Video Store Memories

In all the endless scrolling that we do on Netflix and the myriad of streaming services that we now must subscribe to, I miss the leisurely stroll through a video rental store. In the 90s it was VHS until DVDs came along. It was nice to be able to walk along and look at different categories and decide if you were going to take a chance on something new or go with an old favorite. The best part was the ability to find something completely unexpected.

When I was in college, the Hollywood video in our town was a happening place on Friday nights. My friends and I would head down to the video store and see what we could dig up for the night. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for us to become well known by one of the employees who knew everything about movies. He began to offer recommendations to us that we would have never picked up otherwise. He also helped us get into foreign films. At the time, video stores was one of the few ways Americans could get overseas films as they weren’t often shown in theaters.

There’s certain magic in the ritual of going down to the video store and browsing the metal shelves. Scrolling through categories on Netflix that have been picked for you just doesn’t have the same magic as getting into your car and going down to the store. More convenient? You bet. More magical? Not really.

Video Stores were good ways to try before you bought as well. If you had a favorite thing that you were always renting, it was often better to just go ahead and buy it. Video games were similarly affected, you could try a game and if you really liked it then you could buy it. For the younger folks who couldn’t drop $60 on a AAA game, a video store rental was the ideal way to play.

While I appreciate the modern conveniences of being able to access content anywhere with an internet connection and being able to access thousands of things in the same manner, there was something comforting about the old video store. Perhaps I am reaching the age where nostalgia is taking over.

Certainly streaming has been essential for Covid-19. Can you imagine trying to figure out how to social distance at the video store? Would they have let them be open? We would have had to quarantine with cable and the networks! That would have made quarantine much worse.

In either case, I just wanted to share my fond memories of the old video store. It was sad to see them all close down at the hand of Netflix. I bought several DVDs when they closed and were selling off their stock. There are some indie films I still have carefully stashed away because they aren’t commonly available. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and all the rest are deeply missed by those of us who had fond memories of the place.