The good 'ol days son

>blockbuster on the way home from school
>every Friday my mom gives me the card and let's me rent a movie on the way home
>one day the clerk says he has something special to show me
>takes me to back office
>shows me some porno
>touches my dick
>makes me suck his
>tells me if I tell anyone he'll take my parents blockbuster card and I'll go to jail for fraudulently using it

Whoo, nostalgia.

they were only better in terms of interpersonal relations and shit. you still had to get your ass up and talk to ppl, like you couldnt just hide behind your phone all day and stuff like that

everything else is just nostalgia imo

>tfw me and my friends always rented a few movies for saturday night and got drunk as hell on my friends attic
That's a big drink for a 12 year old

If you live in los angeles nothing dies.
There's still a BB close by me. Never been but it survived the purge.
I saw a hollywood video after they closed too but they're gone now.

nah we started doing this when we were like 16. our friendgroup changed a lot but we kept doing this for many years somehow

>tfw this was way over 10 years ago

>you will never spend 45 minutes wandering around the store with your friends saying "What about this one?" every again.

>its a who gets to return the tapes rotation episode
>mfw i turned it up 2 days late
>tfw my parents took out the penalty fee on my allowance

My Blockbuster changed to Family Video. It, too, just went out of business.

Now you'll do the same on Netflix though without the friends.

>tfw my Blockbuster is still open
>tfw it only costs, like, a dollar to rent a Blu-Ray for 5 days
>tfw rented 3 Blu-Rays for 3 dollars
Based. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't have the distinct feel and smell that made it special when I was a kid. It's weird.

this

9/11 hadn't happened yet.

>My closest Blockbuster was overtaken by Elwood Thompson's even before Blockbuster went down
I fucking loved that place, man. If it wasn't for that Blockbuster I may have never become a Godzilla fan.

>being nostalgic about Blockbuster.
>oh great a new release, just make sure you return it the next day
>man, streaming movies is tedious, if only I could drive to a store and hope they have what I want.

Here's my old Blockbuster in Tallahassee, FL

it's just not the same ._.

I want my childhood of playing N64 and renting games from Blockbuster back. I want it back goddamn it. Every time I think about how much fun I used to have I die a little bit inside. I miss 1998-2006. Everything after that was shit. I miss it so fucking much, it's literally a constant heartache when I think about it. The best fucking friends I ever had were when I was 12 and 13 just playing video games every day after school and waking up at 8AM to play games all day at friends houses. Those were the best times and I hate that we'll never get to experience that feeling again.

I think this nostalgia thing is more about the whole procedure of renting a movie like discovering new shit while in the store, discussing movies with the employees, hanging around the store with friends and all that.
theres no doubt its way easier now that you can just stream every movie anytime u want without leaving your house

Why does candy suck now?
I remember Hollywood Video always have the most creative unhealthy junk food available.
Harry Potter candy didn't have jack shit on bottles of dyed flavored sour corn syrup coated in sugar and caffeine.

IT's also DVD/BR.

There was just something about plugging a VHS into the VCR. Like opening a book.

Discs are so sterile. Don't like this part? Eh, fast forward or skip the chapter.

The blockbuster in Memphis is also now a five guys. Maybe going out of business was part of their master plan. Now they sell giant burgers instead of movies

fuck man, that's brutal

It's just the experience. going to a blockbuster to see "what theyve got" that you can rent for the weekend.

it was a social experience. you had to leave your house for it. You interacted with people.

this is the problem with society today. there is no meaningful social interaction. just downloading something from netflix just isnt the same as the ritual of driving to the blockbuster and picking out movies based entirely on their cover and description, no rottentomatoes, no internet reviews, just you, and chance.

You picked out something you knew, and then something else. something new. youd watch the new movie, and if it sucked, at least you still had one you knew was good.

Also i never bought into this meme of digital renting.

Digital renting is just a Jewish scheme.

if something is infinite, why's it cost money to rent?

When i went to the video store, they only have, say, 3 copies of Evil Dead. I am paying to remove one of their copies from their stock. once I take it there's only 2 copies. And it's a physical medium. there's only so many copies around.

But if I rent it from netflix, there's never a shortage, and it's a digital medium, so once I downloaded it, it should be mine forever. I can understand paying to download a copy of it maybe, but paying to digitally rent? the fuck is that shit?

it is a lot nostalgia, user. I usually went to Blockbuster for the Cred Forumsidya. I didn't really get into film until I got a job at a local indie ma and pop video store.
However, my local BB did have an Cred Forumsnime section before all of the other local media centers.

I still have a few blockbusters near me. There's like 5 in Indiana.

This reminds me, i have to return some video tapes.

Media is disposable.
It doesn't matter what you thought about Blockbuster.
You were still renting a tape that was going to age, or a piece of plastic that could only ever contain a single film or game.

Media is simply data. The format has changed.

Blockbuster, being nostalgic for it, is mindless. There is nothing nostalgic about going into a store that held plastic with data on it. It's the same nostalgia as going to get your haircut as a 5 year old, or going to eat at a restaurant, or going to the fucking grocery store to buy things.

You assign things to Blockbuster for no reason.

Mine was a standalone building. Not a plebey stripmall version.

The building had been vacant since...well since Blockbuster went out of business. So like 13 years?

Someone just recently bought the building and it's now a place that sells sewing machines. No joke.

Atleast I can pass it and get a lil nostalgia.

Tommy Boy
Vanilla Coke
Wm X-7
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3

Weekend done.

Hastings basically had the video rental market cornered in my town. Now they're bankrupt, and every store will be shut down by the end of the month.

They won't be missed.

where do you live?

Wow this is nostalgia gold

WTF?

I feel as though I need to clear some things up about why Blockbuster Video is closing, and why they went chapter 11 in the first place a few years ago

>Blockbuster Video used to be owned by a Jew owned company named Viacom
>Viacom are money-grubbing whores
>Viacom buys all of blockbuster's rentals and merch with loans, instead of profits
>every year use profit to pay off loans, take out new loans to buy new merchandise
>blockbuster decides to split from viacom because they are tyrants
>viacom takes all of blockbuster's profits from that year, but does not pay off the loans
>the loans were taken out under blockbuster's name, not viacom's, so the loans technically belong to blockbuster
>viacom does not tell this to blockbuster corporate
>when blockbuster finds out, there is already a shit ton of interest, and viacom has all of their profits
>desperately try every quarter to pay off loans
>1 mil loan becomes 3 mil then 5 mil, finally tens of millions of dollars are owed
>go chapter 11, file for bankruptcy
>Dish network buys Blockbuster Video, because they want to use the iconic Blockbuster Video logo to sell tv subscriptions, plus wants brick and mortar stores to sell tv subscriptions
>closes unprofitable stores that were still around after chapter 11 closings
>has 300 locations left
>all are profitable
>blockbuster is profitable as a whole again, especially in the North East
>fast forward 2 years to 2013
>Dish decides to go exclusively to streaming
>considers selling BBV
>no fewer than 3 companies are interested in buying
>but Dish wants to keep Blockbuster logo for streaming service, cant do that if they sell the company
>decide to liquidate stores, put 3000 people out of work, all over the rights to a logo
>tell employees they are being laid off AFTER telling the news networks

Blockbuster's problem was it was owned by two shitty Jew owned corporations.

mine is a whole foods. RIP

Yeah I didn't read any of that.

You'll miss torrents when they're gone.

shut up you underage faggot

It might sound crass but this user speaks the truth. Blockbuster represented this so corporately that there really can't be any nostalgia for it, even though I rented shit from there all of the time. The shop itself was the most disposable thing about it.

I've never used that crap. I accrue my media legitly.

Go to bed, Tyrone

Anyone on here remember Captain Video or Applause Video?

Damn user you're fucking right. I forgot the process of buying one wild card movie and one I was pretty sure I'd enjoy.

I lived with siblings too, so the process was 1 video for each of us to pick, plus one wild card movie we'd have to choose as a family. Sometimes the one you liked was shit and the wild card was great, sometimes the wild card was shit, but at least the good one was semi enjoyable, and sometimes all of them were shit, but that sense of chance and the social interaction really was something special. Sorry for so many faggots in this thread. Isn't school tomorrow?

That fucking sucks, but sounds true. Fucking money grubbing morons ruin the best things in this world. I used to live near Fortunoff on Long Island and something similar happened. I went back and saw my childhood trashed before my eyes. Check out this bit of info about it for anyone interested deadmalls.com/malls/mall_at_the_source.html

Go back to Cred Forums or plebbit faggot. protip: at least post a gif related to this.

>ywn again walk over to the nearest Blockbuster and look at the latest used movies, seeing them for a whopping $24.99
>not having enough money as a 12 year old, decide to walk around the store, looking at the glory that are the other brand new movies you'll never be able to see, the video games you can just glance at the covers, or the surmount of other collectibles that is just tarnished from all the extended usage of other kids fiddling through them
>and although you amongst other children cannot get everything you lay your eyes upon, it's the shared experience and discussion and hype at the next day at school where it'll all feel just so comfy

Because we can get every movie now instantly and free, we don't hold the same value to a single film anymore. There used to be excitement in choosing a movie. If there was a city that just said fuck it and lived everyday like it was 1997 I'd move there and never look back

>you'll never be a block buster manager getting free boi pussy for movies and games and shit.

Is there reasons to live?

The feels

>Hollywood Video every weekend
>Rent PG13 action movie and 2 video games for my brother and I
>Get cookie dough candy and milk duds
>watch movie as family then go play video games with my brother until bed time
I miss being a kid. I don't wanna die Cred Forums.

The used movies at Blockbuster were almost always a ripoff. I think, once as a child, I spent
$80.00 on the boxed set of all of Bruce Lee's movies on VHS. That wasn't terrible for the time and the packaging was alright.

I eventually got to buying the used $6.99 movies on the weekly which was p comfy.
Got every single saw movie that way too.

That would have been like a decade after I was looking at the used movies at BB.

desu bro, when you feel like this, do something you never could as a kid. I do it when nostaligia hits me. Eat some ice cream late and pass out. play video games until morning, but make sure you acknowledge what time your parents wanted you in bed, or what time school started. learn something you always though was a cool thing adults would do and do it.

Being a kid was actually limiting as fuck, you just forget that when some of the fun shit is gone because this upcoming and current generation are both the worst yet. I'm about to go listen to porn loudly and fap until I pass out just because I can. I'd never want to be a child at my friends house as his parents made me do chores again because I'm an adult and can tell people to fuck off now.

Last time I remember going into a Blockbuster was 2006

This is decent advice user, I remind myself often that the monotony of life as a NEET is much better than the monotony of life in school.

We had a local video store which closed down in the mid to late 90s very close to where I lived. Their window display was always full of awesome cardboard cut outs. They would have people dressed up as cartoon characters which would meet kids every now than. It was a fun place. It sold Aladdin toys and loads of kids merch. I kept some childhood items in one of there bags for over 20 years. Now the bag is worth more to me than the childhood trinkets that I put in it. It even has the stores phone number on it which I'm often tempted to call in a desperate way. As if maybe I'd slip into the twilight Zone, and I would actually get connected to the old 90s video store. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it actually happened.

My local rental store was Prime Time Video. Blockbuster turned up later and ran them out of business.

I still remember their black, white and pink rental cases and pink VHS tapes. I remember being in some school play when I was about 5 or 6 and freezing up with stage fright when I saw my dad in the audience. The teacher dragged me off stage, my dad left the play early, took me to Prime Time to buy some popcorn and rent Hook and we spent the rest of the day watching it over and over.
Cherished memories.

lol same

Why do they all get replaced by food?

Mine turned into a shitty Sporting goods store for rich people. The other one we had got replaced by a muslim church.

About to say

Don't really give a fuck about the 3000 bankers that died, I want my childhood back

Why don't you just use Redbox?

I still have my Blockbuster card in my wallet. People get mad when I accidentally pull it out, and ask why I would still have that. It really pisses them off for some odd reason. I get that they would think it's odd that I would still have it in my wallet, but what I don't understand is why they always seem to get angry.

...

Putting this in my back pocket

I think I just found my voice.

>junior in high school
>help film graduation of senior class as part of media class
>mom drives me home after
>we stop at Hollywood Video
>I go in and rent Hard Boiled -- which I had never seen before and really wanted to see
>go up to pay for rental
>have to get Hollywood Video card
>have to sign my name
>signature is total shit
>"I just don't have this signature thing down."
>cute 20-somethin' cashier lady says to me something like, "You'll find your signature someday."

I don't know why that has stuck with me for over a decade now. I guess 'cause a few years back I did find my signature. Part of me thinks, "Huh, I guess there is no depth to what she said. You just adopt a signature and that's that." The other part looks back and realizes that I adopted my signature around the same time I started my job. Does that mean that is all I am, just some boring 9-5 wageslave set to die in this goddamn studio apartment? Do I need to change my signature?

Fucking Hollywood Video girl, where are you...

You're still looking for your signature, user, you'll find it

Signatures are undercommented on.

This.

My old Blockbuster is now a BBQ joint and I'm not even mad, it's pretty good. I definitely don't miss having to rewind those fucking VHS's or all the late fees. At least now I don't have get in my car and drive somewhere just to argue with my family about what movie we should watch -- I can do that on my couch with Netflix.

mine was a standalone and then moved to a strip mall.

Are you autistic? He's talking about the experience itself, not the actual movies or games he rented.

One could argue that the closure of blockbusters was when humanity began its downfall

Blockbuster at least had the volume to ensure you got a good tape

> TFW you will never have a dirty tape vhs copy of total recal that gummed up your 1980's akai player that serviced half you town....

actually i really dont miss that shit at all... future fuck yeah.

...

I miss the days of finding kino at Blockbuster and eating some goodass popcorn and Sweettarts

>That one dumb friend that could never remember what we've watched and needs to be constantly told "we've already seen that, dude"
>Passing by movies like GI Bro and everyone laughing at the tagline "If you're a kraut, he'll take you out" for the 50th time

DELETE THIS

Anyone else /Video Update/ here? Then they all turned into Movie Gallery.

Because blockbuster fucked over most people with shitty charges, shitty selection, and was only tolerated because there were no alternatives.

Czeckmate? Is that you?

I was a manager at one of the last block busters to close In Jax FL. It was a great job and I miss it every day. Fuck you Netflix

media is disposable, yeah. thats why videostores all updated from VHS to DVD in the early 00's.

it's still a physical medium, and it's disposability is exactly why you pay for renting it. it costs something to replace it. thats what digital media doesnt have, and the reason that digital renting is insane

there's also the fact that digital streaming killed it and Blockbuster was never able to compete.

Did you know that Blockbuster had the chance to buy netflix when it was new?

They didn't go for it because they thought it would never catch on.

imagine how well they'd've been able to pay back those loans with "Blockbuster Netflix" under their belt

DELETE THIS!!

Oh boy, NFL butt zoo 3!

Consider the possibility that there's nothing inherently superior to watching movies through this manner and you're only positively reminiscing about it because you associated the practice with what you consider to be happier times, even if these times were in fact not that happy and you only think so because of rose-tinted glasses.

You can emulate those games on almost any decent computer and play them as long as you want. You are being blinded by your nostalgia.

VHS got replaced in the early 2000s by dvd.
So you used to argue with your family about what movie to watch back in the 80s/90s and you are still arguing with them today on what to watch on Ntfilx?

How many decades have you had a family ?
Are they grown now and still live at home or do you keep having new children every 10 to 15 years?

You're right. It's objectively better in terms of selecting a movie, with the exception that Netflix might have a worse selection than Blockbuster, but I can't be sure of this.

Very sensible of them.

>discussing movies with the employees
Who the fuck did this? I seriously doubt most of the of nostalgia fags here.

>theres no doubt its way easier now
Then it's not really about renting movies, is it?

If you were transplanted back to that time, with your same mentality, you would probably get bored of it pretty quick. It almost certainly was not as happy as you remember.

>if something is infinite, why's it cost money to rent?
Is this a serious question?

>caring about signature
Just print your name or scribble something down. It doesn't mean shit.

I remember when blockbuster had the pokemon snap picture printer, teenage me fell for the nipjews tricks.

Well you're in luck, nigga.

>Good 'Ol Days

>Blockbuster

Underage faggot pls go.

Me and my dad used to go every weekend. I'm surprised some streaming start up hasn't bought up the brand. They'd sell a lot of subscriptions just on the name.

MOVIE GALLERYYY, play on (play on)

People get angry when you do harmless little "weird" things that they don't understand

I remember how the front of my Movie Gallery faced West and had floor to celing glass windows. It would be filled with golden Florida sunlight in the evenings and late afternoons. The entire store was lit up my sunbeams, some casting shadows behind the video shelves. The VHS or DVD cases would sparkle in the sunlight as movie trailers played on televisions in the tops of the four corners of the store and specks of dust in the air would be lit up and visible. Nobody really knew just how dusty Movie Gallery was going to get very, very soon.

>work in Blockbuster
>customers return DVDs that skipped
>"don't you guy check them?"

How exactly did customers expect them to be checked, have a team of employees watching hours and hours and hours of DVDs? Literally impossible. Fucking idiots.

user you may literally have the autismics

i suggest you rewatch that scene from star trek first contact where picard has to explain to data why touching the phoenix rocket is meaningful to him

>tfw ywn work as a DVD quaility assurance employee at Blockbuster in 2003

>turn 18
>finally get to rent kino from the local rental place
>spill my spaghetti renting all kinds of fucked up hentai DVDs and copy them to VHS at home

good times

>slacker in my early 20s
>working part-time in Ballbuster
>wiping late fees like a bro
>getting blowjobs in the staff by retail girls while a queue of customers wait

Good times.

This is B.S. I have tried to find movies I wanted to watch on Netflix, hulu and amazon video. Netflix and hulu don't have crap. amazon video would have the movie but at a price of 5.99 even for prime members. youtube was about the only place I could find that obscure 80's movie I wanted to see. youtube quality sucks ass. I miss the video store simply because they had almost everything not just current TV shows.

Remember the day of a new release you could go to Blockbuster and it would be all rented out? Then they started having to guarantee big releases would be in stock.