Oh. There is something to be said about the “Good Old Days.”
Except. It used to be the “Good Old Days” were for old people. Like my grandparents. Or even my parents, once they went up in years.
Now. Those old days are the 1980s. Sadly.
But today’s historical item happened in that particular decade. The 80s.
On October 19, 1985, the first Blockbuster video rental store opened in Dallas, Texas.
It would just be a matter of time before they crept up to Ohio. I used to love going to the video store. Around that same year, I was fresh out of college and sharing a townhouse apartment in Centerville with three other women. We all worked typical 9 to 5 jobs of varying degrees. But in the evenings, especially on weekends, we would rent videos and have a little movie night.
Blockbuster took things to a different level. You see, most of the local video stores were small-scale operations. They featured a limited selection of titles. But then came Blockbuster. That first store in Texas opened with some 8,000 tapes displayed on shelves around the store and a computerized check-out process. And, that particular store was such a big success that Blockbuster expanded rapidly. Onward. Northward. It eventually became one of the world’s largest providers of in-home movies and game entertainment. That is, until the dream crumbled. They eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2010. But it was a good 25-year run.
Blockbuster was founded by David Cook. He was a guy who had previously owned a business that provided computer software services to the oil and gas industry in Texas. But Cook saw the potential in the video rental business. Shortly after opening the first Blockbuster in 1985, he added three more stores the following year. In 1987, he sold part of the business to a group of investors that included Wayne Huizenga, founder of Waste Management, Inc., the world’s biggest garbage disposal company. Uh, if that doesn’t smell like trouble, I don’t know what does.
But as it turns out, the Huizenga Company turned up the volume. Cook left Blockbuster, and Huizenga assumed control of the company and moved its headquarters to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Huizenga’s took Blockbuster on an aggressive expansion plan, snapping up existing video store chains and opening tons and tons of new stores. By 1988, Blockbuster was America’s leading video chain, with some 400 stores. By the early 1990s, Blockbuster had launched its 1,000th store and expanded into the overseas market.
The internet killed Blockbuster, really. Amazon opened its video store. In addition to that, Pay-On-Demand became a big thing. Why run out to the Blockbuster when all you had to do was flip on the TV?
But there was something magical about going into those stores and milling up and down the aisles, looking for just the right movie. Unless, of course, the store was crowded. It became a little bit like a race to get to the best movies before your adversaries found them. And then came those moments when you would find the perfect title, only to be disappointed by the empty box on the shelf, without any “rentable” movies behind it.
Yes, my friends, those were the days.
And today’s quotes are in honor of “things you might say while in the Blockbuster Video Store.”
“””””””””””””””
“May the Force be with you.” -Star Wars, 1977
“””””””””””””””
“Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” -All About Eve, 1950
“””””””””””””””
“I’ll be back.” -The Terminator, 1984
“””””””””””””””
Rent it. Watch it. Rejoice in the old days.
