Customer profile
What was the name of your video store?
Campton Video Tyme
Where was the store located?
Campton, New Hampshire (United States)
When did you start shopping at this store?
1985
Describe your video store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
This place moved around three times in the same 1/2 mile radius. It was small at first, in a tiny plaza off of the Interstate, in a very small town. Then it got bigger. They expanded and started carrying Nintendo games and Sunless Tanning supplies. They got a tanning bed in the late 80s. They had more movies than a person thought it might be possible to watch in a lifetime. Then the store changed hands, and moved across Rte. 24 to the bottom floor of a multi- business building. That didn't work, so they went back to the first building, but in a different, much, much smaller store. They put movie lights up in the front window, sold a bucnh of movies and generally downsized but they kept the tanning service going. The new releases are in the very back. Over the course of the store's history, the porn movies went from right out in the open but toward the back of the store, to closed in by free-standing shelves arranged in a box, to back in their own little room near the tanning bed. In the early 90s, they started selling candy.
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?
A big family, though not the community's most upstanding citizens. They didn't show much discretion back in the day about which movies they would watch in the store. I went to grade school with some of their kids, who started working there in the late 80s. Recently, the latest owner got breast cancer and the entire town rallied around her, took up donations, etc. via the video store.
What other services/products did the store offer besides the rental or sale
of videos? Did this change over time?
See first answer (tanning services, promoted exercise classes upstairs, sold Australian Gold sunscreen and sunless tanning lotions).
What video formats did the store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
VHS only in the time period you're surveying.
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?
Some foreign films, and, like I said, x-rated were in the back. They had childrens' movies too. Kids, old movies, and foregn in the front, new releases in the back. I have rented several old movies and foreign films.
Did you tend to rent or buy videos? Why?
I rent them unless there's one I have to own because it was that good. The small films like A River Runs Through it and The Spitfire Grille tend to make it into my collection.
During the period that you shopped at this store, what changes did you see?
See first answer.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
See first answer. Yes it's still open, but it's about 1/4 of its original size and serves a growing town.
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?
My mom bought it, but I don't remember when. I just remember always having had one. I was born in 1979.
Did you ever rent a VCR or other hardware (a camera, for instance)? If so,
how often and why?
No, always had what we needed at home.