Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Top's N Video
Where was the store located?
Phoenix, Arizona (United States)
When did you start working at this store?
1987
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 was 15 years old and a new video store opened up about a block away from me. I went in and asked if they needed a part-time employee. The owner thought I was too young but asked me to come back on Friday night to meet with the manager. I went back in and the store was packed with people. While I waited for the manager, I noticed stacks upon stacks of tapes on the counter waiting to be put back on the shelf. I organized all of the tapes alphabetically/by genre. When the manager finally got a chance to talk to me and had seen what I had done she was so impressed with my knowledge of movies that I was hired on the spot. Nine and a half years later, I had been through 3 owners and I was the District Manager of a chain of 9 stores.
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
When I first started, my store didn't have a 'Live" floor or even a computer. That meant that only the Cover Boxes were on the Shelves, all of the tapes were actually behind the counter. Also, since their was no computer every movie had a Library Type card that had to be filled out by hand each time it was rented.
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
Over the years their were many memorable experiences. The customers for the most part were fantastic. I prided myself on the personal attention given to my customers including remebering their names and movie likes/dislikes. One memorable experience happened while I was mostly in the back closing down the store. It was midnight on a weekday and I had went into the back to count the tills. There was one female employee up front cleaning the store when she heard a knock on the window. She looked up to see a man wearing a ski mask with his pants down and his penis in his hands pleasuring himself. She called out to me and I ran out. When the man saw me he grabbed his pants and started running. I was going to give chase but thought, I probably wouldn't want to catch the guy even if I could. So we had to spend another hour filling out a police report about the 'Happy Customer"
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
Within the first year of working at the store a local competitor came quite frequently and I struck up a friendly relationship with him. On numerous occassion he asked me to come work for him and I declined (mainly out of loyalty, but partially because I didn't have a car to drive the extra couple of miles). Eventually this business man and my store's current owner formed a partnership and eventually my store was sold to the new owner. At that point in time I was given huge amounts of leway in all decisions regarding staffing and stocking of videos. It was probably one of the best work experiences anyone could want.
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
VHS and some LaserDisc. Eventually, we started renting Super Nintendo Games and Sega Genesis Games.
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 an entire X-Rated section of movies. This proved to be a concern because of my age, so I had to have my parents sign a document saying that they were aware the store had that merchandise.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
We offered 8mm to VideoTape transfer and later on VCR repair
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
Yes, the rentals of VCRs were not very important, but the rental of the 'New' Game systems proved to be a huge asset for or game revenue
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
I saw the store go from Mom and Pop to Small Business to eventually being sold to a national corporate parent. The smaller the store the more friendly the customers and staff seemed to be. By the time the stores were all sold to the much bigger companies, they became much more cold and apathetic. Side note, within 3 years of being sold to the corporate parent they went bankrupt. (I left 6 months after the acquisition once I saw the deterioration of events)
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
The stores closed in 1998 or 1999