As the credits roll on your new-found favorite film and you’re sat in blissful stillness wishing for a time machine so that you can relive it all again as if it were the first time, an advert pops up and the countdown for the trailer begins.
Are you up for another one? Can you handle another rollercoaster of emotions? Whelp, those questions weren’t that easy to answer a little over 20 years or so ago, purely because you were stuck with the DVDs or VHS tapes you decided to rent from the store.
Unless you were ready for another adventure, you weren’t watching anything other than cable. The good ole days when you had to put in the effort rather than just waiting for the subscription money to leave your account every month for hundreds of hours’ worth of entertainment right at your fingertips.
Thankfully the nostalgia factor still continues, thanks to the Twitter account called “The Last Blockbuster” documenting what it’s like to be, well, one of the last Blockbuster stores there is. For those of us unfamiliar with the name, Blockbuster Video was an American-based provider of home video and video game rental services.
At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster consisted of 9,094 stores and employed approximately 84,300 people, but by 2019 only one franchised store remained open, located in Bend, Oregon, United States. It’s unclear whether this store is the same as the one posting all this hilarious content, but regardless, it deserves all the praise!
The creators of “The Last Blockbuster” spoke to The Daily Dot back in 2016, telling them that the account was run by multiple people working at the store. “We’re a small operation, so we take turns running social media, working the registers, and cleaning out the return drop box,” they said. “A lot of people seem to think it’s a trash receptacle even though we taped up a sign that says it’s for movies and games only.”
Things weren’t looking too good for the rental store, with them even joking that they were the only ones left open, so they decided to do some research into what the underlying problem was. They found that instead of blaming the internet for their troubles, they could use it to get closer to potential customers: “This account was created to get face-to-face with them and build a personal relationship for a better Blockbuster future. And to contact people who owe us late fees.”
The Daily Dot asked some pretty fun questions, like what the first thing the authors of the Twitter page would do if they were suddenly in charge of the company. “I’m glad you asked,” they said. “Three things: 1) Modernize our film library. 2) Upgrade our selection of energy drinks for the youth. 3) Get rid of the asbestos.”
The creators also took the time to complain about the teens parking their cars next to the shop for some teenage dream type of fun. “My manager always makes me go out there with a broom,” said one of the authors.
But all jokes aside, “The Last Blockbuster” was, and potentially still is, as dedicated as ever to providing high-quality VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray selections at reasonable prices. “We’re here today. We’ll be here tomorrow. And as long as our delivery driver wins his court case, we’ll be here next year,” they said.
Let’s add in a crash course history lesson for good measure. In 1965, Eastman Kodak released the Super 8mm film format into the market, which allowed for shortened versions of movies to be played at home. But what transformed the world of in-house viewing entertainment was when Sony released Betamax in 1975.
It only took a year for Victor Company of Japan (JVC) to produce what we now know as the VHS, essentially taking Betamax out of the game and allowing for further technological development. Only a few years later, LaserDisc hit the shelves. It was released in 1978, featuring Jaws as the first movie in this new format.
This would become the foundation for CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays, leading to the emergence of rental stores. Netflix originally opened in 1997 as an online movie rental business. People would rent films from their site and Netflix mailed them the physical DVD. In 2007, Netflix would start its movie streaming service, and the rest is history.
Regardless of it all, the movie rental store will continue to be a nostalgic highlight of our youth. Maybe we’ll see its resurgence in the near future… Who knows? But for now, we continue to enjoy everything that “The Last Blockbuster” has to offer.
As you continue scrolling through this list, don’t forget to upvote your favorites, leaving comments along the way. Were you lucky enough to live in the times of rental stores? What was your favorite part of them? Enjoy the rest of your day and I’ll see you in the next one!
