This tweet has stuck with me since I saw it:
The "Blockbuster was bad" argument pops up every month and is boring every time. No one is nostalgic for Blockbuster the company, which sucked. They're nostalgic for the memory of going to the store (which was often their only option) and renting movies. That's it.
— Chris Evangelista (@cevangelista413) August 22, 2021
I do feel a bit of nostalgia for video stores, both the big chain ones and the cool little indies. There was a certain pleasure to be had in wandering the aisles looking for something intriguing to discover, or for an old favorite to watch again. Scrolling the menus on Netflix or Amazon Prime isn’t quite as satisfying, and somewhat more frustrating: at least you would eventually run out of options at Blockbuster or Kim’s and would have to settle on something.
Do you miss video-rental stores? If you’re too young to have had experienced them, what do you imagine you might have missed?
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I miss the browsing experience, the digging through the genre areas to see a singular title – a cult film, a b-grade pulp classic – sitting there to fit your mood. Browsing through Netflix or Disney Plus just doesn’t have the same tactile feel.
Also I miss the 4-pack Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups I could grab at the checkout line. Alas.
Well… yes and no.
When video rental was still a thing, I was living in a suburb which didn’t have a lot of people who were interested in it, so there was one small shop that would do it and their selection was OK but not great. They tried to do a bit of everything, and I’m pretty sure I saw Iron Eagle from them.
They closed down, and a Blockbuster set up in the Shop of Death (no business that moved in there lasted two years, and they were no exception); they had a bigger selection, but it was relentlessly mainstream stuff that would have been in the local cinema (until that closed down), and I don’t remember finding anything really surprising there.
I have a vague recollection of doing Lovefilm briefly, but buying DVDs got cheap, and downloads got cheaper.
Like MaryAnn and Paul I liked the physical experience, the limited set of selections that forced one to accept that that one wasn’t necessarily going to see the Best Film Ever tonight but one did want to see a film. (I’ve recently done this synthetically – rather than the 60+ books on my to-read pile, I generate a random list of ten, and I will read one of those next. Similarly with films.)
That random list generator is a good idea.
I miss the browsing and the communal aspect. I had some interesting conversations in them.
Streaming is very convenient, but, the browsing experience isn’t as satisfying. Mind you, I have so little time to sit and watch things, it really doesn’t matter much for me. :-(
A little bit. I think I most miss the earliest, earliest video stores from when I was about 10-11 (even though I was basically just looking then.) It was before the big studios had really gotten into the game, but video stores were starved for content, so you’d see all sorts of weird crap on the shelves, sometimes in boxes that were twice as big as the tape itself.
In my teens, we had a good local video store, but once I was an adult with theoretical access to money, I had a bias toward buying over renting, so didn’t actually go to video stores much in the “Blockbuster era.” If there was something I really wanted to see, I’d probably buy it (especially once DVDs started), while for other things I was OK with waiting to see it on HBO or whatever.
Sigh –
I very much miss those days of yore –
There was something I really loved about this whole foraging process – libraries, too – I loved circling around different outlets since each would have its own peripheral items, apart from those mainstream options they all shared, that gave it that distinct flavor
Now that I think about it – when I was very small I remember crawling into a giant box that had just released a mattress – and then there’s the sensation of playing hide and seek under the covers with one’s cat – and the youthful experience of crawling through tall grass, or lurking amongst trees in some imaginary game, or bringing my field guide and magnifying glass to identify odd little plants and animals
– and, getting older, the impulse to explore, to travel – to navigate and be spontaneously and unexpectedly coaxed by my surroundings – to hop on a bus without knowing where it would go, just to see where I ended up
Poring over shelves – getting lost among them – gave me this similar feeling of entering some kind of wondrous fantasy land, of interacting with and being embraced by my surroundings, drinking in the details – I still like to pore through the shelves of new people I visit, to see the books and films they’ve gathered – or even my own shelves, to see which items happen to catch my eye at this particular moment
I didn’t quite realize this before I started this response – but, as I think about it – what I miss is a kind of physical and perceptual relationship with the space around me – we had cats who would spend the whole day tunneling through the grass, being transfixed at random moments by a dragonfly or a piece of string, or by nothing at all – somehow each day for them this space would reemerge as something new and different from what it had been the day before – they would be conversing with the space – I wonder if this is the impulse that stimulates window-shopping – but going through public shelves of books and videos was more focused and intense – it was a whole different level of engagement – not casual, but engrossing
I guess we get most of this now from our computer screens – it seems that, more and more, everything in our lives we deal with while fixed in front of these screens – after X amount of years since we left our umbilical cords behind – maybe in X more centuries or so (if we survive that long), we’ll have evolved a new umbilical cord to connect us to our screens (or maybe a virtual one exists now already), and we’ll have no further reason to move around
In any case, it’s this movement and tactile interaction I miss – this perpetual invitation from my environment to roam freely and forage and discover
I miss exactly one video store, Evergreen Video, which specialized in obscure art films and, because it was in the Village, lasted longer than I had any right to expect.
Nostalgia for the selection at Blockbuster romanticizes the value of synchronicity out of proportion to anything I ever found on the shelves.
Yes. Absolutely.
My neighborhood indie video store closed almost 5 years ago. It specialized in foreign and indie movies divided into sections by country of origin as well as genre, with a special section categorized by selected directors. It also had an entire section for titles in the Criterion Collection. It also had mainstream titles, but if you wanted Fellini, Bergman, etc. this was the place to go. They had a very friendly and knowledgeable staff and I miss their recommendations and conversations with them and other customers about movies.
All of that you can’t get from streaming, not to mention the fact that so many streaming services are focusing more on original content that classic movies are getting lost in it all.
I miss video stores, and actually have been using my local library to rent movies. i loved actually going to the video store with friends and browsing the movies. We used to bring home movies we never thought we would see and it was almost like going on a mini adventure–ok, ok I am exagerrating but stilll; video stores were a lot of fun and streaming just isn’t the same. I mainly miss the small video stores thouogh; although Hollywood Video was pretty good.
Yes. Like, logically I know that with streaming I probably have quicker access to more movies than I did with my local blockbuster, but there was just something about walking the isles, looking at the covers, reading the back cover, and picking a movie you really wanted to see that I absolutely miss. Also, really miss buying things from the “Previously Viewed” shelf, always found a few gems in there.
Honestly, sometimes with access to so many movies streaming, I get paralyzed by choice. There are so many things that I want to see, that I have access to see, that I find it hard to just pick one and watch it sometimes. That wasn’t as big of a problem with video rental stores, because the selection was at least somewhat limited (and you were also limited by what wasn’t already rented by someone else).
I know what you mean about too many choices, and I really hate this obsession with convienience. With streaming I feel likewe are oversaturated with movies and TV and it makes me not want to watch anything. At least with video rental stores you were forced to delay gratification and they lad a limited selection. It was fun actually browsing the shelves and picking out that one movie you just had to see. I have a theory too that people where more adventurous back then with watching movies.
I’m keeping an eye on Shepherd.com, which is aiming to be a website that approximates the bookstore browsing experience via (short) book lists suggested by authors with expertise in their chosen categories. (Scroll down to the bottom of the home page for a wide variety of topics.) Looks like their author list could use more diversity—hopefully something they can improve.
I wonder if something similar would work for films—a website of film categories based on compiled suggestions from directors, screenwriters, etc, with direct links to where those films can be streamed. Imagine going to a Blockbuster store and getting recommendations from Guillermo del Toro, Ryan Coogler, or Chloe Zhao working behind the counter.