Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Uncle Milty's Video
Where was the store located?
Phoenix, Arizona (United States)
When did you start working at this store?
1982
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 came across the owner orignially a year or so earlier when he was renting videos literally out of his house. It was the first video outlet I had been to. (At the time, I had only seen some titles available at department stores alongside the players.) Later, he finally got a store front in a strip mall right off of a very busy intersection. The friend that introduced me was a regular customer of his. He worked at a bookstore and I visited him there frequently. He let it drop that now that the owner had a store front he needed an employee. (The owner was still working a graveyard shift at a local large bakery. He would open the store still covered in flour then hand it off to the employee.)He needed the employee because the first guy he hired up and died. I was currently trying to finish up at ASU and had a job at a mom & pop record shop in a mall. They were being bought up by Warehouse and my manager was transferred out. The new guy was a total prick and suddenly there was a bureaucracy overload. I've always been a film fan and kept up with the (then) current magazines. So, I thought, why be miserable, when I could be in movie nirvana. (Or as close to it as I could get at the time.) I went in, filled out an app., boasted that I could tell them about any movie that they had for rental, and told them about my retail background. (so that I didn't come off like some kind of slacker) The guy's wife was running things, and I was asked to come back later when the big man had awakened and made an appearance at the store. Long story short, I got the job and the guy eventually warmed up to me enough to let me open during the summer when I didn't have classes in the morning. (This is also because he was busted by the FBI for bootlegging and was trying to keep a low profile. I inadvertedly became the 'face' of Uncle Milty's for a year or so. He couldn't even leave the city for the first year I worked there.) I ended up influencing his ordering and added to the decor of the place as I had numerous lobby cards and one-sheets. (This was before the days of POP overload.) Soon, we were able to order one-sheets and standups from the same place theatres were. Eventually video distributors made their way into town and having a connection there led to me finding employment with them. (But that's another story.)
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
Fairly small, maybe around a 1000sqft. In the beginning it was adequate for the amount of titles available. Later it was fairly congested. My hiring had the added benefit of using my collection of one-sheets and lobby cards. In those days it made a definite impression.
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
Our customers ran the gamut. As this was early in the game we had local TV celebrities, doctors, lawyers, mostly upper echelon until prices on the players went down. The problem was that the owner would work out deals with cronies, or try to suck up to certain types, yet never inform me of what the deal was. He had one particular couple that fell into this category that annoyed the piss out of me. They worked it for all it was worth, and I never knew when, or if, I was supposed to charge them. They also never brought the product back in a timely fashion, so I was hesitant to give them the newest releases. (It was a real Catch-22, because if you charged them or gave them the new release when I was stuck by myself, I usually got yelled at later. But if they came in when he was there with me, he would do the same thing with a smile on his face.) I was in the same boat with the Cops. The wife of one worked next door, so suddenly it was carte blanche for all of them to come in. I know you want to keep them happy, but it was too much like the above mentioned. The funniest guy we ever had was part of a radio morning show team. He could never bring anything back on time and just resigned himself to always paying a late fee.
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
The owner just happened to do the right thing at the right time. I don't think he was a good business person. (Or else he would have expanded when he had the chance and then sold the chain to Blockbuster or somebody.) The owner wasn't at the store enough to get on my nerves or anything. He wasn't a bad person per se, but he dodged responsibilty with the customers, making me the bad guy/hardass. (Late fees, etc.) I think he realized it because he never jumped on me about customer complaints. (It probably helped in that I was there by myself so much that I took on more 'ownership' of the job and genuinely looked out for the store and the product.)
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
We never got into Beta. We carried VHS and Videodisc (at least until after I left the store). Empty boxes for display lined the shelves on the two walls of the store. The boxes were numbered and we would get the movie from behind the counter in the back based on this. The Videodiscs were in a self contained record bin style display in the back near the counter.
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?
On the other side of the counter was a locked plexiglass bookshelf style display for adult material. (A big seller and chief profit maker.)Somehow this managed to fly with the upper echelon and family customers. (But the biggest laugh was when a popular TV spokesman/owner of a family pizza chain came in and started ordering specialty fetish films. I could never look at those commercials the same again.) We also kept children's material out with the VHS. The store was so small that things were never broken into categories. However, I used to arrange the boxes together in such a way to basically give the same idea.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
Candy and snacks were incorporated pretty early on, mostly so the owner would have something to munch on. We also sold blank tapes and protective cases. Eventually when some studios started experimenting with sell-through, we offered movies.
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
We rented VCRs and Videodisc players. In the beginning it was a pretty effective tool and we made some good money on certain individuals with long term rentals and a stack of movies. (In hindsight though, I have to wonder if they weren't bootlegging their own copies of the movies.)
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
The proliferation of other stores. The availability of more titles. Prices going up, then coming down. The advent of the used movie trader to expand inventory cheaply. Video distributor discount wars.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
The store is closed. It closed down around '97. The owner tinkered with expanding. (A second location a mile away??!!) Like I said earlier, not a business person. Anyway, a Blockbuster opened up on the opposite corner of the intersection in a busier strip mall with a major grocery store and fast food for anchors. He didn't stand a chance after that.