4 ms·

more romanticizing of the bygone era. late fees (due at midnight!), restocking fees, etc; some of these fees to the tune of a new dvd/vhs; good riddance.

ghaff 3mo ago
A bit cruel and there were probably some indie stores that were different but I remember video rentals as a place where you went in, grabbed a movie, and left.
- mirmor23 3mo ago
  the big city that i lived in back then only had blockbuster or hollywood so my comment was about them; besides indie video rentals didn't have those kind of fees so, i was not talking about them. besides why cruel? market dynamics change and many businesses just don't make it..
  - jjulius 3mo ago
    Indie rental shops in many areas did, in fact, have those kinds of fees.
julienchastang 3mo ago
That's true and when the Netflix DVD service arrived, I thought it was really a situation where the consumer had finally won. (No late fees! Yay!). That said here in Boulder we had the Video Station which was a phenomenal place for browsing and discovery with a super knowledgeable staff especially for foreign and art house cinema. They survived for a surprisingly long time, but finally closed about ten years ago [0]. Not long ago, while cleaning out an old (manual transmission -- another artifact of a bygone era) car I found a Video Station receipt which I still have. Good times! [0] https://www.dailycamera.com/2017/02/27/the-video-station-boulders-last-rental-outlet-closing-next-week-after-35-years/ https://www.dailycamera.com/2017/02/27/the-video-station-bou...
- calvinmorrison 3mo ago
  Some things just need to survive the crash. We have THREE drive in movie theaters within an hour of here. All are doing well. One doesn't even have a digital projector, and they almost closed multiple times yes, but now there's a cult following around vintage flicks they play from horror to comedy. If you can survive long enough it seems like you can make it, if you work hard to build a social group around things like film or movies
  - pseingatl 3mo ago
    Expensive motel rooms, a lack of housing and not renting rooms to teenagers or college students might have something to do with the continued longevity of this business. And don't forget that on weekends they become flea markets.
- pseingatl 3mo ago
  Coral Gables, Fla had Lion Video. If Blockbuster carried it, Lion didn't: instead it was art house films, foreign films and lots of Spanish-language titles impossible to find elsewhere. One day the owner died and...that was it.
jjulius 3mo ago
Every era can be romanticized, and every era has its downsides. Just today, I could ramble on about the ever-increasing costs of streaming services as they reduce their available catalogs, ads forced upon users who have purchased the "ad-free" streaming bundle, UI/UX patterns designed to make cancelling difficult, things you've "purchased" no longer being available to you because the service no longer carries that studio's titles, paying up to $24.99 to "rent" a movie on Amazon for a mere 48 hours, the endless cycle of a service starting out "great" only to be enshittified, etc.
- mirmor23 3mo ago
  you are right, but that does not negate the friction that people felt at the time. my experience is with netflix, and i never found issues canceling, and as a matter of principle, i do not subscribe to services unless there are no alternatives (e.g. i pay for amz shipping, my own email domain). compare canceling a service sitting at home to driving to the video store, depositing dvd/vhs, and still having to check if they 'accidentally' overcharged. today it's so simple afaict.
billfor 3mo ago
You forgot the $2 charge for rewinding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97bkACYWLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97bkACYWLY
tartoran 3mo ago
> more romanticizing of the bygone era. late fees (due at midnight!), restocking fees, etc; some of these fees to the tune of a new dvd/vhs; good riddance Well, they were a business after all. And what's being romanticised is the civic experience of that bygone era. The modern experience sucks. It is devoid of any real human interaction. That is highly missing part in the modern landscape and it will only get worse.
asdff 3mo ago
Fee culture was huge back in those times. Phone bill fees just as notorious. Cable bill back in late 90s probably the same nominally what they charge today, which means it was actually a huge chunk of change given inflation. Most all of the stuff in the video store (vhs, dvds, games if they had them) honestly was about the same nominal prices then and what you'd pay today for a new blu ray or game. $20/movie or $60/game thereabouts. Music too. That's why we had to pirate.

ghaff 3mo ago

A bit cruel and there were probably some indie stores that were different but I remember video rentals as a place where you went in, grabbed a movie, and left.

mirmor23 3mo ago
the big city that i lived in back then only had blockbuster or hollywood so my comment was about them; besides indie video rentals didn't have those kind of fees so, i was not talking about them. besides why cruel? market dynamics change and many businesses just don't make it..
- jjulius 3mo ago
  Indie rental shops in many areas did, in fact, have those kinds of fees.

julienchastang 3mo ago

That's true and when the Netflix DVD service arrived, I thought it was really a situation where the consumer had finally won. (No late fees! Yay!). That said here in Boulder we had the Video Station which was a phenomenal place for browsing and discovery with a super knowledgeable staff especially for foreign and art house cinema. They survived for a surprisingly long time, but finally closed about ten years ago [0]. Not long ago, while cleaning out an old (manual transmission -- another artifact of a bygone era) car I found a Video Station receipt which I still have. Good times! [0] https://www.dailycamera.com/2017/02/27/the-video-station-boulders-last-rental-outlet-closing-next-week-after-35-years/ https://www.dailycamera.com/2017/02/27/the-video-station-bou...

calvinmorrison 3mo ago
Some things just need to survive the crash. We have THREE drive in movie theaters within an hour of here. All are doing well. One doesn't even have a digital projector, and they almost closed multiple times yes, but now there's a cult following around vintage flicks they play from horror to comedy. If you can survive long enough it seems like you can make it, if you work hard to build a social group around things like film or movies
- pseingatl 3mo ago
  Expensive motel rooms, a lack of housing and not renting rooms to teenagers or college students might have something to do with the continued longevity of this business. And don't forget that on weekends they become flea markets.
pseingatl 3mo ago
Coral Gables, Fla had Lion Video. If Blockbuster carried it, Lion didn't: instead it was art house films, foreign films and lots of Spanish-language titles impossible to find elsewhere. One day the owner died and...that was it.

jjulius 3mo ago

Every era can be romanticized, and every era has its downsides. Just today, I could ramble on about the ever-increasing costs of streaming services as they reduce their available catalogs, ads forced upon users who have purchased the "ad-free" streaming bundle, UI/UX patterns designed to make cancelling difficult, things you've "purchased" no longer being available to you because the service no longer carries that studio's titles, paying up to $24.99 to "rent" a movie on Amazon for a mere 48 hours, the endless cycle of a service starting out "great" only to be enshittified, etc.

mirmor23 3mo ago
you are right, but that does not negate the friction that people felt at the time. my experience is with netflix, and i never found issues canceling, and as a matter of principle, i do not subscribe to services unless there are no alternatives (e.g. i pay for amz shipping, my own email domain). compare canceling a service sitting at home to driving to the video store, depositing dvd/vhs, and still having to check if they 'accidentally' overcharged. today it's so simple afaict.

billfor 3mo ago

You forgot the $2 charge for rewinding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97bkACYWLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97bkACYWLY

tartoran 3mo ago

> more romanticizing of the bygone era. late fees (due at midnight!), restocking fees, etc; some of these fees to the tune of a new dvd/vhs; good riddance Well, they were a business after all. And what's being romanticised is the civic experience of that bygone era. The modern experience sucks. It is devoid of any real human interaction. That is highly missing part in the modern landscape and it will only get worse.

asdff 3mo ago

Fee culture was huge back in those times. Phone bill fees just as notorious. Cable bill back in late 90s probably the same nominally what they charge today, which means it was actually a huge chunk of change given inflation. Most all of the stuff in the video store (vhs, dvds, games if they had them) honestly was about the same nominal prices then and what you'd pay today for a new blu ray or game. $20/movie or $60/game thereabouts. Music too. That's why we had to pirate.