Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Music Plus
Where was the store located?
Burbank, California (United States)
When did you start working at this store?
1990
In your own words, how did you get started working in video retail? What
led you to choose the video industry, and this store in particular?
Music Plus was a popular chain in Southern California that disappeared after it was sold to Blockbuster in the early 1990s and mutated into the failed Blockbuster Music chain. This outlet was on San Fernando Road near Burbank High School, whose alumni include Ron Howard and Tim Burton. Last time I checked, the site was a shoe store. Because of its proximity to the movie and TV studios in Burbank, celebrities were frequent customers, usually of the B- and C-list variety. I remember Telly Savalas, Alan Ruck, Soleil Moon Frye and several cast members from the sitcom "Head of the Class." Erik Estrada bought a stack of CDs from me and paid with a $100 bill. When I lived in Glendale, this was my preferred site for buying CDs and renting videos. I always preferred it over the Burbank Wherehouse a few miles across town. I worked there for a little more than two years and still can recall the credits of movies I've never seen simply from reshelving the same videos night after night.
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
Strip-mall location near a Kmart. Subway was a few doors down. Lots of display windows that faced the parking lot and a wheelchair ramp that filled up with folks lining up for concert tickets. Guns 'N' Roses was one of the biggest lines I remember.
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
Because we rented videos we had lots of regulars. Nice people. Catherine Hickland of "7th Heaven" came in all the time. I remember telling her about U2's "Achtung Baby" before it was released. There was one Asian guy who didn't speak much who seemed to rent nothing but softcore videos.
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
I remember two managers -- Varjuan (sp?) and Ken. Both were OK but Ken was an especially good guy.
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
VHS only. Beta and laserdisc were over by then.
In addition to mainstream Hollywood movies, what other kinds of videotapes
(children's videos or X-rated tapes, for example) did you rent/sell? Where were these
videos found in your store, and how important were they to the business?
No hardcore porn, just softcore titles. A small collection of kids movies and foreign films. Mostly it was just the latest mainstream titles.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
Concert tickets through Ticketmaster. For a while we had one of those Personics kiosks that let you make customized cassette tapes; I remember the song prices were pretty outrageous. The only Personics tapes I had were the two comp tapes I was able to make as Christmas freebies for the employees.
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
No hardware rentals.
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
It was a pretty stable time -- just CD and cassette sales and VHS rentals. Not much else.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
Closed. Sometime in the mid-1990s, probably. I quit in 1993.