Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Wherehouse Video
Where was the store located?
La Crescenta, California (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 helped to open this particular retail chain branch. I became supervisor of the video department because of my knowledge of film and my organizational skills.
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
It was a department that took up half of a retail record store outlet (and yes, by that I mean we sold records, as in LPs; CDs? DVDs? What's that?)
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
We always had our regular day customers, People who would rent literally several videos a day. I always assumed were either unemployed, on disability, or retired. Suburban housewives looking for video babysitters for their kids. Several celebrities as well, "Family Ties" star Michael Gross, Wil Wheaton, Lita Ford. My most memorable incident was when a former kindergarten teacher (whom I'm sure didn't remember me) came in to rent an adult video with a title along the lines of "Naughty Schoolgirls". Hmmm...
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
My boss was fair, yet firm. She delegated work well. She could get emotional, though. I remember she cried the morning Lucille Ball died, and I had to comfort her.
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
At the time we only had VHS and Beta. Beta was initially intermixed with the VHS by genre, but as it died out it eventually got its own little shelf in one corner, and was subsequentially phased out entirely.
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 rented and sold all genres. Children's sell-through videos were a major earner for us, and "E.T."s release on VHS was particularly lucrative for us. Other than that, Adult Video rental was also an important commodity. We kept the adult videos in a caged off partition in the corner of the room.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
We also sold a wide variety of video accessories and rented video games.
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
We never rented or sold hardware (other than rewinders).
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
I wasn' t there to see the advent of DVDs, but I did see the phasing out of LPs and the introduction of CDs in the audio side of the store. At one point we had introduced Sony's Personics system, which allowed customers to make their own compilation audio cassettes, which I thought was always ahead of its time, considering the popularity of the compilation CD today.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
The store is still open, however I understand the company has recently filed for bankrupcy (which probably has less to do with video performance than the death of the retail audio store as a viable business model).