My Blockbuster was in Miami on 2501 Coral Way. I remember going there mostly on Friday nights, sometimes Saturday. My parents would come with me and I’d pick out the movies I wanted to watch for the weekend. It smelled like plastic and had bright overhead lights. The new releases section was just the best.
The funny thing is how much of the trip had nothing to do with watching the movie. You had to get there, find something everybody could live with, hope the tape was actually in stock and make your case for one more rental. By the time you carried the blue-and-yellow bag out to the car, Friday night had already started.
These are the parts I still remember, and judging from the stories people tell whenever Blockbuster comes up, plenty of other former renters remember them too.
1. The new releases wall
I immediately hit the new releases wall when I walked in. If nothing struck my fancy it was off to romance or comedy. If I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I would go over to the desk and see if it had recently been returned. It was always a total bummer if it wasn’t available! There were usually at least three rows of the same new release available that I can remember, and the wall was tall, or at least it felt tall to me, the same way your childhood home feels big when you’re living in it and then tiny when you go back and visit. If something had Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, or Tom Cruise or Christian Slater in it, I was getting it.
An empty display case could ruin the mood in two seconds. You’d found the movie, picked it up and started imagining the rest of the night, only to realize the box on the shelf wasn’t the movie at all. It was advertising for a copy somebody else had beaten you to.
BTW if you’re missing that wall of new releases, check out this cool tool that lets you browse the latest movies on your favorite streaming providers!
2. Asking if one had just come back
The pile behind the counter was your last chance. You’d ask if a copy had just been returned, an employee would dig through the tapes, and everybody in your group waited for the answer. Sometimes you got lucky. If you didn’t, it was back to the aisles.
“I worked at a Blockbuster in the mid 90s. New releases always came out on Tuesday. We would have regulars come in their lunch on Tuesday to get the new release. I would also see people come in early on Friday hoping to score as well. People would wait in store by the drop box hoping someone would bring back the movie they wanted.”
— Vericatov, via Reddit
3. Pizza, a two-liter and candy at the counter
I remember either ordering the pizza for delivery or picking it up on the way home. Sometimes we went to Blockbuster first and sometimes we got the pizza first. Either way, the pizza, a two-liter bottle of soda and the movies were the Friday-night plan. There was usually a discussion about candy at the counter too.
“We had a pizza shop right next door [to our] video store. We’d order a pizza and while it was cooking we’d go find a movie or game. Often debate over which one to get while also making note of what ones to get next time. It was something you would look forward to and always reminisce on.”
— jpob, via Reddit
4. Making the rental count
You could spend a long time reading the back of a VHS case because the choice mattered. Once the movie came home, you watched it. Nobody wanted to get back in the car, and there wasn’t another catalog waiting on the television. Even a bad rental gave the family something to talk about.
5. The membership card
The first Blockbuster opened in Dallas on October 19, 1985, with about 8,000 tapes and computerized checkout. Renters knew the system through that little blue card. The clerk pulled up your account, scanned the tapes and announced any late charges while everyone behind you listened.
Getting a card with your own name on it felt like a big deal.
6. “Be Kind, Rewind”
If the credits were rolling and you remembered the rental was due, you pressed stop, hit rewind and listened to the VCR work its way back to the beginning. The machine changed pitch near the end and finished with a clunk.
Some families had a separate rewinder shaped like a sports car. It saved wear on the VCR and made the chore look like a toy. If you forgot, the next renter got the ending first, and the store might charge a rewind fee.
7. Renting games, and sometimes the whole console
Game rentals were perfect for kids who couldn’t buy a new cartridge every time something looked good. Box art could make an awful game look irresistible, and the instruction booklet might be a worn photocopy with a page missing. You played anyway because the rental clock was running.
Blockbuster rented consoles too. A Nintendo 64 packed into a carrying case could turn a sleepover into a neighborhood event. Nintendo sued Blockbuster in 1989 over photocopied game manuals, but that wasn’t the argument four kids waiting for a controller cared about.
“I had an SNES when I was young, but I had to rent most of the games I played. I never had a chance to play popular games like Super Metroid or A Link to the Past, they were always rented out. I did however rent Loony Tunes B-Ball like 8 times…”
— AgnosticTemplar, via Reddit
8. Running into everyone you knew
Friday night brought the town into the same bright room. You saw neighbors, classmates and teachers studying shelves with movies tucked under their arms. The section where you found someone could tell you something new about them.
The line could stretch deep into the store, especially when one register was open and every account seemed to have a problem. Blockbuster had 9,094 stores and about 84,300 employees at its 2004 peak, but your location still felt local because you kept seeing the same people there.
Plenty of people never warmed to Blockbuster. In many towns the chain crowded out independent shops, including places where the clerk knew movies well enough to recommend something strange. Some renters always preferred the store that came before it.
9. The drop box after dark
The outside return slot saved you from going inside and encouraged you to wait until the last possible minute. The sign might still be glowing when the tape disappeared with a clunk. Then you trusted somebody to scan it before your account picked up another charge.
“A guy with my same first and last names lived 3 blocks from me in the 90s, and our wives’ first names were the same. I’m pretty sure we paid each other’s Blockbuster fines a few times.”
— LovableSidekick, via Reddit
10. Late fees
By 2000, Blockbuster collected about $800 million in late fees, roughly 16 percent of its revenue. In January 2005 the company advertised “No More Late Fees,” but customers who kept a rental past a week could still be charged.
By March, Blockbuster had settled with 48 state attorneys general over how the offer was promoted. Netflix’s DVDs-by-mail plan looked especially attractive when there wasn’t a return deadline hanging over movie night.
By the Numbers
- 9,094 stores and about 84,300 employees worldwide at the 2004 peak.
- $800 million collected in late fees in 2000, roughly 16 percent of revenue.
- 48 state attorneys general settled with Blockbuster in March 2005 over “No More Late Fees” advertising.
- One store left in Bend, Oregon, the last Blockbuster in the world since 2019.
11. The aisle that gave you away
My husband said he always went to the horror movie section. I went to comedy, romance, or new releases.
Everyone had a first stop. Horror had the best covers, comedy was dependable, and the family section settled arguments. Before recommendation algorithms, the aisle did most of the sorting.
12. The last visit you didn’t know was the last
Once I could drive I honestly stopped going as much, because by then on the weekends I wanted to be out going to parties with friends.
The last time I remember going to a Blockbuster was when my husband and I were dating and we lived in Brooklyn around 2008. After that we subscribed to Netflix, when they mailed you DVDs. Honestly I miss Blockbuster, but I don’t think I would go today.
That’s probably why so many people can’t name the final movie they rented. The stores didn’t vanish all at once. Habits changed, weekends changed and one day you realized you hadn’t been back in years. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010. The store at 211 NE Revere Avenue in Bend, Oregon, which opened in 1992 as a Pacific Video, became the last Blockbuster in the United States in 2018 and the last one in the world in 2019.
“One day i went into Blockbuster and walked around and looked at all the movie titles like i always do and searched for the best possible movie i could find and i picked it out, went to the front, paid the guy, left with my movie and a sense of happiness. And i never went back to Blockbuster ever again. So sad.”
— Dan514158351, via Reddit
What was the first aisle you checked, and which movie did you rent so many times that you might as well have owned it? Tell me in the comments.
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