• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I don’t miss Blockbuster at all. I do miss mom and pop video stores, which would get you pretty much whatever you wanted if you asked them to order it. And I miss stores that specialized in cult, foreign and classic films.

    My wife worked at the video store that her best friend’s parents owned while she was in and for a while after high school and I hung out there with her all the time. It was a good job for a teenager and we got to see all kinds of weird and cool movies. She also got to take screeners home- screeners were pre-released movies sent to video stores so they could decide whether or not to buy them, so you got to see video releases sometimes months early- you just had to deal with a ‘do not copy or sell this video’ message on the screen occasionally.

    That’s what I miss. Blockbuster was corporate trash. It was the Walmart of video stores.

    • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      We used to have a great local place called Pic-A-Flick Video, and they always had all these great foreign films and weird indy movies that you couldn’t find anywhere else! It was one of those old school places with a locked door at the back where they kept all the porn tapes lol

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Yep, the one where my wife worked had an ‘adults’ room too. They’d occasionally find someone jacking off back there, but the owners didn’t allow the employees to go back there, only they dealt with that room, which I think was pretty cool of them.

        • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          This place originally just had a beaded curtain, but kids would always sneak back there so they eventually put in a door with a lock and you had to get the door code from the guy at the desk so they knew exactly who was doing what back there lol

    • Hasherm0n@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      You just reminded me of a rental place I used to frequent. Insomniac videos. It was dark and musky, and the staff all had an encyclopedic knowledge of the weird and unknown or cult classics. Those were also the only movies they carried and they were next to the cheapest pizza place in town. My roommates and I at the time would often checkout something the staff recommended and load up on junk food on the rare occasion we all had a night off together. Good times.