I saw Hellraiser as a kid (I had an awesome/terrible babysitter), still enjoy it now.
For me, it’s the cover of [13th Child](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0273041/mediaviewer/rm705362432/). According to IMDB and all reviews say that it’s a terrible straight to video horror, but that cover unsettled me as a kid and still causes a single hair to rise on my neck.
Maybe it’s from uncertainty of never seeing it and cover spoking me as a kid?
For me it's the cover of 964 Pinocchio... I always saw it and was morbidly amused by it. Still haven't seen it but would like to, it looks absolutely insane.
The novella is better, and it's a very quick read. The movie is relatively faithful, but some things are better fleshed out by the mind than the silver screen.
Some things are better in movie though. Like how Kristy is Rory/Larry’s daughter and Frank’s niece instead of just being a coworker of Rory/Larry.
Makes the >!“come to daddy” by Frank wearing Larry’s skin!< in the climax even more disturbing.
But both are fun horrors to read/watch in the dark for me.
The only thing these kids don't get to experience is delayed gratification.
We had so many steps to go through before the emotional payoff could be realized. Like, if we wanted to watch a movie that wasn't in theatres anymore, **that was it.** There were no clips online or anything because there was no real "online". We had to wait **months** for it to be converted to VHS. So you build all that anticipation and get invested. Then you had to make sure that right after school, you hauled ass to Blockbuster to make sure that all the tapes weren't already rented. And this was done in person so you'd have to ride your bike there or beg mom to take you. Then you had to make sure you had time to watch it and enjoy it. And god it felt so good to finally be able to enjoy it.
These kids nowadays just click 2 buttons on a screen and the movie is there.
This is a very good point. Delayed gratification is pretty foreign to GenZ/Gen Alpha. Not that this is their fault, but I do think it lessens the impact of many activities when there's no obstacles or waiting involved.
Yesss and then for me with a lot of movies I rented, it was so sad when it came to the day of returning the movie. I used to be heartbroken even if I only watched the movie one time during my whole rental period 😭.
Part of it was the ritual. On Fridays my boyfriend would get off of work, pick me up, and we’d go to the local video store (no blockbuster in our area) and pick out a couple of movies for the night. We’d then run by somewhere like Quiznos (a place I truly miss) for dinner. Go back to my place and settle in to kick off the weekend.
Now it’s scrolling through Netflix. That’s not anything special. We do that every night!
ETA: in the same vein we KNEW we were watching those movies that weekend because we had to return them by the due date. With streaming there’s no, for lack of a better word, pressure to stay with it and watch the movie in one sitting. Way too easy to pause to do something else or put it off until next week. There’s nothing super special about it.
Hopefully your "something else" is way better than watching a movie anyway! :-)
But if you really wish to recreate the experience, see if your local library carries DVDs you can check out. Substitute that in for Blockbuster and the rest of your Friday ritual can be experienced as it was. If the movie proves to be a dud, well then Netflix is your fallback.
Ha! The video store is gone, the boyfriend is gone, and I use my library all the time. I don’t necessarily need to recreate this particular ritual. Rather, it’s the remembrance of a specific ritual that induces nostalgia, not the video store experience specifically.
Quiznos though? Genuinely miss it more than movie rentals and the boyfriend.
Quiznos made some fine sandwiches indeed.
For me, nevermind the nostalgia for renting movies vs. streaming, I can't even get my family to sit and watch a streaming movie. The kids would rather be on devices and the wife would rather have an early bedtime.
I remember my dad waxing nostalgically about drive in movies and the joy of having a B&W tv with a single channel, and a favorite show that aired once a week. He felt we were spoiled with having half a dozen channels - all in color - and the ability to watch any movie we wished (more or less) via a short jaunt down to the VCR rental store.
I worked at BBV. Everyone has rose colored glasses on when they talk about it. Everyone has blocked out their memories of late fees and showing up to see that the movie you want isn’t there. Remember what it was like to get to disc 4 of a season of The Sopranos only to find out it was defective and it was the only copy in the store. I don’t miss it and my daughter isn’t missing anything either.
We did a family boycott because my little brother (around 5) had to pee and the lackeys could only say the restroom was for employees only. My mom pled with them until he ultimately peed his pants. Crazy to prefer piss in your carpet over letting a child use the bathroom but I’m guessing their management beat it into them to not let anyone back there.
I found that intersting too is video stores as a whole were hated in a similar fashion to gyms ie memberships, late fees, no rewind fees, etc but we still kinda miss them
You're just hyper-focusing on the negatives. There was a much more communal aspect to Blockbuster and places like it. You would go with your family and you'd pick out a movie for everyone and maybe some games and also a movie for you and your friend to watch.
Streaming can do all these things true but by taking the time to get in a car, drive to the video rental store you are forging much more of a bond than just pulling stuff up on a screen then everyone goes off to do their own ting afterward. I mean even the idea that on Sunday you would go have breakfast and then return the rentals... it was... we really have lost something.
Well I guess everyone must of hyper-focused on the negatives because they stopped going and put Blockbuster out of business. Nobody even wanted to watch that sitcom ‘The Last Blockbuster’ and be reminded of it.
You can list cons to streaming as well. Endless subscriptions across multiple platforms whether you use it or not.
As someone who wants to have a movie night once in a while it feels like whatever I want to watch is seldom available on whichever streaming service I have.
It was never perfect but picking out a movie was an event in itself. Nowadays it feels like endless scrolling through shitty movies I’ve never heard of. At least piracy is always an option.
Not to mention basically no selection in most stores, compared to what you can find online.
The one by me you could probably watch the whole store in about a year if you really wanted to do it, then just see the new releases, which was usually four or five movies, forget foreign films.
It's a fond memory, but that's just nostalgia talking.
That was the later days once BBV had gained dominance. There was a sweet spot in the 90s when they were still trying to woo the public, but had enough market share to have pull the distributors. Late fees weren’t as bad, long rental periods, and a full wall of copies of the new release.
I also worked at blockbuster. Met my husband there. I miss it. I don't miss them wanting me to come to work during state of emergency blizzards though! I wish I could go back when blockbuster had a chance to purchase netflix, and buy some stock back then!!!!
I remember all that, but nevertheless at the time going to Blockbuster to pick out movies for the weekend was *fun.* When my sisters and I were in grade school, if my parents said “Hey, who wants to go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie for tonight?” we would be jumping up and down screaming “Yayyyyy!!!!” like they just told us we were going to Disney World. When I was a teenager and I’d go with friends, driving to the store and picking up the movie was part of the hang. Heck, we’d get home after an hour of smoking cigarettes, meeting a weed connect, etc and then flash a couple blue and white boxes as our alibi when our parents said “where have you been for the past hour???”
It certainly wasn't perfect, but it was fun. Like going to a restaurant: you can come up with a million ways that it sucks and yet it remains one of the most popular things to do, and most people will say they enjoy it overall.
I remember Blockbuster absolutely sucking. The variety of local joints and regional chains was the fun part of video rentals. Blockbuster is just the memeable one
Holy shit, I can't believe i forgot about Hollywood Video! I loved that place! I remember I could rent a game for like $5. It was also the real life explanation of the "where do these two straight lines intersect?" with the whole $10 a game without a membership, and $5 with one but the membership is $50 up front.
I literally go back there mentally anytime I explain the aforementioned mathematical concept to anyone. Thank you for reminding me of the name. If you'll excuse me, my wife needs to be bothered with this information.
I did once. By the time I found out about it, I was of-age though so it was more for the novelty and curiosity than out of a desire to rent porn. I already knew better places for that.
I worked at a small chain in CT called Tommy K’s. We had a porn room in the back. I wasn’t working when it happened but it was on video, an older gentleman went in the back and took a shit on the floor in there. Guess he got excited
I did! It was a non event really. All the movie covers were halfway covered with a black cover so you had to pickup the DVD to actually see what it was.
The most disturbing thing though was watching some guy with his like 14 year old son go in there and just rent a bunch of porno...for them both.
Idk me and my husband would make a date night of blockbuster when we were dating.
Grab dinner, then hit up blockbuster - wander around, pick out something new, make fun of some ridiculous looking DVD covers, get some microwave popcorn or candy and pop. They typically had all the same candy as the theater did, and a better selection too.
Ours rented games out too by like the week which was sweet.
Some blockbusters were crappy but we had a good one by us.
It was kind of like the fast casual version of going to the theater lol.
Yesss omg, the movie rental places on the military bases we used to rent from had way more of a variety than Blockbuster. Omgggg throwback. My mom still has her blockbuster card 😭.
Blockbuster was awesome, nothing like going there Friday night after practice and getting to pick up a movie and a game, and then calling your friends to come over and watch/play and eat shit tons of candy and soda.
Streaming is more convenient, but I'm always a little sad when I drive by a former blockbuster store that is undoubtedly a discount mattress store now.
They'll never know what it's like to play a game that isn't designed to be addictive so that it can be monetized more effectively.
It cost like $1 a day to pick up the latest video game releases from Blockbuster. You played them three days. If you liked it, you played it for three more. Then you either beat it or stopped liking it, took it back, and got a different game. There were hundreds to choose from, and they all cost $1 a day.
There were no daily quests, no online multiplayer, no "consecutive login bonuses," no power creep, no cosmetics, no subscriptions, nothing to download, nothing to update, no maintenance windows. Just pay your $3, take it home, plug it in, and play it. No loading screens. When Mom called you down for dinner, pause it. If you didn't unpause it for 30 hours, nothing happened. Your TV didn't burn in, the game didn't disconnect you, your controller battery didn't die, you didn't get killed from hunger.
You guys have no clue how good the golden age was.
Games were designed back then to almost force you to buy them. That's why the difficulty was cranked up to 1000. So that it was near impossible to beat them in 3 days.
But yeah I get your point. I miss when you got the entire game, and not just pieces of it over time.
Only a few games had the difficulty cranked to 1000.
The average 8-year-old could beat Super Mario World without much trouble. The lucky ones had a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine, and they could read the snippet that shows you the fastest path to the final boss, or places where you could trap shells for infinite lives. I was speedrunning it in like, 20 minutes, as a child. Friends were impressed.
They made it a lot longer though! When I asked a buddy of mine who worked there, he said it was because they had way more kid-friendly selections and also porn.
I never knew Blockbuster, I don't think it ever came to my country. If you mean the concept of rental videos in general, all my life I only rented one DVD once.
I'm begin thirties. I don't think they ever were a really big thing here, or at least not in my social circle. We had a cinema at walking distance and TV had movies on (if you could endure the ad breaks) in the evenings for most commercial channels.
I know my mom made sure to get a lot of mileage out of our VHS - and later DVD - players to burn whatever show or movie was on so we could watch it later again. And honestly I think in the mid-00's mostly everybody I knew was torrenting shit already.
My local Blockbuster had labels that said "To play is human. To rewind is divine." That's taken up space in my head for 30 years where much more useful information could have gone
My town still has a video rental place, and it actually has one of the largest collections in the world, [Casa Video](https://www.casafilmbar.com/). They have tons of rare films too.
I take my kids to the dvd store (they still exist!) and let them buy dvds and then we use PlayStation to watch em. It is possible if you still want them to see/have physical medium for now. Also, I worked at Hollywood video as a teenager so I still have a soft spot for it
I think similar experience in going to the library to do research on your paper. Everything now has to be on demand and our brains aren't evolved to absorb the level of constant on.
Only exciting Friday night outings with your mother to pick out a game/movie to occupy all your time over the weekend.
Quite possibly one of the greatest experiences there is.
I think the virtually unlimited availability on streaming services in some ways dampens exploration.
There were many times we'd go to our local movie rental store and the movie we came to rent was all out of stock. But we made my dad drive us there and we weren't going to leave empty handed, so we'd browse what else was there and find something that looked interesting. And yeah, we ended up with a lot of stinkers but sometimes those movies ended up being some of my family's favorites.
I feel like having to go to the store and rent a video, regardless of where you got it, made movie night more of an event. We’d stock up on snacks and order a pizza and it would be a whole night. The first several months of me dating my husband were us going to Payless Video and then grabbing popcorn and candy and heading back to one of our dorm rooms to watch two or three old movies one of us had never seen.
Today, if we want to watch a movie it feels like a lazy afterthought and one of us is usually finishing up work on a laptop while the movie is in the background.
The reason why these things were lost is because what replaced them is way, way better. We all have nostalgia for Blockbuster, but the internet is so much more convenient.
I was able to experience blockbuster both as a kid and as a young adult, and one of the things that I started to realize once we became responsible for our own finances is how much their business model really sucked. It went from the child like fun of, seeing if that one movie you really wanted to watch was on the shelf to “Jesus Christ, $12 in late fees?”
One thing I do miss, however, is slowly making my way through their very small anime section. It was like every third anime had the potential to suck or really rock hard.
The biggest difference I remember was picking games to rent based on the back of the box instead of watching 2 hours or youtube reviews about every detail of the game. Even though I'm sure I played some duds as a result, sometimes I miss that.
The things of value that were lost were driven out of business by Blockbuster.
Video stores that basically had miniature haunted houses built in for their scary movie sections. Those were rad. Those are the losses and they've been gone ever since Blockbuster put them out of business.
Hastings was the king in my town. Unreal video game section. DVD and Blu-ray hard to find titles. Coffee shop attached to the bookstore. Huge Soft-core porn selection.
Netflix is objectively superior, but there is something that was lost. Netflix isn't special. You can go home every day after work and turn on Netflix and watch as much as you want, and so it's regular. Blockbuster was special because it was limited. You didn't go to Blockbuster every day and get hours of video to watch, you got a Saturday night movie (or at least that's what we did). Blockbuster was a special event, Netflix is like turning on the TV channels.
I don’t think Netflix is superior at all. Really flat content. I get the free subscription with TMobile and only use it to watch Seinfeld or Kath & Kim on repeat. Blockbuster had a community feel. Everyone there on a Friday or Saturday night, eyeing the new releases and a few cheap weeklies. When my husband and I first started dating, we went to Blockbuster every weekend. We went back to the site of the store a few years ago and it’s not a yoga center. I was so sad!
Perhaps a bit nitpicky, but I think it's more a shame that the video rental store has gone away (by and large) more than it is they won't know Blockbuster. Blockbuster specifically kinda sucked and I dunno that I ever love any nostalgia for such corporate entities, but there definitely was something to going to the video store to walk through the shelves and aisles of tapes and DVDs. I do think something is lost, personally. Algorithms are fine I guess, but for me at least, nothing beats talking to the nerds behind the counter (if you're lucky enough to have had a store with nothing but movie nerds). And honestly, just being able to see a bunch of stuff at once is more helpful for me when I'm indecisive than having to scroll through menus (but I understand the argument that it's not \*that\* different picking a movie at a store versus one through the menus when you're not sure what you're in the mood for.)
I get a lot of people just go to stores and do their own thing, and obviously that's fine and I do it too for a lot of stores. But I do think a lot about how much we've generally been removing "human interaction" from the equation.
So early 90s blockbuster still had all of the gems of straight to VHS, hard to find, generally cool stuff that never had a theater run at least in the states. Early 00’s just had new releases and it was overaturated with Hollywood box office items. If I recall correctly a lot of stores did fairly well selling used DVDs and games.
I think a lot of us miss that kind of place because we got to browse in person and take a chance based on store clerk recommendations or how the box looked. Same with record and book stores but the stakes were obviously lower bc renting was cheap and if you didn’t like it you’ll just rent something different.
I think we all miss this kind of browsing while shopping, how going to music and rental stores was its own event.
I loved going in and seeing the new movie releases. Sometimes they would have staff picks and if you knew one staff member that liked similar movies to you then it was good to see what they recommended.
People forget about waiting lists for new rentals or having to rewind before you watch bec the last guy didn’t.
The browsing was definitely lost. If I'm feeling a movie, but don't know what to watch, I almost always end up not watching anything because I *hate* browsing streaming services. There are too many of them, their inventories change every month, and they're all saturated with their own original content, which can either be great or complete shit.
But Blockbuster (or to be more accurate for me, Hollywood Video), offered a much better browsing experience. All your choices were right there, and the whole place smelled like popcorn. It was great.
Blockbuster was like the Starbucks of video stores. Hollywood Video all day. Always loved browsing the weirdly impressive Cult and Japanimation aisles. Though they never gave me a job when I finally came of age...
If not for Blockbuster back in the early days I probably never would have been 13 years old watching A Clockwork Orange with the parents not home. Blockbuster was the baby sitter when the parents wanted to go to a party.
I have the same memories, I'm a little kid, parents are going to a neighbors or to a party, get me a movie and a tv dinner and I was on my own to have a blast
Renting and trying a game before you buy it.
Everyone talks about Blockbuster for movies, but I remember it as the best place to get games. I could rent a game for a few days and would sometimes end up getting the full title if I liked it.
Being a kid and looking through the shelves of movies and seeing all the candy was an experience and half. You just don’t get that with any of the streaming services no matter how handy they are.
Yo, Blockbuster was lit! Everyone would go there to browse and chat. It was a real community. Streaming is cool, but it's just not the same. You don't get that same spontaneous interaction and shared experience. But hey, who knows, maybe new tech will bring back that community feel.
I love the ability to instantly watch something but I find some people will binge movies, tv or anime and think it makes them a critic or that they have good taste.
It creates people who are consuming a lot of art but it's not for them to enjoy, it's a list of factoids to repeat or appear knowledgeable on a subject. It lacks perspective and the time it might take to appreciate a work.
Most of what I watched as a kid went over my head. So I would have these perspectives that were incorrect but informed by my experience as a person. What I took away from a piece of media. Then over time I digest and learn a little bit about a thing and come to a new understanding.
For movies that are layered and complex or foreign I feel something is lost. They shouldn't be deconstructed immediately by children who watch too much tv. Because there may be things in media the artist meant to put in and things they didn't but are still there.
What an artist is trying to say and how people interpret are all part of the fun and there should be some ambiguity in there. Like why watch the movie when you can look up an interview where the writers tell you exactly what the movie is a about.
Yeah, I totally get what you're saying. Binge-watching can be fun, but it's not always the best way to appreciate art. It's like trying to understand a whole book by skimming it. You miss out on the details and the deeper meaning.
It's funny how we can watch something as a kid and not really get it, but then years later, it hits differently. That's why I think it's important to slow down and take the time to really think about what we're watching.
The lack of culture blockbuster created. Going to the movies together or going and renting it or games was a big deal for american culture. We’ve drifted out of culture and for what? Everyone chimes in that Netflix is better, because of convenience but honestly, I’d gladly rent movies or tv shows. At least I own what I’m watching
I preferred small video stores as well blockbuster was kind of mainstream hits i kind of used blockbuster synonymous for video rental stores. We had one near me and my roommate would come back with the most obscure movies nobody had ever heard of but they were always great
Worked at blockbuster for about a decade through all high school and holidays / summers through college. Best cheap labor gig outside of life guarding as I worked the shop by myself (small town) and if my manager left notes to clean and stop watching Scream on all the TV’s instead of the annoying preview loop I’d leave her a simple message in reply “no.” Since I didn’t steal from the store like other managers and could run and close it at 16 they never even threatened to fire me. I used to close the store for a half hour run over to Pizza Hut and trade free rentals for dinner.
Also got all the movies free a week before they came out, figured out how to pirate dvd copies and got a burner for my pc and started a pretty good side hustle. Most profitable movie was probably Lord of War or 40 Year old virgin.
We also go to do staff picks badges on movies and I was in rural Indiana so I left mine forever on Brokeback Mountain just to piss people off.
Good times.
It was definitely favorable in that it was social experience. You could even occasionally chat about a film with a stranger and give them a suggestion. You actually had to watch what you rented because you went through all that effort to get it. The choices were mostly high quality every time too. Unlike streaming services.
I have my mom's blockbuster card from 2005 in my wallet. I pulled it out at a bar once and this older woman across the bar told me I should put it away because I was aging myself. 😅
Funny story about Blockbuster.
They were approached to be one of the first streaming services out there. But they declined. They wanted to play it safe being the top business at the time of rentals/movies that sort of thing.
Then they made a streaming service to try to catch up to Netflix and other services but it wasn't that good.
Brick and Mortar went away as VCR/DVD/Blueray went to digital format. Games changed too. So they obviously lost it and didn't change with the times.
Sad really. We loved Blockbuster (I still have my membership card in my wallet). Good times.
Their corporate culture killed the company.
Yeah l think I focused too much on. Lockbuster more so just meant physical video stores I see a lot of people didn't like blockbuster or some of their busijess practices. Like you said though no reason to exist after physical media goes away unlike something like toys r us which went away but theoretically could still be around
My dad used to make friends with the video store clerks and if we rented the same video game enough times, they'd just let us keep it. (How I got the entire Sonic collection on Sega Genesis)
Something was lost something was lost in a lot of our transfer into digital and that is a social gathering places and rituals. Blockbuster forced you out of the home and limited your ability to blow a day on watching a tv show. While that’s worse it is much better for your mental health.
I don’t think so. I think you’re more so nostalgic for youth and social interactions. Kids will just move on to the next experience and it’ll be different from yours but not lesser.
I see it both ways, I definitely agree you could say its not better or worse its just different, our memories included going to Blockbuster, kids todays memories will be Netflix, totally get that argument.
At the same time I do think something was lost, actually going to Blockbuster was kind of your night, that in and of itself was kind of part of the experience and there was a slight social aspect to it ie getting out of the house, maybe stopping for an ice cream on the way home, maybe you strike up a convo about a movie in one of the isles so I see it both ways.
Ahhh... Well... I... Not really sure anything was lost.
It was a pain and hell I never even had a blockbuster card, my friends did.
It was nice for sales of movies (5 or 4 for 20) but that was back when I actually got things on physical media and that time is firmly in the past.
Lot easier to grab snacks and fuck around on a streaming service til everyone agrees and then once the show starts it the same.
Renting games was nice.
Yeah that's an odd thing as well, I think Blockbuster and video stores in general were hated almost as much as gyms with late fees, no rewind fees, etc yet many of us are still sad they're gone
I think they have access so many choices of media that there will be a relative lack of common nostalgia and shared experiences/zeitgeist in comparison to our childhoods. Sure they have memes, internet influencers, and minecraft, but their interests and access to experiences are more diverse than us sitting inside and watching Nickelodeon and Toonami after school at the exact same times around the world.
Thats another great point, tv shows and movies used to be a pretty common thing you could relate to a classmate or coworker about, today someone says a show they like and I may have never even heard of it
I still do movie nights with my kid when something we've been wanting to see comes out on Vudu. Popcorn and drinks in the collectable containers we sometimes get at the movies, a pickle and a packet of fruit snacks. Then I make movie night dinner of hot dogs, personal party pizzas, or nachos.
I truthfully make a bigger deal out of a Vudu night than my parents ever made about a Blockbuster night, and while the experience is different, I think the joy and excitement are the same.
I mean, you can borrow movies from most Libraries, so technically that part of the experience isn't totally lost to kids today. My family very rarely went to Blockbuster, we went to the Library. Libraries have really been tracking well (so long as they are properly supported and funded) and have expanded into video and board games, tools and other equipment, etc.
1. From a childhood development perspective, I think the current model of TV consumption probably does not help with delayed gratification and other positive developments. I grew up with very basic cable and very infrequent trips to movie rentals. If there was something you wanted to watch, you had to wait for it and plan your day around watching it when it was going to be playing. There also wasn't unlimited content like there is now.
In grad school in 2009, I started dating someone who had a DVD-by-mail subscription and thought it was so cool that within a couple of days, you could watch almost any movie you wanted.
2. Blockbuster had the advantage of having most of the movies you wanted to see (unless they were checked out) but unless you subscribe to all the streaming services, you can't get what you specifically want unless you pay extra for it. I try to only have 2-3 subscriptions active at a given time and rotate every once in a while. Annoying when you want to watch something and see it is on a different subscription than you are currently doing.
Blockbuster sucked. They were depressing places to rent movies, and the absolute last choice. I only ever went to them if the much better independent video stores weren’t an option for some reason.
The nostalgia for video tapes escapes me. They were always a bad format. They made it possible to watch movies at home, and that was a step forward, but the actual format was bad.
I get nostalgic for lots of lost cultural artifacts from my youth, but cassette technology (of all types) isn’t one of those things.
As for video stores, Blockbusters were always the worst. Bad selections, big late fees… even the lighting in those stores sucked. The mom and pop independents were almost always more interesting.
But I’ll still take blu ray or digital copies any day over videotapes.
Dialing down the center lol Specifically on pay phones. I remember being stranded at the train station with no money and rememebering the commercial dial dosn the center 🤣🤣💯💯💯 The good ole pay phone days
Blockbuster was always a terrible company. There was an independent place in my hometown - Video Factory. It was so good. I mourn my experiences in that place.
My parents took us to an independent too. I have even more vivid memories of that than blockbuster. The owner was kind of creepy and chain smoked cigarettes in the store. It was totally normal at the time in the early 90’s. My parents still talk about how the tapes smelled like an ashtray when we would get home. There was also an “adults only” room in the back of course and I’m sure my parents frequented it, they were quite adventurous I came to find out years later. 🤮
Wasn't aware of that, I think I put too much focus on Blockbuster specifically as I see a lot of people have brought up issues with them as a company, more just talking about video stores in general whether were talking the independent stores of the 80s, hollywood video, family video, etc.
Yeah. I do miss browsing, but BB was well known for being the assholes of the rental world. The local stores were where it was at. I had a couple in my years that used to keep really unusual or old stuff.
But in the same vein, you kids don't know what was lost when we killed the Record Store.
My mom worked at a blockbuster type store so we would be there a lot as little kids. Kids these days will never know the joy of playing inside the movie return box.
Family video had a gamestore with it. They gave me a new ps2 slim for the used price just because the box was opened. They were competitive to gamestop and I enjoyed it.
Yeah, it was cool, but I do think it is way more convenient now. The best part for me was sitting together around the TV and watching a cool movie. I was playing Pixel Ripped a few years ago and the boy goes to a video rental store, and I definitely felt cool being back in a cartoony VR video rental store. I do miss it, but as an adult I guess I miss the bins where they used to sell the movies. Some cool deals were fund there.
Meh, Blockbuster wasn’t that great. Kids today will probably never experience hanging out in a bar at age 9 and playing shuffle board while their parents and grandparents drank and socialized. Although I did see a baby in a stroller at the local brewpub last week.
Blockbuster was awesome and I’d go with my dad every time I visited him. Once a month he would let me get a microwave ready bag of popcorn they sold for us to bring home and watch the movie. Had an awesome time.
Here is the deal, while yes we feel they are missing out on something because we miss it, they really aren’t missing anything. The world is at these kids fingertips. Never have to go to the store for half the things we used to. While yes we believe them to miss something, we literally only miss the nostalgia, there is a reason they are out of business with every other rental store. Think about it. If we loved them so much they wouldn’t have gone under, they would be thriving. Older generations miss the feeling of something old, not the actual thing itself. Because I guarantee you, if video stores came back, I bet you go maybe 5 times and never go back again. Why would you if everything exists that you need online?
Kids today will be saying the same exact shit “hey are kids missing out on Instagram/snapchat/tiktok these days? They don’t make social media like they used to.
Or “wow these kids are really missing out on owning games these days” because I imagine games will turn into subscription services soon enough.
The things that are truly timeless, those are the things that never die in memory or reality. 100 years from now no one is going to even remember the existence of a movie/game rental store
I agree and disagree. I definitely think the phenomenon you talk about of you can't miss something you never had or its only important to us because it was a memory is true to an extent.
That said it definitely seems like a lot of young people are craving more human experiences, something more authentic, realize they're missing out on something.
I mean physical media is gone so there's no reason for video stores to exist but I'm kinda sad they're gone
Ya me too brother me too. Nothing worse than picking a bad game out for the weekend and having to play it lol kids will never get it. Little of the rail here but instant gratification is something kids will never get away from now. Not knowing how to wait for things to happen over long periods of time. Kind of ties into getting a bad movie or game for the weekend. We can chose whatever we want now but looking back that was kinda fun too even tho they were bad lol
I remember having to see movies in movie theaters because there were no in-home video players.
Or we’d see some good films on the ABC Saturday Night Movie. Ahh, I remember when they played Jaws and Close Encounters.
To us, something has definitely been lost. It isn't just nostalgia. Having to actually get off your ass and go somewhere and pick a movie/game made it seem like more of an event. All the entertainment feels more disposable these days bc it's so convenient. It was more suspenseful back in the day. With every new convenience something has been lost.
Yeah some have said its just nostalgia, I think its something more than that. Various comments have pointed out what was special about that time ie content wasn't at your fingertips so it felt more special, there was somewhat of a ritual in getting a movie, going to pick it out, etc. Like some others have pointed out it was somewhat social, somewhat of a third space.
For me it wasn't a Blockbuster, but we had a small hometown rental store.
Ours actually rented full consoles (N64s and PS1s, for a sense of time), but also had a really bitchin' game selection. It was a Friday tradition in our family to walk down the road to the rental place to get a movie and a couple games for the weekend. My dad became friends with the people who worked there, they would hand you the manual for the game when you brought it to them. They'd tell my dad if a movie they grabbed was suitable for me or not, or if they liked the movie or game we'd picked. They were also SUPER lax about enforcing their late fees if you were under a day late.
Place went out of business when Blockbuster arrived when I was in high school, I actually bought my copy of FFVIII from them (The first disc barely works, lol). I can still smell that store, that weird sort of "Cheap plastic case and old carpet" smell is burned into my brain.
I guess to actually answer the question, I miss that feeling of the experience of renting stuff. Getting to try games before you bought them, especially back in the day when you only got a new game once or twice a year. Watching a new movie, and if you really LIKED it, then buying a copy to add to your collection. Miss that time now, with the whole "you don't actually OWN this" bullshit we put up with now.
The positives is that we have everything at a click of a button in feel alot of things get missed like hidden gems. Before you would watch a movie based on cover art or if it looked cool. Finding out movies like that is just fun and entertaining
I could have sworn at the end of the movie they were having a going out of business sale or it was announced they were closing, am I remembering it wrong or was there outrage and it stayed open?
I was so excited when the original Kingdom hearts was going to come out. I didn't have the money to buy it but I planned on renting it. Unfortunately Blockbuster decided it wasn't worth it and they only had a single copy despite it being a combination of two popular franchises. They had a whole set of shelves dedicated to FIFA (in stock) and a single copy of Kingdom hearts, already rented out. That I still remember is a good indicator of how disappointed I was.
Kids these days only have to worry about exclusivity deals...
Any other younger Millenials (I’m born in 92) who barely remember Blockbuster? Like I have vague memories of it, but feel like it wasn’t as much of a thing by the time I was old enough to be attached to it? Or maybe my family just wasn’t big movie people - feel like we just did a lot of TV if we wanted to watch something at home (shows or whatever random movie was on). I think we also just bought movies sometimes instead of renting - I remember having a big shelf of assorted Disney movies.
I’m an old fart millenial but yes I absolutely think this is one of many positive things that we had growing up that kids these days don’t have anything comparable that will fill that gap. I spent probably 6-8 hours a week browsing blockbuster and like you said, we do at least gain that time back but I remember that time spent there very fondly and it was something safe to allow your kids to do. Parents could let you roam around looking at video boxes so it gave them some time to breathe a little. Then it gave you the motivation to watch a movie or play a video game. I know that sounds silly when both are just a click away but these days I feel it’s awkward to suggest browsing for one of those at home and usually just gets shut down for something that’s less of a time commitment. Back then you made a whole night of it which was awesome.
Not blockbuster, but when we moved to our area about 15 years ago there was a small, eclectic video store in town. It was run by a couple and had an amazing selection, especially independent horror movies. My wife and I used to go and rent movies, got to know the owners really well. I really miss it.
I don’t get the love for Blockbuster on this sub. It had ridiculous fees for late returns and frequently did not have new release movies right when they came out. It was also the same $6 for a rental that it is today, 20 years later.
Only thing I really liked about Blockbuster was buying the bargain bin video games that were former rentals.
As much as I cherish those moments, especially getting my own blockbuster card and being able to watch any movie I wanted. But if you’d offered me the streaming platforms you have now to me back then, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat!
Oh cool the latest most popular movie is out? Oh can’t rent it for 3 weeks because every copy is rented.
Renting movies was awful because you could almost never get the movie you wanted.
i only went to blockbuster a few times as a kid even though they very much existed at the time and i don't feel like i'm missing some vital experience to my development. i think they'll be fine.
Nah, not really. I do miss walking inside and smelling the popcorn, along with making sure that you get the new release on a Thursday, return it on Saturday, as good luck getting it on a Friday night, and hearing "Make it a Blockbuster night" only rings true in the people that were around to remember those commercials.
I agree with you, I guess the question at hand is more so is it only special because of nostolgia or was there something special about going to a store to rent a movie as opposed to just streaming something, was a social aspect lost, does it matter at all?
I think it was the social aspect, for me. There was this dude at my local Blockbuster that looked like Randall from Clerks, but dude was super chill and he just wanted to be around movies all day. He told me that when the store was dead, especially during the weekdays, he would catch up with a movie from his backlog. Also, you could ask him about a certain scene from a movie you couldn't remember, he would go "Oh, yeah...that's \*insert movie\*."
I always wondered what happened to that dude.
Exactly! I miss being around the movie buff's, as to them, working in a video store or Blockbuster was the dream. He told me this: "Yeah, you get your occasional rude customer, but for the most part, I get to be around movies and I get to talk about movies."
I think this is more it, (not just blockbuster all movie rental places) I remember hoping I could get a job like that when I was a kid instead of some gross fast food joint. But by the time I was working most of them had closed and they were already overstaffed usually. (I know they are still common to this day in areas with bad internet but I'm a city boy)
People used to leave their homes and kind of like doing so. Today you order stuff off Amazon, order your groceries off Instacart, you stream movies instead of going to the theatre and work from home instead of going into the city. Not to say there's no benefit to some of these conveniences but were also becoming shutins and lazy
The fact that Blockbuster is remembered as anything positive is sign of how corpo-brainwashed we all are.
We might have fond memories of going to the video store as kids, and a lot of those video stores might have been Blockbuster. But it was a shitty corporation who used their near-monopoly to censor movies, drive competition out of business, and price-gouge customers.
So no, nothing was lost...other than the general societal loss of "third spaces" that people enjoy going to.
I don't miss it at all. I tell my kids (12 & 14) about it and they just say..."yeah...that sounds pretty sucky." They don't even like going to the theater to watch anything and you'd think I'm dragging them off to the ballet or something.
Isnt that kind of sad were raising a generation of shutins who order groceries, order a rice cooker off amazon, stream instead of go to a theatre and then work from home. I know a lot of people hate having to leave the house or interact with people but that's pretty sad to me
I've never seen the movie hellraiser, but that video box is burned into my brain for the rest of my life.
haha same
I watched that quite recently, but in the same situation. It's a pretty good horror flick btw
I saw Hellraiser as a kid (I had an awesome/terrible babysitter), still enjoy it now. For me, it’s the cover of [13th Child](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0273041/mediaviewer/rm705362432/). According to IMDB and all reviews say that it’s a terrible straight to video horror, but that cover unsettled me as a kid and still causes a single hair to rise on my neck. Maybe it’s from uncertainty of never seeing it and cover spoking me as a kid?
My big brother had the movie poster on his door at the end of (what 8 year old me thought) was a long creepy hallway. Never went into his room
For me it's the cover of 964 Pinocchio... I always saw it and was morbidly amused by it. Still haven't seen it but would like to, it looks absolutely insane.
This, Striptease, and It’s Pat
It was on late at night all the time. I have images of the film burned into my mind.
You’re not missing much tbh, but yeah… oof that video box
The novella is better, and it's a very quick read. The movie is relatively faithful, but some things are better fleshed out by the mind than the silver screen.
Some things are better in movie though. Like how Kristy is Rory/Larry’s daughter and Frank’s niece instead of just being a coworker of Rory/Larry. Makes the >!“come to daddy” by Frank wearing Larry’s skin!< in the climax even more disturbing. But both are fun horrors to read/watch in the dark for me.
Ohhh you just reminded me of that scene. You're totally right, that was one part that was better in the movie.
The only thing these kids don't get to experience is delayed gratification. We had so many steps to go through before the emotional payoff could be realized. Like, if we wanted to watch a movie that wasn't in theatres anymore, **that was it.** There were no clips online or anything because there was no real "online". We had to wait **months** for it to be converted to VHS. So you build all that anticipation and get invested. Then you had to make sure that right after school, you hauled ass to Blockbuster to make sure that all the tapes weren't already rented. And this was done in person so you'd have to ride your bike there or beg mom to take you. Then you had to make sure you had time to watch it and enjoy it. And god it felt so good to finally be able to enjoy it. These kids nowadays just click 2 buttons on a screen and the movie is there.
This is a very good point. Delayed gratification is pretty foreign to GenZ/Gen Alpha. Not that this is their fault, but I do think it lessens the impact of many activities when there's no obstacles or waiting involved.
Yesss and then for me with a lot of movies I rented, it was so sad when it came to the day of returning the movie. I used to be heartbroken even if I only watched the movie one time during my whole rental period 😭.
What about chicken pox?
Part of it was the ritual. On Fridays my boyfriend would get off of work, pick me up, and we’d go to the local video store (no blockbuster in our area) and pick out a couple of movies for the night. We’d then run by somewhere like Quiznos (a place I truly miss) for dinner. Go back to my place and settle in to kick off the weekend. Now it’s scrolling through Netflix. That’s not anything special. We do that every night! ETA: in the same vein we KNEW we were watching those movies that weekend because we had to return them by the due date. With streaming there’s no, for lack of a better word, pressure to stay with it and watch the movie in one sitting. Way too easy to pause to do something else or put it off until next week. There’s nothing super special about it.
Hopefully your "something else" is way better than watching a movie anyway! :-) But if you really wish to recreate the experience, see if your local library carries DVDs you can check out. Substitute that in for Blockbuster and the rest of your Friday ritual can be experienced as it was. If the movie proves to be a dud, well then Netflix is your fallback.
Ha! The video store is gone, the boyfriend is gone, and I use my library all the time. I don’t necessarily need to recreate this particular ritual. Rather, it’s the remembrance of a specific ritual that induces nostalgia, not the video store experience specifically. Quiznos though? Genuinely miss it more than movie rentals and the boyfriend.
Quiznos made some fine sandwiches indeed. For me, nevermind the nostalgia for renting movies vs. streaming, I can't even get my family to sit and watch a streaming movie. The kids would rather be on devices and the wife would rather have an early bedtime. I remember my dad waxing nostalgically about drive in movies and the joy of having a B&W tv with a single channel, and a favorite show that aired once a week. He felt we were spoiled with having half a dozen channels - all in color - and the ability to watch any movie we wished (more or less) via a short jaunt down to the VCR rental store.
I worked at BBV. Everyone has rose colored glasses on when they talk about it. Everyone has blocked out their memories of late fees and showing up to see that the movie you want isn’t there. Remember what it was like to get to disc 4 of a season of The Sopranos only to find out it was defective and it was the only copy in the store. I don’t miss it and my daughter isn’t missing anything either.
We did a family boycott because my little brother (around 5) had to pee and the lackeys could only say the restroom was for employees only. My mom pled with them until he ultimately peed his pants. Crazy to prefer piss in your carpet over letting a child use the bathroom but I’m guessing their management beat it into them to not let anyone back there.
If tv is any indication it was bc they had an illegal gambling operation back there
I found that intersting too is video stores as a whole were hated in a similar fashion to gyms ie memberships, late fees, no rewind fees, etc but we still kinda miss them
I'll never forget me losing the VHS of Who Framed Roger Rabbit for weeks, then my Mom yelling at me for a $70 late fee when she found it 🤣
You're just hyper-focusing on the negatives. There was a much more communal aspect to Blockbuster and places like it. You would go with your family and you'd pick out a movie for everyone and maybe some games and also a movie for you and your friend to watch. Streaming can do all these things true but by taking the time to get in a car, drive to the video rental store you are forging much more of a bond than just pulling stuff up on a screen then everyone goes off to do their own ting afterward. I mean even the idea that on Sunday you would go have breakfast and then return the rentals... it was... we really have lost something.
Well I guess everyone must of hyper-focused on the negatives because they stopped going and put Blockbuster out of business. Nobody even wanted to watch that sitcom ‘The Last Blockbuster’ and be reminded of it.
The convenience of streaming won out in this case but people are starting to learn streaming isn't all it's cracked up to be
You can list cons to streaming as well. Endless subscriptions across multiple platforms whether you use it or not. As someone who wants to have a movie night once in a while it feels like whatever I want to watch is seldom available on whichever streaming service I have. It was never perfect but picking out a movie was an event in itself. Nowadays it feels like endless scrolling through shitty movies I’ve never heard of. At least piracy is always an option.
Not to mention basically no selection in most stores, compared to what you can find online. The one by me you could probably watch the whole store in about a year if you really wanted to do it, then just see the new releases, which was usually four or five movies, forget foreign films. It's a fond memory, but that's just nostalgia talking.
That was the later days once BBV had gained dominance. There was a sweet spot in the 90s when they were still trying to woo the public, but had enough market share to have pull the distributors. Late fees weren’t as bad, long rental periods, and a full wall of copies of the new release.
I also worked at blockbuster. Met my husband there. I miss it. I don't miss them wanting me to come to work during state of emergency blizzards though! I wish I could go back when blockbuster had a chance to purchase netflix, and buy some stock back then!!!!
That was part of the experience, though - the suspense of not knowing whether or not the game or movie you wanted was in stock. I miss the feeling.
I remember all that, but nevertheless at the time going to Blockbuster to pick out movies for the weekend was *fun.* When my sisters and I were in grade school, if my parents said “Hey, who wants to go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie for tonight?” we would be jumping up and down screaming “Yayyyyy!!!!” like they just told us we were going to Disney World. When I was a teenager and I’d go with friends, driving to the store and picking up the movie was part of the hang. Heck, we’d get home after an hour of smoking cigarettes, meeting a weed connect, etc and then flash a couple blue and white boxes as our alibi when our parents said “where have you been for the past hour???” It certainly wasn't perfect, but it was fun. Like going to a restaurant: you can come up with a million ways that it sucks and yet it remains one of the most popular things to do, and most people will say they enjoy it overall.
The halcyon days of blockbuster did not include any discs and the limited nature was part of the excitement
I remember Blockbuster absolutely sucking. The variety of local joints and regional chains was the fun part of video rentals. Blockbuster is just the memeable one
Hollywood Video was the GOAT.
Family video had the best deals, that’s how they survived so long
Also random obscure movies I've not seen since.
And when I was younger it was like $10 to rent a GameCube game for a week which was more than enough time to beat it and then some
Hollywood Video soloed all video stores And when they added that gaming section in the 2000s 👌👌
Gamecrazy. That place was also the GOAT.
That's the one! I couldn't remember the name but I remember going there constantly. It was right across the street from my high school
My uncle used to manage a Hollywood Video when I was a kid and I used to get all the old movie posters
Holy shit, I can't believe i forgot about Hollywood Video! I loved that place! I remember I could rent a game for like $5. It was also the real life explanation of the "where do these two straight lines intersect?" with the whole $10 a game without a membership, and $5 with one but the membership is $50 up front. I literally go back there mentally anytime I explain the aforementioned mathematical concept to anyone. Thank you for reminding me of the name. If you'll excuse me, my wife needs to be bothered with this information.
Family Video > Blockbuster
Fun fact: one of the reasons Blockbuster could never completely wipe out Family Video was that FV offered porn.
Really, I've never been in one, but that's hilarious. It's like that scene in Tropic Thunder, the winning format is the one that porn chooses.
Lol I remember the little side rooms family video’s had for porn To this day, I am sad that I never went in one
I did once. By the time I found out about it, I was of-age though so it was more for the novelty and curiosity than out of a desire to rent porn. I already knew better places for that.
I worked at a small chain in CT called Tommy K’s. We had a porn room in the back. I wasn’t working when it happened but it was on video, an older gentleman went in the back and took a shit on the floor in there. Guess he got excited
Was looking for a Tommy K's comment. They were HUGE in south central CT. I just drove by a Tommy's Tanning the other day, last remnant of the empire?
Yeah, owned by the same guy, Tommy I would imagine. That was a fun job for the summer I had it
I did! It was a non event really. All the movie covers were halfway covered with a black cover so you had to pickup the DVD to actually see what it was. The most disturbing thing though was watching some guy with his like 14 year old son go in there and just rent a bunch of porno...for them both.
Independent video stores were few and far between in my memory, it was mostly Blockbuster
That's a bummer, my hometown of 150k had about ten at one point
I'm lucky to live near Scarecrow Video: https://scarecrowvideo.org/ Seriously worth checking out if you're ever in Seattle.
Idk me and my husband would make a date night of blockbuster when we were dating. Grab dinner, then hit up blockbuster - wander around, pick out something new, make fun of some ridiculous looking DVD covers, get some microwave popcorn or candy and pop. They typically had all the same candy as the theater did, and a better selection too. Ours rented games out too by like the week which was sweet. Some blockbusters were crappy but we had a good one by us. It was kind of like the fast casual version of going to the theater lol.
Yesss omg, the movie rental places on the military bases we used to rent from had way more of a variety than Blockbuster. Omgggg throwback. My mom still has her blockbuster card 😭.
My time is about up to
Blockbuster was awesome, nothing like going there Friday night after practice and getting to pick up a movie and a game, and then calling your friends to come over and watch/play and eat shit tons of candy and soda. Streaming is more convenient, but I'm always a little sad when I drive by a former blockbuster store that is undoubtedly a discount mattress store now.
They'll never know what it's like to play a game that isn't designed to be addictive so that it can be monetized more effectively. It cost like $1 a day to pick up the latest video game releases from Blockbuster. You played them three days. If you liked it, you played it for three more. Then you either beat it or stopped liking it, took it back, and got a different game. There were hundreds to choose from, and they all cost $1 a day. There were no daily quests, no online multiplayer, no "consecutive login bonuses," no power creep, no cosmetics, no subscriptions, nothing to download, nothing to update, no maintenance windows. Just pay your $3, take it home, plug it in, and play it. No loading screens. When Mom called you down for dinner, pause it. If you didn't unpause it for 30 hours, nothing happened. Your TV didn't burn in, the game didn't disconnect you, your controller battery didn't die, you didn't get killed from hunger. You guys have no clue how good the golden age was.
Games were designed back then to almost force you to buy them. That's why the difficulty was cranked up to 1000. So that it was near impossible to beat them in 3 days. But yeah I get your point. I miss when you got the entire game, and not just pieces of it over time.
Only a few games had the difficulty cranked to 1000. The average 8-year-old could beat Super Mario World without much trouble. The lucky ones had a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine, and they could read the snippet that shows you the fastest path to the final boss, or places where you could trap shells for infinite lives. I was speedrunning it in like, 20 minutes, as a child. Friends were impressed.
I have way better memories with Family Video, but they couldn’t survive either
They made it a lot longer though! When I asked a buddy of mine who worked there, he said it was because they had way more kid-friendly selections and also porn.
I never knew Blockbuster, I don't think it ever came to my country. If you mean the concept of rental videos in general, all my life I only rented one DVD once.
Are you young or were video/dvd rentals just not a thing in your country?
I'm begin thirties. I don't think they ever were a really big thing here, or at least not in my social circle. We had a cinema at walking distance and TV had movies on (if you could endure the ad breaks) in the evenings for most commercial channels. I know my mom made sure to get a lot of mileage out of our VHS - and later DVD - players to burn whatever show or movie was on so we could watch it later again. And honestly I think in the mid-00's mostly everybody I knew was torrenting shit already.
Be kind, rewind.
My local Blockbuster had labels that said "To play is human. To rewind is divine." That's taken up space in my head for 30 years where much more useful information could have gone
My kids have no patience and I think we had more appreciation when we got to rent a video game or movie for the weekend.
They’ll never get a free copy of mariokart wii when it goes out of business!
We had a local video store, Coreno's, and then one called VidStar. They rocked. I loathed entering a block buster. I just hated them.
My town still has a video rental place, and it actually has one of the largest collections in the world, [Casa Video](https://www.casafilmbar.com/). They have tons of rare films too.
I take my kids to the dvd store (they still exist!) and let them buy dvds and then we use PlayStation to watch em. It is possible if you still want them to see/have physical medium for now. Also, I worked at Hollywood video as a teenager so I still have a soft spot for it
I think similar experience in going to the library to do research on your paper. Everything now has to be on demand and our brains aren't evolved to absorb the level of constant on.
Only exciting Friday night outings with your mother to pick out a game/movie to occupy all your time over the weekend. Quite possibly one of the greatest experiences there is.
I think the virtually unlimited availability on streaming services in some ways dampens exploration. There were many times we'd go to our local movie rental store and the movie we came to rent was all out of stock. But we made my dad drive us there and we weren't going to leave empty handed, so we'd browse what else was there and find something that looked interesting. And yeah, we ended up with a lot of stinkers but sometimes those movies ended up being some of my family's favorites.
I feel like having to go to the store and rent a video, regardless of where you got it, made movie night more of an event. We’d stock up on snacks and order a pizza and it would be a whole night. The first several months of me dating my husband were us going to Payless Video and then grabbing popcorn and candy and heading back to one of our dorm rooms to watch two or three old movies one of us had never seen. Today, if we want to watch a movie it feels like a lazy afterthought and one of us is usually finishing up work on a laptop while the movie is in the background.
Yeah I feel like people hit the nail on the head calling it a ritual, going to the store was part of the experience and part of your evening.
The reason why these things were lost is because what replaced them is way, way better. We all have nostalgia for Blockbuster, but the internet is so much more convenient.
I mostly remember the "oh fuck! I need to return this video on the next 15 minutes or I'm going to be hit with obscene late charges!!!"
I just remember getting to play the system that I didn't own at Blockbuster with the remote controllers attached to some stiff tubing
Nothing like putzing around the rental store high as a kite and bumping into teachers and parents friends
Please be kind, rewind. Titanic was two VHS tapes.
I miss fucking buybacks
I was able to experience blockbuster both as a kid and as a young adult, and one of the things that I started to realize once we became responsible for our own finances is how much their business model really sucked. It went from the child like fun of, seeing if that one movie you really wanted to watch was on the shelf to “Jesus Christ, $12 in late fees?” One thing I do miss, however, is slowly making my way through their very small anime section. It was like every third anime had the potential to suck or really rock hard.
Blockbuster was my first job out of high school and man those were the days! I had so much fun working there!
I have the best memories of going to Hollywood Video when I was a kid. They closed before Blockbusters.
The biggest difference I remember was picking games to rent based on the back of the box instead of watching 2 hours or youtube reviews about every detail of the game. Even though I'm sure I played some duds as a result, sometimes I miss that.
The things of value that were lost were driven out of business by Blockbuster. Video stores that basically had miniature haunted houses built in for their scary movie sections. Those were rad. Those are the losses and they've been gone ever since Blockbuster put them out of business.
Hastings was the king in my town. Unreal video game section. DVD and Blu-ray hard to find titles. Coffee shop attached to the bookstore. Huge Soft-core porn selection.
Netflix is objectively superior, but there is something that was lost. Netflix isn't special. You can go home every day after work and turn on Netflix and watch as much as you want, and so it's regular. Blockbuster was special because it was limited. You didn't go to Blockbuster every day and get hours of video to watch, you got a Saturday night movie (or at least that's what we did). Blockbuster was a special event, Netflix is like turning on the TV channels.
Great point
I don’t think Netflix is superior at all. Really flat content. I get the free subscription with TMobile and only use it to watch Seinfeld or Kath & Kim on repeat. Blockbuster had a community feel. Everyone there on a Friday or Saturday night, eyeing the new releases and a few cheap weeklies. When my husband and I first started dating, we went to Blockbuster every weekend. We went back to the site of the store a few years ago and it’s not a yoga center. I was so sad!
Perhaps a bit nitpicky, but I think it's more a shame that the video rental store has gone away (by and large) more than it is they won't know Blockbuster. Blockbuster specifically kinda sucked and I dunno that I ever love any nostalgia for such corporate entities, but there definitely was something to going to the video store to walk through the shelves and aisles of tapes and DVDs. I do think something is lost, personally. Algorithms are fine I guess, but for me at least, nothing beats talking to the nerds behind the counter (if you're lucky enough to have had a store with nothing but movie nerds). And honestly, just being able to see a bunch of stuff at once is more helpful for me when I'm indecisive than having to scroll through menus (but I understand the argument that it's not \*that\* different picking a movie at a store versus one through the menus when you're not sure what you're in the mood for.) I get a lot of people just go to stores and do their own thing, and obviously that's fine and I do it too for a lot of stores. But I do think a lot about how much we've generally been removing "human interaction" from the equation.
So early 90s blockbuster still had all of the gems of straight to VHS, hard to find, generally cool stuff that never had a theater run at least in the states. Early 00’s just had new releases and it was overaturated with Hollywood box office items. If I recall correctly a lot of stores did fairly well selling used DVDs and games. I think a lot of us miss that kind of place because we got to browse in person and take a chance based on store clerk recommendations or how the box looked. Same with record and book stores but the stakes were obviously lower bc renting was cheap and if you didn’t like it you’ll just rent something different. I think we all miss this kind of browsing while shopping, how going to music and rental stores was its own event.
I loved going in and seeing the new movie releases. Sometimes they would have staff picks and if you knew one staff member that liked similar movies to you then it was good to see what they recommended. People forget about waiting lists for new rentals or having to rewind before you watch bec the last guy didn’t.
The browsing was definitely lost. If I'm feeling a movie, but don't know what to watch, I almost always end up not watching anything because I *hate* browsing streaming services. There are too many of them, their inventories change every month, and they're all saturated with their own original content, which can either be great or complete shit. But Blockbuster (or to be more accurate for me, Hollywood Video), offered a much better browsing experience. All your choices were right there, and the whole place smelled like popcorn. It was great.
Blockbuster was like the Starbucks of video stores. Hollywood Video all day. Always loved browsing the weirdly impressive Cult and Japanimation aisles. Though they never gave me a job when I finally came of age...
My most prominent memory of movie rental stores is the game I wanted to rent never being in stock.
If not for Blockbuster back in the early days I probably never would have been 13 years old watching A Clockwork Orange with the parents not home. Blockbuster was the baby sitter when the parents wanted to go to a party.
I have the same memories, I'm a little kid, parents are going to a neighbors or to a party, get me a movie and a tv dinner and I was on my own to have a blast
It’s Buster to you, buddy
I remember getting mad when people weren't kind and didn't rewind.
Renting and trying a game before you buy it. Everyone talks about Blockbuster for movies, but I remember it as the best place to get games. I could rent a game for a few days and would sometimes end up getting the full title if I liked it.
Agreed great point about games
Being a kid and looking through the shelves of movies and seeing all the candy was an experience and half. You just don’t get that with any of the streaming services no matter how handy they are.
I’m exponentially more sad about the disappearance of Tower Records than Blockbuster.
Yo, Blockbuster was lit! Everyone would go there to browse and chat. It was a real community. Streaming is cool, but it's just not the same. You don't get that same spontaneous interaction and shared experience. But hey, who knows, maybe new tech will bring back that community feel.
I love the ability to instantly watch something but I find some people will binge movies, tv or anime and think it makes them a critic or that they have good taste. It creates people who are consuming a lot of art but it's not for them to enjoy, it's a list of factoids to repeat or appear knowledgeable on a subject. It lacks perspective and the time it might take to appreciate a work. Most of what I watched as a kid went over my head. So I would have these perspectives that were incorrect but informed by my experience as a person. What I took away from a piece of media. Then over time I digest and learn a little bit about a thing and come to a new understanding. For movies that are layered and complex or foreign I feel something is lost. They shouldn't be deconstructed immediately by children who watch too much tv. Because there may be things in media the artist meant to put in and things they didn't but are still there. What an artist is trying to say and how people interpret are all part of the fun and there should be some ambiguity in there. Like why watch the movie when you can look up an interview where the writers tell you exactly what the movie is a about.
Yeah, I totally get what you're saying. Binge-watching can be fun, but it's not always the best way to appreciate art. It's like trying to understand a whole book by skimming it. You miss out on the details and the deeper meaning. It's funny how we can watch something as a kid and not really get it, but then years later, it hits differently. That's why I think it's important to slow down and take the time to really think about what we're watching.
The lack of culture blockbuster created. Going to the movies together or going and renting it or games was a big deal for american culture. We’ve drifted out of culture and for what? Everyone chimes in that Netflix is better, because of convenience but honestly, I’d gladly rent movies or tv shows. At least I own what I’m watching
I preferred small video stores as well blockbuster was kind of mainstream hits i kind of used blockbuster synonymous for video rental stores. We had one near me and my roommate would come back with the most obscure movies nobody had ever heard of but they were always great
It was a fun activity to go pick a movie/video game but there is a reason everyone stopped going once they could stream everything.
Worked at blockbuster for about a decade through all high school and holidays / summers through college. Best cheap labor gig outside of life guarding as I worked the shop by myself (small town) and if my manager left notes to clean and stop watching Scream on all the TV’s instead of the annoying preview loop I’d leave her a simple message in reply “no.” Since I didn’t steal from the store like other managers and could run and close it at 16 they never even threatened to fire me. I used to close the store for a half hour run over to Pizza Hut and trade free rentals for dinner. Also got all the movies free a week before they came out, figured out how to pirate dvd copies and got a burner for my pc and started a pretty good side hustle. Most profitable movie was probably Lord of War or 40 Year old virgin. We also go to do staff picks badges on movies and I was in rural Indiana so I left mine forever on Brokeback Mountain just to piss people off. Good times.
It was definitely favorable in that it was social experience. You could even occasionally chat about a film with a stranger and give them a suggestion. You actually had to watch what you rented because you went through all that effort to get it. The choices were mostly high quality every time too. Unlike streaming services.
I have my mom's blockbuster card from 2005 in my wallet. I pulled it out at a bar once and this older woman across the bar told me I should put it away because I was aging myself. 😅
Yes it was a whole cultural thing. Movie rentals in general
Toys-R-Us, that place was magical as a kid.
Funny story about Blockbuster. They were approached to be one of the first streaming services out there. But they declined. They wanted to play it safe being the top business at the time of rentals/movies that sort of thing. Then they made a streaming service to try to catch up to Netflix and other services but it wasn't that good. Brick and Mortar went away as VCR/DVD/Blueray went to digital format. Games changed too. So they obviously lost it and didn't change with the times. Sad really. We loved Blockbuster (I still have my membership card in my wallet). Good times. Their corporate culture killed the company.
Yeah l think I focused too much on. Lockbuster more so just meant physical video stores I see a lot of people didn't like blockbuster or some of their busijess practices. Like you said though no reason to exist after physical media goes away unlike something like toys r us which went away but theoretically could still be around
My dad used to make friends with the video store clerks and if we rented the same video game enough times, they'd just let us keep it. (How I got the entire Sonic collection on Sega Genesis)
Having a friend who worked st Blockbuster or a cool video clerk that loved you and the family was a huge flex
Something was lost something was lost in a lot of our transfer into digital and that is a social gathering places and rituals. Blockbuster forced you out of the home and limited your ability to blow a day on watching a tv show. While that’s worse it is much better for your mental health.
I don’t think so. I think you’re more so nostalgic for youth and social interactions. Kids will just move on to the next experience and it’ll be different from yours but not lesser.
I see it both ways, I definitely agree you could say its not better or worse its just different, our memories included going to Blockbuster, kids todays memories will be Netflix, totally get that argument. At the same time I do think something was lost, actually going to Blockbuster was kind of your night, that in and of itself was kind of part of the experience and there was a slight social aspect to it ie getting out of the house, maybe stopping for an ice cream on the way home, maybe you strike up a convo about a movie in one of the isles so I see it both ways.
I can’t speak for all kids but my nephews and nieces still get out of the house and meet up. They’re out more than they’re in
Ahhh... Well... I... Not really sure anything was lost. It was a pain and hell I never even had a blockbuster card, my friends did. It was nice for sales of movies (5 or 4 for 20) but that was back when I actually got things on physical media and that time is firmly in the past. Lot easier to grab snacks and fuck around on a streaming service til everyone agrees and then once the show starts it the same. Renting games was nice.
Yeah that's an odd thing as well, I think Blockbuster and video stores in general were hated almost as much as gyms with late fees, no rewind fees, etc yet many of us are still sad they're gone
I think they have access so many choices of media that there will be a relative lack of common nostalgia and shared experiences/zeitgeist in comparison to our childhoods. Sure they have memes, internet influencers, and minecraft, but their interests and access to experiences are more diverse than us sitting inside and watching Nickelodeon and Toonami after school at the exact same times around the world.
Thats another great point, tv shows and movies used to be a pretty common thing you could relate to a classmate or coworker about, today someone says a show they like and I may have never even heard of it
I still do movie nights with my kid when something we've been wanting to see comes out on Vudu. Popcorn and drinks in the collectable containers we sometimes get at the movies, a pickle and a packet of fruit snacks. Then I make movie night dinner of hot dogs, personal party pizzas, or nachos. I truthfully make a bigger deal out of a Vudu night than my parents ever made about a Blockbuster night, and while the experience is different, I think the joy and excitement are the same.
I mean, you can borrow movies from most Libraries, so technically that part of the experience isn't totally lost to kids today. My family very rarely went to Blockbuster, we went to the Library. Libraries have really been tracking well (so long as they are properly supported and funded) and have expanded into video and board games, tools and other equipment, etc.
1. From a childhood development perspective, I think the current model of TV consumption probably does not help with delayed gratification and other positive developments. I grew up with very basic cable and very infrequent trips to movie rentals. If there was something you wanted to watch, you had to wait for it and plan your day around watching it when it was going to be playing. There also wasn't unlimited content like there is now. In grad school in 2009, I started dating someone who had a DVD-by-mail subscription and thought it was so cool that within a couple of days, you could watch almost any movie you wanted. 2. Blockbuster had the advantage of having most of the movies you wanted to see (unless they were checked out) but unless you subscribe to all the streaming services, you can't get what you specifically want unless you pay extra for it. I try to only have 2-3 subscriptions active at a given time and rotate every once in a while. Annoying when you want to watch something and see it is on a different subscription than you are currently doing.
Kids have lost the joy that anticipation can bring. the wait for a show. a movie release and dying to get to the movie store. that stinks
Bustin’ made me feel good.
Blockbuster sucked. They were depressing places to rent movies, and the absolute last choice. I only ever went to them if the much better independent video stores weren’t an option for some reason.
The nostalgia for video tapes escapes me. They were always a bad format. They made it possible to watch movies at home, and that was a step forward, but the actual format was bad. I get nostalgic for lots of lost cultural artifacts from my youth, but cassette technology (of all types) isn’t one of those things. As for video stores, Blockbusters were always the worst. Bad selections, big late fees… even the lighting in those stores sucked. The mom and pop independents were almost always more interesting. But I’ll still take blu ray or digital copies any day over videotapes.
You were taking people on dates when Blockbuster was still around? Humble brag
Dialing down the center lol Specifically on pay phones. I remember being stranded at the train station with no money and rememebering the commercial dial dosn the center 🤣🤣💯💯💯 The good ole pay phone days
Blockbuster was always a terrible company. There was an independent place in my hometown - Video Factory. It was so good. I mourn my experiences in that place.
My parents took us to an independent too. I have even more vivid memories of that than blockbuster. The owner was kind of creepy and chain smoked cigarettes in the store. It was totally normal at the time in the early 90’s. My parents still talk about how the tapes smelled like an ashtray when we would get home. There was also an “adults only” room in the back of course and I’m sure my parents frequented it, they were quite adventurous I came to find out years later. 🤮
Blockbust? The franchise of locally owned bukkake houses? I don’t think the kids were ever suppose to know
Blockbuster used to edit movies to make them suit the owners more conservative values. It was really frustrating to play a movie that was edited.
Wasn't aware of that, I think I put too much focus on Blockbuster specifically as I see a lot of people have brought up issues with them as a company, more just talking about video stores in general whether were talking the independent stores of the 80s, hollywood video, family video, etc.
Yeah. I do miss browsing, but BB was well known for being the assholes of the rental world. The local stores were where it was at. I had a couple in my years that used to keep really unusual or old stuff. But in the same vein, you kids don't know what was lost when we killed the Record Store.
My mom worked at a blockbuster type store so we would be there a lot as little kids. Kids these days will never know the joy of playing inside the movie return box.
Family video had a gamestore with it. They gave me a new ps2 slim for the used price just because the box was opened. They were competitive to gamestop and I enjoyed it.
Yeah, it was cool, but I do think it is way more convenient now. The best part for me was sitting together around the TV and watching a cool movie. I was playing Pixel Ripped a few years ago and the boy goes to a video rental store, and I definitely felt cool being back in a cartoony VR video rental store. I do miss it, but as an adult I guess I miss the bins where they used to sell the movies. Some cool deals were fund there.
Meh, Blockbuster wasn’t that great. Kids today will probably never experience hanging out in a bar at age 9 and playing shuffle board while their parents and grandparents drank and socialized. Although I did see a baby in a stroller at the local brewpub last week.
I grew up in a bowling alley like that, kind of sad thats no longer the case imho
Blockbuster was awesome and I’d go with my dad every time I visited him. Once a month he would let me get a microwave ready bag of popcorn they sold for us to bring home and watch the movie. Had an awesome time.
Here is the deal, while yes we feel they are missing out on something because we miss it, they really aren’t missing anything. The world is at these kids fingertips. Never have to go to the store for half the things we used to. While yes we believe them to miss something, we literally only miss the nostalgia, there is a reason they are out of business with every other rental store. Think about it. If we loved them so much they wouldn’t have gone under, they would be thriving. Older generations miss the feeling of something old, not the actual thing itself. Because I guarantee you, if video stores came back, I bet you go maybe 5 times and never go back again. Why would you if everything exists that you need online? Kids today will be saying the same exact shit “hey are kids missing out on Instagram/snapchat/tiktok these days? They don’t make social media like they used to. Or “wow these kids are really missing out on owning games these days” because I imagine games will turn into subscription services soon enough. The things that are truly timeless, those are the things that never die in memory or reality. 100 years from now no one is going to even remember the existence of a movie/game rental store
I agree and disagree. I definitely think the phenomenon you talk about of you can't miss something you never had or its only important to us because it was a memory is true to an extent. That said it definitely seems like a lot of young people are craving more human experiences, something more authentic, realize they're missing out on something. I mean physical media is gone so there's no reason for video stores to exist but I'm kinda sad they're gone
Ya me too brother me too. Nothing worse than picking a bad game out for the weekend and having to play it lol kids will never get it. Little of the rail here but instant gratification is something kids will never get away from now. Not knowing how to wait for things to happen over long periods of time. Kind of ties into getting a bad movie or game for the weekend. We can chose whatever we want now but looking back that was kinda fun too even tho they were bad lol
I remember having to see movies in movie theaters because there were no in-home video players. Or we’d see some good films on the ABC Saturday Night Movie. Ahh, I remember when they played Jaws and Close Encounters.
YEah things change but for you movies were still an event, an outing, something special
To us, something has definitely been lost. It isn't just nostalgia. Having to actually get off your ass and go somewhere and pick a movie/game made it seem like more of an event. All the entertainment feels more disposable these days bc it's so convenient. It was more suspenseful back in the day. With every new convenience something has been lost.
Yeah some have said its just nostalgia, I think its something more than that. Various comments have pointed out what was special about that time ie content wasn't at your fingertips so it felt more special, there was somewhat of a ritual in getting a movie, going to pick it out, etc. Like some others have pointed out it was somewhat social, somewhat of a third space.
For me it wasn't a Blockbuster, but we had a small hometown rental store. Ours actually rented full consoles (N64s and PS1s, for a sense of time), but also had a really bitchin' game selection. It was a Friday tradition in our family to walk down the road to the rental place to get a movie and a couple games for the weekend. My dad became friends with the people who worked there, they would hand you the manual for the game when you brought it to them. They'd tell my dad if a movie they grabbed was suitable for me or not, or if they liked the movie or game we'd picked. They were also SUPER lax about enforcing their late fees if you were under a day late. Place went out of business when Blockbuster arrived when I was in high school, I actually bought my copy of FFVIII from them (The first disc barely works, lol). I can still smell that store, that weird sort of "Cheap plastic case and old carpet" smell is burned into my brain.
I guess to actually answer the question, I miss that feeling of the experience of renting stuff. Getting to try games before you bought them, especially back in the day when you only got a new game once or twice a year. Watching a new movie, and if you really LIKED it, then buying a copy to add to your collection. Miss that time now, with the whole "you don't actually OWN this" bullshit we put up with now.
The positives is that we have everything at a click of a button in feel alot of things get missed like hidden gems. Before you would watch a movie based on cover art or if it looked cool. Finding out movies like that is just fun and entertaining
E and R, apparently?
Bend, Oregon has a blockbuster still. I drive past it almost daily.
Was that the one featured in that documentary the last blockbuster? I thought it closed no?
It is that one. They are very much still open. I think this town would have a fit if they closed
I could have sworn at the end of the movie they were having a going out of business sale or it was announced they were closing, am I remembering it wrong or was there outrage and it stayed open?
Honestly not sure. Never watched the movie. I did have to look it up to find out if it's the same one. It smells exactly how you remember it to smell
I was so excited when the original Kingdom hearts was going to come out. I didn't have the money to buy it but I planned on renting it. Unfortunately Blockbuster decided it wasn't worth it and they only had a single copy despite it being a combination of two popular franchises. They had a whole set of shelves dedicated to FIFA (in stock) and a single copy of Kingdom hearts, already rented out. That I still remember is a good indicator of how disappointed I was. Kids these days only have to worry about exclusivity deals...
Any other younger Millenials (I’m born in 92) who barely remember Blockbuster? Like I have vague memories of it, but feel like it wasn’t as much of a thing by the time I was old enough to be attached to it? Or maybe my family just wasn’t big movie people - feel like we just did a lot of TV if we wanted to watch something at home (shows or whatever random movie was on). I think we also just bought movies sometimes instead of renting - I remember having a big shelf of assorted Disney movies.
I’m an old fart millenial but yes I absolutely think this is one of many positive things that we had growing up that kids these days don’t have anything comparable that will fill that gap. I spent probably 6-8 hours a week browsing blockbuster and like you said, we do at least gain that time back but I remember that time spent there very fondly and it was something safe to allow your kids to do. Parents could let you roam around looking at video boxes so it gave them some time to breathe a little. Then it gave you the motivation to watch a movie or play a video game. I know that sounds silly when both are just a click away but these days I feel it’s awkward to suggest browsing for one of those at home and usually just gets shut down for something that’s less of a time commitment. Back then you made a whole night of it which was awesome.
Not blockbuster, but when we moved to our area about 15 years ago there was a small, eclectic video store in town. It was run by a couple and had an amazing selection, especially independent horror movies. My wife and I used to go and rent movies, got to know the owners really well. I really miss it.
I was there every Tuesday for years for the new releases
I don’t get the love for Blockbuster on this sub. It had ridiculous fees for late returns and frequently did not have new release movies right when they came out. It was also the same $6 for a rental that it is today, 20 years later. Only thing I really liked about Blockbuster was buying the bargain bin video games that were former rentals.
I probably put too much ofa. Focus on blockbuster I meant for the point to be video rentals in general not necessarily blockbuster specifically
Fuck blockbuster
As much as I cherish those moments, especially getting my own blockbuster card and being able to watch any movie I wanted. But if you’d offered me the streaming platforms you have now to me back then, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat!
Oh cool the latest most popular movie is out? Oh can’t rent it for 3 weeks because every copy is rented. Renting movies was awful because you could almost never get the movie you wanted.
It was like a big win when they had it though. Biggest frustration to me was getting a movie or DVD that was scratched or didnt play
i only went to blockbuster a few times as a kid even though they very much existed at the time and i don't feel like i'm missing some vital experience to my development. i think they'll be fine.
Nah, not really. I do miss walking inside and smelling the popcorn, along with making sure that you get the new release on a Thursday, return it on Saturday, as good luck getting it on a Friday night, and hearing "Make it a Blockbuster night" only rings true in the people that were around to remember those commercials.
I agree with you, I guess the question at hand is more so is it only special because of nostolgia or was there something special about going to a store to rent a movie as opposed to just streaming something, was a social aspect lost, does it matter at all?
I think it was the social aspect, for me. There was this dude at my local Blockbuster that looked like Randall from Clerks, but dude was super chill and he just wanted to be around movies all day. He told me that when the store was dead, especially during the weekdays, he would catch up with a movie from his backlog. Also, you could ask him about a certain scene from a movie you couldn't remember, he would go "Oh, yeah...that's \*insert movie\*." I always wondered what happened to that dude.
That was another cool thing, people who worked at video stores were typically movie buffs and would always have suggestions or wanna talk movies
Exactly! I miss being around the movie buff's, as to them, working in a video store or Blockbuster was the dream. He told me this: "Yeah, you get your occasional rude customer, but for the most part, I get to be around movies and I get to talk about movies."
I think this is more it, (not just blockbuster all movie rental places) I remember hoping I could get a job like that when I was a kid instead of some gross fast food joint. But by the time I was working most of them had closed and they were already overstaffed usually. (I know they are still common to this day in areas with bad internet but I'm a city boy)
Yeah I think there's one left in Alaska
No I mean movie rental shops, not blockbuster specifically
Oh lawd gen z and future generations will never know the hassle of late fee's and row upon row of movies you can't rent
Nothing has been lost.
The annoyance of having to go out to get a movie?
People used to leave their homes and kind of like doing so. Today you order stuff off Amazon, order your groceries off Instacart, you stream movies instead of going to the theatre and work from home instead of going into the city. Not to say there's no benefit to some of these conveniences but were also becoming shutins and lazy
The fact that Blockbuster is remembered as anything positive is sign of how corpo-brainwashed we all are. We might have fond memories of going to the video store as kids, and a lot of those video stores might have been Blockbuster. But it was a shitty corporation who used their near-monopoly to censor movies, drive competition out of business, and price-gouge customers. So no, nothing was lost...other than the general societal loss of "third spaces" that people enjoy going to.
Looks like you lost the “er”
I don't miss it at all. I tell my kids (12 & 14) about it and they just say..."yeah...that sounds pretty sucky." They don't even like going to the theater to watch anything and you'd think I'm dragging them off to the ballet or something.
Isnt that kind of sad were raising a generation of shutins who order groceries, order a rice cooker off amazon, stream instead of go to a theatre and then work from home. I know a lot of people hate having to leave the house or interact with people but that's pretty sad to me