Customer profile
What was the name of your video store?
Cant remember the name
Where was the store located?
Nashville, Tennessee (United States)
When did you start shopping at this store?
1983
Describe your video store - what did it look like? What were its distinguishing
features?
It was an electronics store, mainly tvs, that rented Video discs and videos on the side. It was in your typical suburban strip mall.
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?
They did not know much about videos and seemed surprised when people rented
What other services/products did the store offer besides the rental or sale
of videos? Did this change over time?
TVs, Stereos, the store went out of business after a couple of years.
What video formats did the store offer (i.e. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc)? Where were
different formats kept in the store?
They had discs and beta. they were kept off to the side.
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 kids stuff and big movies. Rented a couple of times a week.
Did you tend to rent or buy videos? Why?
Rent and bought, but buying was prohibitively expensive in the early days.
During the period that you shopped at this store, what changes did you see?
It went out of business
Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?
Closed in the mid-80s.
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?
It was the first of the disc players. It was not a laserdisc. The discs were incassed in plasic containers and were about a foot square and a quarter inch thick. You shove the container into the machine and then pulled the empty case out. My parents always told me that it used a needle of some sort to read the disc. It also skipped constantly and you had to flip the disc halfway through the movied. Really not very nice technology and I have not seen one in over ten years.
Did you ever rent a VCR or other hardware (a camera, for instance)? If so,
how often and why?
Nintendo when they first came out.