The Lost Civic Life of Movie Rental Stores

Joshua M. Greenberg:

“In its early years, the video store became a third place where customers, retailers, and clerks met, talked, and shared a common experience of movies on videocassette.”

In his piece for MIT Press, Greenberg writes about the video rental store as a third space in our communities. Earlier in the week, I briefly reflected on this very subject in my own piece about the broader loss of community from changes within local news to local entertainment. The industries built to help facilitate third spaces in our communities keep getting bought out and shut down. When I think about my stint at Blockbuster during college, I like to joke that I was one of the last employees. It’s not not true. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and I was working at one of Tulsa’s last remaining stores until it closed sometime in 2011.

Before Blockbuster disappeared, it was the place to be throughout much of the 1990s. Seriously, read Greenberg’s story. It’s adapted from his book “From Betamax to Blockbuster: Video Stores and the Invention of Movies on Video." My experience at the store in 2013 was a little different from the heyday of video rentals, but I still remember how serious corporate was about making sure we walked the aisles to talk to customers about movies, what they’re in the mood for and providing all the recommendations we could. Employees were allotted 10 free movie rentals a week! While it was certainly a huge benefit to a broke college student, they framed it as homework to make sure we were up to speed on the latest movies and could talk to customers about them. I watched the first 3 seasons of Breaking Bad this way—years after they aired on AMC. I recommended that show to so many people that way.

I miss talking to people about the art that moves them.