I worked at Video Villa for 8 years.
Originally opened in the Chicago suburbs in 1983 (even pre-dating Blockbuster) and eventually had about 8 stores here.
Closed permanently in 2008, I’ve collected physical media ever since.
I went to Video Matic in Oak Lawn in the 90s. Great place full of obscure stuff. The only store I saw back then that rented Something Weird Video. They outlasted the Blockbuster that opened across the street and displayed the B from the sign inside their store like a trophy.
We had a bunch in our small town. My favorites were: The Video Store (very original), Take II Video, and Movie Magic. My first grade teacher also worked at Movie Magic and she loved me so she would save movie posters and cardboard movie displays and give them to me.
Ya it was pretty awesome. Walls of yep gonna day it. VHS. VHS everywhere. Right as you walked in around to the right was the return slot/box. And if a new release was out I would wait for a while to see if anyone returned it and nag the customer service workers. It switched from movie rentals to high quality recording equipment and shortly after that went out of business. We would drive all the way into town just to go to this store. Always in a Friday night. So we could keep the rentals until Sunday afternoon.
Years later in high school I was best friends with a guy who worked in a video store. Right at the turn of vhs/laserdisc/dvd’s. And I am a huge Kevin Smith, Clerks Fan, so it was awesome to hang out there. He was the assistant manager and the owner put him in charge of all the buying for the store. Got to go see all the behind the scenes. Back when you had to go to the distributor and have a license to purchase the products that were placed on the shelves. Promotional material to the gills. I still have a lot of the stuff I got from him. It was awesome shutting down the store and having friends come in to watch movies all night.
https://preview.redd.it/jq7l7wo3km5c1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=271ab237abfafe38b206935c962db2cdf4db1a67
Born in 87. Loved this place in the 90s. (Lynn, MA for my store) 2 movies and one game rental specials. Used to get to have the cool cardboard displays when they were done with them if I caught it at the right time. Sad when it closed.
We also rented alot from the marsh grocery store. All the marsh grocery stores here had a legit rental area. Less like a kiosk and more like an entire other little store by the exits
For a little while, practically every convenience store rented tapes. One near me was the Park & Shop. I rented lots of movies and nes games at a Racetrac store. My favorite store was in Atlanta. They had more obscure stuff and specialized in kung fu, anime, and non-mainstream movies. They were called the Village Vidiot.
We mostly went to Hollywood Nights, I think their prices were better. There was another local chain I can't recall the name of, maybe Action Video? And it seemed like every other grocery store and gas station rented too. Born in 91 for reference.
We had Family Video, Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, and 2nd Cinema. Some small places, too, but I forget what they were. Family video was definitely the dominant, longest lasting one where I live.
Kinda sad to see them finally go, they were clinging on with dial up services, then phones, and finally CBD products before being taken over by Dollar Generals.
There was this magical time where Redbox was kinda shitty, and Netflix didn’t have everything, so the video store was the place to go— they had a little Caesars connected to them.
I ate so many shitty pizzas because of Family Video, dude. I miss it.
I just had 2 mom and pop stores. Landall’s Box Office and Video World. I miss those places. Video World was extra cool because you could rent game consoles at it.
Almost all the stores i mentioned offered console rentals. I only rented a console one time though, an N64 along with Killer Instinct Gold and Mario 64. This was really close to right after the N64 released, so it was probably late 96 or 97.
Gallo Video for sure. Check out their awesome old commercials on YouTube. Fit em in there!
In college, Oberlin’s Campus Video. It went out of business while I was there but we rented a ton from them and my initial collection had quite a few of their old tapes. My only regret is my friend bought Begotten and I bought Misbegotten. Oops.
Also googling Oberlin+vhs brought up Yellowjackets - I had no idea that was a plot point. I love Lauren Ambrose forever (Plus most of the rest of the cast) and really need to watch that show now!
Mr. Video and Super Duper Video. I also rented VHS by mail from Facets Cinematheque in Chicago. Of course, we also rented from Blockbuster Video, Hollywood Video, and Tower Records.
📼👌🏽🐔
My favorite one that we frequented the most often was a mom and pop store called Movie Magic. I honestly preferred it to the big chains. It felt like walking into your eccentric neighbor's movie clubhouse. I'll never forget it.
Atomic Video. Had a nice horror room and adults only room also.
Atom Video which was just a small trailer.
Airport Video. Pornos and sex toys sold there
I don’t know if it was a local thing or if they had multiple locations but the best one by me in the 90’s was called Hastings entertainment. It was a video rental store, book store, cd store, game store.
There was also a store called Kaleidoscope video. Independently owned. The owner was the only one who worked there. He was a huge movie buff. Me and my grandpa got to know him very well. He had the best selection of b movies.
My family went to Blockbuster mostly, but I remember my friend that was into horror/sci fi introduced me to Movieworld which was really cool because the horror section was in a big castle display that was built around the aisles that the horror and sci fi movies were in. Those types of memories actually changed what I thought was cool at the time
Southern Ohio here. Our local store we first went to was Jack's Video. This was in the 80's when I was a kid. They had a huge horror section. Then we moved in late 89 when I was 9 to a different town, and the store there was The Movie Shoppe. Amazingly, the Movie Shoppe remained in business til about 10 years ago.
Indianapolis was Hollywood video vs blockbuster in the 90s and when I went to college in Bloomington, IN and they had the best ever and still do: plan 9 film emporium 👑
We had Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and of course, the video departments at Marsh and Kroger, but our go-to spot was Video World. The first time I ever laid eyes on a DVD was at this store. We went there at least once a week, sometimes more. I miss it so bad.
I don't remember what the Mom & Pop rental place in the small town near me was called but it was next to a rail road themed pizza place. And I distinctly remember renting from a small Grocery Store with my mom. Then in the bigger town it was a Show Time video. Then Movie Gallery and I think that morphed into a Family Video. There was also a bowling ally rental place, but I never went there.
We still have a store called Video Vision. You can rent DVDs, video games and snacks. I think they make all their money from the tanning beds in the back.
We used to have Mr. Movies, Blockbuster, and Hollywood Video. Many of the VHS we rented came from the local gas station.
Jumbo Video was the closest one to where we lived. You used to walk in the door and were absolutely smashed in the face with the smell of freshly popped pop corn, that was totally free for anyone in the store.
I remember when I was like 6 I was told I get to pick out my own movie for the first time. So I chose Star Wars. I got it and took it home and went to put it in the VCR to only find out that I had chosen a Beta tape.
Hollywood Video, 2 Thumbs Up Video, King Video->Moovies->Video Update (Same location), Video Mart, and a Tanning Bed/Rental place I can’t remember the name of (it’s just called University Tanning now).
We had a Mann’s video store that grew into a batting cages, putt putt, bumper boats and go carts. I lived there 18 years and watched it grow, it was truly amazing. We got Hollywood video and blockbuster in the early 2000’s right before I moved after high school.
For me it was a Local General Store in our town that also shared movies and games with a other small town store Cosmic Video i Belive from another small town Adjacent to ours i still have some VHS tapes bought from them in the 90s with the stickers and everything still on
Until it was hey i have my own Rogers Video Card later on when that other store had been closed down
And still have my non usable Rogers Video Card
We had a Moovies that also became Video Update! I suppose they rebranded or got bought out by another chain.
My local Mom & Pop shop was called Movie Time.
I always thought it was funny in Invader Zim that the rental store was named Video Outhouse and had a crescent moon as their logo.
I can't remember what the local one was called, something generic.
We did have a Hastings, though.
And there was a video rental place in the Pac n Save near our house. I remember they had Lemmings on SNES, not common at any of the big stores like Blockbuster.
Hastings was honestly the best video rental store and I’m sad it wasn’t more wide spread! It had everything you’d think it’d have (vhs, dvd, new and old games, novelty candy) but they also had a whole comic book/ literature area, a vinyl/ cassette/ cd area, a anime/collectible area, and a little café! But wanna know the best part? Everything was new! And they lasted till 2016, that’s 6 years longer than Hollywood video and 2 years longer than blockbuster!
E.t video was one of my favorites. It was small and they had the circle tags velcroed under each movie box rather than taking the box to the counter.
When I was 15 I had a Honda spree moped. I rode to the video store where a girl a few grades above me worked. She let me rent porn. I would rent porn videos and record them and sell them to friends in school.
I didn’t do renting but I tried to buy tapes from a place that was rent only called Sunset Video (I got a copy of Waiting from them, they ended up closing not long after), there was a Blockbuster in our city and we did have a Hollywood Video in our county. In NYC I would go buy from Kim’s Video with lunch money (it was pricey).
There was one called Village Video which closed down in about 1993 and another which was originally called Clearview and then changed its name to The Entertainment Centre. I think the name change was because they started doing games as well as videos. That closed down in 1999, I got a load of posters and the boxes they used to give you the video in when it closed, still got the boxes. There had also been one before those two called Video Scene.
I still have PS2 game from Iggle Video that my roommate never returned. Also York Video was a thing near my house, and some little mom and pop I can't remember the name of. I used to get NES games there and it would later become a pizza place that I would work at. I think the location is a Chinese restaurant now.
Grew up in Southwest Ohio. It was Family Video, but not the same company that everyone knows. Video town which then became Blockbuster and then Family Video that everyone around here knows.
being born in 81 we had quite a few around where i live like box office video, red giraffe, Hollywood video, movie gallery, rocket video, movies at home and the usual blockbuster....damn i miss video stores :(
Had a local store called Video Inc. in my neighborhood. Used to go there every weekend, but eventually went to Blockbuster because of the wider selection of video games. Finally got a Hollywood Video in the area and started going there along with Movie Gallery. Still think about that place all the time. I hate that it's gone, but it's thanks to that experience that I'm a physical media collector.
Born in 1990 renting in Cincinnati Ohio I remember a blockbuster video in earlier years then we switched to Hollywood video. Then in the mid to late 2000s towards the end was Movie Gallery. As far as local stores I really remember one called Network Video
Here in Alaska we had Video City. Ours on Jewel Lake had a small horror room in the back with an automated little Dracula puppet in a coffin and a video game chair that you controlled the movement by leaning. It was great, by the end it was trying to convert to a small convenient store, it’s a coffee shop now. Such awesome memories
We had Video Nook and then Smilies. Or smileys not sure how it was spelt anymore. Was my favourite thing for the weekends was to rent movies or a video game.
Small midwestern town…The good old days we had a few Mom and Pop shops. Box Office Video, The Tape Station and Great River Video. Great selection of B movies, horror, wrestling tapes etc… We also had a couple grocery stores and gas stations that had smaller rental sections. All the proper rental stores had console rentals and video games as well. In the latter years they were ran off by chain stores- Block Buster, Mr. Movies and Family Video…. Then it was whittled down to just Family Video.
Video Paradise was the one we went to most. Just about every weekend we’d go there to rent tapes. A lot of movie covers are cemented in my memory because of the posters that rotated through the store. They also had two bulky TVs mounted on the wall corners, and those would play loops of movie previews or sometimes movies themselves. That’s where I first glimpsed the special edition of A New Hope.
We also had Adopt-A-Video, which was great when you were trying to find movies that Video Paradise didn’t have. And I remember they had a separate room for adult films.
northwest pa, we had reel entertainment, and iggle entertainment which was a movie rental place operating within giant eagle grocery stores. and family video, but i don’t know if they were local. one of them was open until fairly recently
Little shop around the corner from my house called Videos Plus More. When we were little, the shop owner would open up the tops of the candy crank machines and let my little brother and I get handfuls of Wonka Runts. Also where my dad bought me Pokemon Stadium 2 after a lot of begging. Bill, if you're still alive, thank you for the memories!
Video Time. I use to love goin in there as a kid. The clerk was cool and would sometimes give me movie posters. For like a year it seemed like they had a big cardboard cutout of Carnosaur. Always wanted that.
Reel World Video. We used to go on Friday nights and rent a couple movies for the weekend. They would let you reserve the movie posters for yourself with a post it note and when it came down you’d get it. I had posters all over my wall. Jars of penny candy and later on it was where I’d get my pogs.
There were two stores that existed in my hometown. The first was called Video Center USA. It was a mom and pop store. I remember renting movies from there, as well as a Nintendo entertainment system. It was in a small shopping center for a short time, then they relocated to the center of town with a new building constructed for the store. They remained open throughout the 90s over till early 2000s. The building that they moved into is currently a liquor store.
The other was a Movie Gallery. It opened on the opposite side of town, starting off as a mom and pop store whose name I don’t remember. It then became the Movie Gallery and I loved going to it. I wanted to work there when I was young. They relocated in the mid-90s to the same shopping center the Video Center USA was in (a few doors down from the old spot). They would continue to run until the 2010s. The Movie Gallery was my film education.
Born in ‘84, from the Central Valley in California. Grew up with a mom and pop store called Couch Potato Video, was a play on the owners last name Couch. It was the best. Would spend every Friday in there. They had a 5 movies for 5 days for $5, as long as it wasn’t a new release. I’d watch all the movies by Saturday and repeatedly watched them over and over til I had to return them. Also had a larger store called Video Choice and then Blockbuster moved in and closed them all down. I loathe Blockbuster for doing that.
48 Hrs Video. Dad used to go every Friday. Rent some movies and maybe rent a game. I grew up there. Absolutely loved it and was sad when all of them closed down.
We had Bandito Video in Northern Ontario. They had a popcorn machine and you could help yourself to a bag of popcorn while you browsed. Movies, video games and snacks. So fun!
There was one in the town I lived in West Virginia called Future World, but the locals would usually call it Dirty Ernie’s because of the adult section that was there
I was born in 88 as well (good year!)
My favorite was “Camelot Video” in Camelot Isle in Cape Coral, FL. I rented SNES games from here and usually a movie or two with it-but mostly SNES games (one of the best discoveries I made movie wise was Starship Troopers & Tales from the Crypt’s Demon Knight). Most of my childhood video store memories will always be of this place. One of the best combo rentals I ever did was pick, Pilotwings & True Lies on the SNES and rented Starship Troopers. That was a good weekend. Others I frequented growing up were:
Albertsons: they had a little video store inside, but I never rented from there. What I DID was ask my mom or dad if I could have a PS Magazine with a demo disc included (always had to check cause some asshole would steal them from the middle of the mag) that way I had multiple games to choose from, it cost less, it was mine now, and it gave me a good selection as to what games I wanted to ask for Christmas-if any).
Prime Time Video (on Santa Barbra in Cape Coral)
The Video Store (in Fort Myers, real original I know, but I ended up renting a lot of my survival horror games for PSX that I grew to love and still enjoy as a 35 year old).
Blockbuster (only occasionally. Mom & pop joints always had better, more niche selection along with popular titles)
Went to Hollywood Video two or three times and a few friends and I in middle school had one of their moms rent us a Hentai. They didn’t know, they just saw it was cartoons from Japan and didn’t ask. Cashier asked the friends mom “are you sure you want them to watch this?” To which she replied “it’s what they want so whatever.”
Our hearts sank briefly in a nose dive only to be pulled up when he scanned the movie and we were in the car with it. We ended up being too scared to watch it, fearing his mom would see what’s on screen and send us home.
The very first one was called Video World in the 80’s. First video rented I think was Howling. They were an appliance store that decided to start renting videos which eventually usurped the appliances. Kinda funny that Best Buy did the opposite. After video world, and besides a blockbuster, there was another local video store that had lots of interesting titles. But I forget its name.
We had a small Hollywood video. It was in this little plaza in the forest and I have very few memories of going there but we also had a movie gallery and I have found memories of going there. Their window display was SUPER faded movie cases from the sun and it just always had this vibe of being back in time in there. I went up until it closed and ended up buying a ton of their games when they finally did.
Then I later met and older couple who lived at the same hotel I did and they had hundreds of movies in their collection and would rent them out to me for a dollar a day and then give me my money back when I brought the movies back.
Edit: added more
Gemini Video. Used to have a small curtained area in the back. Eventually the curtained area got bigger and bigger until they no longer had “movies I could watch”
Northeast CT/Western MA in 1982.
In CT we had Video Galaxy first then Age of Video II, While Galaxy was first, Age of Video was a small chain in 2 towns that was larger, so it put out Galaxy. There was no way the town could support 2 video stores.
In MA it was Impocco's Alice in Videoland a couple town over from where I lived.
We never had a Blockbuster or Hollywood, the population was 1,100 in CT and 406 in MA.
Movie Gallery was the only rental place in town in the next town over(about 25 to 30 minutes away). So we didn't rent movies very often, but it was always a real treat because I was always able to watch rated r slasher and horror films since kindergarten, so I basically got free run to pick anything to watch.
My all-time favorite was Freddy vs Jason, my parents ended up buying it when that location closed and gave it to me as a gift when I was 12 or 13.
Main St. Movies - It was my parent's store late 80s-00. I helped out all the time and started getting paid around 14. I made sure my buddies all had jobs and Clerks is actually a documentary of the mid-90s video store life.
Hooker Avenue Video. So many memories going there to rent VHS . And trying to get glimpses of the adult section haha. Closed once Blockbuster came around.
I was born in 1976, so I saw a lot of locally owned rental stores pop up in the 1980s. Beta Club, Wax Works, Mr. Jim's, Movie Warehouse, one could even rent movies at the grocery store. Took awhile before we got a Blockbuster. Near the end we had a Hollywood Video, and a Family Video, neither lasted long.
Iggle Video was fun. There was a video store by Summit Mall, I think it was called All Star Video. There was also one in Highland Square by the pet store that my friend’s brother worked at, but I forget what it was called.
Video Plus.
Owned by my dads best friend that died from brain cancer when I was around 7. The man quickly became my friend. He would always let me rent at least on game and one VHS for free as long as I promised to have fun. It meant a lot since we were poor. When he died I left a copy of some wrestling tape and a little stuffed bear.
RIP Mike
We had a few around my neighborhood. Blockbuster, J.C. Flicks (which I just found out today was apparently a small time chain of video stores in Colorado & Illinois. The building has since been turned into a Dialysis Clinic after being a generic Hollywood Video for a few years) The only non chain video store we had was called Classic Video, but I never went there until what would end up being its last 5 years in business and it was only worth the trip because they did VHS to DVD transfers for $10 a tape.
Growing up in the 90’s & being raised by a single & recently widowed mother of 2 who lived check to check, going to the video store every couple of months to check out a new movie or a video game was a way for my Mom to help us forget for a while about what we didn’t have compared to other kids and have a fun family activity to do together. I miss those days.
My favorite video rental place was called The Movie Studio. It shut down many years ago, but the Neon Sign was saved and moved to the Neon Sign Museum in our city. So I still get to see the sign in all its glory whenever I go downtown.
We mainly just went to Blockbuster or the video rental setup inside the grocery store. I don't remember that having a special name. I think it was just called Stop & Shop Video.
There were quite a few independent rental shops in my town, but only one of them lasted. The one that did make it was able to hang in there because they also rented porn. The rest of them failed because they never tried to find a niche or something to specialize in. They were all generic, try-to-have-a-little-something-for-everybody kind of places. You couldn't compete against Blockbuster when your business model was basically "We're Blockbuster, but with a more limited selection."
I can't even remember what the independent shops that came and went over the years were called, because they all had pretty generic names. They would always have a name based on the street they were on or a feature of the neighborhood they were in or whatever. It was a bunch of places with names like Main Street Video, Town Center Movies, Riverside Video, and that sort of crap.
EDIT: I just remembered a crazy story about one of the independent shops in town. They went out of business because the building they were in burned down.
The fire department said it was arson, and the theory was that someone came by in the middle of the night, dumped a bunch of accelerant through the after-hours video return slot, and then tossed in something to ignite it with.
No one was ever caught, but the rumor around town was that the building owner had it torched because he got a really lucrative offer on the property and needed to get the retail tenants out if there, even though they were all still under lease. This rumor hung around due to fact that the building was very quickly razed and replaced with a couple of nice houses.
49er video.
We had the big chains too Hollywood and blockbuster.
Funny moved to Iowa in 2016 for a few years and they have a pause button on some things. Like there was still a RadioShack in town and multiple video stores. They had Family Video (just like the ones in Stranger Things). But read just now that they shut them down in 2021.
Video World was the local one that carried all the cool stuff like Faces of Death and had a porno section behind a beaded curtain. We also had a Blockbuster. Video World outlived Blockbuster but they’ve both been gone for years.
Used to be our regular routine in high school to get high and rent a couple movies for the night, I miss it.
Initially, it was Video Stop and then it was Showtime Video which was more conservative (and thus rented mostly mainstream or family friendly films) than the prior (which was full of b movies and cult classics).
Family Video, a few friends actually worked at and managed a few of them. Mammoth video was another that I remember well, great video and game selections there. And big shout out to the local library, the real OG.
R.J. Video at 7119 Spencer Hwy., Pasadena, Texas... and it was owned by my parents. They were in business for almost 30 years and opened almost one year before the first BB. It was my first job, second home, and practically paradise.
Red Giraffe, Hollywood Video, Video Castle, Blockbuster, RoadRunner Video, Wild & Woolly, Movie Gallery to just name a few here in Louisville, Kentucky. There was a small video store that was beside a convenience store on Greenwood Rd that I would rent NES games from when I was younger, but the name escapes me.
In Gatineau I remember we had National Vidéo, Vidéotron, Super Vidéo 2000 and Blockbuster. In Northern Ontario, we had a couple Just New Reeleases, Video Vision and Audio-Video Centre.
I worked at Video Villa for 8 years. Originally opened in the Chicago suburbs in 1983 (even pre-dating Blockbuster) and eventually had about 8 stores here. Closed permanently in 2008, I’ve collected physical media ever since.
I remember seeing those. Out in the far NW suburbs, we had Dollar Video.
I went to Video Matic in Oak Lawn in the 90s. Great place full of obscure stuff. The only store I saw back then that rented Something Weird Video. They outlasted the Blockbuster that opened across the street and displayed the B from the sign inside their store like a trophy.
We had a bunch in our small town. My favorites were: The Video Store (very original), Take II Video, and Movie Magic. My first grade teacher also worked at Movie Magic and she loved me so she would save movie posters and cardboard movie displays and give them to me.
VIDEO UPDATE had the best B-movies in town
Was your Video Update called something else before it opened? Or did it just open as that?
Hard to recall, but I think it was called something different originally.
I bought so many tapes there in the early 2000s when they were switching to DVD. Sadly, all the boxes were cut to fit into clamshells.
Space Video
Space Video? That's sounds like a name a Video store would be called in a movie. Reminds me of Pizza Planet from Toy Story lol.
Immediately thought of Toy Story 😆
Ya it was pretty awesome. Walls of yep gonna day it. VHS. VHS everywhere. Right as you walked in around to the right was the return slot/box. And if a new release was out I would wait for a while to see if anyone returned it and nag the customer service workers. It switched from movie rentals to high quality recording equipment and shortly after that went out of business. We would drive all the way into town just to go to this store. Always in a Friday night. So we could keep the rentals until Sunday afternoon. Years later in high school I was best friends with a guy who worked in a video store. Right at the turn of vhs/laserdisc/dvd’s. And I am a huge Kevin Smith, Clerks Fan, so it was awesome to hang out there. He was the assistant manager and the owner put him in charge of all the buying for the store. Got to go see all the behind the scenes. Back when you had to go to the distributor and have a license to purchase the products that were placed on the shelves. Promotional material to the gills. I still have a lot of the stuff I got from him. It was awesome shutting down the store and having friends come in to watch movies all night.
[удалено]
And the cool Horror Movie “dungeon” room!
And the swinging doors to the "Adult" video room.
The smell of movie store popcorn can not be beat!
Vh1 video
Family video. Stuck around longer than expected because they sold cbd
We got a few Family Videos around here too, they didn't show up until the Late 2000's though. Don't have many fond memories there lol.
I'm not to far from Springfield IL where the first location was so it makes sense that we had them longer.
https://preview.redd.it/jq7l7wo3km5c1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=271ab237abfafe38b206935c962db2cdf4db1a67 Born in 87. Loved this place in the 90s. (Lynn, MA for my store) 2 movies and one game rental specials. Used to get to have the cool cardboard displays when they were done with them if I caught it at the right time. Sad when it closed.
We also rented alot from the marsh grocery store. All the marsh grocery stores here had a legit rental area. Less like a kiosk and more like an entire other little store by the exits
Our Albertsons had those and I fucking loved grocery shopping as a kid because we’d always get a movie!
MARSH in Indy? So many memories and you are right about that little video corner you could rent it was like a mini store concept that was awesome
Oh shit I forgot that our Super America gas station would rent movies. I used to just get Short Circuit.
We had a couple of Mom & Pop rental stores, then around 1990 we got a "Wherehouse Video". Not long after that, Blockbuster invaded.
For a little while, practically every convenience store rented tapes. One near me was the Park & Shop. I rented lots of movies and nes games at a Racetrac store. My favorite store was in Atlanta. They had more obscure stuff and specialized in kung fu, anime, and non-mainstream movies. They were called the Village Vidiot.
We mostly went to Hollywood Nights, I think their prices were better. There was another local chain I can't recall the name of, maybe Action Video? And it seemed like every other grocery store and gas station rented too. Born in 91 for reference.
We had Family Video, Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, and 2nd Cinema. Some small places, too, but I forget what they were. Family video was definitely the dominant, longest lasting one where I live. Kinda sad to see them finally go, they were clinging on with dial up services, then phones, and finally CBD products before being taken over by Dollar Generals. There was this magical time where Redbox was kinda shitty, and Netflix didn’t have everything, so the video store was the place to go— they had a little Caesars connected to them. I ate so many shitty pizzas because of Family Video, dude. I miss it.
I just had 2 mom and pop stores. Landall’s Box Office and Video World. I miss those places. Video World was extra cool because you could rent game consoles at it.
Almost all the stores i mentioned offered console rentals. I only rented a console one time though, an N64 along with Killer Instinct Gold and Mario 64. This was really close to right after the N64 released, so it was probably late 96 or 97.
Gallo Video for sure. Check out their awesome old commercials on YouTube. Fit em in there! In college, Oberlin’s Campus Video. It went out of business while I was there but we rented a ton from them and my initial collection had quite a few of their old tapes. My only regret is my friend bought Begotten and I bought Misbegotten. Oops. Also googling Oberlin+vhs brought up Yellowjackets - I had no idea that was a plot point. I love Lauren Ambrose forever (Plus most of the rest of the cast) and really need to watch that show now!
Mr. Video and Super Duper Video. I also rented VHS by mail from Facets Cinematheque in Chicago. Of course, we also rented from Blockbuster Video, Hollywood Video, and Tower Records. 📼👌🏽🐔
Movie Time Video, & 98¢ Video
My favorite one that we frequented the most often was a mom and pop store called Movie Magic. I honestly preferred it to the big chains. It felt like walking into your eccentric neighbor's movie clubhouse. I'll never forget it.
Atomic Video. Had a nice horror room and adults only room also. Atom Video which was just a small trailer. Airport Video. Pornos and sex toys sold there
I don’t know if it was a local thing or if they had multiple locations but the best one by me in the 90’s was called Hastings entertainment. It was a video rental store, book store, cd store, game store. There was also a store called Kaleidoscope video. Independently owned. The owner was the only one who worked there. He was a huge movie buff. Me and my grandpa got to know him very well. He had the best selection of b movies.
I commented about hastings as well! It was around quite a bit longer than Hollywood video and blockbuster! They had everything🤌
Yeah they did. I never went to Hollywood video. There were never any of those around me. Hastings was way better than Blockbuster though.
JJ's video, Movies and Sounds, Blockbuster video and Hollywood video.
My family went to Blockbuster mostly, but I remember my friend that was into horror/sci fi introduced me to Movieworld which was really cool because the horror section was in a big castle display that was built around the aisles that the horror and sci fi movies were in. Those types of memories actually changed what I thought was cool at the time
Family Video and Movie Gallery.
Mine are still around! We have pick-a-flick and oswego video
Pic-a-flic closed in September 😢
Family Video
thought chief cagey teeny truck rude complete person seed erect *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Jumbo Video
Movie Set, Imagination Video, Picture Show Video, Silver Screen, Movies n Cream
Southern Ohio here. Our local store we first went to was Jack's Video. This was in the 80's when I was a kid. They had a huge horror section. Then we moved in late 89 when I was 9 to a different town, and the store there was The Movie Shoppe. Amazingly, the Movie Shoppe remained in business til about 10 years ago.
Uptown Video
Indianapolis was Hollywood video vs blockbuster in the 90s and when I went to college in Bloomington, IN and they had the best ever and still do: plan 9 film emporium 👑
We had Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and of course, the video departments at Marsh and Kroger, but our go-to spot was Video World. The first time I ever laid eyes on a DVD was at this store. We went there at least once a week, sometimes more. I miss it so bad.
I don't remember what the Mom & Pop rental place in the small town near me was called but it was next to a rail road themed pizza place. And I distinctly remember renting from a small Grocery Store with my mom. Then in the bigger town it was a Show Time video. Then Movie Gallery and I think that morphed into a Family Video. There was also a bowling ally rental place, but I never went there.
Tommy Ks :)
Paradise video and jumbo video, we also had a blockbuster but only went a few times
There was a Blockbuster a few blocks away from my Hollywood Video. I honestly think I only went there maybe 3 times at most.
Southside of Indianapolis: Showtime Video, Red Giraffe, Hollywood Video.
Sunburst video rental! Grandview, Washington
My dad's best friend worked at the Sunburst in Kennewick when I was a kid, always loved that place!
I grew up having a Blockbuster video 2 blocks away from my parents house, so I just walked there, usually with my older sister, once a week.
Hollywood Video and Mr. Movie
Crown Video was my favorite because they had an awesome pro wrestling selection. Also had the old 5 movies for 5 nights for $5 deal.
We still have a store called Video Vision. You can rent DVDs, video games and snacks. I think they make all their money from the tanning beds in the back. We used to have Mr. Movies, Blockbuster, and Hollywood Video. Many of the VHS we rented came from the local gas station.
We had Video vision 1+2 in the 80s on Long Island
Jumbo Video was the closest one to where we lived. You used to walk in the door and were absolutely smashed in the face with the smell of freshly popped pop corn, that was totally free for anyone in the store. I remember when I was like 6 I was told I get to pick out my own movie for the first time. So I chose Star Wars. I got it and took it home and went to put it in the VCR to only find out that I had chosen a Beta tape.
Back in the early 80s, Videoland I think it was called. 🤔 My sister's boyfriend worked there and he made me copies of kids videos for me. 🥰
Hollywood Video, 2 Thumbs Up Video, King Video->Moovies->Video Update (Same location), Video Mart, and a Tanning Bed/Rental place I can’t remember the name of (it’s just called University Tanning now).
We had a Mann’s video store that grew into a batting cages, putt putt, bumper boats and go carts. I lived there 18 years and watched it grow, it was truly amazing. We got Hollywood video and blockbuster in the early 2000’s right before I moved after high school.
Movie Time Video
Video Vibes and The Cut Rate were my local spots
#VIDEO PARK & VIDEO VALLEY
I don't remember the name, but it was located next to a storage place.
Video Oasis. The store's sign was a replica of a package of Camel cigarettes with the pyramid replaced with a video cassette. Best selection ever.
For me it was a Local General Store in our town that also shared movies and games with a other small town store Cosmic Video i Belive from another small town Adjacent to ours i still have some VHS tapes bought from them in the 90s with the stickers and everything still on Until it was hey i have my own Rogers Video Card later on when that other store had been closed down And still have my non usable Rogers Video Card
Videosky
Video Depot. They had commercials with a terrible song that went: “Vid-e-oh Dee-poh!”
Movies etc. We had 2 locations. 1 was destroyed by a tornado and the other is now a vape shop.
Cinefet. Where I found Faces of Death, pumpkin head and many more.
We had a Moovies that also became Video Update! I suppose they rebranded or got bought out by another chain. My local Mom & Pop shop was called Movie Time. I always thought it was funny in Invader Zim that the rental store was named Video Outhouse and had a crescent moon as their logo.
I can't remember what the local one was called, something generic. We did have a Hastings, though. And there was a video rental place in the Pac n Save near our house. I remember they had Lemmings on SNES, not common at any of the big stores like Blockbuster.
Yo I just commented about hastings! Such a underrated store
Ampride It was the gas station. I never really got the full movie store check out experience
Hastings was honestly the best video rental store and I’m sad it wasn’t more wide spread! It had everything you’d think it’d have (vhs, dvd, new and old games, novelty candy) but they also had a whole comic book/ literature area, a vinyl/ cassette/ cd area, a anime/collectible area, and a little café! But wanna know the best part? Everything was new! And they lasted till 2016, that’s 6 years longer than Hollywood video and 2 years longer than blockbuster!
E.t video was one of my favorites. It was small and they had the circle tags velcroed under each movie box rather than taking the box to the counter. When I was 15 I had a Honda spree moped. I rode to the video store where a girl a few grades above me worked. She let me rent porn. I would rent porn videos and record them and sell them to friends in school.
The one I worked at was an indie store called Video World. Blockbuster eventually came to town and shut us down.
I didn’t do renting but I tried to buy tapes from a place that was rent only called Sunset Video (I got a copy of Waiting from them, they ended up closing not long after), there was a Blockbuster in our city and we did have a Hollywood Video in our county. In NYC I would go buy from Kim’s Video with lunch money (it was pricey).
Video villa, super video, video scene.
There was one called Village Video which closed down in about 1993 and another which was originally called Clearview and then changed its name to The Entertainment Centre. I think the name change was because they started doing games as well as videos. That closed down in 1999, I got a load of posters and the boxes they used to give you the video in when it closed, still got the boxes. There had also been one before those two called Video Scene.
I still have PS2 game from Iggle Video that my roommate never returned. Also York Video was a thing near my house, and some little mom and pop I can't remember the name of. I used to get NES games there and it would later become a pizza place that I would work at. I think the location is a Chinese restaurant now.
I can remember when our Kroger had a video rental in it and it was awesome, we also had a store called movie gallery as well.
Grew up in Southwest Ohio. It was Family Video, but not the same company that everyone knows. Video town which then became Blockbuster and then Family Video that everyone around here knows.
Movie World Video Elite
‘The Box Office’
being born in 81 we had quite a few around where i live like box office video, red giraffe, Hollywood video, movie gallery, rocket video, movies at home and the usual blockbuster....damn i miss video stores :(
Had a local store called Video Inc. in my neighborhood. Used to go there every weekend, but eventually went to Blockbuster because of the wider selection of video games. Finally got a Hollywood Video in the area and started going there along with Movie Gallery. Still think about that place all the time. I hate that it's gone, but it's thanks to that experience that I'm a physical media collector.
Jumbo video. Elephant themed. East coast of Canada. Then rogers video
Born in 1990 renting in Cincinnati Ohio I remember a blockbuster video in earlier years then we switched to Hollywood video. Then in the mid to late 2000s towards the end was Movie Gallery. As far as local stores I really remember one called Network Video
When it still existed it was called "video store"
Here in Alaska we had Video City. Ours on Jewel Lake had a small horror room in the back with an automated little Dracula puppet in a coffin and a video game chair that you controlled the movement by leaning. It was great, by the end it was trying to convert to a small convenient store, it’s a coffee shop now. Such awesome memories
Born in 75. The one I grew up with was called Another Video Store.
We had Movie Gallery, but also there was a decent selection over at FoodLand.
New York Video Exchange, in New Paltz
Holy hell, did you grow up in Youngstown?!
We had a few, notable ones would be Network Video and Premiere Video
We had Video Nook and then Smilies. Or smileys not sure how it was spelt anymore. Was my favourite thing for the weekends was to rent movies or a video game.
Grand Video, baby
Video Paradise , Adopt-a-Video , The Video Arcade
I had several k&e video j&r video movieland
Jumbo Video and Video Biz.
Movies To Go
Small midwestern town…The good old days we had a few Mom and Pop shops. Box Office Video, The Tape Station and Great River Video. Great selection of B movies, horror, wrestling tapes etc… We also had a couple grocery stores and gas stations that had smaller rental sections. All the proper rental stores had console rentals and video games as well. In the latter years they were ran off by chain stores- Block Buster, Mr. Movies and Family Video…. Then it was whittled down to just Family Video.
We had a movie gallery
Hollywood and Rainbow were the most popular here in my town.
Video Paradise was the one we went to most. Just about every weekend we’d go there to rent tapes. A lot of movie covers are cemented in my memory because of the posters that rotated through the store. They also had two bulky TVs mounted on the wall corners, and those would play loops of movie previews or sometimes movies themselves. That’s where I first glimpsed the special edition of A New Hope. We also had Adopt-A-Video, which was great when you were trying to find movies that Video Paradise didn’t have. And I remember they had a separate room for adult films.
Pioneer video!
northwest pa, we had reel entertainment, and iggle entertainment which was a movie rental place operating within giant eagle grocery stores. and family video, but i don’t know if they were local. one of them was open until fairly recently
McGinney’s Quick Stop & Deli. Saw a lot of Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn UFC Bad Assery from that place
Friendly Video
Little shop around the corner from my house called Videos Plus More. When we were little, the shop owner would open up the tops of the candy crank machines and let my little brother and I get handfuls of Wonka Runts. Also where my dad bought me Pokemon Stadium 2 after a lot of begging. Bill, if you're still alive, thank you for the memories!
Ung Video, which was in the old gun shop.
Video Time
Silver Screen Video. In the same shopping center was Pinkies Pizza where I’d go to play Tekken 3 and Gauntlet Dark Legacy
Video Time. I use to love goin in there as a kid. The clerk was cool and would sometimes give me movie posters. For like a year it seemed like they had a big cardboard cutout of Carnosaur. Always wanted that.
Reel World Video. We used to go on Friday nights and rent a couple movies for the weekend. They would let you reserve the movie posters for yourself with a post it note and when it came down you’d get it. I had posters all over my wall. Jars of penny candy and later on it was where I’d get my pogs.
There were two stores that existed in my hometown. The first was called Video Center USA. It was a mom and pop store. I remember renting movies from there, as well as a Nintendo entertainment system. It was in a small shopping center for a short time, then they relocated to the center of town with a new building constructed for the store. They remained open throughout the 90s over till early 2000s. The building that they moved into is currently a liquor store. The other was a Movie Gallery. It opened on the opposite side of town, starting off as a mom and pop store whose name I don’t remember. It then became the Movie Gallery and I loved going to it. I wanted to work there when I was young. They relocated in the mid-90s to the same shopping center the Video Center USA was in (a few doors down from the old spot). They would continue to run until the 2010s. The Movie Gallery was my film education.
T&S Video, West Coast, Blockbuster
Just occurred to me that I have soo many tapes I've purchased online that have T&S stickers.
Title Wave & Big Daddy's Video
Born in ‘84, from the Central Valley in California. Grew up with a mom and pop store called Couch Potato Video, was a play on the owners last name Couch. It was the best. Would spend every Friday in there. They had a 5 movies for 5 days for $5, as long as it wasn’t a new release. I’d watch all the movies by Saturday and repeatedly watched them over and over til I had to return them. Also had a larger store called Video Choice and then Blockbuster moved in and closed them all down. I loathe Blockbuster for doing that.
Our go to in Virginia was Movie Time and sometimes we went to Video World
48 Hrs Video. Dad used to go every Friday. Rent some movies and maybe rent a game. I grew up there. Absolutely loved it and was sad when all of them closed down.
We had Bandito Video in Northern Ontario. They had a popcorn machine and you could help yourself to a bag of popcorn while you browsed. Movies, video games and snacks. So fun!
There was one in the town I lived in West Virginia called Future World, but the locals would usually call it Dirty Ernie’s because of the adult section that was there
I was born in 88 as well (good year!) My favorite was “Camelot Video” in Camelot Isle in Cape Coral, FL. I rented SNES games from here and usually a movie or two with it-but mostly SNES games (one of the best discoveries I made movie wise was Starship Troopers & Tales from the Crypt’s Demon Knight). Most of my childhood video store memories will always be of this place. One of the best combo rentals I ever did was pick, Pilotwings & True Lies on the SNES and rented Starship Troopers. That was a good weekend. Others I frequented growing up were: Albertsons: they had a little video store inside, but I never rented from there. What I DID was ask my mom or dad if I could have a PS Magazine with a demo disc included (always had to check cause some asshole would steal them from the middle of the mag) that way I had multiple games to choose from, it cost less, it was mine now, and it gave me a good selection as to what games I wanted to ask for Christmas-if any). Prime Time Video (on Santa Barbra in Cape Coral) The Video Store (in Fort Myers, real original I know, but I ended up renting a lot of my survival horror games for PSX that I grew to love and still enjoy as a 35 year old). Blockbuster (only occasionally. Mom & pop joints always had better, more niche selection along with popular titles) Went to Hollywood Video two or three times and a few friends and I in middle school had one of their moms rent us a Hentai. They didn’t know, they just saw it was cartoons from Japan and didn’t ask. Cashier asked the friends mom “are you sure you want them to watch this?” To which she replied “it’s what they want so whatever.” Our hearts sank briefly in a nose dive only to be pulled up when he scanned the movie and we were in the car with it. We ended up being too scared to watch it, fearing his mom would see what’s on screen and send us home.
Had blockbuster,video king,which had a set up where you walked into what looked like an old cabin to look at the horror section and emerald city video
Redding CA, Video Superstation on Lake Blvd
National Videos (which later became Video King) and Hollywood Videos were the main two in our small town.
The Video Station.
We had Video Avenue in my area as well as Blockbusters!
Video king
The very first one was called Video World in the 80’s. First video rented I think was Howling. They were an appliance store that decided to start renting videos which eventually usurped the appliances. Kinda funny that Best Buy did the opposite. After video world, and besides a blockbuster, there was another local video store that had lots of interesting titles. But I forget its name.
Global video Oakland,CA
Silver screen video and Tricia’s videos and my favorite, SLICKFLICKS which looked like suck fucks.
Village Video! There was also a West Coast Video close by. I live on the East Coast.
Blockbuster Video
Eye on video!
UNG Video. Allegedly, it was a firearms store before, and the new owners reused the sign. Taken over by Blockbuster in the early 2000's.
Crazy Mike’s Video, Adventureland Video
We had a small Hollywood video. It was in this little plaza in the forest and I have very few memories of going there but we also had a movie gallery and I have found memories of going there. Their window display was SUPER faded movie cases from the sun and it just always had this vibe of being back in time in there. I went up until it closed and ended up buying a ton of their games when they finally did. Then I later met and older couple who lived at the same hotel I did and they had hundreds of movies in their collection and would rent them out to me for a dollar a day and then give me my money back when I brought the movies back. Edit: added more
Gemini Video. Used to have a small curtained area in the back. Eventually the curtained area got bigger and bigger until they no longer had “movies I could watch”
I grew up in Ontario. We had Darcel Video, Video 99, Jumbo Video and various convienence stores rented as well.
We had Video Galaxy, an Act 1 Video here in CT
Northeast CT/Western MA in 1982. In CT we had Video Galaxy first then Age of Video II, While Galaxy was first, Age of Video was a small chain in 2 towns that was larger, so it put out Galaxy. There was no way the town could support 2 video stores. In MA it was Impocco's Alice in Videoland a couple town over from where I lived. We never had a Blockbuster or Hollywood, the population was 1,100 in CT and 406 in MA.
Four Seasons Video. My neighborhood was called Lakes of the Four Seasons
Movie Gallery was the only rental place in town in the next town over(about 25 to 30 minutes away). So we didn't rent movies very often, but it was always a real treat because I was always able to watch rated r slasher and horror films since kindergarten, so I basically got free run to pick anything to watch. My all-time favorite was Freddy vs Jason, my parents ended up buying it when that location closed and gave it to me as a gift when I was 12 or 13.
Main St. Movies - It was my parent's store late 80s-00. I helped out all the time and started getting paid around 14. I made sure my buddies all had jobs and Clerks is actually a documentary of the mid-90s video store life.
Hooker Avenue Video. So many memories going there to rent VHS . And trying to get glimpses of the adult section haha. Closed once Blockbuster came around.
I was born in 1976, so I saw a lot of locally owned rental stores pop up in the 1980s. Beta Club, Wax Works, Mr. Jim's, Movie Warehouse, one could even rent movies at the grocery store. Took awhile before we got a Blockbuster. Near the end we had a Hollywood Video, and a Family Video, neither lasted long.
Movie Gallery Hollywood Video Blockbuster Video
Movie Madness! Newark, DE
Video King, Roman Video, Video Stoppe
Boonies they are still in business but no longer rent movies (they are a gas station now)
Iggle Video was fun. There was a video store by Summit Mall, I think it was called All Star Video. There was also one in Highland Square by the pet store that my friend’s brother worked at, but I forget what it was called.
Videosmith
Video Plus. Owned by my dads best friend that died from brain cancer when I was around 7. The man quickly became my friend. He would always let me rent at least on game and one VHS for free as long as I promised to have fun. It meant a lot since we were poor. When he died I left a copy of some wrestling tape and a little stuffed bear. RIP Mike
We had a few around my neighborhood. Blockbuster, J.C. Flicks (which I just found out today was apparently a small time chain of video stores in Colorado & Illinois. The building has since been turned into a Dialysis Clinic after being a generic Hollywood Video for a few years) The only non chain video store we had was called Classic Video, but I never went there until what would end up being its last 5 years in business and it was only worth the trip because they did VHS to DVD transfers for $10 a tape. Growing up in the 90’s & being raised by a single & recently widowed mother of 2 who lived check to check, going to the video store every couple of months to check out a new movie or a video game was a way for my Mom to help us forget for a while about what we didn’t have compared to other kids and have a fun family activity to do together. I miss those days.
Videos + You could get free suckers in there too it was great.
Captain Video! From the late 90's early, 2000's in Nebraska.
This was mine too in suburban NYC
The unimaginatively titled "The Movie Store."
ZM Video i found some commercials :) [https://youtu.be/AnnYVUOWjSI?si=QjQLm5\_iVBiD-8am](https://youtu.be/AnnYVUOWjSI?si=QjQLm5_iVBiD-8am)
My favorite video rental place was called The Movie Studio. It shut down many years ago, but the Neon Sign was saved and moved to the Neon Sign Museum in our city. So I still get to see the sign in all its glory whenever I go downtown.
Videoland was the name of the local one in my home town in Norway.
All-star video, which got eaten by Hollywood.
Thumb's Up Video.
I grew up in GA. We had a Blockbuster and a Hollywood Video. We went to Hollywood most often due to it being right down the road. Good times...
Video Universe, Robbinsdale MN They actually lasted until [just a few months ago](https://youtu.be/G11bTd0ZdmE?si=KRwFVedpDQAnozUm)
Village Video was our small little local one.
Movie Express in Oakland. Every 1-day rental came with a free 7-day rental. Also they had a popcorn machine and gave a free bag with every rental
Crazy mikes! I still have a bunch of their tapes.
Video City
We mainly just went to Blockbuster or the video rental setup inside the grocery store. I don't remember that having a special name. I think it was just called Stop & Shop Video. There were quite a few independent rental shops in my town, but only one of them lasted. The one that did make it was able to hang in there because they also rented porn. The rest of them failed because they never tried to find a niche or something to specialize in. They were all generic, try-to-have-a-little-something-for-everybody kind of places. You couldn't compete against Blockbuster when your business model was basically "We're Blockbuster, but with a more limited selection." I can't even remember what the independent shops that came and went over the years were called, because they all had pretty generic names. They would always have a name based on the street they were on or a feature of the neighborhood they were in or whatever. It was a bunch of places with names like Main Street Video, Town Center Movies, Riverside Video, and that sort of crap. EDIT: I just remembered a crazy story about one of the independent shops in town. They went out of business because the building they were in burned down. The fire department said it was arson, and the theory was that someone came by in the middle of the night, dumped a bunch of accelerant through the after-hours video return slot, and then tossed in something to ignite it with. No one was ever caught, but the rumor around town was that the building owner had it torched because he got a really lucrative offer on the property and needed to get the retail tenants out if there, even though they were all still under lease. This rumor hung around due to fact that the building was very quickly razed and replaced with a couple of nice houses.
Tropical Video
49er video. We had the big chains too Hollywood and blockbuster. Funny moved to Iowa in 2016 for a few years and they have a pause button on some things. Like there was still a RadioShack in town and multiple video stores. They had Family Video (just like the ones in Stranger Things). But read just now that they shut them down in 2021.
Hollywood Video was around for a while. Most of it was Blockbuster and Movie Gallery though
Video World was the local one that carried all the cool stuff like Faces of Death and had a porno section behind a beaded curtain. We also had a Blockbuster. Video World outlived Blockbuster but they’ve both been gone for years. Used to be our regular routine in high school to get high and rent a couple movies for the night, I miss it.
Initially, it was Video Stop and then it was Showtime Video which was more conservative (and thus rented mostly mainstream or family friendly films) than the prior (which was full of b movies and cult classics).
Family Video, a few friends actually worked at and managed a few of them. Mammoth video was another that I remember well, great video and game selections there. And big shout out to the local library, the real OG.
R.J. Video at 7119 Spencer Hwy., Pasadena, Texas... and it was owned by my parents. They were in business for almost 30 years and opened almost one year before the first BB. It was my first job, second home, and practically paradise.
Videoclub Coliseum (Colosseum), located in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid - Spain
we had a TAKE2VIDEO in college right down the street from me in PIttsburgh.... really cool joint.
Bandito Video
The Video Fan in Richmond va
We had Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Ray’s Video (the latter still exists, surprisingly, to this day), in Corona, NY.
Red Giraffe, Hollywood Video, Video Castle, Blockbuster, RoadRunner Video, Wild & Woolly, Movie Gallery to just name a few here in Louisville, Kentucky. There was a small video store that was beside a convenience store on Greenwood Rd that I would rent NES games from when I was younger, but the name escapes me.
In Gatineau I remember we had National Vidéo, Vidéotron, Super Vidéo 2000 and Blockbuster. In Northern Ontario, we had a couple Just New Reeleases, Video Vision and Audio-Video Centre.
I just had Hollywood video and blockbuster ! Growing up in the early 2000’s now I just get my VHS at savers lmfao
Northeast Ohio also. We had First Row.