Once upon a time, a busy video store wouldn’t have seemed so peculiar – after all, there were nearly 30,000 of them in the United States circa 1989. By 2014 hat number had dwindled to barely 6,000. in 2010 and 2013 some of the largest video store chains began shutting their doors following years of struggles, acquisitions and bankruptcies.
A bit of history on video stores and video store clerks: The first video stores – and no one can agree on exactly who got there first – popped up in 1977, not long after the first home video distributor, Magnetic Video, acquired the rights to 50 titles from 20th Century Fox and released them on heftily priced videotapes. These initial video rental “clubs” were often incorporated into preexisting spaces like record stores and electronics dealers; as VCRs became more prevalent (from 1.9 million American households in 1980 to 64.5 million by the end of the decade), video stores began to spring up everywhere.
Around that time, a video chain called Blockbuster was starting to explode; it grew from a single location in 1985 to 94 in 1987 to over 1600 stores in 44 states by 1991. Their strategy was simple: a uniform store design, with wide aisles, bright colors, and clean shelves deep with new releases. The chain usually acquired these releases via shared-revenue arrangements with video distributors – rather than buying those tapes outright, as their smaller competitors had to.
One of my best childhood memories was in Blockbuster. The movie Cast Away had just come out on VHS and I begged my mother to bring me to go pick it up. It was my first time in a Blockbuster store and I was mesmerized by what I experienced. So many movies and possibilities. I wanted to experience all of it! I I also wished I was one of the actresses on the VHS covers.
I also admired the video store clerks who ran the checkout counter and who made sure all the movies were organized properly. I thought their job was so cool and exciting. But sadly, many of these video store clerk positions are dwindling fast, if they are not already gone. But it’s not just video store clerks that are just a memory, game store clerks are beginning to fade as well.
Virtually no one is going into video stores and game stores because everything is already accessible on the internet or some digital device.
References:
A brief, illustrated history of Blockbuster, which is closing the last of its US stores
Photo by David Friedman
Gone Jobs 