Posted on 02/13/2021 2:11:07 PM PST by Borges
It’s time to say goodbye to a beloved institution. By the end of February, all Family Video stores will be closed. The announcement came early last month that they would remain open until February 28th, or when all the stock has been sold off, whichever comes first. Upon hearing this news, for three weekends in January, I trekked out from Chicago to many remote locations to try and score some good deals, but also to savor the video store experience one last time. The final days of Family Video represent not just the closing of a beloved chain, but the very end of a piece of film history.
With the exception of Facets Videotheque in Chicago and the now-famous “Last Blockbuster” in Bend, Oregon, the video store as I know it is gone. I’m sure others are out there just barely hanging on, but I only know about these two. The rare video store has become a kind of specialty boutique. Predictably, COVID all but killed Family Video’s chances of survival. With most movies going to streaming and many not even getting a proper physical release, there’s no way a video business can survive. It’s rather remarkable they lasted as long as they did, with hundreds of stores located across 17 states.
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I recall somewhere around ‘84 going into a video store for the first time and renting a video player and movie for $8.
Had dinner at home and then the movie. Thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Wayne Huizenga is still laughing.
I was in the Marines in the early 1980s. I remember us doing the same thing with an Oceanside, CA video store. We rented some videos AND the video player for the weekend and saw a bunch of movies back in the barracks. “Blazing Saddles” was one of them but also “Outlaw Josey Wales” among others. It was still prohibitively expensive (especially for us Marines) to own our own video player. In 1984, one of my Marine buddies re-enlisted with a bonus and tricked out his barracks room with not only a VCR but a compact disc player as well. He was top dog in the barracks for a while.
Do they have Beta, or just VHS Videos in their stores?
Wow we were still renting DVDs from Red Box until recently. Our son gave us a firestick. Our other son gave us a projector! Now we don’t need to rent DVDs. I guess we helped hasten the end of the video rentals... I remember renting VHS tapes, and always Be Kind, Rewind!
We have really enjoyed binge watching BOSCH!
-Tyrelle F
Yes those were some happy memories!
Our sister even bought us a rewinder!
Fond memories.
-Tyrelle F
Be kind,rewind
I remember going to the video store. All the first run movies? Not in stock, All rented out. But there were hundreds and hundreds of direct to video movies nobody wanted to rent, that nobody wanted to watch.
I’m glad all that’s over and done with now. Now we have Netflix with hundreds and hundreds of movies that also no one wants to watch.
Some things never change.
“Be kind. Rewind.”
I have a few DVDs that need rewinding.
We started having local people building a small business in this nascent technology and concept. Emphasis on “small”.
Then Erol’s was the big thing in our area, a chain of electronics turned video rental.
Then national chain Blockbuster. That was about it for us here.
It’s actually quite amazing that the video store chain was done in by their own business model or at least had it greatly accelerate their demise.
The fact that Reed Hastings started Netflix as a rent your movies, keep them as long as you want with no late fees, as a response to an $80 late fee from Blockbuster is something so many people have forgotten.
I can think of no other business or business category that was done in by a single pissed off customer as a response to horrible customer treatment.
Netflix streaming started out as a complete joke. The initial lineup was laughable, people still wanted the envelopes of DVD’s that came out yesterday to watch through the weekend. As they started getting used to the “free” streaming Netflix offered the rent 3 at a time, became 2 at a time, became 1 at a time to... streaming only.
I don’t think I’ve rented a physical DVD for 3-4 years and even then that was for my 80+ year old father because he wanted to save the $4 from getting on demand vs Redbox.
IIRC, Blockbuster actually had a streaming + mail service, but it lost focus as they moved to protect investment in real estate/retail stores. Too little, too late.
I remember when a small business, Main Street Video opened up in my town in the 1980s in an old High’s store. It was a great place, and as they accumulated movies in the 80s and 90s, the shelves grew and grew. It was a great place.
It had a competitor downtown, which also had a great selection and was on the first floor of a two-story building, with a furniture store on the second floor, if I remember correctly.
The first video store is now a liquor store. There was a Blockbuster store across town for a while more recently, but it closed down years ago.
Good times!
Blazing Saddles is for rent on Netflix. Rented it last month. Still hilarious after all these years.
Never rented from Redbox ‘cause I have Netflix. But does Redbox have a way of fulfilling a request for a movie that’s not in the box?
Blockbuster merged with Viacom in the 1990’s. Shareholders of Blockbuster got shares of Viacom.
Were they spun off at some point?
I heard there was a short squeeze on them recently. They’re selling at 15c/share.
I watched movies at home from the clouds in the 1960’s.
You had to watch an offered flick on a specific day and time, and there was no pausing, reversing or forwarding.
Read later to revisit memories.
Count de Money. ;-)
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