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Who remembers video rental outlets?

Metalhead

Metalhead

Video game and movie addict. All for gay pride.
V.I.P Member
I remember being a teenager and taking my money from my PT job to the local video rental place, going through the anime section, and renting all of the new releases for the weekend. I also remember going through the horror section and renting the movies that had the most sensational cover art, a lot of which I cannot post on this forum.

Video streaming is nice, but there also lacks the social angle of renting a stack of tapes and inviting the bros over for binge watching sessions.

Who else here remembers VHS rental outlets and how awesome they were in the ‘80s and ‘90s?
 
Walking around the video store was almost as good as watching any video. But don’t get your heart set on anything, because there were only so many copies available.
 
I have fonder memories of buying a TV Guide each week and on my lunch hour I'd highlight all the movies on cable I wanted to record. Created a nice videotape collection before moving onto buying videotapes when Paramount was the first distributor to sell them for around $26. Otherwise prerecorded videotapes often cost around $100. Of course once the tapes became cheaper, then the rental shops popped up everywhere.

I remember spending a lot in 1981 for a high-end Mitsubishi VCR and later a fantastic 20 inch Mitsubishi Monitor that had built-in DBX noise reduction and its own audio amplifier with stereo speaker outputs.

All that for two hundred and twenty lines of resolution. It was amazing back then....ROTFL. :rolleyes:
 
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One of my favorite childhood memories... including my brother yelling at me for always getting the same video every single time...

(My small town had a Hollywood Video).
 
I'm a bit on the younger side here (I say when I'm turning 27 this year) but there used to be a Blockbuster about a mile from my house and my grandparents had a reward system for me when I was in elementary school: if I got an A+ on a test, then I could go to Blockbuster and rent a video as a reward. If I got straight A's on my report card (which IIRC we got report cards every couple of months, I believe), then not only could I go to Blockbuster and rent something but we'd also stop at the local pizza place and get me a pizza and some soda as a reward.

I still 'rent' DVDs to this day, but I just borrow them from the library instead cause the video rental stores are all gone. But the vibe is sort of still there, y'know. Just minus the late fees cause my county's library system abolished late fees last year.
 
In the early 80s, every small town got a small, independent video store. They started popping up in other places, too. A convenience store in town put in a video rental section, as did the local drug store. I remember a comedian making a joke about that: "My wife went to the gynecologist: she said she has endometriosis and Amadeus. I asked her if it was serious. She said, parts of it, but the music is wonderful!"

The selection in our small town was rather limited, and they would get pretty irritated if you were late returning something. The convenience store would have great movie posters that they would give you after the film had been out for a while, but they were spoiled by the fact that he would write all over them.

By the mid-90s I was dating a woman who lived close enough to a Blockbuster. I was able to see a great variety of interesting movies during that time.
 
And don't forget... who forgot to do this...confess!!! :p
Be-Kind-Rewind-Labels.jpg
 
Yes..
I have 2 positive memories involving a Blockbuster from back then.

1.
I saved up enough allowance to buy my very own MP3 player. The cheapest one I could find was sold in a Blockbuster. 8 MB of storage. Before that I had my trusty portable cassette player I got 2nd hand from my uncle. I was very proud of actually buying my very own brand new fancy thing. It had a limit of about 8 songs, so every evening I changed some of the songs, so it was always refreshing listening to something new on my daily bike rides to and from school.

2.
Both my mum and stepdad had to leave for the evening, and it would be my first night home alone without a babysitter. I was allowed to rent 1 movie and buy 1 bag of snacks and 1 soft drink.
At that time I was very much into learning about WW2, and Der Untergang (Downfall) was just released on DVD. So I watched that movie while eating snacks I picked out all by myself. I had a wonderful time, enjoying a movie about a topic I was deeply interested in.

To this day WW2 is still very much interesting to me, especially the end of it with the Soviet's push in Eastern Europe. Liberation of camps, the weapons they used (PPSH, SVT, armored vehicles and so on).
 
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Yeshuasdaughter said:
I like video rental way more than streaming. Even though there are thousands of movies available to stream, most of them kind of suck, or they cost $3.99 for a 48 hour rental.

I'd rather check out movies at the library, honestly.
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I'm not even sure streaming will survive in the long run. Netflix, Peacock and Paramount+ are all operating in the red.

It makes for a poor investment when shows like "Star Trek: Discovery" are taken off the air over financial woes. Even at the end of their fifth season. But I only see the seasons based on their DVD's- not streaming.
 
Yeshuasdaughter said:
I like video rental way more than streaming. Even though there are thousands of movies available to stream, most of them kind of suck, or they cost $3.99 for a 48 hour rental.

I'd rather check out movies at the library, honestly.
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Don't forget that with video rental (and just physical media in general), you're not beholden to license and rights issues that can result in movies being taken off streaming services.

Doesn't matter if a movie goes out of print or the company who released it later loses the license for it if it's a physical product, they can't go out and take back all the copies.
 
Judge said:
I'm not even sure streaming will survive in the long run. Netflix, Peacock and Paramount+ are all operating in the red.
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Well, maybe if Netflix stopped cancelling their most popular series, they would still be in the black like they once were.
 
Metalhead said:
Well, maybe if Netflix stopped cancelling their most popular series, they would still be in the black like they once were.
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I don't really know. Though one thing I do know is that the networks don't seem to understand it all either.

So it makes streaming media seem like a "bait and switch" operation leaving people to cancel their subscriptions. So folks like me just wait patiently for the optical disc.
 
Remember when TV shows were generally allowed to grow in popularity organically instead of being cancelled as soon as they get released because they don't immediately blow up to the top of the charts?

Good times.
 
Judge said:
I don't really know. Though one thing I do know is that the networks don't seem to understand it all either.

So it makes streaming media seem like a "bait and switch" operation leaving people to cancel their subscriptions. So folks like me just wait patiently for the optical disc.
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I tend to buy a lot of movies in the streaming form due to the convenience and the lower cost in comparison to the discs. Probably not the wisest choice, but it already is a wiser choice than my decision to invest in HD DVD.
 
Princess Viola said:
Remember when TV shows were generally allowed to grow in popularity organically instead of being cancelled as soon as they get released because they don't immediately blow up to the top of the charts?

Good times.
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Except perhaps for Gilligan's Island. Which did well in the ratings. However the Network CEO's wife at the time wanted Gunsmoke back in that time slot. When corruption won out over ratings.
 
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