Employee profile
What was the name of your video store?
Sound Warehouse
Where was the store located?
Indianapolis, Indiana (United States)
When did you start working at this store?
1989
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 was only 18! I was attending college and needed some extra money...it's not like I chose a career in the video industry. :)
Describe your store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
Sound Warehouse was a chain of music stores that also had a video rental area in the back - almost as an afterthought. The rentals were exceptionally inexpensive -- 49 cents per movie (overnight rental). The video rentals were used as a lure: you had to walk past all of the music to rent a video. I saw tremendous changes take place at Sound Warehouse in the months I worked there. They had a HUGE LP section, and medium-sized cassette and CD sections when I started in the fall of '89. By the time I left less than a year later, there were NO LP's (although there were still a few 12" singles...remember them?), the CD section was huge and the cassette section was still about the same size.
What were your customers like? What particularly memorable customers or events do you remember?
In the video section, we still had a few Betamax tapes on the shelves. Occasionally a customer would bring those up to the counter to rent and after I got a little experience under my belt, I knew enough to say to them, "You know these are Betamax tapes, right? Do you have a Betamax machine to play them on?" 9 times out of 10 the person didn't have the slightest idea what Beta was, and wound up thanking me for saving them from renting a tape that they had no way of playing. I also found it a good idea to tell people when they brought a subtitled foreign film up to the counter. Though I have no prejudice against such films myself, we'd had more than one angry customer return hours later demanding a refund because "they expect me to READ all of the damn dialogue!" A transvestite (a really obvious one) came in one day and browsed with his friend. We just happened to have the film "Tootsie" playing on the monitors at the time. Surreal.
What was your boss like? How did he or she divide the work in the store?
The boss was short, morbidly obese, balding, and had bad skin. She was pretty much a petty tyrant who took out her frustrations about her pathetic existence on the people who worked under her. As the youngest employee (and, for a few months anyway, the newest) I worked just about every weekend late shift (the store was open until 12 midnight Friday and Saturday). I didn't really mind this too much, though, as I was really into The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the time -- so I'd work 'til 12, go to Rocky and hanging out with friends, then get home at 4 or 5 in the morning. ;) A reasonable existence when you're 18 (much less attractive now).
What video formats did your store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
Beta and VHS only. They were all mixed up together (though there were only about 10-15 Beta titles), causing no end of customer confusion. I always warned people when they brought me a Beta tape to rent (especially if they brought both Beta and VHS up to the counter...guaranteed that they didn't have a clue what they were getting).
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?
We did rent children's videos, but absolutely nothing X-rated. As I mentioned before, the video section was really a "lure" to try to get people to make music purchases.
What other services/products did you offer besides the rental or sale of
programs? Did this change over time?
I really already answered this on the previous page. :) The main thrust of the store was music, and I happened to be there during the time (incredibly short) when LPs went from the industry standard to virtually extinct.
Did you ever rent VCRs or other hardware to your customers? If so,
how important were hardware rentals to the business?
No VCR rentals.
During the period that you worked at the store, what changes did you see take place?
Again, already answered. We never did rent laserdiscs (while I was there...'89-90). I think this was the period just before they had their '90s renaissance.
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
As far as I know, all of the Sound Warehouse stores in the chain were bought out by Blockbuster music/video stores. I think this was circa '94 or so. (When I visited Indiana again in '93, it was still Sound Warehouse...and some of the same people were even still working there!)