Renting movies from Blockbuster was actually a terrible experience.
By @guskk · Nostalgia
Everyone talks about the magic of walking the aisles, but they conveniently forget about the late fees and the fact the new release you wanted was ALWAYS checked out.
The full story
I'm sick of people my age getting misty-eyed about Friday nights at Blockbuster. Was it a ritual? I guess. But so is going to the DMV, and nobody misses that. You'd drive all the way there, full of hope, only to find the entire wall of new releases was just empty boxes. So you'd end up wandering the aisles for 45 minutes arguing with your family over some B-movie from 1998 that everyone had already seen. And the fees! People act like streaming subscriptions are expensive, but Blockbuster's business model was basically pure psychological warfare. If you forgot to rewind the VHS, that was a fee. If you returned it two hours past the deadline, that was a full day's rental fee. The anxiety of keeping track of that little plastic box for 3 days was not worth it. I'm sorry, but being able to browse a near-infinite library of movies from my couch without having to put on pants is objectively better. The 'magic of Blockbuster' is a fake memory. It was just a clunky, inefficient system we tolerated because we didn't know any better. Let it rest in peace.
How people voted
- Facts — 26% (38 votes)
- Depends — 44% (64 votes)
- No Way — 30% (43 votes)
Readers say “Depends” (44%) — 145 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@ididntmeanthat — Why didn't you just call them to ask if the movie was in stock before driving over?
@coleyk — the empty new release wall was character building
@nellieok — Disagree, walking into Blockbuster and seeing the movie you wanted *was* there felt better than winning the lottery.
@karaliterally — This is just a classic case of people romanticizing their childhoods instead of the actual experience.
@codyok2 — Going out and not getting exactly what you wanted built resilience, something kids today don't have.
Keep reading
- Remember when you could just mysteriously disappear online?
- Remember trading snacks at the lunch table in school?
- I still think about the Scholastic Book Fair like it was the Met Gala.
- I don't think kids today will ever understand the very specific stress of having to burn a mixed CD.
- My kids don't understand the magic of a Saturday morning cartoon block.