Ah, nostalgia. I can still remember rushing home from school on a Friday and having my grandmother drive my best friend and I over to Blockbuster Video. We’d always rent two movies (and overdose on candy and popcorn, no doubt), immediately go home and watch them back-to-back and maybe, if we were lucky, sneak in another viewing on Saturday before having to rush back to the Quik Drop. This is how I came to see films like Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream,” and how I came to fall in love with old movies like “The Thin Man” and everything Hitchcock.
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Sure, now, everything is at our fingertips –– and inching closer to our cerebrums by the second –– but there is something to be said about enjoying that evening with your family or friends, passing the time together strolling around the store and browsing the ever-popular New Releases section. It’s a timeless novelty that Chris Stuckmann documents in his newest video.
In his latest "Retro Rewind," Chris travels to Indiana to find one of the few remaining Blockbuster stores. His reaction is similar to how any former patron would act –– bliss, shock, and awe –– he even remarks that he feels like “he’s at home.” It’s a terrific trip down memory lane for anyone who frequented any Blockbuster or Hollywood Video in their youth. It’s fun, fascinating stuff.
What was your go-to rental? Let us know in the comments.
i worked for a blockbuster in texas from 97-98, i love netflix and such, but theres was magic in the discovery of new movies if the new release you wanted was out, the town i lived in once had 4 video stores, but slowly redbox took over, the only place near us that still rents is hastings.
I\’m the manager of my local video store. We are celebrating year 13 in May! We\’re called Premiere Home Video!
A friend & I recently had a conversation about the nostalgia of going to a video store & how kids growing up now won\’t have the experience of going to them. Here in Michigan we had what was supposed to be the first video rental store in America called Thomas Video. They just recently closed a couple years ago but were great. A lot of cult & criterion collection. Right when they were closing they had a sale & Tarantino was in town & I heard he dropped $1,500. Speaking of Blockbuster I worked at one in the late 90\’s. And we also still have Family Video locations here, thankfully.
Stockholm Syndrome masquerading as nostalgia. Blockbuster was the WalMart of video stores, driving small, local independents out of business in every community they sunk their claws into. Blockbusters had zero interest in cultivating film libraries, regularly dumping unusual and beloved catalog titles into their used bins to make room for 30 more copies of soon-to-be-forgotten new release garbage. They had a strict policy against unrated editions and NC-17 movies, more than once demanding special edits of movies they found problematic. They enjoyed sweetheart deals with studios that enabled them to buy tapes at a fraction of the high cost their independent competitors had no choice but to pay. If you loved movies, Blockbuster was your enemy. And if you miss video stores, you can thank Blockbuster Corp. for doing their very best to wipe them out.
Up here in our little town in northern Ontario Canada we had a place called the Movie Shack. It was a pretty cool place, VHS for a long time and then DVD. They closed down a few years ago. And there was a blockbuster in the our part of the province, they also closed down a few years back. I had a Canadian membership to Blockbuster. Talk about back in the day.
There are still Family Videos in quite a few places. I\’ve seen them around Dallas and west Tennessee. Apparently they own their own real estate which is why they haven\’t gone the way of Blockbuster.
Great post! I worked on this film that we shot in one of the last remaining video stores in Boston. Sadly, the site is now closed. is seems to not want to allow me to post the link.
We have Vidiots in LA.
We had a local video rental shop called the Video Box and it was the best independent shop in the world! Right across the road was the chain video shop but it didn\’t have nearly half of what was good for rental. They had every Star Trek epaisode on VHS and before the Internet and streaming I would walk down the road, pop into the pizzeria, place my pizza order, go to the video box, get the latest DS9 or Voyager episodes (which were held for me), go back and collect my pizza and have the best nights in. The horror section used to freak me out as a kid; some of the video art for movies like the Thing and the shining still stick with me to this day. VHS truly died the day the shop closed. Ironically my mother bought the premises. Was one of those jobs I wish I had as a teenager that the internet killed
Family Video is pretty common here in Kansas also.
There 6 in Indiana left of block busters