January 28, 2021 • 27 mins
Often a film geek, many times a bored teen, video store clerks were the gatekeeper to your weekend movie binge. Helen and Matt are joined by Sandi Harding, the manager of the last Blockbuster video to chat about the early mom and pop video stores to the collapse of Blockbuster Video.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Helen Hung and I'm Att Beats, And today
we are rewinding to video store clerk. I see what
you did there. I like it, and I remember and
Mrs Doubtfire came out and they were close to a
hundred dollars a copy. Today, if we want to watch something,
(00:22):
we watch it. Sure we still have to browse, whether
it be on Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus YouTube or whatever.
There's a place to immediately watch whatever you want, whenever
you want, and often for free. How spoiled we are.
When I was a kid, I had to go to
a magical place called a video rental store. There was
(00:45):
one in my hometown. My family would make it a
Friday nights bike getting some pizza and then heading on
over to Video Unlimited to see what the newest movie
releases were. And after we had carefully made our selections,
we'd check out and chat with the one who seemingly
knew everything there was to know about all pop entertainment.
(01:09):
So grab some popcorn, get out those VCRs, and remember
be kind. Rewind as today we learned about the video
store clerk. Your intro really took me back. A lot
of us shared that experience as kids. Or teenagers like
remembering like oh, go into the Blockbuster and what's out?
And oh no, the latest thing is already sold out.
(01:32):
Now what am I going to watch? Like it was,
it was just it was a rite of passage and
it really it brings back nice memories. Yeah, I think
it was Friday nights. Was that the night where the
new releases would be out, and like you had to
get there early if you wanted to get one, Yeah,
because we would never get there early. I just remember
my family would never get there on time, and like
(01:53):
it would just be the empty boxes lined up on
the wall and they'd be like, no, it's out, and
we'd be like, aren't it. I feel like we have
to do a lot of explaining for the younger folks because,
like my daughters, they have never been to a video
rental store. Oh that's a trip. That is a trip. Yeah,
(02:14):
you would have to explain from scratch what it would
even look like. It's like going to Netflix, but it's
actually physically it's a place. Yeah, And instead of an
algorithm to kind of say, hey, you might like this,
there were actual human beings and that's who we're talking about.
Video store clerk is like a job that went out
(02:35):
in our lifetime. This is an experience that we remember
and it brings back nostalgic memories about our childhood and
our youth, right, a lot of good memories. It was
the next best thing to actually go into the movie theater. So,
believe it or not, there are still a few video
rental stores out there, a handful of them, and we
(02:55):
actually track down the last blockbuster in the in the
entire our world. Well, okay, it wasn't that hard to
track down because this is kind of a famous place now. Okay,
so kids, if you don't know what a blockbuster is,
it's like the McDonald's of video stores. Like it used
(03:15):
to be. There were blockbusters everywhere, and there's one blockbuster
left in the country, and this woman works there. Yes,
that last Blockbuster is in Bend, Oregon. I'm Sandy Harding,
and I am the general manager of the last Blockbuster
on the planet. We're still a traditional blockbuster video rental store.
(03:36):
We're still renting DVDs, blue ray, we still sell PRPs.
So everything is exactly what you remember from the nineties.
Oh my god, this is like making me cheer up
a little bit. The last Blockbusters like the last Unicorn,
I was gonna say, I don't think Unicorn has ever existed.
I hate to break that to you. I know you
keep thinking that when I heard last Blockbuster, I automatically
(03:57):
assumed this is pretty much a museum. But yeah, that
is surprising to me that it's more than just a
museum because in this day and age, we all have
Netflix and Hulu and HBO Max, So like, why do
people go physically to a video store anymore. I'm a
real life person, So if they come in, I'm going
to ask what they like and not just assume. And
(04:19):
that's probably the biggest and best part about coming into
our store. You probably remember because most of us do.
And when Netflix first came out, Netflix pretty much had
everything on there. Well, now that's not the case. There
are so many streaming services out there that you have
to have multiple ones to be able to watch what
you want to watch. So instead of going having to
flip through all those different streaming services at home, you
(04:41):
can come in and talk to a real person who's
going to be able to walk you out to that movie.
You're gonna be able to touch it, You're to read
the back of it, walk around the store with it
to decide if you want it, rather than having to
flip back twelve pages that one movie that you thought
you might want to watch, you actually still have it
in your hand, and I'll put it away if you
change your mind. So I think that the best part
(05:01):
is that human connection that we don't get sitting on
our couch. Get out the door, talk to people. I
don't have an algorithm. I will actually listen to what
you have to say, and I will help you find
a movie that you'll enjoy. This is a really good point.
Like if I was trying to find a movie the
other day, like a specific movie, and I had to
(05:22):
click through all five five Matt. Five is how many
streaming services that I have access to that I either
have an account for or am stealing a friend's account for.
And I was like annoying. By the end of that,
I was like, I don't even watch them. I don't
even want to watch this movie anymore. I want to
take a nap. Yeah, But also the stuff that we
(05:43):
watch is just kind of fed to us. When you
used to walk into a video rental store, I think
the exciting part was like the possibilities you really a
lot of times had no idea what you're gonna watch,
whereas a lot of times with when you log into Netflix,
you know exactly the type of stuff they're gonna recommend
to you, and a lot of times the algorithms are wrong.
(06:04):
Like for some reason, Netflix thinks I desperately want to
watch a sweet, syrupy Christmas rom com and that is
so not me. Literally, the only Christmas movie I love
is elf. It's like if you went to a Blockbuster,
that would never happen, Like the video clip wouldn't be
in your face, like shoving movies in your face, like
how about this one? How about this one? Like you
(06:26):
had real choice to be like Okay, I'm gonna wander
over here to the sci fi section or I'm gonna
wander over here to action. I would compare this position,
this job to like maybe a librarian, because somebody who
doesn't really know what they're they're looking for walking into
a library, that librarian is so crucial to guide them
(06:46):
down this path. Yeah, there was this independent video rental
place in Kansas City. I remember going in there and
just being amazed by all the things I had not
heard of, and I thought I was like, I'm cultured,
you know, go as Nepolitan and then like the clerks
that would have so much knowledge about the most obscure things,
(07:08):
but at the same time, because of that, there would
be that kind of aura of pretentiousness. I think it's
time to go into some history here, because there was
actually many decades when when movies existed, when television existed,
but you couldn't just watch them at home on your
own time. So let's go to a time before there
(07:32):
were rental movies. And I was a kid. To highlight
of you know, watching movies was padling into the car
and driving the fifteen miles to the drive in. And
if you didn't do that, you had rabbit ears on
your TV. And you were lucky if you had you know,
three or four channels that you might be able to watch.
That sounds horrible, Yeah, that sounds archaic. Maybe you could
(07:54):
predict this, like what do you think happened in the
nineteen fifties that was different that waved the way for
your rental stores because they still didn't exist in the fifties.
Give me a hint, Give me a hint. Okay, In
terms of new technologies, new technology in the fifties TVs.
Everybody had TVs, and then they wanted to be able
(08:14):
to capture what was on TV. Is that when the
VCR came out, Yes, the VCR. Okay, yeah, let me
let me explain here, because so before the nineteen fifties,
video footage was preserved through this process called kinescope. They
basically just photographed a television monitor. That's how it worked.
(08:38):
Pointed a film camera at a TV monitor and we're like, okay,
hit play kind of and then if somebody bumped the
camera was like, oh, with the the invention of the VCR,
they could actually have a better way of preserving stuff
that went out over the air. It was not cheap
enough for your average household to afford of the first
(09:00):
VCRs costs three thousand dollars in today's money, three hundred
twenty five thousand dollars. That you basically had to be
a millionaire to own an original VCR. Yeah, well, that
it was only television companies that that bottom. It wasn't
(09:20):
really until the nineteen seventies that they became cheap enough
for middle class families to purchase them. People were kind
of confused when they first came out there like, well,
how would I record something off TV? Like, that's just ridiculous.
But that's when movie companies are like, oh, well, they
all have these VCRs in their homes, so let's go
ahead and and make these VCR tape thingies. And that's
(09:42):
when the video stores took off. But that they were
still mom and pop stores that were checking out tapes
to customers. It wasn't that easy for him. When my
husband and I were dating, he actually worked at a
small mom and pop video store here in Bend, and
I remember and Mrs doubt Fire came out and they
were close to a hundred dollars a copy for those vhs,
(10:04):
and it was a small video store, so you'd be
lucky if you'd have one or two copies of it,
and then you know everybody will be waiting for it
to come back to the store so you can rent
it out again. I can remember thinking, I can't imagine
that he can even afford to buy very many of those.
From what I remember is that there wasn't very many copies,
and you'd go in and you might get that copy
(10:24):
that you wanted, but chances are you were probably going
to rent something else and go home with it and
then of course you had to make sure you rebound
it before you brought it back, so you didn't have,
you know, when you're rewinding, fees or anything like that.
And those were the challenges that I saw with my
husband working there. It was a challenge just to get
the videos in the stores. Whoa Mrs doubt Fire cost
a hundred dollars a copy? D and in today's money,
(10:48):
what I mean, no offense to Mrs doubt Fire, but okay,
so if it's a hundred and eighty dollars a copy
and you're a small video store, you can only buy
one or two copies. That's why whenever me the consumer
would go to the store, that movie would never be
there because someone else got it first. At the beginning
(11:21):
of the episode, you said, be kind rewind, Yeah, because
it was such a pain in the butt to have to.
It would take so much time to rewind all those
video tapes, and so they actually had like fees for
people who didn't rewind their videotapes. It's so archic to
me now that we live in a streaming world where
(11:41):
you can just click, click, click, click any part of
the movie that you want that you after you watched
this VHS movie, you would have to rewind the tape.
It would go for like two minutes, and if you
didn't rewind the movie, they charged your ass. They did
the things we lift room before Blockbuster. For many years,
(12:02):
you do, you really just had independent stores and it
was kind of like walking into a library, you know,
a lot of times the clerk was the owner of
the store, and the stores were very tailored to their
specific neighborhoods. You know. It's kind of kind of cool, honestly.
So I definitely think that the mom Pops, we're able
to be their neighborhood video store. I know that here
(12:25):
in ben we had, you know, west Side Video that
was probably more tailored towards that area of town. Even
with us when we had four blockbusters here and Bend,
and you would be amazed at how diverse every area was.
One star would do really well in horror movies. One
store would do really well, you know, in comedy and
action movies. And it was just amazing to me to
go three miles down the road and just see the
(12:46):
differences in the customers. Of course, the mom Pops they
had the back room too, and that was something far
different than the Blockbuster. I remember that as a kid.
You walk by, going what is in there? It's so
secretive and it's adult. You just kind of ran and
bite as fast you could. I forgot about the back
room thing. You walk into the store and there's like
(13:06):
all the regular videos at the front, and then in
the back of the store there's like a curtain. There's
like a doorway with the beads, remember beads, beads, Yes,
and then you go in that's like the dirty section
where you could find it was like the porn hub,
but you had to go into a room. Not that
I would know because I've never been in that room.
It was the n C seventeen room or the X
(13:29):
rated room, But Blockbuster, I think was afraid of that
because they wanted to market themselves as very family friendly. Yeah.
I don't remember Blockbuster ever having the naughty room in
the back, But can you imagine. I never thought that
a different Blockbuster in a different part of town would
specialize in different videos. That's really interesting. Well, you know,
(13:51):
I live in Los Angeles, matt and we have video
stores here because this is where this is the movie
making capital of the world, and so we still have
of a handful of independent video stores because they specialized
in movies that you could never find on Netflix or
anything like that, really specialized for filmmakers. So we have
(14:12):
like Cinephile and a few video stores that for people
who are really want to get into it with the movies.
You're you're like holding back. You're not saying like people
who are really dorky. You didn't quite say, you're being
nice people who are like people who probably have never
even seen Titanic. We asked Sandy what was probably the
(14:35):
most challenging part of being a video store clerk. The
most challenging parts of being a rental clerk was the
late fees. And I can remember looking at a customers
account and they'd have a couple hundred dollars in lafies
and I would just have like big eyes going, how
am I going to to explain this to a customer?
And I was mortified because I thought if I came
in here and I personally had, you know, hundred dollars
(14:57):
in lafees, I probably wouldn't come back. Kids, kids, sit down.
There was a time, well, yeah, today, if you you
quote rent something online, they give it to you for
twenty four hours. And then at the end of the
twenty four hours it goes away. But when Matt and
I were kids, we had to borrow that physical movie
(15:17):
and we kept it as long as we want, only
we would rack up these huge late fee charges. So
then when we finally did return the movie to try
to get another movie, they'd be like, ah, you owe
us fifty bucks. And I understand why they did, right,
because you know, a hundred and eighty dollars for Mrs
Doubtfire that one copy, and you're hoping to make your
money back, like check it out a few dozen times.
(15:39):
The next person who's like really anxiously waiting to rent
that Mrs doubt Fire, But you're just sitting on your
butt with did you ever know anyone who was a
video store clerk? I don't think I was friends with
anyone who did. I never knew anyone who was a
video rental store clerk either. So Sandy's just going to
run us through a typical day at one. Typically, you
know you'd come in and turn the lights on and
(16:00):
you know, get the money out, get the registers, going,
all the typical things that you'd see in any retail location.
You've got your light janitorial duties you have to do,
and you know, you've got to clean the windows, you
gotta stock the candy and and do all the mundane
everyday stuff. But the best part is the morning customers
because those are usually the real regular people, so we
have relationships with them. You call them by their first name,
(16:21):
they know you, You're able to give a movie recommendations,
and it's just a really fun part of the job.
And then you know, restock in the shelves, which you
know anti video store. Anybody out there that has worked
at a video store knows that you have to find entertainment.
And so we actually packed up one of our stores
here and Bend and moved it to Maddriss. And the
(16:42):
one thing about doing that that I couldn't believe was
how many pennies I found around my store. So having fun,
I found out how much the employees were flicking pennies
at each other across the store. I found locks in
some random places. I'm like, what the heck is it?
So a Blockbuster clerk definitely finds ways to entertain themselves
(17:02):
and have fun. Oh man, I forgot about the candy.
After you pick out your movie, then you get to
the cash register, like, oh, should we get caramel corn
or the big bag of peanut m and m's, Like
they had like movie theater type candy at the cash
register a lot cheaper. Yeah, for a lot cheaper, for sure.
(17:22):
That was clutch. I mean that was the whole point
of going to the blockbusters. Like we rarely went to
the movies as a family because we couldn't afford it.
But we could afford to go to the Blockbuster and
like rent a movie for and then get candy for cheaper.
You know, I can't believe, like she was mentioning there
were people that would come in first thing in the morning,
and I'm like, who are those people? Well, I mean
(17:44):
they want to get him first, right, the new releases.
I don't think I ever went to a Blockbuster in
the daytime. Actually that's not true. I had to run
into a Blockbuster in daylight hours because we were about
to get a late fee and it was like, no,
here's the movie. Well, you know, if you worked at
(18:05):
a video rental store, you didn't ever have to worry
about late fees. So some of the perks of working
at the video store. By far, it absolutely has to
be being able to talk about movies all day long.
You know, you get paid to chit chat here. It's
okay to stop in the middle of the aisle and
have a conversation with a customer about a movie. And
of course, you know, you get to take five free
movies home a week. So that is by far the
(18:26):
biggest and best park um I think right now, you know,
being the last Blockbuster video store anyway, that's really cool.
Every customer that walks in the door has a smile
on their face. Everybody's excited to be there. But after
you know, the hundred person a day coming in wanting
to take their picture with you, after a while, it
kind of wears all the kids a bit. So it's
kind of a double edged sword for us. But by
far talking about movies, being able to talk about our
(18:48):
store and smiling with people is a wonderful thing. Let's
look at how Blockbuster actually became the biggest video rental
store on the planet. At one time, there were nine
thousand stores around the world, and as late as two
thousand and four, Blockbuster was making five point nine billion
dollars a year and they were opening a new store
(19:10):
every seventeen hours. And that was as recent as two
thousand and four, so really not that long ago. Five
years ago, there was a Blockbuster in my neighborhood in
l A. Here Sandy's going to talk about how they
pretty much took over the entire industry. We were Pacific Video,
so we had three locations um in Bend and Blockbuster
moved in within gosh, probably a half a mile, and
(19:34):
everybody remembers that Blockbarbuster was famous for moving into a
community and running all them all and pop shops out.
Ken was like, no, there's no way, this is our town.
What can we do to get Blockbuster out? Blockbuster was like, well,
become one of our franchisees and we won't open up
any other locations in Bent. And so that's kind of
a short version of kind of how we became a
(19:55):
Blockbuster video franchise. Oh no, Blockbusters evil. They muscle in
with all their big money and they closed down the
mom and pop and you either got to join them
or die. Well. They you know, they franchised like many
giant companies. One of things Sandy didn't mention was that
they were really good at personalizing the stores, like accommodating
(20:18):
what selection there was based on the demographics you know,
of whatever community they built a store in, so I
think that they were really cognizant of that. Once they
gained enough market share, pretty much drove the mom and
pop stores out of there. I can't believe they were
opening a new store every seventeen hours, Like that's mind boggling.
But at the same time, I remember when I was
(20:39):
a teenager, they were everywhere. Okay, So another big reason
why Blockbuster was able to dominate the market was they
(21:00):
these deals with media companies where they would share revenue
and in return, they would get extremely discounted copies of
all the all the movies, which is why like when
a huge movie would come out, you would go that
weekend that it was dropped to the Blockbuster and they
would be like a whole wall of that movie. And
(21:22):
even then, most of the time they would be sold
out because people wanted to see that hot latest movie.
And so yeah, that is why today Blockbuster remains one
of the largest corporations in the world. I'm kidding though
they don't. I was like, really, I was following for
I was going to fall for it. I was like, what, no,
there's just one left. But yeah, let's learn about now
(21:44):
the demise of Blockbuster. You know, people really love the newest,
brightest toy. Everybody loves that, and I think that Blockbuster
just kind of got caught on their heels. They had
a business plan that was working really well for a
long time. Once things started to change, they were like, oh, no,
our customers have been loyal, that everybody loves coming into
a video store. Well they do. But it was a
(22:06):
cool thing to have a new cell phone or a
new something that you could download a movie on. And
suddenly I didn't have to be, you know, just at
my television. I could take that with me wherever I went.
And I think that the corporate world really wasn't paying
attention to what was happening around them. Remember when Netflix
first came out and they were actually like a DVD
(22:29):
mailing service. I used to get those DVDs in the
mail me too. I think I still have a couple,
Like I think I just have them like kicking around
my house. Like the Blockbuster experience was fun, but the
returning of it was a chore, especially if you had
a newer title. You only had like one or two
days before you had to return the movie or you
(22:51):
would get charged a late fee, whereas like when Netflix
first started, like oh, this wasn't a chore, Like you
just went to your mailbox and got it and then
dropped it off at your mailbox again. Yeah, so Netflix
started in seven, that was when it was first introduced.
By two thousand, Netflix had around three hundred thousand subscribers,
and well, Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy Netflix for
(23:16):
fifty million dollars. Long story short, did not and they
were like, nah, I mean this company, where are they
going to be in ten years exactly? Yeah, they thought.
They were like no, this is this is a joke.
And a couple of years later Blockbusters started doing their
own mail in service, but they were a little late
(23:36):
to the game because around that same time there was
also this other company called red Box. Yeah, like it
just became much easier. I think my own behavior, I
was just thinking, like why the heck would anyone drive
all the way there and I have to worry about
driving all the way back two days later just popping
in the mailbox or even right box. But then I
also have a distinct memory of eleven was when we
(23:59):
first got our first like smart TV, and I'll never
forget watching The Walking Dead instantly on the Netflix app
on my TV. I was just like, Oh, this is it.
This is literally the future. Whire's no going back. Wow
Wow wow wow. Yeah, I just looked it up. It
was two thousand and seven that they started streaming. Yeah,
and so yeah, I think it was just such a
(24:20):
quick thing, like they go from nine thousand stores ten
years later to like three, like just watching them shut
down so quickly in such a short time span. And
I remember actually when that Blockbuster near my place in
l A closed down, like being a little sad about it,
even though I hadn't stepped foot in there for years.
(24:42):
Back to that nostalgia, Yeah, I was like, oh no,
the Blockbuster is closing. I mean I would never go there,
but oh no, the Blockbuster is closing. The thing we
kind of longed for is that human connection, like in
terms of discovering new things. Like before we recorded this episode,
we were all talking about what's the latest thing that
you've seen lately that's good, you know, recommending movies and
(25:04):
TV shows. Well, that's that's something I think we all
kind of still long for. That nostalgia I think really
is still there for many of us. Sandy sums up
really well, here why we still crave the interaction with
the video store clerk. I really hope that the video
stores stick around for that reason alone, just because I
think it's important part of your entertainment. It's like going
(25:28):
to the theater, going to the video store. It's an experience.
It's not just I don't even know the word that
I want to use other than it's special. And um,
I think we're gonna be missing it a lot if
they go away, Like that's a really cool nostalgic experience
that we remember from our youth that this whole generation
younger than us will not have. And I keep thinking
(25:50):
about Quentin Tarantino, you know, like there's no better master
class in filmmaking than working at a video store and
watching every single obscure movie to come out. There's really
two things here I think that we really crave, and
that is the not only the interaction with others to
talk about movies with and get recommendations. But yeah, the
(26:11):
other part is what you just said, the And I
think this is actually comparable to public schools and public libraries,
because these places are institutions that kind of force people
to encounter things they would never encounter. Before, Matt, this
is making me so nostalgic for my childhood. I kind
of want to go to this last Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon.
(26:35):
Do you want to go? Yeah? Let me see if
I can find my old Blockbuster card that's somewhere in
my juncture all that I forgot about the Blockbuster card. Matt,
meet me in Bend, Oregon and bring your hand sanitizer.
I will. Let's do it. Jobsolete is produced for I
(26:59):
Heart Radio by Zealots manufacturing hand Forge Podcast for You.
It's hosted by us Helen Hong That's Me and Matt
beat That's Me. The show was conceived and produced by
Jason Elliott, Steve's Zamarki, and Anthony Savini. Our editor is
Tommy Nichol, Our researcher is Amelia Paulka, our production coordinator
(27:20):
is Angie Hymes, and theme music is by the mysterious
Breakmaster Cylinder. Special thanks to our I Heart Radio team
led by Nikki Etre, Katrina Norvell, Ali Cantor, Mangesh Hattie Kador,
Will Pearson, Connell Burne, and Bob Pittman.
Hey, I'm Helen Hung and I'm Att Beats, And today
we are rewinding to video store clerk. I see what
you did there. I like it, and I remember and
Mrs Doubtfire came out and they were close to a
hundred dollars a copy. Today, if we want to watch something,
(00:22):
we watch it. Sure we still have to browse, whether
it be on Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus YouTube or whatever.
There's a place to immediately watch whatever you want, whenever
you want, and often for free. How spoiled we are.
When I was a kid, I had to go to
a magical place called a video rental store. There was
(00:45):
one in my hometown. My family would make it a
Friday nights bike getting some pizza and then heading on
over to Video Unlimited to see what the newest movie
releases were. And after we had carefully made our selections,
we'd check out and chat with the one who seemingly
knew everything there was to know about all pop entertainment.
(01:09):
So grab some popcorn, get out those VCRs, and remember
be kind. Rewind as today we learned about the video
store clerk. Your intro really took me back. A lot
of us shared that experience as kids. Or teenagers like
remembering like oh, go into the Blockbuster and what's out?
And oh no, the latest thing is already sold out.
(01:32):
Now what am I going to watch? Like it was,
it was just it was a rite of passage and
it really it brings back nice memories. Yeah, I think
it was Friday nights. Was that the night where the
new releases would be out, and like you had to
get there early if you wanted to get one, Yeah,
because we would never get there early. I just remember
my family would never get there on time, and like
(01:53):
it would just be the empty boxes lined up on
the wall and they'd be like, no, it's out, and
we'd be like, aren't it. I feel like we have
to do a lot of explaining for the younger folks because,
like my daughters, they have never been to a video
rental store. Oh that's a trip. That is a trip. Yeah,
(02:14):
you would have to explain from scratch what it would
even look like. It's like going to Netflix, but it's
actually physically it's a place. Yeah, And instead of an
algorithm to kind of say, hey, you might like this,
there were actual human beings and that's who we're talking about.
Video store clerk is like a job that went out
(02:35):
in our lifetime. This is an experience that we remember
and it brings back nostalgic memories about our childhood and
our youth, right, a lot of good memories. It was
the next best thing to actually go into the movie theater. So,
believe it or not, there are still a few video
rental stores out there, a handful of them, and we
(02:55):
actually track down the last blockbuster in the in the
entire our world. Well, okay, it wasn't that hard to
track down because this is kind of a famous place now. Okay,
so kids, if you don't know what a blockbuster is,
it's like the McDonald's of video stores. Like it used
(03:15):
to be. There were blockbusters everywhere, and there's one blockbuster
left in the country, and this woman works there. Yes,
that last Blockbuster is in Bend, Oregon. I'm Sandy Harding,
and I am the general manager of the last Blockbuster
on the planet. We're still a traditional blockbuster video rental store.
(03:36):
We're still renting DVDs, blue ray, we still sell PRPs.
So everything is exactly what you remember from the nineties.
Oh my god, this is like making me cheer up
a little bit. The last Blockbusters like the last Unicorn,
I was gonna say, I don't think Unicorn has ever existed.
I hate to break that to you. I know you
keep thinking that when I heard last Blockbuster, I automatically
(03:57):
assumed this is pretty much a museum. But yeah, that
is surprising to me that it's more than just a
museum because in this day and age, we all have
Netflix and Hulu and HBO Max, So like, why do
people go physically to a video store anymore. I'm a
real life person, So if they come in, I'm going
to ask what they like and not just assume. And
(04:19):
that's probably the biggest and best part about coming into
our store. You probably remember because most of us do.
And when Netflix first came out, Netflix pretty much had
everything on there. Well, now that's not the case. There
are so many streaming services out there that you have
to have multiple ones to be able to watch what
you want to watch. So instead of going having to
flip through all those different streaming services at home, you
(04:41):
can come in and talk to a real person who's
going to be able to walk you out to that movie.
You're gonna be able to touch it, You're to read
the back of it, walk around the store with it
to decide if you want it, rather than having to
flip back twelve pages that one movie that you thought
you might want to watch, you actually still have it
in your hand, and I'll put it away if you
change your mind. So I think that the best part
(05:01):
is that human connection that we don't get sitting on
our couch. Get out the door, talk to people. I
don't have an algorithm. I will actually listen to what
you have to say, and I will help you find
a movie that you'll enjoy. This is a really good point.
Like if I was trying to find a movie the
other day, like a specific movie, and I had to
(05:22):
click through all five five Matt. Five is how many
streaming services that I have access to that I either
have an account for or am stealing a friend's account for.
And I was like annoying. By the end of that,
I was like, I don't even watch them. I don't
even want to watch this movie anymore. I want to
take a nap. Yeah, But also the stuff that we
(05:43):
watch is just kind of fed to us. When you
used to walk into a video rental store, I think
the exciting part was like the possibilities you really a
lot of times had no idea what you're gonna watch,
whereas a lot of times with when you log into Netflix,
you know exactly the type of stuff they're gonna recommend
to you, and a lot of times the algorithms are wrong.
(06:04):
Like for some reason, Netflix thinks I desperately want to
watch a sweet, syrupy Christmas rom com and that is
so not me. Literally, the only Christmas movie I love
is elf. It's like if you went to a Blockbuster,
that would never happen, Like the video clip wouldn't be
in your face, like shoving movies in your face, like
how about this one? How about this one? Like you
(06:26):
had real choice to be like Okay, I'm gonna wander
over here to the sci fi section or I'm gonna
wander over here to action. I would compare this position,
this job to like maybe a librarian, because somebody who
doesn't really know what they're they're looking for walking into
a library, that librarian is so crucial to guide them
(06:46):
down this path. Yeah, there was this independent video rental
place in Kansas City. I remember going in there and
just being amazed by all the things I had not
heard of, and I thought I was like, I'm cultured,
you know, go as Nepolitan and then like the clerks
that would have so much knowledge about the most obscure things,
(07:08):
but at the same time, because of that, there would
be that kind of aura of pretentiousness. I think it's
time to go into some history here, because there was
actually many decades when when movies existed, when television existed,
but you couldn't just watch them at home on your
own time. So let's go to a time before there
(07:32):
were rental movies. And I was a kid. To highlight
of you know, watching movies was padling into the car
and driving the fifteen miles to the drive in. And
if you didn't do that, you had rabbit ears on
your TV. And you were lucky if you had you know,
three or four channels that you might be able to watch.
That sounds horrible, Yeah, that sounds archaic. Maybe you could
(07:54):
predict this, like what do you think happened in the
nineteen fifties that was different that waved the way for
your rental stores because they still didn't exist in the fifties.
Give me a hint, Give me a hint. Okay, In
terms of new technologies, new technology in the fifties TVs.
Everybody had TVs, and then they wanted to be able
(08:14):
to capture what was on TV. Is that when the
VCR came out, Yes, the VCR. Okay, yeah, let me
let me explain here, because so before the nineteen fifties,
video footage was preserved through this process called kinescope. They
basically just photographed a television monitor. That's how it worked.
(08:38):
Pointed a film camera at a TV monitor and we're like, okay,
hit play kind of and then if somebody bumped the
camera was like, oh, with the the invention of the VCR,
they could actually have a better way of preserving stuff
that went out over the air. It was not cheap
enough for your average household to afford of the first
(09:00):
VCRs costs three thousand dollars in today's money, three hundred
twenty five thousand dollars. That you basically had to be
a millionaire to own an original VCR. Yeah, well, that
it was only television companies that that bottom. It wasn't
(09:20):
really until the nineteen seventies that they became cheap enough
for middle class families to purchase them. People were kind
of confused when they first came out there like, well,
how would I record something off TV? Like, that's just ridiculous.
But that's when movie companies are like, oh, well, they
all have these VCRs in their homes, so let's go
ahead and and make these VCR tape thingies. And that's
(09:42):
when the video stores took off. But that they were
still mom and pop stores that were checking out tapes
to customers. It wasn't that easy for him. When my
husband and I were dating, he actually worked at a
small mom and pop video store here in Bend, and
I remember and Mrs doubt Fire came out and they
were close to a hundred dollars a copy for those vhs,
(10:04):
and it was a small video store, so you'd be
lucky if you'd have one or two copies of it,
and then you know everybody will be waiting for it
to come back to the store so you can rent
it out again. I can remember thinking, I can't imagine
that he can even afford to buy very many of those.
From what I remember is that there wasn't very many copies,
and you'd go in and you might get that copy
(10:24):
that you wanted, but chances are you were probably going
to rent something else and go home with it and
then of course you had to make sure you rebound
it before you brought it back, so you didn't have,
you know, when you're rewinding, fees or anything like that.
And those were the challenges that I saw with my
husband working there. It was a challenge just to get
the videos in the stores. Whoa Mrs doubt Fire cost
a hundred dollars a copy? D and in today's money,
(10:48):
what I mean, no offense to Mrs doubt Fire, but okay,
so if it's a hundred and eighty dollars a copy
and you're a small video store, you can only buy
one or two copies. That's why whenever me the consumer
would go to the store, that movie would never be
there because someone else got it first. At the beginning
(11:21):
of the episode, you said, be kind rewind, Yeah, because
it was such a pain in the butt to have to.
It would take so much time to rewind all those
video tapes, and so they actually had like fees for
people who didn't rewind their videotapes. It's so archic to
me now that we live in a streaming world where
(11:41):
you can just click, click, click, click any part of
the movie that you want that you after you watched
this VHS movie, you would have to rewind the tape.
It would go for like two minutes, and if you
didn't rewind the movie, they charged your ass. They did
the things we lift room before Blockbuster. For many years,
(12:02):
you do, you really just had independent stores and it
was kind of like walking into a library, you know,
a lot of times the clerk was the owner of
the store, and the stores were very tailored to their
specific neighborhoods. You know. It's kind of kind of cool, honestly.
So I definitely think that the mom Pops, we're able
to be their neighborhood video store. I know that here
(12:25):
in ben we had, you know, west Side Video that
was probably more tailored towards that area of town. Even
with us when we had four blockbusters here and Bend,
and you would be amazed at how diverse every area was.
One star would do really well in horror movies. One
store would do really well, you know, in comedy and
action movies. And it was just amazing to me to
go three miles down the road and just see the
(12:46):
differences in the customers. Of course, the mom Pops they
had the back room too, and that was something far
different than the Blockbuster. I remember that as a kid.
You walk by, going what is in there? It's so
secretive and it's adult. You just kind of ran and
bite as fast you could. I forgot about the back
room thing. You walk into the store and there's like
(13:06):
all the regular videos at the front, and then in
the back of the store there's like a curtain. There's
like a doorway with the beads, remember beads, beads, Yes,
and then you go in that's like the dirty section
where you could find it was like the porn hub,
but you had to go into a room. Not that
I would know because I've never been in that room.
It was the n C seventeen room or the X
(13:29):
rated room, But Blockbuster, I think was afraid of that
because they wanted to market themselves as very family friendly. Yeah.
I don't remember Blockbuster ever having the naughty room in
the back, But can you imagine. I never thought that
a different Blockbuster in a different part of town would
specialize in different videos. That's really interesting. Well, you know,
(13:51):
I live in Los Angeles, matt and we have video
stores here because this is where this is the movie
making capital of the world, and so we still have
of a handful of independent video stores because they specialized
in movies that you could never find on Netflix or
anything like that, really specialized for filmmakers. So we have
(14:12):
like Cinephile and a few video stores that for people
who are really want to get into it with the movies.
You're you're like holding back. You're not saying like people
who are really dorky. You didn't quite say, you're being
nice people who are like people who probably have never
even seen Titanic. We asked Sandy what was probably the
(14:35):
most challenging part of being a video store clerk. The
most challenging parts of being a rental clerk was the
late fees. And I can remember looking at a customers
account and they'd have a couple hundred dollars in lafies
and I would just have like big eyes going, how
am I going to to explain this to a customer?
And I was mortified because I thought if I came
in here and I personally had, you know, hundred dollars
(14:57):
in lafees, I probably wouldn't come back. Kids, kids, sit down.
There was a time, well, yeah, today, if you you
quote rent something online, they give it to you for
twenty four hours. And then at the end of the
twenty four hours it goes away. But when Matt and
I were kids, we had to borrow that physical movie
(15:17):
and we kept it as long as we want, only
we would rack up these huge late fee charges. So
then when we finally did return the movie to try
to get another movie, they'd be like, ah, you owe
us fifty bucks. And I understand why they did, right,
because you know, a hundred and eighty dollars for Mrs
Doubtfire that one copy, and you're hoping to make your
money back, like check it out a few dozen times.
(15:39):
The next person who's like really anxiously waiting to rent
that Mrs doubt Fire, But you're just sitting on your
butt with did you ever know anyone who was a
video store clerk? I don't think I was friends with
anyone who did. I never knew anyone who was a
video rental store clerk either. So Sandy's just going to
run us through a typical day at one. Typically, you
know you'd come in and turn the lights on and
(16:00):
you know, get the money out, get the registers, going,
all the typical things that you'd see in any retail location.
You've got your light janitorial duties you have to do,
and you know, you've got to clean the windows, you
gotta stock the candy and and do all the mundane
everyday stuff. But the best part is the morning customers
because those are usually the real regular people, so we
have relationships with them. You call them by their first name,
(16:21):
they know you, You're able to give a movie recommendations,
and it's just a really fun part of the job.
And then you know, restock in the shelves, which you
know anti video store. Anybody out there that has worked
at a video store knows that you have to find entertainment.
And so we actually packed up one of our stores
here and Bend and moved it to Maddriss. And the
(16:42):
one thing about doing that that I couldn't believe was
how many pennies I found around my store. So having fun,
I found out how much the employees were flicking pennies
at each other across the store. I found locks in
some random places. I'm like, what the heck is it?
So a Blockbuster clerk definitely finds ways to entertain themselves
(17:02):
and have fun. Oh man, I forgot about the candy.
After you pick out your movie, then you get to
the cash register, like, oh, should we get caramel corn
or the big bag of peanut m and m's, Like
they had like movie theater type candy at the cash
register a lot cheaper. Yeah, for a lot cheaper, for sure.
(17:22):
That was clutch. I mean that was the whole point
of going to the blockbusters. Like we rarely went to
the movies as a family because we couldn't afford it.
But we could afford to go to the Blockbuster and
like rent a movie for and then get candy for cheaper.
You know, I can't believe, like she was mentioning there
were people that would come in first thing in the morning,
and I'm like, who are those people? Well, I mean
(17:44):
they want to get him first, right, the new releases.
I don't think I ever went to a Blockbuster in
the daytime. Actually that's not true. I had to run
into a Blockbuster in daylight hours because we were about
to get a late fee and it was like, no,
here's the movie. Well, you know, if you worked at
(18:05):
a video rental store, you didn't ever have to worry
about late fees. So some of the perks of working
at the video store. By far, it absolutely has to
be being able to talk about movies all day long.
You know, you get paid to chit chat here. It's
okay to stop in the middle of the aisle and
have a conversation with a customer about a movie. And
of course, you know, you get to take five free
movies home a week. So that is by far the
(18:26):
biggest and best park um I think right now, you know,
being the last Blockbuster video store anyway, that's really cool.
Every customer that walks in the door has a smile
on their face. Everybody's excited to be there. But after
you know, the hundred person a day coming in wanting
to take their picture with you, after a while, it
kind of wears all the kids a bit. So it's
kind of a double edged sword for us. But by
far talking about movies, being able to talk about our
(18:48):
store and smiling with people is a wonderful thing. Let's
look at how Blockbuster actually became the biggest video rental
store on the planet. At one time, there were nine
thousand stores around the world, and as late as two
thousand and four, Blockbuster was making five point nine billion
dollars a year and they were opening a new store
(19:10):
every seventeen hours. And that was as recent as two
thousand and four, so really not that long ago. Five
years ago, there was a Blockbuster in my neighborhood in
l A. Here Sandy's going to talk about how they
pretty much took over the entire industry. We were Pacific Video,
so we had three locations um in Bend and Blockbuster
moved in within gosh, probably a half a mile, and
(19:34):
everybody remembers that Blockbarbuster was famous for moving into a
community and running all them all and pop shops out.
Ken was like, no, there's no way, this is our town.
What can we do to get Blockbuster out? Blockbuster was like, well,
become one of our franchisees and we won't open up
any other locations in Bent. And so that's kind of
a short version of kind of how we became a
(19:55):
Blockbuster video franchise. Oh no, Blockbusters evil. They muscle in
with all their big money and they closed down the
mom and pop and you either got to join them
or die. Well. They you know, they franchised like many
giant companies. One of things Sandy didn't mention was that
they were really good at personalizing the stores, like accommodating
(20:18):
what selection there was based on the demographics you know,
of whatever community they built a store in, so I
think that they were really cognizant of that. Once they
gained enough market share, pretty much drove the mom and
pop stores out of there. I can't believe they were
opening a new store every seventeen hours, Like that's mind boggling.
But at the same time, I remember when I was
(20:39):
a teenager, they were everywhere. Okay, So another big reason
why Blockbuster was able to dominate the market was they
(21:00):
these deals with media companies where they would share revenue
and in return, they would get extremely discounted copies of
all the all the movies, which is why like when
a huge movie would come out, you would go that
weekend that it was dropped to the Blockbuster and they
would be like a whole wall of that movie. And
(21:22):
even then, most of the time they would be sold
out because people wanted to see that hot latest movie.
And so yeah, that is why today Blockbuster remains one
of the largest corporations in the world. I'm kidding though
they don't. I was like, really, I was following for
I was going to fall for it. I was like, what, no,
there's just one left. But yeah, let's learn about now
(21:44):
the demise of Blockbuster. You know, people really love the newest,
brightest toy. Everybody loves that, and I think that Blockbuster
just kind of got caught on their heels. They had
a business plan that was working really well for a
long time. Once things started to change, they were like, oh, no,
our customers have been loyal, that everybody loves coming into
a video store. Well they do. But it was a
(22:06):
cool thing to have a new cell phone or a
new something that you could download a movie on. And
suddenly I didn't have to be, you know, just at
my television. I could take that with me wherever I went.
And I think that the corporate world really wasn't paying
attention to what was happening around them. Remember when Netflix
first came out and they were actually like a DVD
(22:29):
mailing service. I used to get those DVDs in the
mail me too. I think I still have a couple,
Like I think I just have them like kicking around
my house. Like the Blockbuster experience was fun, but the
returning of it was a chore, especially if you had
a newer title. You only had like one or two
days before you had to return the movie or you
(22:51):
would get charged a late fee, whereas like when Netflix
first started, like oh, this wasn't a chore, Like you
just went to your mailbox and got it and then
dropped it off at your mailbox again. Yeah, so Netflix
started in seven, that was when it was first introduced.
By two thousand, Netflix had around three hundred thousand subscribers,
and well, Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy Netflix for
(23:16):
fifty million dollars. Long story short, did not and they
were like, nah, I mean this company, where are they
going to be in ten years exactly? Yeah, they thought.
They were like no, this is this is a joke.
And a couple of years later Blockbusters started doing their
own mail in service, but they were a little late
(23:36):
to the game because around that same time there was
also this other company called red Box. Yeah, like it
just became much easier. I think my own behavior, I
was just thinking, like why the heck would anyone drive
all the way there and I have to worry about
driving all the way back two days later just popping
in the mailbox or even right box. But then I
also have a distinct memory of eleven was when we
(23:59):
first got our first like smart TV, and I'll never
forget watching The Walking Dead instantly on the Netflix app
on my TV. I was just like, Oh, this is it.
This is literally the future. Whire's no going back. Wow
Wow wow wow. Yeah, I just looked it up. It
was two thousand and seven that they started streaming. Yeah,
and so yeah, I think it was just such a
(24:20):
quick thing, like they go from nine thousand stores ten
years later to like three, like just watching them shut
down so quickly in such a short time span. And
I remember actually when that Blockbuster near my place in
l A closed down, like being a little sad about it,
even though I hadn't stepped foot in there for years.
(24:42):
Back to that nostalgia, Yeah, I was like, oh no,
the Blockbuster is closing. I mean I would never go there,
but oh no, the Blockbuster is closing. The thing we
kind of longed for is that human connection, like in
terms of discovering new things. Like before we recorded this episode,
we were all talking about what's the latest thing that
you've seen lately that's good, you know, recommending movies and
(25:04):
TV shows. Well, that's that's something I think we all
kind of still long for. That nostalgia I think really
is still there for many of us. Sandy sums up
really well, here why we still crave the interaction with
the video store clerk. I really hope that the video
stores stick around for that reason alone, just because I
think it's important part of your entertainment. It's like going
(25:28):
to the theater, going to the video store. It's an experience.
It's not just I don't even know the word that
I want to use other than it's special. And um,
I think we're gonna be missing it a lot if
they go away, Like that's a really cool nostalgic experience
that we remember from our youth that this whole generation
younger than us will not have. And I keep thinking
(25:50):
about Quentin Tarantino, you know, like there's no better master
class in filmmaking than working at a video store and
watching every single obscure movie to come out. There's really
two things here I think that we really crave, and
that is the not only the interaction with others to
talk about movies with and get recommendations. But yeah, the
(26:11):
other part is what you just said, the And I
think this is actually comparable to public schools and public libraries,
because these places are institutions that kind of force people
to encounter things they would never encounter. Before, Matt, this
is making me so nostalgic for my childhood. I kind
of want to go to this last Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon.
(26:35):
Do you want to go? Yeah? Let me see if
I can find my old Blockbuster card that's somewhere in
my juncture all that I forgot about the Blockbuster card. Matt,
meet me in Bend, Oregon and bring your hand sanitizer.
I will. Let's do it. Jobsolete is produced for I
(26:59):
Heart Radio by Zealots manufacturing hand Forge Podcast for You.
It's hosted by us Helen Hong That's Me and Matt
beat That's Me. The show was conceived and produced by
Jason Elliott, Steve's Zamarki, and Anthony Savini. Our editor is
Tommy Nichol, Our researcher is Amelia Paulka, our production coordinator
(27:20):
is Angie Hymes, and theme music is by the mysterious
Breakmaster Cylinder. Special thanks to our I Heart Radio team
led by Nikki Etre, Katrina Norvell, Ali Cantor, Mangesh Hattie Kador,
Will Pearson, Connell Burne, and Bob Pittman.
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