Customer profile
What was the name of your video store?
honestly don't remember
Where was the store located?
, (United States)
When did you start shopping at this store?
0
Describe your video store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
large display boxes of vhs/ beta packaging... which were also pretty huge too at the time.
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?
I remember trying to stay in the store to watch Star Trek 3 on the monitors when it arrived, and causing a "scene" when they tried to get me and my other friends ( about 12 yrs old at the time) to leave the store or rent the damn video.
What other services/products did the store offer besides the rental or sale
of videos? Did this change over time?
What video formats did the store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
vhs, betaa
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?
"adult" videos... I remember my friend's mother asking for "The Bitch" at the counter thinking we wouldn't hear her.
Did you tend to rent or buy videos? Why?
rent... money issues... besides, my father soon got a second VCR and we figured out dubbing pretty quickly... so he'd rent movies, especially before a road trip, so we could watch the copies in the back of his new van with the new tiny tv and the "portable" vcr.... ahh the good old days before the stock market crash in '87!
During the period that you shopped at this store, what changes did you see?
they expanded... more than doubled in size overnight.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
not open anymore... don't know when it closed
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?
You had to PRESS HARD on those buttons, as if you were cranking something... it was huge and it was heavy.. we had a burglar take it so we got a smaller one after that. As the "boy" of the house who always watched tv, I learned how to operate the machine before anyone else- I could even program it to record while we were out. I taped just about everything I watched on TV so I had stacks of "video mix tapes"... mainly taping cartoons, I remember having a tape of HBO's "Not Necessarily the News". Also I remember lots of attempts to explain the advantages and disadvantages of different recording speeds. "SP/LP/SLP"
Did you ever rent a VCR or other hardware (a camera, for instance)? If so,
how often and why?
no