I Miss Video Stores

[WeezyBengal]

(10-07-2016, 06:36 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: 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.

This. All of this. 

[fredtoast]

Nothing will replace the experience of an "Adult" video store.

The internet has ruined my social life.

[WeezyBengal]

(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.

This made me LOL for some reason. 

[WeezyBengal]

(10-07-2016, 01:01 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Nothing will replace the experience of an "Adult" video store.

The internet has ruined my social life.

Sick bastard. 

[*jason*]

(10-07-2016, 12:51 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: 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.

Never thought about it til now, but all of their buildings do look the same. The one near my house doesn't, but they all seem to have a Lil Caesars next to them here.

[*jason*]

(10-07-2016, 12:46 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: 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.

I remember watching that episode as a kid. I was telling my dad about it, and imitating the way he was humming the song. My dad cut me off, and said "Anna... By the Beatles". I was impressed.

[Wes Mantooth]

I thought of another huge plus. Renting TV series back then like The Sopranos, The Wire, Entourage, etc. I watched all of those through rentals. By the time I got to The Sopranos it had already been out for a few seasons. So when I started with the series it had long been in the non new release section. It was a $1 a rental, and I want to say each dvd had like 3 or 4 episodes. I devoured almost all of these shows in no time. I'd grab 2 of them a week or something, and I could watch an entire season for like 3 bucks.

Now? If you don't have HBO good luck watching something like Game of Thrones. I just checked on Itunes, each individual episode is $3.99, but I think you own it? Regardless, it would cost you $39.99 to get it through Itunes. Same price on Amazon. $3.99 an episode, or you can buy the whole season for $19.99. Or you could just buy the physical copies, which makes more sense, for around 40 bucks.

None of that seems as appealing as being able to rent the entire first season for 3 or 4 dollars. Yeah, you can get a lot of shows a season later on Netflix but not all of them. At the video store you could pretty much get any show you want. Want to watch Smallville? Just rent it. Now, if it's not on Netflix? Sign up for another service that does have it (None have had it or currently do, but it's coming to Hulu I heard), or pay a crap ton of money to get it through Itunes.

[Wes Mantooth]

(10-07-2016, 01:01 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Nothing will replace the experience of an "Adult" video store.

The internet has ruined my social life.

Fred: "Do you have Dudes Gone Wild?"

Clerk: "Aw, man that's gross.  No, we don't have that."

Fred: "Hey, man.  It's the 90's.  There's nothing gross about one man enjoying watching other men go wild."

Clerk: "We do have Will and Grace."

Fred: "I'll take it!"

Clerk "Figured you would...(trails off, mumbles the 80's/90's insult "queerbait")

Fred:  "What was that?  I'm a lawyer!!!  You better watch what you say!"

Clerk:  "Sure you are, Liberace.  You're holding up the line."

Fred: "Hold me a copy of the next Will and Grace tape.  I'll be in tomorrow after my important lawyer stuff.  It's such a super show."

Scene.  

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(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.

Man, this is what I REALLY miss.  I used to spend an hour or two looking through record shops.  Our last one (Hasting's) closes the end of this month.  It's all picked over shit now, and has been for a while.  Now, I have to drive 30-45 minutes just to hit a little indie shop on UK's campus.  It sucks man.  I don't like the sound of digital downloads....the bit rate of a CD is much faster, therefore much clearer.  This one really gripes my ass.

Yeah, Wes, I'm with you.  We still rent DVDs from Redbox, but you still have to scroll through countless pages on the web to find a title.  I am not a fan.  We have DirectTV, and some in demand shit, because I love my multiple sports channels, but going to the video store, picking up a pie and a sixer was just kind of nice weekend night from time to time.

[Wes Mantooth]

This is for anyone who was around my age, give or take a few years, in the mid-80's. The box art on these is something that will take you back...

















These were just a few of the movies that were like the holy grail of rentals for kids my age. One day, one glorious day, you were going to somehow manage to sneak that copy of Porky's or Friday the 13th in your stack of movies.

"C'mon mom! Dave's parents let him watch Revenge of the Nerds!!!! ... This is so unfair!... But I don't want to watch Adventures in Babysitting!!! ... Cuz it's gay!!! ... Alright, I'm sorry. Can we still rent a game?"

100% true story. I had a buddy over for a sleepover one time and we can convinced my dad that if we could beat him in basketball that he would rent us Revenge of the Nerds. I remember feeling like it was the most important game ever. Like, we really, really wanted to win and tried harder than ever. And we did win. I thought it was amazing luck. Looking back, the old man probably just got tired of being bugged about it, figured I was old enough to enjoy some boobage, and let us win. He also made us promise not to tell my mom. No joke, it was one of my happiest and fondest memories. It was such a special day.

[BFritz21]

(10-07-2016, 02:20 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: 100% true story.  I had a buddy over for a sleepover one time and we can convinced my dad that if we could beat him in basketball that he would rent us Revenge of the Nerds.  I remember feeling like it was the most important game ever.  Like, we really, really wanted to win and tried harder than ever.  And we did win.  I thought it was amazing luck.  Looking back, the old man probably just got tired of being bugged about it, figured I was old enough to enjoy some boobage, and let us win.  He also made us promise not to tell my mom.  No joke, it was one of my happiest and fondest memories.  It was such a special day.  

Back between 2001 and 2003, I convinced my mom to go in Blockbuster so I could rent a new movie and maybe a game.

My mom is a very smart lady (used to be an X-Ray tech and also work in sports medicine *not that those are scientist jobs, but she was a smart lady), just kind of naive and gullible sometimes.

I pick out a game and a movie, and then she goes and pays and I go look at other movies.  I find one, roll it up to her, and tell her that I want to rent it, too, so she looks down at it, sees it's called Black Beauty, and thinks it's a movie about horses.

It was a porno.

Score one for the cripple!

[Wes Mantooth]

(10-07-2016, 03:01 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Back between 2001 and 2003, I convinced my mom to go in Blockbuster so I could rent a new movie and maybe a game.

My mom is a very smart lady (used to be an X-Ray tech and also work in sports medicine *not that those are scientist jobs, but she was a smart lady), just kind of naive and gullible sometimes.

I pick out a game and a movie, and then she goes and pays and I go look at other movies.  I find one, roll it up to her, and tell her that I want to rent it, too, so she looks down at it, sees it's called Black Beauty, and thinks it's a movie about horses.

It was a porno.

Score one for the cripple!

[fredtoast]

(10-07-2016, 02:20 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: 100% true story.  I had a buddy over for a sleepover one time and we can convinced my dad that if we could beat him in basketball that he would rent us Revenge of the Nerds.

"You want Revenge of the Nerds you have to TAKE IT!!!"

[Bengal Dude]

I really miss video stores. I agree on how searching for a movie just doesn't have the same feel on Netflix or Redbox compared to Blockbuster. When we moved to Reno, our closest video store was called Video Maniacs, later became Hollywood Video, and it was that place that showed me just how many Godzilla movies exist. I loved browsing the new releases, which stores always seemed to have 50 copies, so you didn't have to worry about not getting the movie.

We just had a local chain close up. They stayed in business longer than Blockbuster by selling movie, games, and music. However, they didn't get new movies until 30 days after it was released. That was the biggest problem with the place.

[fredtoast]

(10-07-2016, 03:01 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Back between 2001 and 2003, I convinced my mom to go in Blockbuster so I could rent a new movie and maybe a game.

My mom is a very smart lady (used to be an X-Ray tech and also work in sports medicine *not that those are scientist jobs, but she was a smart lady), just kind of naive and gullible sometimes.

I pick out a game and a movie, and then she goes and pays and I go look at other movies.  I find one, roll it up to her, and tell her that I want to rent it, too, so she looks down at it, sees it's called Black Beauty, and thinks it's a movie about horses.

It was a porno.

Score one for the cripple!

Wow, what a coincidence.  I also have a story about your mom and a porno I rented.

[WeezyBengal]

(10-07-2016, 04:36 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Wow, what a coincidence.  I also have a story about your mom and a porno I rented.

Is that the story where she took a porno and beat you over the head with it? 

[Rotobeast]

Video stores were a pretty good place to pick up chicks.

Sent from my SM-S820L using Tapatalk

[Donnyho]

Earlier this week I was trying to explain to my five year old daughter what a video store was. She couldn't even comprehend the idea. She watches Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Streaming/PBS Kids App along with the 60+ Disney Blu-Rays she has. She finally got it when my wife said it was like the library, but with movies instead of books. But then she told me that it sounded 'dumb'.

I remember spending a good chunk of time at my local Blockbuster. My best friend worked there and I dated one of the mangers for a bit. I went years without paying for rentals....


This video is pretty sweet: a guy visits a still functioning Blockbuster in Indiana, of which there several. I'm pretty sure there was one near my house until a year or two ago.

[BengalsRocker]

[Tiger Teeth]

(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.

Have one of these stores in my area.  Every time I go there it's pretty busy, and I love browsing plus getting new releases every Tuesday.  Long live Family Video.  They're making a killing!