I Miss Video Stores

[Wes Mantooth]

Let me just say that I understand that this title may come across similar to "Old man yells at cloud". I realize it may make me old just to gripe about video stores disappearing. And that's ok. I'm still going to gripe though.

So yeah, I really miss going to the video store. Part of that may be nostalgia, but I think I have good reason to think it was, and still is, a far superior option to what we have now. And I'm curious to hear what everyone else thinks. I guess I'll make my case for why they were awesome...

1.) I don't always know what I want to watch. Sometimes the best movie to watch is one you completely forgot about, or you haven't heard of. There not a simple way to just scroll through random titles these days. You really either have to know what you want, or you stuck side-scrolling through about the same 50 movies on Netflix.

I don't watch a lot of tv, so I don't see a lot of movie trailers. And if I did see one I have a short attention span. That trailer is forgotten two weeks later. There's all kinds of movies that get made nowadays that I don't know about. And I would if there was still a store I could just walk up and down the wall to check it out.

2.) If you do want to look at a ton of different options now it can take quite awhile. Yeah, the world wild interweb is crazy convenient and it more often that not made everything an easier task. Just not video browsing.

If you went to the video store, which I'm sure almost all of you did, you know what I'm talking about here. You got to almost be an expert scanning the new release wall. It was like a 6th sense. You can walk by about 150 movies in about 2 minutes and gather all the info you need. By looking at the box, how many copies they had, who was in it, etc. You might see a pair of nice cans out of the corner of your eye, 4 aisles over, and think "I'm renting those titties". You know how long that would take to do scrolling through 500 titles on Amazon?

Do you want to know who's in the movie, when it was made, how long is is. Just look at the box. Take the .05 seconds it's take to look at and instantly recognize who the stars are. Want to do that on Netflix. Sure, no problem. Just scroll down to more info, click on it, wait 5 seconds for another page to load, click on starring, wait another 5 seconds, decide you don't want to watch, back out of that page, then back out of that page, and you're back to where you started. Take that vs simply turning your head.

3.) The cost. Blockbuster always ran either .99 cent old rentals, or some 2 for 1 deal. Either way, you could old movies for a buck, and you got them for a week. You want to watch Goonies today? Netflix doesn't have. Amazon Prime doesn't have it. Hulu doesn't have it. You're going to have to rent it on Amazon or Itunes. It'll probably cost you 3 or 4 bucks. And you better watch in a day or you're renting it again. Want to watch tonight and save it for your kids for the weekend. You're renting it twice.

Blockbuster also had some deal where you paid like 20 bucks a month and you got a new release every week, unlimited old movies, and I think a game rental. It was an unbelievable deal if you used it enough. And was even better with the online thing cuz you could take your dvd mailers in the store to exchange for new releases.

4.) The demise of the video market killed a lot of middle range of movie deals. Now it's either almost all huge blockbusters or indies. (Huge budgets and small budgets) There's no money in the in-between stuff cuz they used to make all their money in vhs and dvd sales. The big problem for me is a lot of my favorites movies would never get made now. Tommy Boy? Forget about it. Waynes World (the first one). Nope. Office Space, Happy Gilmore, Airheads. None of those would get financed now. That's why movies like Super Troopers 2 have to be crowd-funded. No studio is paying for that movie. Look at the quality of Joe Dirt (studio money) vs Joe Dirt 2.

5.) The trip the store was kind of fun. You run into people you know occasionally, you get to know the employees, you get to ask their opinions, you maybe pick up some pizza or something real close to the store. I think there's value in all of that. And grabbing a copy of something you weren't sure would be in or that's been out came with a satisfaction that isn't replicated.

6.) If you like owning movies you could not beat the deals. You could get 4 Pre Viewed new release for like 15-20 bucks. It was great. And that's when DVD's were as much as Blu-Rays are now.

What do you guys think? Am I nuts? I just know a lot of nights I want to watch a movie and no idea what. Trying to find something is kind of exhausting, only to find out Netflix doesn't have it, and I don't want to pay 5 bucks to watch The Program or The Blair Witch or something.

[treee]

Damn man your post was a trip down memory lane. Thanks for this. I miss walking through the video store. As far as "time wasting" goes, the video store was seriously one of the best ways. I miss it too. Especially with the report with the clerks like having your own personal movie critic.

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

(10-07-2016, 02:08 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: Let me just say that I understand that this title may come across similar to "Old man yells at cloud".  I realize it may make me old just to gripe about video stores disappearing.  And that's ok.  I'm still going to gripe though.

So yeah, I really miss going to the video store.  Part of that may be nostalgia, but I think I have good reason to think it was, and still is, a far superior option to what we have now.  And I'm curious to hear what everyone else thinks.  I guess I'll make my case for why they were awesome...

1.) I don't always know what I want to watch.  Sometimes the best movie to watch is one you completely forgot about, or you haven't heard of.  There not a simple way to just scroll through random titles these days.  You really either have to know what you want, or you stuck side-scrolling through about the same 50 movies on Netflix.

I don't watch a lot of tv, so I don't see a lot of movie trailers.  And if I did see one I have a short attention span.  That trailer is forgotten two weeks later.  There's all kinds of movies that get made nowadays that I don't know about.  And I would if there was still a store I could just walk up and down the wall to check it out.

2.) If you do want to look at a ton of different options now it can take quite awhile.  Yeah, the world wild interweb is crazy convenient and it more often that not made everything an easier task.  Just not video browsing.

If you went to the video store, which I'm sure almost all of you did, you know what I'm talking about here.  You got to almost be an expert scanning the new release wall.  It was like a 6th sense.  You can walk by about 150 movies in about 2 minutes and gather all the info you need.  By looking at the box, how many copies they had, who was in it, etc.  You might see a pair of nice cans out of the corner of your eye, 4 aisles over, and think "I'm renting those titties".  You know how long that would take to do scrolling through 500 titles on Amazon?

Do you want to know who's in the movie, when it was made, how long is is.  Just look at the box.  Take the .05 seconds it's take to look at and instantly recognize who the stars are.  Want to do that on Netflix.  Sure, no problem.  Just scroll down to more info, click on it, wait 5 seconds for another page to load, click on starring, wait another 5 seconds, decide you don't want to watch, back out of that page, then back out of that page, and you're back to where you started.  Take that vs simply turning your head.

3.) The cost.  Blockbuster always ran either .99 cent old rentals, or some 2 for 1 deal.  Either way, you could old movies for a buck, and you got them for a week.  You want to watch Goonies today?  Netflix doesn't have.  Amazon Prime doesn't have it.  Hulu doesn't have it.  You're going to have to rent it on Amazon or Itunes.  It'll probably cost you 3 or 4 bucks.  And you better watch in a day or you're renting it again.  Want to watch tonight and save it for your kids for the weekend.  You're renting it twice.

Blockbuster also had some deal where you paid like 20 bucks a month and you got a new release every week, unlimited old movies, and I think a game rental.  It was an unbelievable deal if you used it enough.  And was even better with the online thing cuz you could take your dvd mailers in the store to exchange for new releases.

4.) The demise of the video market killed a lot of middle range of movie deals.  Now it's either almost all huge blockbusters or indies. (Huge budgets and small budgets) There's no money in the in-between stuff cuz they used to make all their money in vhs and dvd sales.  The big problem for me is a lot of my favorites movies would never get made now.  Tommy Boy?  Forget about it.  Waynes World (the first one).  Nope.  Office Space, Happy Gilmore, Airheads.  None of those would get financed now.  That's why movies like Super Troopers 2 have to be crowd-funded.  No studio is paying for that movie.  Look at the quality of Joe Dirt (studio money) vs Joe Dirt 2.

5.) The trip the store was kind of fun.  You run into people you know occasionally, you get to know the employees, you get to ask their opinions, you maybe pick up some pizza or something real close to the store.  I think there's value in all of that.  And grabbing a copy of something you weren't sure would be in or that's been out came with a satisfaction that isn't replicated.

6.) If you like owning movies you could not beat the deals.  You could get 4 Pre Viewed new release for like 15-20 bucks.  It was great.  And that's when DVD's were as much as Blu-Rays are now.

What do you guys think?  Am I nuts?  I just know a lot of nights I want to watch a movie and no idea what.  Trying to find something is kind of exhausting, only to find out Netflix doesn't have it, and I don't want to pay 5 bucks to watch The Program or The Blair Witch or something.

I agree with you for all the reasons you stated.  That being said, I do like Movies on Demand through Time Warner.  Late at night and nothing's on TV, I can usually find something good for free.  For those that aren't familiar with it, the newer releases you pay for, the older ones are free.  The only downside is that the free selection changes continually, the ones they're advertising anyway.  You can get other free movies, but you have to know what you want, because they're listed alphabetically but not by title. Something like "search movies listed A-C, D-F, G-I...etc. 

[Wes Mantooth]

I guess it all depends on how you like to browse and if you know what you're looking for. I had a debate with a younger guy at work about this and of course he kept mentioning the convenience of searching at home (Good point) and be able to find something in an instant at starting it immediately (another good point). But that just doesn't apply to me as much as someone like him I guess.

There were so many video stores at the peak that I never felt like I was going out of my way to stop in there. It was either right on my way home, and/or it was near a Kroger, or Walgreens, or food place, that I'd just kind of make the stop as part of another trip. I'll do my grocery shop and rent some movies/I'll pick up my prescription and rent some movies/I'll pick up dinner and rent some movies. It never seemed like an inconvenience to go in there.

For anyone that has HBO Go and you want to look through "all available movies", which I would guess is around 200, it will take you at least 20 minutes to scroll through them. And I feel like I'm flying through the screens too. "Nope, nope, no, not a chance, next..." It's not like I'm stopping to think over every one or clicking on the info. And half the time I get so far ahead that I have to stop to let the next row movies load. I spend 20 minutes to look through what was one wall at Blockbuster, and usually watch nothing.

I feel like I could go into Blockbuster, take my time to find a couple new releases, and grab a handful of old movies (say 2 or 3), maybe browse the bargain bin, and be in and out of the store in less than 20 minutes. And I'd be set movie-wise for a week.

Maybe I just browse movies like an old fogey or something. I just know it's a slower process for me now to look through way less a selection.

[Wes Mantooth]

(10-07-2016, 02:44 AM)RICHMONDBENGAL_07 Wrote: I agree with you for all the reasons you stated.  That being said, I do like Movies on Demand through Time Warner.  Late at night and nothing's on TV, I can usually find something good for free.  For those that aren't familiar with it, the newer releases you pay for, the older ones are free.  The only downside is that the free selection changes continually, the ones they're advertising anyway.  You can get other free movies, but you have to know what you want, because they're listed alphabetically but not by title. Something like "search movies listed A-C, D-F, G-I...etc. 

I finally cut the cord a few years ago so I never really got to use a lot of the on-demand stuff.  It's definitely a cool thing to have, like you said especially if it's late.  Or maybe it snows, you're sick, etc.  It definitely beats the old days when you were stuck either watching Police Academy 3 Citizens on Patrol for the 15th time on Comedy Central or the Great Outdoors on TBS, and that was it(great movies by the way).

I think today's kids are really missing out on that group trip with your friends to the video store, and gearing up for a sleepover.  Grab a bad ass game, make sure to laugh for the millionth time when you pass the Frankenhooker box, try to convince your mom to let you watch Revenge of the Nerds 1, b/c it's funny, but when you all really want to see some bush, wonder why the box of I Spit on Your Grave is in that weird oversized box (does anyone remember those), and then rent a stack of comedy movies.  Ahhh, good times.

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

(10-07-2016, 02:58 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I guess it all depends on how you like to browse and if you know what you're looking for.  I had a debate with a younger guy at work about this and of course he kept mentioning the convenience of searching at home (Good point) and be able to find something in an instant at starting it immediately (another good point).  But that just doesn't apply to me as much as someone like him I guess.

There were so many video stores at the peak that I never felt like I was going out of my way to stop in there.  It was either right on my way home, and/or it was near a Kroger, or Walgreens, or food place, that I'd just kind of make the stop as part of another trip.  I'll do my grocery shop and rent some movies/I'll pick up my prescription and rent some movies/I'll pick up dinner and rent some movies.  It never seemed like an inconvenience to go in there.

For anyone that has HBO Go and you want to look through "all available movies", which I would guess is around 200, it will take you at least 20 minutes to scroll through them.  And I feel like I'm flying through the screens too.  "Nope, nope, no, not a chance, next..."  It's not like I'm stopping to think over every one or clicking on the info.  And half the time I get so far ahead that I have to stop to let the next row movies load.  I spend 20 minutes to look through what was one wall at Blockbuster, and usually watch nothing.

I feel like I could go into Blockbuster, take my time to find a couple new releases, and grab a handful of old movies (say 2 or 3), maybe browse the bargain bin, and be in and out of the store in less than 20 minutes.  And I'd be set movie-wise for a week.

Maybe I just browse movies like an old fogey or something.  I just know it's a slower process for me now to look through way less a selection.

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with you.  It was purely by accident that I discovered movies on demand, because of my son (he's 16 yrs old).  I forget what actually happened, nothing crazy, but he said something like "yea I saw it on movies on demand" and I was like "what? that's going to charge us extra! "  Then he told me no and told me about the free movie options.  I'm an old fogey too, it's amazing to me that there are people that weren't around before the internet, smart phones and cable.  Hell I'm only 43yrs old.  But I'm sure every generation feels the same when they're getting passed by.

[BFritz21]

I'm trying to think of the name of the old store we used to go to when I was growing up in Fort Mitchell. I want to say it was called "Video Village" but that almost seems too obvious.

I agree, though, because it was great to just be able to walk through aisles and find movies and things that you hadn't even realized that you wanted to watch.

Was also cool to rent games on Nintendo and Sega.

[BengalsRocker]

Okay. So I'm a horrible person.

I remember video store follies.

Like grabbing that last new release off the wall while people were contemplating whether or not to rent it.

Usually a couple, who were going back and forth whether they could agree on renting it.

Snooze... ya loose.

And the epic "let's put some crap video behind the new release that people really want to see" and watch people get excited there's a copy left!

Only to see either 1)deflation(wah wah wah wah) or 2)take it all the way up to the rental counter before realizing it wasn't it.

Of course that was before places like Blockbuster started making 30 copies of a new release on the wall.

Yeah. Me and my brother were dicks. LOL

[BengalsRocker]

Might I add that music stores were enjoyable as well?

I actually met a long time friend while looking at records, tapes, CDs back in the day.

I believe besides the love of vinyl, that's one reason record stores have re-surged is the experience of browsing.

[StoneTheCrow]

Yes. Walking into Blockbuster and going straight to the left. Only to end up on the right side of the store with 2 or 3 new releases in your hand. On a lucky day Mom might even let you rent Road Rash or the newest Mortal Kombat.

[*jason*]

There's still a chain holding on for dear life in the Dayton area.... Family Video. I don't know how it's stayed in business, but it has.

[bengal_fan_in_toronto]

I say the same thing all the time. Miss the social aspect of talking to the clerks and the getting off your ass and going to the blockbuster. I had one a block up the road I'd walk over too every Sunday to rent a movie.

[XenoMorph]

(10-07-2016, 09:38 AM)jason Wrote: There's still a chain holding on for dear life in the Dayton area.... Family Video. I don't know how it's stayed in business, but it has.

must be a front...

[BengalsRocker]

(10-07-2016, 09:38 AM)jason Wrote: There's still a chain holding on for dear life in the Dayton area.... Family Video. I don't know how it's stayed in business, but it has.

There's at least one of those in Columbus.

It's in da hood.

[*jason*]

(10-07-2016, 11:47 AM)BengalsRocker Wrote: There's at least one of those in Columbus.

It's in da hood.

Hilltop or Bottoms?... Or both?

[BengalsRocker]

(10-07-2016, 11:49 AM)jason Wrote: Hilltop or Bottoms?... Or both?

Neither.  It's that grey area between Whitehall and Columbus on Main Street.

Not exactly in warzones but not where you wanna be hangin' after dark either. 

People get robbed frequently at that Walmart which is pretty close by.

[Benton]

They're still around. Some try to go the Blockbuster route, but more of the ones I've seen try to offer something different. Like big sections of foreign movies, cult movies, kids movies, etc.

[Wes Mantooth]

(10-07-2016, 08:10 AM)BengalsRocker Wrote: Might I add that music stores were enjoyable as well?

I actually met a long time friend while looking at records, tapes, CDs back in the day.

I believe besides the love of vinyl, that's one reason record stores have re-surged is the experience of browsing.

Oh yeah.  Big time.  I think music stores and video stores share something in common (especially pre-internet days) in that almost felt a sense of accomplishment by finding something new or just winging it and grabbing something you didn't know anything about.  There was immense satisfaction in taking a chance on some record you knew little about it, being the first person you know to own it, and ending up loving it.

I'm always reminded of this when I think about going to the music store back in the day.  Anyone remember when Al Bundy gets that song stuck in his head and he keeps going around humming it, trying to figure out what it was?  That is something all of us 30 and up can relate to.  Nowadays you can just hop online and either look at the radio station's playlist for that hour, and boom there's your song, or you can just type in the most random, usually wrong in some way, lyrics and you can find it pretty quick. (Ex: You can probably just type in "cute little heartbreaker lyric" into google now and Foxy Lady will come up in the first few results)

But way back when?  You were going around humming that shit trying to see if anyone had heard it.  Or that feeling when you could never figure it out, you kinda forget about it, and then you hear it again on the radio, this time enough it to hear the artist.  That was the best.  Then you run up to the store, buy that album, and you got an entire album worth of stuff to listen to that you know nothing about going into.

[Wes Mantooth]

(10-07-2016, 09:38 AM)jason Wrote: There's still a chain holding on for dear life in the Dayton area.... Family Video. I don't know how it's stayed in business, but it has.

I was just reading up on them last night.  Apparently there's 700 of them and they're thriving.  Said the whole key to their success and weathering the storm, was owning all of their buildings, as opposed to leasing them.  Apparently they rent out building space to places like Starbucks and Marco's Pizza.  And apparently they're still opening new stores too.

I would love if we somehow get one here.

[WeezyBengal]

Damn I miss movie stores.

Every Friday night we used to go out to eat at a local restaurant in the shopping center by our house. There would always be neighborhood friends and school friends and we would always end up spending the night at each others houses. Before we left the shopping center though, we would always stop by the video store to pick up some movies. Great memories.

Im so glad I grew up in the 90s.