Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Midtown Video
Where was the store located?
Palo Alto, California (United States)
When did you start working at this store?
1985
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 graduated from H.S., didn't want to go to college and my mom's friend was just opening this video store and needed help... I wasn't even familiar w/ renting videos, didn't even own a VCR at that time...but could see the potential of it... a true mom & pop shop, with a great location.
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
It was small... with video boxes velcroe'd to a carpeted wall... with tags hanging next to the boxes. It was organized by sections: Drama, Comedy, etc. NO specific NEW RELEASE section which was kind of weird but it kept people having to go to all the sections to see all the new releases (a brilliant idea, because it made people rent the old stuff too)
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
Family oriented store with a tiny adult binder in the corner for a few years,which ended up going away due to lack of interest... more 'upscale' brainy types, as store was a mile from Stanford University. I remember this cranky Rabbi praising us for not having 'adult videos' and my boss only hearing the part 'adult videos' and saying 'YES WE HAVE SOME RIGHT OVER HERE...' rabbi frowned, I was mortified.
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
He was cool... owned a Baskin Robbins 3 doors down so he was always splitting his time between stores... he realized early on that 1 day rentals were the only way to go (with a small store)... plus he realized that foreign films would do well in the store... he realized I knew a lot about movies and eventually deferred movie ordering and such to me.
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
Just VHS... nothing else except for various games coming and going when they became popular. then DVD of course later on...
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?
As the store grew the sections broadened to Action, Sci Fi, Horror, Foreign, Musical, Drama, Comedy,Kids, Various (oddball sports things, documentaries, etc). All were rentals with some sale stuff at the checkout counter. They were put in numerical order within each section... so the newest additions ended up being on the right side of each section. So 'new releases' were in every section, just on the right side. Dramas and Comedies and Foreign did the best... horror and sf did the worst.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
Video tape duplicating, selling of trinkets, posters, etc. Balloons for a while (it was awful) and also photo mugs which was a real pain but did ok for a year until everyone who wanted one got one and it was over.
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
Most people only needed to rent a VCR to make their own copies so we hardly ever rented them out... had one or two just in case. Camcorder rentals were tried but people just kept being careless with them and it wasn't worth it
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
Up... down... up... down. The main problem is you're selling customers is TIME. Time to watch a movie. And within 1 day. Because of our size (we did add on at one point) we stayed with 1 day rentals when Blockbusters and Hollywoods were doing 5 day. But then we also started doing movie reservations... telling customers 'why would you need to keep something 5 days when you can reserve it for the exact day you want it?' and they liked that...
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
Still open! My boss incorporated the store when he became ill (then later died) so i'm basically running everying (on behalf of his family)... sales have sucked since 9/11, but we still have a good customer base, they just don't rent as often as they used to. Plus Netflix and cable, satellite are cutting into the rental idea.