Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Video Country
Where was the store located?
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (United States)
When did you start working at this store?
1985
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?
I had some friends who went into the business and after I retired from teaching school, I went to work for them having been a movie fan from way back in the 1940's when I was a youngster. I had been a theater usher in the late 1940's, and relief projectionist during the summer in the 1950's and'60's. It was a natural to work in the video industry when it came into existence.
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
We started with both VHS and BETA. The racks which held the movie boxes were made of wood and stained by the owner of the store and me. As he opened other stores, we had several staining parties at night! Basically we used one sheets (theater lingo for posters) in the front windows. The newest releases were all in one section and the rest of the movies were put in the various categories; family, drama, comedies, etc. We had one check out register and the movies themselves were in Amaray boxes on shelves in back of the counter. The customer would either ask for a title or give the number which was on the box and we would see whether it was in stock. We had florescent lighting and actually rented the space, the building itself not having been built by our company. We also had one of those outdoor changeable letter signs along the street which displayed the weeks new release information. It was constantly being blown down during storms!
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
We had a very nice customer base. Many of them knew me personally. I had one customer who was pretty much three sheets to the wind when he came into the store. He was going through a separation and would spend a lot of time talking to me about his personal problems. My interest in the movies going back so many years, I built up quite a following for the classic films of the 1930's 40's and 50's. The owner would pretty much bring in titles I had suggested, he being much younger. I remember the first Thanksgiving the store was open. The owner thought we should be closed initially, but as video was in its heyday and so many people were buying vcrs, we discovered it to be to our advantage to be available to the public. The store was packed that first Thanksgiving and of course, the first Christmas too. We are talking 1985 here. Of course New Years Eve was so busy, we ended up letting customers fill out their own rental sheets! New Years Eve is still one of the busiest rental nights of the year, but not at all like it was then! It was a slow process then to rent a movie because when the store first started there was no computer and all of the contracts were written by hand.On busy weekend nights we usually had one person doing nothing but filing contracts and pulling return contracts as movies came back at return times. Our store also had the policy of reserving movies and this turned out to be a popular feature although a real pain if the preceeding customer did not return a title by return time which was 5 PM. Our store did not have mulitple copies of movies and even when Rentrak came into being, the owner didn't employ that system in our particular location. Back during the early days, we rented vcrs.I had one customer who had been a regular for a long time. We usually took a deposit on these players but knowing this person, on this occasion, I did not. The vcr was not returned at the prescribed time and when I called the customer, the phone had been disconnected. I engaged the local police and we found that the person had left the state and we realized there was no way we could trace them. The thing that hurt was that the vcr was new and this customer was the first renter! Grrrrr! So even with people you know and trust, after that incident I developed a thicker crust when renting out our property. On the other hand, going back to a Thanksgiving one year, a good customer and lover of the old Shirley Temple films, took it upon herself to bring a Thanksgiving dinner to me at the store! I was really touched by the concern this person showed because we were open and I was alone in the store. So there were both positive and negative experiences with customers when I managed the store for the 16 years I was at that location.
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
I still work one or two days a week at one of our other stores but for the most part I am pretty much retired and spend a lot of time just enjoying my little home theater and of course going to the movies a great deal! My boss, the owner, is one of the nicest persons I know. He and I have shared many happy experiences not only at the store, but during the VSDA Conventions we used to attend together both in Las Vegas and Los Angeles in past years. Actually as manager, I was left to divide the work in our store. I was always fortunate to have dedicated people working in the store and always encouraged them to use their initiative. I was seldom disappointed in their performance. Everyone pitched in insofar as dusting shelves and arranging movies. The manager was the one who did the register at the end of the day. The owner of the store pretty much let me run the business. He was pretty laid back and still is! I enjoy going over to one of our other locations once or twice a week to help out.
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
As I said before, we offered Beta at first , then VHS and tried unsuccessfully to have laserdisc.
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?
We had many childrens movies, exercise tapes, hunting tapes, boxing and other sports tapes. The children's tapes were perhaps the most popular within these above categories although X rated tapes were a close second. I would say, mainstream Hollywood movies would be first, then childrens including Disney and then the adult X rated titles.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
There was a time in the store I managed when we had a pop corn machine. It lasted almost a year and then we gave that up and merchandised ACT II popcorn. We only sold movies on special order several years ago which we no longer do. We still sell candy but not as much. We sell tape cleaners from time to time but the demand is very small.
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
Initally, back in 1985 when video was still a novelty, many customers did not own vcrs and we rented these regularly. We had on hand at least 5 machines for rent. We also rented the Nintendo systems but did not have more than 2 on hand. So hardware rentals were important during those days but not so much anymore. It is so different now with DVD. Customers are obviously buying those units so the store where I do part time work now does not offer rental of DVD players.
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
I think it goes without saying that the video rental business is not at all doing as well as it was just a few years ago. Reservations for movies are very low,almost non-existant except for weekends. People are into buying titles on DVD especially with the availability at lower prices at such places as Best Buy and Walmart. Satellite and Pay Per View is hurting us as well. Larger companies such as Blockbuster and Movie Gallery have entered our company turf at our various locations and taken its toll. With DVD I see the business becoming more of a sellthrough business than rental. And Best Buy and Walmart doing so well with this, I just wonder if the time will come that the video rental store will become obsolete.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
No, this company store closed five years ago