Renting videotapes

[Liamh1982]

Our Choices is now a vet's surgery.

[The Hobgoblin]

I remember my sister bought us all a video player in the early 80s when she started her nurse training.
And we still have it
First films we rented were the original Gone in 60 Seconds and American Werewolf in London
I had to watch them 2 times each :p

[crusto]

I ended up working at my local video shop for my first part time job when i was about 15 iirc, and managed to convince my boss to start stocking games, as well as Laser Discs. The latter not earning me any brownie points! I really enjoyed working there and got to sample lots of off beat films etc as a perk. Plus all the usual stuff for free. Late returns though and non rewound films used to really grind my gears.

The shop closed at 8 and the amount of toss rags that ran in at 7 59 and plonked a non rewound film on the counter is beyond count! It's a selfish act imo as it forces the shop to miss out on rentals for that day. I tried to get the gaffer to introduce fines if films were returned after 6 the next day, but he was afraid of upsetting his customers. Needless to say, it's a bookies now...

I would love to meet up with my old boss again, cracking bloke with a great sense of humour. Spoke a lot of sense too if I ever needed advice (not that I listened at the time!)

[STranger81]

Our Choices is now a vet's surgery.

Our Choices is now a sweet shop. Hundreds of those big tubs all shelved up and a big pick and mix section in the middle.

[greenberet79]

I don't know if I've already mentioned this on here but my uncle used to run a video shop so we used to get some videos before they came out officially over here - most notably Robocop, Rambo 3, Batman and Batteries not included. Awesome films one and all!

[SCALEBACK]

Didn't ET get it's UK TV debut in about 1989??

1990!

And The Jungle Book's STILL waiting for its TV premiere! Not even the Disney Channel's got round to it yet.

Oddly enough they've shown Jungle Book 2 on BBC1, Its mostly Mary Poppins, Robin Hood, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Sword in the Stone (Why didn't somebody try and cheat? )

[psj3809]

I don't know if I've already mentioned this on here but my uncle used to run a video shop so we used to get some videos before they came out officially over here - most notably Robocop, Rambo 3, Batman and Batteries not included. Awesome films one and all!

That must have been great as a kid !!! Its like kids in the 80's whos older brothers worked in a games shop or their parents did so they would get tons of games.

Every friday before our 'pub years' we used to rent a dodgy horror film on a friday night. Bit hit/miss really.

[silvergunner]

Used to love going into video rental shops as a kid in The 80's. Always made a bee line to the horror section. Loved the artwork and the hope of seeing gruesome stuff on the back.

[oldtimer]

in my work , i see 1000s of ex rental and pre recorded video tapes just junked!!
Its a crying shame now, and its started to happen to dvds and cds too ,one day the only thing we will have left is an empty room and a tablet pc ,no posessions just everything virtual .

[SCALEBACK]

in my work , i see 1000s of ex rental and pre recorded video tapes just junked!!
Its a crying shame now, and its started to happen to dvds and cds too ,one day the only thing we will have left is an empty room and a tablet pc ,no posessions just everything virtual .

True.
And what happens if your internet connection goes down while you're downloading the current must have game/music
and you don't get a refund?
That's what people who say 'do it online' forget while sneering at people who'd much rather walk into a shop and talk face to face with a real person and supposedly living in the dark ages.
But if I know my history shops didn't exsist in the stone age and DVDs/CDs didn't exsist in the dark ages either.

[sidney]

Oldtimer sums it up perfectly for me, whilst digital is convenient it does have its downsides and the lack of physical media is one very major one in my view. I remember the thrill of getting Terminator on VHS for Christmas when it was released on the format back in I think 1988. In those days films came out years after the cinematic release- not weeks! I remember sneaking downstairs to watch it on the family VCR when everyone else was asleep because I could not wait to see it and I remember having one ear on the movie and one ear listening out for the creak on the stairs that would certainly have meant Mum or Dad coming down to give me a blasting for watching a film in the early hours of the morning!

Renting films was always a big thing in our house, we had no Blockbuster type establishment but we had a pretty well stocked newsagent that had all the latest movies in a nice cosy annexe to the side of the main store. My family and I poring over every display box that took our interest, it was quite a nice family bonding thing as we chose our films with the friendly shop keeper throwing in the odd rental for free as we were valued customers! I also liked looking at the bargain bin where they sold their old stock for cheap and my brother and I ended up picking up enough tapes to open our own store! These are all things that the download/online rental experience can't match.

Watching films on subsequent formats is all very nice in Hd and everything- but for me watching films like Teminator, Robocop, Batman etc is all about the fuzzy 80's image that only VHS can give, which is an image coloured with nostalgia and memories. For that reason I keep a fully working LG recorder around and it gets some use too! Blu Ray is great but for old 80's flicks VHS is king!

[psj3809]

in my work , i see 1000s of ex rental and pre recorded video tapes just junked!!
Its a crying shame now, and its started to happen to dvds and cds too ,one day the only thing we will have left is an empty room and a tablet pc ,no posessions just everything virtual .

True.
And what happens if your internet connection goes down while you're downloading the current must have game/music
and you don't get a refund?
That's what people who say 'do it online' forget while sneering at people who'd much rather walk into a shop and talk face to face with a real person and supposedly living in the dark ages.
But if I know my history shops didn't exsist in the stone age and DVDs/CDs didn't exsist in the dark ages either.

I'm fine with 'virtual'. I mean how many of us have a dvd we watched once and then it sits on the shelf forever after gathering dust ? Such a waste. I used to be a 'collect-a-holic' but i thought what a waste of money when i would just watch it once etc. I had TONS of videos, looking back such a waste of money. Plus thanks to downloaders we now get TV shows or films soon after they're out instead of waiting a ridiculous amount of time. Frustrating waiting months after the US get their dvd/film out, now its all roughly the same

I've got a cloud account, on there i have tons of documentaries/films/comics/PDF's and stuff. I've also got those on an external hard drive. IF the internet broke down tomorrow i'll be fine (That sounds such a 'dad' comment !).

If the internet connection did go down while downloading something i would wait a few minutes for it to work and then do it again. What would you do if you got a bus into town to buy a dvd and then the bus broke down ?! But of course you get a refund, i think you're being paranoid that you dont get a refund. Have you had that issue happen to you then ? I bet you wont be using cashpoints now in case theres an error and you dont get your money !

I love online stuff as it frees me up to do more. Dont have to spend half the day going into town to buy a dvd or book, can do it all online quickly so i can then do other things.

[ootini]

I worked in the flagship store of a video rental/sales and music sales store back in the late 90’s while at college. Possibly one of the most fun Jobs I ever had. It was right at the beginning of DVD. I think there was about 10 or so titles, sell through only in the shop when I started. They didn’t start renting them till after I left. So it was predominantly VHS rentals as well as games.

I was lucky in the sense that I was one of only two staff who were able to both man the music and video sections. So it was nice and varied. The amount of interesting, annoying and weird customers was highly entertaining on a day by day basis.

Suffice to say the majority of my earnings went right back into the shop with their very generous staff discount policy. We’d also get all the orders to be distributed to the other stores delivered to us so we’d be able to pick what we wanted before It got assigned. They also carried PS1 and N64 titles.

A lot of weird things happened there though, and the to some of the people afterwards. The most high profile incident involved one of the owners being jailed for murder close to 10 years ago now.
There was also an incident were a regular customer poached both the manager and assistant manager, only to disappear after being outed as a major conman on BBC’s Watchdog program a month or two later.

As the old manager said to me recently, there's a couple of good movie scripts in there among all the stories.

Incidentally I recently watched a few quite good documentaries recently. On called Rewind This, which is quite an america-centric exploration of VHS and the cultural impact the medium made. Its a really entertaining watch and goes into depth with the ridiculous side of the medium, such as some bizarre instructional tapes and home made films. We’ll worth having a look.

The other one was a British documentary about the Video Nasty era. Which I’ve been reading a bit about lately. The additional discs with the DVD also have the trailer for each movie on the DPP list with an intro by a series of talking heads. Really interesting watch all round. Would love to hear any anecdotes from people on here who remember that era in Britain. I was only a nipper in the early 80’s.
The complete and total moral panic that was whipped up by the likes of the the Daily Mail and Mary Whitehouse was quite frightening. To the point were they managed to have laws changed and even have some video distributors prosecuted and even jailed.

[SCALEBACK]

Hey, Ootini. Have you got/read these books:-
Seduction of The Gullible
See No Evil (this one's the best out of the two)

[ootini]

No SCALEBACK, I have not...

Added to my reading list. Both look like potential good reads.

Thanks for that.