Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Captain Video
Where was the store located?
Modesto, California (United States)
When did you start working at this store?
1980
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?
The bare-bones answer to why I became employed in a video store is I've always been a great movie nut. I've always been crazy about movies and I always will be. As to this particular video store, it started in the late 70's when I was in high school and often frequented a movie collectables shop in Modesto, CA. It was not a prime market for movie collectibles, but the guy was there and he certainly had a lot of movie posters, stills and the like. He had a long history as a movie theater manager and had amassed all this stuff. Anyway, I was one of the hard-core regulars, and got to know the other regulars. In about 1980 or '81, the ex-manager decided to branch out into video rentals for his store. He stocked up on whatever Beta tapes Paramount first released into the market, and Modesto's first video store was born. Soon after that, he got bored with Modesto and sold his business to a couple of his other regular customers. I knew those guys from the original store, and a couple years later I ended up working for them at Captain Video.
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
The first Captain Video I worked at was very small, compared to the giant corporate video stores of today. It was in a strip mall location, and the distinguishing features were of course all of the cheesy video posters supplied by the distributors. They were plastered in every possible space, in the windows, on the walls, in front of the counter, etc.
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
At that time, in 1983, the customers were somewhat upscale, in such that very few people at the time actually had video tape players.
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
My bosses were two slacker dudes who were equal business partners in ownership and operation of the store. One guy liked to play like he was a business professional while the other dropped the pretenses and just wanted to have fun and play at the store all the time.
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
By the time I started working there, VHS was beginning to be serious competion for Beta, so we tried to balance the two formats. There was a period where we looked into buying a large RCA CED-disc collection, but we soon found that the format was very flawed, and dropped the plan.
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?
The first Captain Video location was pre-porno, but after we moved a couple of years later, a porno room was created and they were very popular.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
We also sold candy and snacks. Later on, they rented a portion of their larger location to some guys who sold movie memorabilia and early satellite dish systems.
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
Yes, we rented VCRS. They were a good income for the store, and we consistently "sold out" of available rental units every weekend for the first couple of years.
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
They opened satellite stores in outlying areas, one of which I transfered to as manager, and of course the "main store" in Modesto moved to a much larger location. I guess the most significant change was I witnessed the video rental business change from a "specialty service" for the few to a "mainstream business" insofar as everyone I knew would eventually come into the store for their rentals.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
The owners split up, and they closed most of their stores except one. The remaining owner kept the one store open in Oakdale, CA until just three years ago when a Blockbuster finally opened there and took away his customers.