The death of the video rental stores

nodle

nodle

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I am sure a lot of the members here grew up with video rental stores. They were a way of life being a teenager. Every Tuesday, Friday & Saturday nights they were packed. It was part of dating, pick up the girl go wander the isles aimlessly for an hour and pick out something based off the box art. The internet was either not in place yet or just starting, so you couldn't just see movie trailers everywhere. You either saw them at the beginning of another movie, or a trailer on tv. But most of the time you rented them based off the box cover art and the back. Half the time you never knew what you were getting. I miss those days of walking the isles, the smell of the cardboard VHS boxes. The section categories. Most of them also rented video games as well. You would get the game and normally a black and white copied manual that looked like someone had wiped their ass with it. The video store clerks couldn't give a shit less. Food stuck between the pages, wrinkled to hell like someone used it to make origami out of it. This new generation will never know the fun of it. Thankfully I feel as if we have one of the last rental places left in the entire country. My Daughter love going in there to rent movies. I am glad that she will get to experience a little bit of it until I am sure it goes out of business one day. I remember in the town I grew up in I can count in my head that we had 7 in our town. If something didn't have a game or movie in stock you would go to the next one. Does anyone else miss these day? Also remember to be kind and re-wind.  

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It's funny I use to have a huge collection of VHS stuff, then I threw it all away. I bet it comes around again for collectors. I know Laserdisc did.
 
It's funny I use to have a huge collection of VHS stuff, then I threw it all away. I bet it comes around again for collectors. I know Laserdisc did.
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I dunno... VHS video quality is terrible and the physical medium it is on is pretty volatile.  Unlike some other mediums, for example vinyl albums, that have differences over modern day counterparts that can be preferred, VHS is inferior in about every way.  

 
I dunno... VHS video quality is terrible and the physical medium it is on is pretty volatile.  Unlike some other mediums, for example vinyl albums, that have differences over modern day counterparts that can be preferred, VHS is inferior in about every way.  
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Vinyl sounds great if it has an analog master. The warmth, presence and silky highs are unparalleled. 

 
I still have the father in laws blockbuster card in my wallet. Ooops :D
 
I still have the father in laws blockbuster card in my wallet. Ooops :D
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I probably contributed to the fall of blockbuster.  I think when they went out of business I may have still owed a minor late fee on the last flick I rented from them.I threw out my blockbuster card and one for some other smaller rental chain I can't even recall the name of a while back.  I just use a business card holder these days to carry my license and a select few plastic payment options.  I think it was probably last fall I pitched them as I went through my old wallet again to clean out junk, put a few other cards in it and pack it for travels.  I don't travel too often, but when I do I usually throw a spare wallet with a couple extra payment options in my luggage - just in case

 
I think I also still have my Blockbuster card, it was in one of my old wallets. The plastic lamination was so yellowed and messed up. At the time in the peak I think I use to carry around 5 different video rental cards. It was cool back then to sign up for an account. When they handed you that fresh plastic laminated card it was like getting your drivers license for the first time.
 
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