My family had a large library of movies which had been purchased at the local video store. You could not find these tapes at department stores or groceries unless they were extremely popular films. In the beginning, the only movies you could find were the tried and true classics like Jaws, The Wizard of OZ, and Gone With the Wind. To make matters worse, most of them were expensive, ranging from forty to fifty dollars on the low end of the scale and reaching a hundred dollars on the high end. As time went on and VCRs became more popular, the prices went down, but not by much. The cost of a movie was somewhere between 25 to 35 dollars. For this reason, the video rental industry became very popular.
Once Hollywood studios started churning out video tapes on a grand scale, movie rental stores started popping up everywhere. There were the big chains like Blockbuster, small chains like Hollywood Video, and family-owned businesses. Even grocery stores had a special department devoted to rentals. It seemed like there was a place for borrowing your favorite film at every major road intersection.
The average rate for a rental was three to five bucks for a period of three days if the film was popular but not recent, the same price for one or two nights when it came to new releases, and a dollar for movies which had been around for a long time. Eventually, the three-day rental was extended to five and sometimes seven. The video cassette tapes were always placed in large, plastic containers. Some were clear, others black, and most had a store logo on them. The big chains even had the plot synopsis on the back. All stores, regardless of size, put a label on the case, reminding you to rewind the tape before returning it. They also had the container placed behind the box which originally held the tape.
The stores pretty much had the same layout . There was one, big section with the latest new releases, all in alphabetical order. The rest of the place was divided into film genres such as drama, horror, comedy, and science fiction. Once again, all the titles were in alphabetical order. Above the shelves, various televisions showed store advertisements and movie trailers, but sometimes played entire films from the video collection. At the front of the store, a billboard of sorts provided a list of new releases, upcoming films, and rental charges. The checkout counters nearby were equipped with computers, bar-code scanners, and registers. Almost all transactions took place at the counters. However, when returning a rental, you had the option of sliding it through a drop-off slot instead of entering the store.
Although renting movies was a relatively cheap form of entertainment, the late fees could make it an expensive venture, especially for my family. They sometimes reached between twenty and thirty dollars. It was easy to assume that the video stores made most of their profit from these fees. Nevertheless, they started to slowly disappear. While many blame the invention of the DVD and the rise of Netflix for their demise, I think the main reason was the fact that it became cheaper to buy the movies then rent them. Regardless, the stores suffered a slow death with many holding on for a long time. And with their eventual demise came the end of an era.
Once Hollywood studios started churning out video tapes on a grand scale, movie rental stores started popping up everywhere. There were the big chains like Blockbuster, small chains like Hollywood Video, and family-owned businesses. Even grocery stores had a special department devoted to rentals. It seemed like there was a place for borrowing your favorite film at every major road intersection.
The average rate for a rental was three to five bucks for a period of three days if the film was popular but not recent, the same price for one or two nights when it came to new releases, and a dollar for movies which had been around for a long time. Eventually, the three-day rental was extended to five and sometimes seven. The video cassette tapes were always placed in large, plastic containers. Some were clear, others black, and most had a store logo on them. The big chains even had the plot synopsis on the back. All stores, regardless of size, put a label on the case, reminding you to rewind the tape before returning it. They also had the container placed behind the box which originally held the tape.
The stores pretty much had the same layout . There was one, big section with the latest new releases, all in alphabetical order. The rest of the place was divided into film genres such as drama, horror, comedy, and science fiction. Once again, all the titles were in alphabetical order. Above the shelves, various televisions showed store advertisements and movie trailers, but sometimes played entire films from the video collection. At the front of the store, a billboard of sorts provided a list of new releases, upcoming films, and rental charges. The checkout counters nearby were equipped with computers, bar-code scanners, and registers. Almost all transactions took place at the counters. However, when returning a rental, you had the option of sliding it through a drop-off slot instead of entering the store.
Although renting movies was a relatively cheap form of entertainment, the late fees could make it an expensive venture, especially for my family. They sometimes reached between twenty and thirty dollars. It was easy to assume that the video stores made most of their profit from these fees. Nevertheless, they started to slowly disappear. While many blame the invention of the DVD and the rise of Netflix for their demise, I think the main reason was the fact that it became cheaper to buy the movies then rent them. Regardless, the stores suffered a slow death with many holding on for a long time. And with their eventual demise came the end of an era.