Customer profile
What was the name of your video store?
Adventureland Video
Where was the store located?
Mt Pleasant, Iowa (United States)
When did you start shopping at this store?
1989
Describe your video store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
I remember that there was maroon carpet and the shelves were done out in a cherrywood finish, I remember the store always blowing me away because they tried hard to give the impression and feel of an old Movie Theatre lobby. I also remember this place being the first place I ever saw movies being played in the store while you went to rent movies complete with a few leather seats and popcorn.
What were the employees and/or owners like, and what kinds of interactions
did you have with them? What particularly memorable exchanges or events
do you remember?
Just strictly customer, employee basis
What other services/products did the store offer besides the rental or sale
of videos? Did this change over time?
I remember them having an old coke machine and selling concessions as well as renting out NES Games. They stayed pretty pat with just renting out video games and movies, they never went into tanning beds or any of that.
What video formats did the store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
The store was primarily VHS, but I think they offered some documentary style Laserdiscs as well if I remember correctly.
In addition to mainstream Hollywood movies, what other kinds of videotapes
(for example children's, exercise, or X-rated) did the store rent/sell? Where were these
videos found in the store, and how often did you rent or purchase them?
I think the only thing outside of the regular movies that they did was documentaries, the owner was a big fan of history so they usually had their fair share of PBS type stuff.
Did you tend to rent or buy videos? Why?
Always rented.
During the period that you shopped at this store, what changes did you see?
They stayed amazingly pretty true to form but I remember that after a few years they were the first rental place in town to offer a computerized listing of what they all had in stock available for customers to use. (At the time this was top of the line service)
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
They closed in 2000 I believe in protest of the Chamber of Commerce recruiting a Mr. Movies to come in. I guess the beef wasn't that it was more competition but that they (Mr. Movies) rented pornography out with the rest of their titles and not in a back room or something to that effect.
In your own words, tell the story of your first VCR/video player. Where
and when did you buy it, and why did you decide to make the purchase?
I never bought a VHS player there just always seemed to be one wherever I was. Although I remember my grandparents purchasing one of the first ones. It looked like something out of the Apollo Program.
Did you ever rent a VCR or other hardware (a camera, for instance)? If so,
how often and why?
My family rented a video camera once a year to videotape Christmas a couple of years before my dad finally broke down and bought one of his own.