Remember the local video store?  

I remember back when I was a kid, there was a local video store near us

It was a small place ran by a lovely couple who had lived in the area for many decades. They were amazing people who were always so kind, and because they knew me and my family quite well, they would always give us free popcorn and candy, or discounted rentals every time we popped in

They had a massive collection of VHS movies for rental, at 50p per night or £1 for 5 days, but set up this reward scheme whereby if you returned a video rewound at the beginning, your next rental would be discounted or you'd get something like rent one VHS, rent another free.

Unfortunately, they were unable to keep up with modern times, and sadly went out of business

The last non chain video store we had here closed down about a year ago. We actually have one of the chain stores here in the process of closing now, they are selling off the rest of their inventory, Blockbuster is still up though for the time being. The other store was right across the street so the that Blockbuster might get more business now. I think the physical stores are going to hurt now with Blockbuser online and Netflix, and now the Redbox's that have movies for just $1.00. It is very sad, but it is more convenient to get something in the mail and then just put it back in the mail when your done.

your time line is pretty accurate, rj1. And I have not seen one of those type stores in a while either--too busy looking at the downloads on my phone I guess!

We have one in our town.
They still do pretty well.
I am sure about 10 years from now it will be different, but for now many people still rent movies there.
On weekends sometimes they run out of certain movies to rent and other get reserved.
The best bet for days like New Year's is to go in early and pick out what you want to rent and come back in at 5 to pick it up once someone has dropped theirs back at the store.

I live in a small town, and we don't have any of them anymore. The last one closed about 3 years ago when the owner died. His wife had no interest in it at all.

There has been a local video store near my last four or five homes...though I can't think if there is one currently nearby me...probably.

I go a lot further back. No TV. We listened to the radio. We went to the local cinema on Saturdays to see cartoons. Then years later came TV, only black and white and ONE station the BBC, then a couple more came later but still only in black and white. Many changes in my lifetime.

Yes i agree with you. but more advancement also reduces the effort to get any thing and cause of which we really cant enjoy simple a thing.
i think when we used to have 10 songs in an audio cassate we used to enjoy more than the ipod we have today with a thousands songs.
when there was a video parlour i used to check out there for available movies but today i dont have time to see all what i already have.

i think simpler things are more valuable.

If only the local video stores would lower their prices! The prices were what drove me to sign up with Netflix. I know Blockbuster has an online system as well as a walk in store, but Netflix has such a selection. And I am very impressed with how fast the DVDs show up. When I was a child, we rented our movies from a mom and pop video store. The owners eventually retired, which is why we eventually used Blockbuster. Then Hollywood Video came around and it was cheaper, but I can't beat what I have now.

I remember there was a time where in the town there was about 4 video rental stores as well as numerous rental places scattered around on the outskirts. Plus there was several shops which always had a huge collection of films to browse through. Now there is just one DVD rental store left and it's only going to be a matter of time before that disappears because no one uses it anymore. As for shops to buy dvds in, well there are now just two and they only stock chart DVDs. I really miss those old shops where I could spend time browsing through old movies as well as new ones, scouting out those bargains.