Video rental stores
 

Man do I miss the days of going to the local video rental stores and loading up on videos that had the coolest artwork. Honestly seeing the cover art of those old 80s horror vhs tapes at the rental stores are kinda what got me into horror as a kid. Now they're a dying breed. Any of you guys have one of these stores left in your town? Closest one to me is about an hour away.

We have Family Video in town. It's all DVD of course, but you still get to see all the cover art for every DVD, you just don't take the cover home with you.

The thing that disappoints me, is the VHS range that didn't (or didn't widely) make it over to dvd. I could be biased here, but I think horror was one of the hardest hit categories. I mean sure, there's probably some real bad stuff...but still...I'd like to have the option to watch it, and for my child to watch it, and say "Yep..crappy", if they are so inclined.
At least many DVDs have made it across to BluRay.

Another thing, is that a lot of the DVD horror covers are quite bland in comparison with their VHS counterparts.

Not many video stores left around my area, it's going to be becoming a collectors/second hand market soon.
Last few times I've walked into a rental store was when they were closing down, to get some things on sale.

I swear, I will not hire a movie from a stupid little box.

What's a video rental store?

I live near an FYE that's still going strong; however, I typically just buy stuff from Amazon since it's usually cheaper, and FYE doesn't always have the movies I want.

we had 2 in our village, one shut down about 20 years ago, the other about 10, now blockbuster has gone bust i dont think there`s a dvd rental shop on the highstreet at all? anyone know different, im talking in the u.k, not sure about the us or europe.

I don't think there's a single one left in my country. Sad, but to be honest, I've only used them to buy cheap second-hand DVD's the last 6-8 years.

The gas station in town rents flicks,and they have loads of vhs tapes. I always laugh and wonder who still even rents these? But heck I still make mix tapes on my dual cassette player::big grin::

Yes we have one in the village. He's been there forever. When my kids lived at home we used it a lot but now I mainly use YouTube. A lot of the families I babysit for still rent from him. Its a good thing. ::cool::

Family Video rules!!

I love that chain!! I managed one of their stores in 1997-1999 and we had vhs tapes only at the time, now they have dvds, blu rays, and 3d versions of movies. I believe they are kings now because of Blockbuster stores closing down all over the U.S. I don't rent there like I used to but I buy A LOT of great movies there for $6 or less.

I think the biggest reason why they are so successful is because of their half off deal which is really awesome when you are a mega movie/tv show buff!! Where I live at (2nd largest city in Michigan), they have several of them all over. I honestly thought that they would have been eliminated by now, but they are kicking ass. ::smile::

Im with you man I still make mix tapes on my cassette player. And I still frequently watch VHS tapes alot of the crazy shot on video stuff was never transferred over to DVD.

Naah, they'll be gone before 2020.

The thing I miss the most is the browsing experience. Most of the movies I rented I had never even heard of, I just stumbled across it while browsing. Did that lead to a lot of crappy B movies? Thankfully, yes. Would that ever happen with Redbox? Not a chance. I still do one disc out with Netflix though and every once in a while a suggestion pops up that I hadn't heard of.

The browsing experience is exactly why I go to Family Video from time to time. Especially if I want to walk through the new releases... it's like, 'oh ya, I wanted to see that. I forgot all about it.' Without the wall walk, I'd never have remembered it.

Hell yeah, I don't think I'd know of Troma if it wasn't for the walk... especially at Entertainment Tonight where they gave you free popcorn.

Ya, I wouldn't have known about tissue trauma unless I had gotten a free teeth cleaning from my sister when she was a dental hygienist student.

I have to disagree. People love the prices and browsing the store in person instead of going online.

EXACTLY!!! I find the best titles there that I have never heard of, they put the single rentals right at eye level so you notice them right away.

Let's be positive about this. If we work together, I think we can get them gone by 2016.

I liked video stores. Some times seeing cute girls working there. Going through all the movie cover art. It's not the same online from what I've seen. I don't use Netflix though. The video store was one of those town areas that is sadly gone now. You watch a movie like Scream and see that scene in the video store and it dates the movie for the most part. But now that I think about my paranoia over clean stuff, I can't believe I used to bring home all those tapes after who knows touched them.

LOL......I remember an incident when a guy brought back a vcr tape porno and there was stuff on it.....I was sooo disgusted and washed my hands over and over!!::shocked::

That's sick. I was always scared to go into places that had porno movies. Perhaps that's why even the slightest tease in old horror movies was something big. Take the quick shower scene in Halloween 3. That was a big deal.

::big grin::

Used to be a lot of mom and pop video stores here but then Family Video came in and put them all out of business.

Funny that a place called "Family Video" put mom and pop video stores out of business.

Even funnier......they have porn ::shocked::

Hey, a family also has teenagers. Filthy, horny teenagers. It's disgusting.

Our Family Video doesn't rent porn. At least not that I know of. It's not on the shelves, and no door/room marked for it, so I'm pretty sure.

::devil:: ::big grin::

They all do, it's in the back and no it isn't 'marked' so to speak. Just ask some time.

That seems like something out of the 80s and 90s. I wouldn't be surprised if something more sinister is going on. Today you can get porno videos without even trying on the Internet. I can't imagine that renting it is actually popular and profitable.

One time I went to the library and a guy that was using the computer before left windows of it up behind the active window. But this was in the early days with dial up and few if any firewalls. I would hope that libraries block that sort of thing now.