The mom-n-pop video store evaporated all about fifteen years ago. With cable television fully embedded into the culture and the Blockbuster video chain dominating the video rental industry, there was just no way the smaller independant video stores could compete and keep their doors open. One by one they started to get picked off, and they all followed the same pattern. They would first scramble to get into offering video game rentals, but new video game systems were always being introduced, so games have a habit of becoming obsolete very quickly. Then they would try to get into offering DVD, but in a store filled to the walls with their old VHS cassette tapes, there was no room, time, or money to replace all the VHS tapes with DVD discs. Once reality set in and doom was around the corner, the stores would announce they're going out of business and that all their stock was up for sale. People would rush in to buy movies, the store would get emptied out, and finally close for good. A month or two later a nail salon or a 99 cent store would open in it's place.
Each of these mom-n-pop video stores operated in the same fashion. They would have the video cassette box displayed on their shelves, but instead of a VHS tape instead, it was stuffed with styrofoam, and the movie labeled by usually a four-digit number. Depending on the store's procedure, either you brought this cassette cover to the register, or you simply gave the clerk behind the counter the four-digit code written on the cover. The clerk would then go into a back room later, and with great anticipation, they would come out and hand you the actual VHS tape which was secured in a hard plastic box that was either colored black or dark brown. The shelves were organized by genre such as comedy, action, drama, classic, sports, wrestling, and the ever alluring adult section, which would be protected from view of the rest of the store by a curtain or row of beads. As a kid if you were lucky, sometimes the curtain was bent or crooked to the point where it gave you a small field of vision to peek inside very briefly. Alot of times there would be an acarde game inside such as StreetFighter, Mortal Kombat, NARC, and WrestleFest. When a new movie was to be released to video, the store would have a poster in the front window annoucing the release was coming up. If it was a movie that was hot in the theaters, the store might have two, possibly three copies to offer the public. In the scope of things, only two or three copies for an entire neighborhood isn't enough and it was close to hitting the lottery if you were able to get a new movie within the first week of the release. To this day, I have no idea how my aunt was able to get a copy of the 1989 "Batman" we watched after Thanksgiving dinner.
To offshoot this, typically the rental for a new movie was one night only, versus two nights which was the standard for the rest of the movies. Even with the attempt to keep the new movies within frequent circulation of their customers, it was this lack of supply of new movies for the high-demanding public which led to the downfall of the mom-n-pop stores and the rise of the Blockbuster chain. When a new movie was released to video, Blockbuster's strength was that it had twenty copies available. The strength of the mom-n-pop stores were that they had more titles and 'harder to find' movies, whereas Blockbuster focused on mainstream and popular movies. What hurt Blockbuster at first was the ridiculous prices they charged for rentals. Even though they could be relied on for new releases, it still made financial sense to rely on the mom-n-pop shops for older movies. Finally, Blockbuster let go some of its ego, started charging a little less, plus were able to offer more in terms of the video games, and that was about it for the mom-n-pop stores. Near where I lived there was Joni's, Wall-to-Wall, and the last one was called K&G Video. They all faded out one by one.
There was a Blockbuster somewhat close to where I lived around 1990 or 1991, but it was about 1992 where one opened up very close to me. The store used to be a pharmacy as well as had aisles for other types of goods. The closest resemblance of that today would be like a Walgreen's, CVS, or Rite-Aid. It was quite a big deal in the neighborhood when it first opened as it was the only real type of chain establishment in the area. Going inside the first time and seeing how much bigger, brighter, and cleaner it was over the local video stores, was quite refreshing, but there was also something missing. Immediately noticeable were the missing adult sections and arcade games, but more importantly a sense of commercialism stood in the place of spirit. There used to be a sense of accomplishment if you were able to secure a copy of a newly released movie in the old stores, but when Blockbuster made fifty copies available, getting a new movie wasn't as sweet. Also, usually the older stores were being run by the owner or someone close to the owner, so you could detect they were really into the business. In fact, alot of times the owner had good knowledge of movies and talk up a small conversation about your selections while you checked them out. People working at Blockbuster was typically some high-school student on their summer job or some person looking for minimum wage work, not actually a movie fan that could offer any insight.
At least for a while, Blockbuster was able to sustain the culture of going to a video store and picking out a movie, something that had been a part of American culture since the invention of the VCR in the late 1970's. As Blockbuster was the kryptonite to the mom-n-pop video stores, the internet started to slay the once big, bad, Blockbuster. First there was NetFlix, which for a very low monthly cost offers customers a wide range of movie titles and the luxury of not having to go leave their premesis to get it. Then there's the internet itself, with legal means such as iTunes, or illegal means to be able to download about any movie. The process of actually going to the video store to pick out a movie to rent faded away to the point were its basically non-existant anymore. Blockbuster has tried to offer downloadable as well as NetFlix-style delivery options for rental, but its seriously lagging behind in the rental industry and likely to be extinct in the next few years to come. One by one, Blockbuster stores have been closing down, and recently it was announced that the one near me, which was the cool new thing back in 1992, has reached its end. Like its mom-n-pop ancestors before it, this Blockbuster has been selling off it's merchandise in a last ditch effort to make as much money as possible before its closed for good.
When it says everything is for sale, it literally means everything is on sale. Beyond the movies, they're selling the shelf fixtures, the cases, the TVs, even the ladder is up for grabs for $35. I've made a few stops inside to stock up on some DVDs over the past few weeks, although I haven't been enticed enough yet to purchase the ladder. As I made my last visit and looked at the titles of the movies still left over on the shelf, something struck a chord in my head. Sure one can look at the internet, satillite/cable television, and NetFlix for the demise of Blockbuster, but I realized something else probably stopped the people from coming, the movies. With the mom-n-pop stores gone, Blockbuster became the lone representative of the movie rental world, and their focus was always the new releases and mainstream pop culture movies over the wide variety and 'hard-to-reach' titles. If the product was good, I think the people would've kept coming. Not to say there were no bad movies before the year 2000, but looking at the movies left in that Blockbuster there seems to have been an absolute total saturation of trashy productions after 2000. Since Blockbuster became the first line of communication between the movies and the public with low cost rentals, the public must have saw less use coming into the place. With epic releases such as "How She Move", "Zombie Strippers", "Lake Placid 3"(didn't even know there was a 2), and "American Poop", why would anyone want to go into Blockbuster anymore? I couldn't answer the question, I could just give the inside of Blockbuster (the last part of the American culture of video renting) one final look and say goodbye. We'll never see it again.
Whereas we once took a journey to the local video store to decide between Indiana Jones or Star Wars, we now get to sit on our couch and download "American Poop" to our iPhone...
Each of these mom-n-pop video stores operated in the same fashion. They would have the video cassette box displayed on their shelves, but instead of a VHS tape instead, it was stuffed with styrofoam, and the movie labeled by usually a four-digit number. Depending on the store's procedure, either you brought this cassette cover to the register, or you simply gave the clerk behind the counter the four-digit code written on the cover. The clerk would then go into a back room later, and with great anticipation, they would come out and hand you the actual VHS tape which was secured in a hard plastic box that was either colored black or dark brown. The shelves were organized by genre such as comedy, action, drama, classic, sports, wrestling, and the ever alluring adult section, which would be protected from view of the rest of the store by a curtain or row of beads. As a kid if you were lucky, sometimes the curtain was bent or crooked to the point where it gave you a small field of vision to peek inside very briefly. Alot of times there would be an acarde game inside such as StreetFighter, Mortal Kombat, NARC, and WrestleFest. When a new movie was to be released to video, the store would have a poster in the front window annoucing the release was coming up. If it was a movie that was hot in the theaters, the store might have two, possibly three copies to offer the public. In the scope of things, only two or three copies for an entire neighborhood isn't enough and it was close to hitting the lottery if you were able to get a new movie within the first week of the release. To this day, I have no idea how my aunt was able to get a copy of the 1989 "Batman" we watched after Thanksgiving dinner.
To offshoot this, typically the rental for a new movie was one night only, versus two nights which was the standard for the rest of the movies. Even with the attempt to keep the new movies within frequent circulation of their customers, it was this lack of supply of new movies for the high-demanding public which led to the downfall of the mom-n-pop stores and the rise of the Blockbuster chain. When a new movie was released to video, Blockbuster's strength was that it had twenty copies available. The strength of the mom-n-pop stores were that they had more titles and 'harder to find' movies, whereas Blockbuster focused on mainstream and popular movies. What hurt Blockbuster at first was the ridiculous prices they charged for rentals. Even though they could be relied on for new releases, it still made financial sense to rely on the mom-n-pop shops for older movies. Finally, Blockbuster let go some of its ego, started charging a little less, plus were able to offer more in terms of the video games, and that was about it for the mom-n-pop stores. Near where I lived there was Joni's, Wall-to-Wall, and the last one was called K&G Video. They all faded out one by one.
There was a Blockbuster somewhat close to where I lived around 1990 or 1991, but it was about 1992 where one opened up very close to me. The store used to be a pharmacy as well as had aisles for other types of goods. The closest resemblance of that today would be like a Walgreen's, CVS, or Rite-Aid. It was quite a big deal in the neighborhood when it first opened as it was the only real type of chain establishment in the area. Going inside the first time and seeing how much bigger, brighter, and cleaner it was over the local video stores, was quite refreshing, but there was also something missing. Immediately noticeable were the missing adult sections and arcade games, but more importantly a sense of commercialism stood in the place of spirit. There used to be a sense of accomplishment if you were able to secure a copy of a newly released movie in the old stores, but when Blockbuster made fifty copies available, getting a new movie wasn't as sweet. Also, usually the older stores were being run by the owner or someone close to the owner, so you could detect they were really into the business. In fact, alot of times the owner had good knowledge of movies and talk up a small conversation about your selections while you checked them out. People working at Blockbuster was typically some high-school student on their summer job or some person looking for minimum wage work, not actually a movie fan that could offer any insight.
At least for a while, Blockbuster was able to sustain the culture of going to a video store and picking out a movie, something that had been a part of American culture since the invention of the VCR in the late 1970's. As Blockbuster was the kryptonite to the mom-n-pop video stores, the internet started to slay the once big, bad, Blockbuster. First there was NetFlix, which for a very low monthly cost offers customers a wide range of movie titles and the luxury of not having to go leave their premesis to get it. Then there's the internet itself, with legal means such as iTunes, or illegal means to be able to download about any movie. The process of actually going to the video store to pick out a movie to rent faded away to the point were its basically non-existant anymore. Blockbuster has tried to offer downloadable as well as NetFlix-style delivery options for rental, but its seriously lagging behind in the rental industry and likely to be extinct in the next few years to come. One by one, Blockbuster stores have been closing down, and recently it was announced that the one near me, which was the cool new thing back in 1992, has reached its end. Like its mom-n-pop ancestors before it, this Blockbuster has been selling off it's merchandise in a last ditch effort to make as much money as possible before its closed for good.
When it says everything is for sale, it literally means everything is on sale. Beyond the movies, they're selling the shelf fixtures, the cases, the TVs, even the ladder is up for grabs for $35. I've made a few stops inside to stock up on some DVDs over the past few weeks, although I haven't been enticed enough yet to purchase the ladder. As I made my last visit and looked at the titles of the movies still left over on the shelf, something struck a chord in my head. Sure one can look at the internet, satillite/cable television, and NetFlix for the demise of Blockbuster, but I realized something else probably stopped the people from coming, the movies. With the mom-n-pop stores gone, Blockbuster became the lone representative of the movie rental world, and their focus was always the new releases and mainstream pop culture movies over the wide variety and 'hard-to-reach' titles. If the product was good, I think the people would've kept coming. Not to say there were no bad movies before the year 2000, but looking at the movies left in that Blockbuster there seems to have been an absolute total saturation of trashy productions after 2000. Since Blockbuster became the first line of communication between the movies and the public with low cost rentals, the public must have saw less use coming into the place. With epic releases such as "How She Move", "Zombie Strippers", "Lake Placid 3"(didn't even know there was a 2), and "American Poop", why would anyone want to go into Blockbuster anymore? I couldn't answer the question, I could just give the inside of Blockbuster (the last part of the American culture of video renting) one final look and say goodbye. We'll never see it again.
Whereas we once took a journey to the local video store to decide between Indiana Jones or Star Wars, we now get to sit on our couch and download "American Poop" to our iPhone...
Be it a physical rental store or an online option, watching movies will never die. I share my tales of video stores, before Blockbuster, with some of my younger co-workers at DISH, and they look at me as if I was shopping with Abe Lincoln himself! I was one of those little kids who loved to walk through aisles of colorful movie covers and who loved when it was my birthday because that meant I got to pick out two movies instead of just one. Now that I’m much older, and the grey is starting to come in faster than I can dye it, my love for movies and browsing covers hasn’t changed. I have the newest form of Blockbuster from DISH called Blockbuster @Home. It may not be the same as leaving the house to race for a copy, but it is a lot more convenient since I can stream thousands of titles and I can rent DVDs, Blu-rays, and video games by mail. When the grandkids come over we watch or play the freshly arrived disc, or we pick a movie to watch together if we’re waiting on one in the mail. It’s definitely more cost effective than what my parents paid because it’s only $10 a month for the whole kit and caboodle. Video entertainment has certainly changed a lot since I was young, but it has truly changed for the better!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story, Kate. I totally agree that selecting movies and other entertainment goods have become much more convenient to where you can do everything from home, and the fact watching movies will never die, but wouldn't it be more fun to take the grandkids to a video store so they too can browse through the aisles of colorful movie covers as you used to love to do as a child? Perhaps there's an ice cream place next door and you can make a whole event out of it. Nowadays, the convenience factor of selecting something online has taken the whole luster out of the "event" of getting a movie which was a big part of Americana. Same how the convenience of TV at home led to the downfall of the great palace movie theaters of the 1940's-50's as well as going to a drive-in, which I wish I could've experienced.
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