.jpg

I'm the Rewind Girl at Kip's Video Palace.

[Jiro]

We still have them in abundance.

[Jowy]

I miss trolling around the video store for hours only to just leave with Clerks on VHS and Chrono Trigger for the hundredth time. I also got free buncha crunch and cherry coke all the time when I worked there!

[Lonely Paper Star]

There was one I would go to in Austin called I <3 Video that had nearly every kind of genre you could ask for: mainstream films, indie, obscure, etc. There was also a back room where the porn, stoner movies, and gore were.

But now I've moved away from Austin into suburbs and it's nothing but Redbox here. All the Blockbusters closed. And there are no smaller video rental places here like I <3 Video. D:

[Sephex]

Rented two video games from Blockbuster in 2001. The rental time was two nights.

11 dollars.

Never looked back.

[Laddy]

Man do I miss those. I played so many great games because of them. :(

[Pike]

Once we rented Majora's Mask and I played it nonstop, but then we took it back before I could beat it. I was so depressed.

[Agent Proto]

Yeah, I never got to complete games I had rented from Blockbuster, or other similar rental stores. It's a shame that the industry is pretty much dead thanks to RedBox and services like Hulu. One of the things I liked to do was browse the aisles reading about movies I may find interesting. My parents would only pick up a couple at a time, so we had to pick something the whole family would have to enjoy together. Sometimes we were also allowed to pick up a game to rent as well, granted the game was available. Most of the best games were taken, so it's pretty hard to get a rental copy of some popular games.

[Del Murder]

I still have my copy of Final Fantasy III that I rented from Eastman Video in 1995.

[Raistlin]

I used to love renting random SNES, PS1, and early N64 games from game stores. I rented games way more than movies as a kid, though I haven't been to a video rental place in many, many years.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I used to love renting video games; we were poor and didn't get to buy many. :(

[Pike]

I also remember that you could rent entire consoles for a while, that was how I played NES games because we never actually owned an NES :)

[Zeldy]

I work at Blockbuster and I get 10 free rentals a week, huzzah

[Jiro]

I also remember that you could rent entire consoles for a while, that was how I played NES games because we never actually owned an NES :)

That's how I got to play any Nintendo games. Fucking good times Pike.

[Unbreakable Will]

I live in Springfield, TN which is an incredibly small town where mostly everyone still uses a video store so I still get to experience it when I can afford it. It's called Captain Video. Cute eh?
:jess:

[Del Murder]

I work at Blockbuster
Hope your resume is up to date.

[Jowy]

I work at Blockbuster
Hope your resume is up to date.

Blockbuster is huge in England though! I was just as shocked myself.

[Shiny]

There was this local video store that I would go to every Friday after school with my dad and we'd rent a few movies. I'd always get a Bruce Lee film, a horror film, and then maybe something else that I really wanted to see.

They sold VHS tapes, and then they started selling Nintendo games which was great. I really do miss that place and was gutted when they turned in it to a friggin' winery after troutty Blockbuster got big and Redbox came along.

I was listening to the radio where Louis C.K. was talking about how all these big corporate stores are the cause for all these mom and pop places to disappear. You will never find anything as great as the personable experience of going to a local deli, book store, coffee house, or video rental place. Blockbuster just doesn't compare. Redbox and Blockbuster don't even have a large enough selection and are not interested in ordering special selections for you either like a local one would. In fact many of the movies Redbox have are terrible straight to DVD movies.

[Crop]

I have no idea what any of you are talking about. I still have a video store near me, and they do an awesome offer of renting three movies for £3 for a night. Every month or so me and a couple of friends will go to the section with awful, random movies and pick one out each and then all spend the evening together watching them with popcorn and coke! Great fun.

[Zeldy]

I work at Blockbuster
Hope your resume is up to date.

Blockbuster is huge in England though! I was just as shocked myself.

Nah, my jobs secure :jess: We have a 50% and 'Everything must go' on all our games at the minute and people keep asking if we're closing down. If anything, we have too much stock and need to make room.

I hope the rental stores never go here, not just so I can keep my job, but if where I work was to close down, there would actually be no shops in my town to buy games or films other than the supermarket. With Game and Gamestation in turmoil, Blockbuster is now doing pretty damn good; our store took in a record amount with Fifa 13, and I imagine Black Ops 2 will be even better and I'll be working the midnight launch for that and I'm excited. (The blockbusters here dont just rent but we also sell)

People do tell me that I love my job a little too much, though. I just get enthusiastic in recommending things to people. :}

[blackmage_nuke]

I dont miss it so much as there are three second hand stores on my way home from the station and I usually pop in to see if there are any cheap rare gems to snatch. (Vhs tapes are like $2)

[Clo]

I don't really miss them. Netflix is awesome.

[CimminyCricket]

I do miss walking around crop dusting people while I look for movies. There is nothing like picking up a DVD case, reading the back letting a little bit go and getting out of there before people can wonder why the horror section smells so bad.

[Zeldy]

I do miss walking around crop dusting people while I look for movies. There is nothing like picking up a DVD case, reading the back letting a little bit go and getting out of there before people can wonder why the horror section smells so bad.

I do often wonder why the store smells bad sometimes. The worst is when I serve a customer and it's a strange moment when they can see that I smell it, and that I know that it could only have been them, and it's an unspoken thing.

My favourite is the stoned customers though. Cause all my colleagues are very against drugs, and I just pretend to be like that too, but I can't help sometimes give the clearly stoned customer a look on the sly with a smirk as they pile bags of popcorn on top of a single 99p rental.

[CimminyCricket]

I do miss walking around crop dusting people while I look for movies. There is nothing like picking up a DVD case, reading the back letting a little bit go and getting out of there before people can wonder why the horror section smells so bad.

I do often wonder why the store smells bad sometimes. The worst is when I serve a customer and it's a strange moment when they can see that I smell it, and that I know that it could only have been them, and it's an unspoken thing.

My favourite is the stoned customers though. Cause all my colleagues are very against drugs, and I just pretend to be like that too, but I can't help sometimes give the clearly stoned customer a look on the sly with a smirk as they pile bags of popcorn on top of a single 99p rental.

I never did it when I knew it could be traced back to me, that's just rude. But you're right about the unspoken acknowledgement through eye contact thing. It's always horrible when it smelled worse than you thought it would and you look up or behind you and you see someone looking at you and you have to try and give them the same disgusted "did you shit yourself?" look.

Stoned customers can be pretty awesome to watch in nearly any store.