Video Store Memories

It’s a Friday night and you really don’t have much going for the weekend. After a long day or week to say at your job you want to just kick back and relax for the night. The weekend is ahead of you and you have some plans that you have going on. It’s just that you need to figure out what you want to do on your Friday night.

In today’s era, we have all sorts of entertainment options that we can choose from. It could be on your home video game console or your cable/satellite provider, the options are endless. Just a few years ago you would have to go to the video store to get your entertainment for the weekend.

As for me I grew up in the 90’s where technology wasn’t all there quite yet. We didn’t have On Demand and the internet was in its infancy at the time. If you wanted to watch movies that you didn’t own you went to the video store.

In the area where I lived we had a few options over the years. We had a Mom and Pop store known as Encore Video and chain stores with Hollywood Video and Blockbuster. Encore had movies and music for the customer while the other two were your basic video rental chains. Encore eventually couldn’t keep up with the competition so they closed up shop and sold the remaining inventory to Hollywood Video in the late 90’s.

So, what were the best memories for me? Well used to love walking down the horror section and checking out all the covers. Horror video covers were always my favorite growing up and I do collect horror VHS just because of the covers. It was also a good place to rent video games as well and even buy movies they had for sale. Hollywood Video always had a 4/5 for $20 deal going on. That’s where I would get most of my movie collection.

It was also a race to see who could get the new releases first. New movies and music are released on the home market on Tuesday’s. If you didn’t get to the video store on Tuesday, good luck getting anything for a while. It took about 6 months for movies to leave the theater and get on the home market. Now it’s about a month or two and it’s there.

In 2009 Hollywood Video announced it was closing its doors. The rise of Netflix and Redbox took a huge hit on Hollywood Video’s business. Why pay rental prices when you could go to Redbox and get it for a buck? Hollywood Video had their closing sale and it faded into memories.

In 2013 Blockbuster announced it was closing as well. That ended the era of the video store for me, or so I thought. It was now all On Demand, Redbox, or Netflix. Why go to the store and chance it with a late fee or pay a little more when it is just available in the comfort in your living room. No more waiting times or having to rush for a new release. Technological upgrades what killed the video store.

Now there is one Mom and Pop store called Silver Lake Video still in business. I’ve been there a few times and it always takes me back to the days when the video store dominated the home markets. It’s always nice to go back in time occasionally and see how things used to be on the nostalgia front.

So, there you have it, those are my memories of the video store from its rise to its fall. Now do you have any memories of the video store? Do you still have that last man standing in your home town? If so feel free to share!