Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
HitzVideo
Where was the store located?
Camberley, Surrey, UK, (United Kingdom)
When did you start working at this store?
1991
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 wanted to study Film & TV production at college but could not afford the tuition fees. As a life long pver of films, I was looking for a job that could satisfy my need for films! Back in those halcyon days of video, working in a video store was just about the best thing I could think of. Pay was crap, hours long but the free rentals, watching videos ALL day made it worth while!!
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
Pretty crappy layout. Two main aisles, new titles on main middle aisle, serving both sides on the aisle. Additional storage for cassette cases on either facing wall with back catalogue broken into main genres. Also had Sega Megadrive games for hire and a shelf next to the cashdesk which displayed all forthcoming videos by the promotional sleeves.
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
The longer I worked there, the more I got to know them. Or course you have your regulars, this one guy in particular was in EVERY day and the time I worked there he hired over 1000 films! I kid you not, he reserved all the main films for day of release, and as this used to be Mondays he hired all the new titles for that evening. A stealth mission indeed! Especially as he was married with kids!
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
I had two bossed, Hamid & Taji, Iranian brothers who had the monopoly on Video rentals in the surrounding area having owned 5 stores. They were great to work for as they let me borrow what ever film I wanted and got to by timecoded cassettes from them at £1 a time! Bargain!! Let me have the run of the store, creating my own promotional displays.
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
VHS only.
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?
Backcatalogue was from every genre, Thriller - Action - Kids right through to skin flicks. As I am sure you know, we in the UK were way behind in hardcore porn, and as such the stuff we rented was mainly from the Electric Blue collection, utter crap with the ugliest munters you have ever seen! Back catalogue was important because as Blockbuster took a hold of the market, they generally did not serve up older fils. As a lot of my customers were middle aged and above, they had a real feel for what was a great film. And as my tastes, particularily 70's & 80's films, were important to me, I could end up recommending an older film to a customer who wnated one of the new releases but they were already reserved or out on hire.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
Video games was the big change, Sega Megadrive & SNES in my time. Also sold microwave popcorn & sweets and soft drinks
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
We never reneted any hardware after we decided to hire Sega Megadrives and ended up getting them pinched!!
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
Not many as VHs was still the way to go! All I did see was that the rental prices creeped up as the wholesale price of film skyrocketed!
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
Store is sillopen serving the local community as there is still a need for the customer who wants to hire a classic film, something Blockbuster does not do in the UK. Not everyone wants a new release!