Like Whatever
Join Heather and Nicole as we discuss all things Gen-X with personal nostalgia, current events, and an advocacy for the rights of all humans. From music to movies to television and so much more, revisit the generational trauma we all experienced as we talk about it all. Take a break from today and travel back to the long hot summer days of the 80s and 90s. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever
Please Be Kind, Rewind
Pop the tape, hear that whirr, and step back into the glow of a Friday night video run. We unpack the magic of VHS-era rituals—debating picks under fluorescent lights, scanning cover art for clues, trusting the clerk’s scribbled staff picks—and then follow the trail that turned neighborhood browsing into a streaming scroll. From VCRs and the Betamax vs VHS showdown to rapid rewinders, tape splicing, and late fees, we map how home viewing became a social ritual as much as a technology shift.
Then we zoom out and tell the Blockbuster story like a rollercoaster: the scale, the data, the guaranteed new releases, and the clean family branding that pushed mom-and-pop shops aside. It’s a masterclass in expansion… until the format flips. DVDs streamlined shipping, Netflix removed late fees, and streaming erased the last mile. We revisit the fateful moment Blockbuster laughed off a $50 million Netflix acquisition, why Total Access arrived too late, and how the 2008 downturn turned leases and late-fee dependence into liabilities. By the time the dust settled, bankruptcy had closed most doors, leaving one outpost in Bend, Oregon, as a living postcard from the browsing era.
Between personal counter stories, awkward back-room chores, and genre love letters to Ghostbusters, Fright Night, and Ferris Bueller, we ask what we really lost when aisles vanished: the serendipity of discovery, the talk with a neighbor, the feel of a night out that started with a plastic case. Streaming gave us access and convenience; the old stores gave us ceremony and community. We think there’s room to keep both spirits alive.
Enjoy the nostalgia, learn the business pivots, and share your rental-era memory: the title you chased, the cover that tricked you, the late fee that still stings. If this took you back, follow, rate, and share the show—and tell a friend who always grabbed the last copy before you did.
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Two best friends talking fast. We're missing to our case, we're having a blast. Seeing these dreams, thinking on screens, it was all bad. Like you know, like whatever. Never never never laughing, Jerry, our scoring forever. We'll take you back like whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by, and about Gen X. I'm Nicole, and this is my BFFF Heather. Hello. So let's see. Anything exciting this week? No. Yeah, me neither. I did watch a show on Netflix. If you need another person to hate, I can always throw them in a mix. It's called The Perfect Neighbor. Oh, I've heard about it. And it's this white lady, probably our age, um, who lives in a predominant um black neighborhood in Florida.
SPEAKER_02:Florida.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And the kids are always out playing. Like it's uh one of those streets where like no cars ever come down it, and there's just big open fields, they play football, they're on bikes, like just being kids. Like it was actually kind of cool to see because so many kids are just on electronics anymore. And she was constantly coming out harassing the kids, um telling them to get off her property when she's living in these little apartments, so none of it was actually her property. Um she would call the police on them all the time. And literally, when she called the police, she'd be like, They're outside playing and making noise. And the cops would have to come out. And I mean, she had something right. Uh she had some screws loose. Uh I'll give her that. But she would call the little kids like the N-word and all that stuff. Like she was a bad person. And I mean, it's no secret to the show, I'm not giving anything away, but she ends up shooting the mother, right? One of the kids' moms through a metal door that was locked and deadbolted because the mom was knocking so loud she thought she was gonna come in and kill her. Bullshit. Yeah. But the part that really is infuriating, because there are tons of assholes in the world, is how long it took them to arrest her for it. So she didn't get away, did she get away with it because they have the stand your ground? She did not, but the stand your ground is what took months. I mean, there were people protesting in the streets. Like, if this was one of us, we'd be in jail waiting for you to collect evidence. Like, why is she just out free? They put her up in a hotel, of course, all this stuff. Yeah, I mean she does end up paying for what she did, but it it was it's so blatant. Like, it's just so blatant, and it's so it's like an hour and a half long.
SPEAKER_02:I've I I I have I have heard about it. Yeah. We started uh John Wayne Gacy Devil in Disguise. That's an older one, right? No, it's new, brand new, just came out. What's that one? Peacock. It's supposed to, I guess, rival Monster. Yeah. But I uh when I saw the review, I saw it was coming and then I saw the reviews of it, and people were saying it's much better than Monster because it's more true to the story than Monster, because um, we didn't talk about me finishing Monster and how very, very, very angry I was about it.
SPEAKER_03:Did you hate the ending?
SPEAKER_02:I hated every part of it.
SPEAKER_03:I hate it. I already knew you hated it, and so when I got to the ending, I was like, oh god, she's gonna be furious. This is the dumbest ending I have ever seen in my life. Why?
SPEAKER_02:Just why y'all need to be throwing other serial killers in there? That was the stupidest fucking thing I've ever seen. For real. What are you doing? They did when they were not pen pals. Nope.
SPEAKER_03:They weren't like his idols. No, he wasn't doing it to to be a serial killer.
SPEAKER_02:He just I was just the most was demented ridiculous fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I hated everything.
SPEAKER_03:I just kept saying, what it was uh I can't even yeah, John Wing Gacy's in my top three. So I have to make sure I watch that one. I really liked him too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we got through the first one. Um I like the way they're doing it. Um because when it first started, I was like, huh. We're gonna start there, huh? All right. I guess we're gonna go back in time here, I guess.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So uh well I saw um there's a new Bundy one out, which I'm excited about because you know he's my favorite. It's called Hunting Bundy, I think. It's on Fox Nation, which I'm not excited about, but I think I've heard of this one too.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not a big Ted Bundy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but um I went on to see because I have um Fire TV, so I went on to see if I could get the Fox Nation app, and you can get it for free for a week. So I need to wait until I can sit down and binge it right and just cancel the channel because I will never watch Fox Nation ever again.
SPEAKER_02:My issue with Bundy. I don't know. I don't actually know what my issue with. I mean, obviously my issue with Bundy is that he killed a lot of people for no fucking reason. That aside. Oh wait, before I get into Bundy, I might I I don't know why I don't like him. Well, I can end it there. Okay. Um I think he's just because he's a I don't know why I don't like him. It maybe because he's a pretty boy, I don't know. Yeah, because he's a republic. I don't know what it is about. Yeah. So it's not my cup of tea. I like I like me some Ed Gean's.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um so I was when before you got here and before I won money on my stupid casino game. That was very exciting. But before that, I have uh there's this um Facebook group called The Morbid and Macabre. And they post very graphic thinkrotten.com.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:But they have to post it in the comments, they have to like bury it in the comments. So there was one I was like, okay, I'll watch. And it was what different ways of death looks like as DK and DCOM, and there was probably like four or five hangings. Man, that is wild. And these are all like DK. DComp, like I don't probably we're not gonna needless to say. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_03:Some of this stuff was just like on a lighter note, I was uh looking for something to watch last was it last night? Yeah, yeah, before football. Um and I found some old SNLs, and I turned it on about 10 minutes in, and it was one during the Amy Polar, um my Rudolph Will Farrell Farrell era. And it was a Christmas episode, and then I saw in the commercial that Bruce Springsteen was the musical guest. Uh-huh. Which I'm not I I like Bruce Springsteen just fine. I don't have anything against him, just not my my thing. But that is one of my favorite performances at the end when he sings Santa Claus is coming to town and Paul McCartney comes out and the whole cast comes out and dance. Oh, I got goosebumps just thinking about it. I was so excited that I looked into that.
SPEAKER_02:I'm very familiar with that song.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, obviously they overplay it, but watch that performance. Your mother overplays it. Yeah, well, I know, but the actual SNL is really, really good.
SPEAKER_02:We'll have to check it out. We have SNL's I guess it's on Peacock. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's all over the place. I think they're all right.
SPEAKER_02:I love that show. I don't know if I like this new season.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I watched Sabrina Carpenter this week. And I am a big fan of hers.
SPEAKER_02:But I'm tired of the Domingo. I'm over it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's yeah, he's a one-trick pony, it seems. We can either expand on it or don't. Right. Like just make it go. Like it's it's it's m it's getting to be mundane.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I agree.
SPEAKER_03:But it's still a great show. Yeah. I would still love to go see it. I'll have to start trying to get tickets again. I was trying to get them. I think it's a lottery, like when I went to see Letterman.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm. Um I think it is too.
SPEAKER_03:And I used to put in for it every year. But I'll have to do it again and I'll make you go with your driving. Um Yes, of course.
SPEAKER_02:I love driving in New York City. I just forgot what I was gonna say.
SPEAKER_03:Because I love driving in New York City.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you just totally distracted by the city. SNL. It had something to do with SNL, but I don't know what. Yeah, go on.
SPEAKER_03:I saw the second one that came on after that was hosted by Adam Driver. Are you a fan of his? No.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. I didn't figure because No, it's not my not my I go the other way.
SPEAKER_03:Not gonna start any he uh Star Wars or anything. Yeah. He's actually a pretty cool dude though. He did you know he was a Marine? I did not. I don't know anything about him. Yeah, they showed his uh I did her when he enlisted, and he was like, that's back when they let 12-year-olds into the Marines.
SPEAKER_02:I I did like his SNL. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Gotcha. God damn, I don't remember what I was gonna say about SNL. I don't even think it was about SNL. Whatever. Well, when you think of it, just interrupt me. Okay, I won't remember. Old Glory isn't just a t-shirt, it's a declaration. Sarcasm, subculture of surviving the 90s with your mixtape and dignity mostly intact. From Bandees to cult classics, their graphic gear lets you wear your weird loud and proud.
SPEAKER_03:Use code Like Whatever Pod for 15% off at OldGlory.com. Your identity isn't minimalistic, it's a collage of movie quotes, angst, and questionable fashion choices. And old glory gets it. Alright. Um, so before we get started, like, share, rate, review. Please. Please, please find us where you listen to podcasts. Please. Follow us on all the socials. Please. At Like Whatever Pod. Please. We are on YouTube at Like Whatever. Please. And send us an email to likewhateverpod at gmail.com. All right. So this week, let's fuck around and find out about VHS rentals. I'm so excited. This is a topic I've been wanting to do for a while. And I heard this week that the first blockbuster opened on October 19th, 1985. So I was like, oh, it's their 40th year anniversary. Well, if they were still around. Well, there is one. There's one, yeah. Although I don't think it's really real. Um, but my sources this week were companyhistories.com, businessstories.com, and 80sheaven.com. Today we can stream a seemingly endless choice of films and TV shows on our TV screens. However, back in the 1980s, a trip to the local video rental store was necessary to view the latest releases. Simply selecting a movie with your remote wasn't an option, and the only way to view something that wasn't broadcast live was to place a video cassette into a video player. If you could figure out how to program to set it to record, then you could tape films and programs. Wasn't that the fucking worst when it didn't work? Yes. Or the show ran over. Or the chamber, yes, and it would cut it off because you had the timer. Oh man. Yeah. The worst.
SPEAKER_02:Or something else ran long, so you'd miss the first like five minutes of Beverly Hills 902 0. You can't miss the first fucking five minutes.
SPEAKER_03:Sets up the whole show. The key to this revolution was the development of the video cassette recorder, aka the VCR, in the late 1970s. Before the VCR, if you wanted to watch a movie, you either went to the cinema or waited for a TV broadcast. The introduction of VHS VHS tapes and the VCR democratized movie watching, allowing films to be played and paused at will. It was magical.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:If you didn't hear what they said, you could rewind it. I know. Kids today, they don't know.
SPEAKER_02:We missed half the world.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I mean, if you weren't home when the show came on, you didn't see it. You just never saw it ever.
SPEAKER_02:You'd hope that you saw it in reruns over the summer. Maybe. It depending on what the show was. And everybody would be talking about it, and you'd be like, God damn.
SPEAKER_01:Who shot JR? I don't say Girl Scouts. Damn it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I did not miss that. I didn't either. Because on Friday nights, uh, I went to my dad's every other weekend and we would go out to um my mama and pop-ups. And Dallas and Falcon Crest.
SPEAKER_02:My mom only watched Dallas. She didn't watch any of the other ones.
SPEAKER_03:Well, we all watched Dallas. Like literally men, women, yeah, drunk, all of everybody was just piled in the living room. And then we kind of lost everybody for Falcon Crest, but we were kids, so we watched it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Dynasty. She didn't watch Dynasty, none of that.
SPEAKER_03:No, I never watched Dynasty.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, definitely Dallas. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Dallas was the shit.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and because um the the Dukes of Hazard came on before it. So it was like TGIF before TGIF was a thing. For real.
SPEAKER_03:There were initially two formats, Betamax and VHS, with the latter becoming the norm in the early 1980s. Although arguably a superior format, Betamax developed by Sony, lost the battle between the two formats to gain market dominance. Nonetheless, the manufacture of Betamax recorders continued until August 2002. And I I liken this to iPhones and like Samsung phones. Like it's like uh iPhone is the VHS. I think. Oh no. There are a lot of people without iPhones.
SPEAKER_02:I think I think it's becoming more and more. I think Samsung is taking more and more of the I'm interested in that.
SPEAKER_03:And Google, Google has one of the things that I was gonna say, the Google phone, I think the commercial where everybody's walking around with vanilla ice cream cones. That's Google. Okay, that's what I was thinking.
SPEAKER_02:I was like, maybe I should look in a pixel, I think it is. Yeah. I tell I have a Samsung and um always have. Never I am violently opposed to Apple. Um if you would like to hear anything about Apple, you can listen to Bill and Steve's Nerdy Adventure. Um I have always been a Samsung girl. I just I feel like you're in either one camp or the other, I mean, at this point. And um so we'd always had the we always had I always had Samsung. And I feel like they go back and forth with like they're trying to one-up each other, obviously, each time. But I just feel like Samsung, I mean now I don't know about Apple, but with my Samsung, because I have the Samsung earbuds too, we just got this new upgrade, like the whole thing is now AI. And um so when you have the earbuds in, you can hit a button, and if anybody is speaking another language around you, it will translate into your ear. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think I want that. If people are talking about me in another language, I don't I don't want to know.
SPEAKER_02:I haven't used it yet, but uh yeah, you can it trans it's real-time translation.
SPEAKER_03:Although that is always the paranoia that they're talking about you, and you know they're not talking about it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, the thing for me is if you go to another country, yes, that's very handy. Yes. I mean you can't I imagine it will say I I haven't really looked into it other than that. Wow, you can understand other people. So I imagine it will if you want to say something, it will say it in your ears so that you can say it.
SPEAKER_03:But yeah. But there's also just translate on your phone. When I was in Brazil, that's what we did. We just type in the sentence and show it to the person on the street where we were trying to find where we're going, or the waiter, or whatever like that. But it would be cool to be able to just have a conversation and actually hear what they're saying.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I thought that was cool, and that's that's been there for a while.
SPEAKER_03:Um there's something Samsung always has a better camera too. The Samsung camera. I don't know why iPhone can't get a nice camera, but it's you know what it is, it doesn't take great pictures.
SPEAKER_02:It's because Samsung uses AI for their camera. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's they bring it, um I've noticed it the with the moon picture. I because that's everybody posts pictures of the full moon with their Samsung. It's not really that good. It just it just fills in with AI.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean it is good, especially low light. It's really good in low light. Yeah. Um, I have some amazing pictures of lightning that it picked up because it was yeah, it's it is a really good camera, but it does uh amp it up with AI. I do like Samsung though. I I do like its features. I like um you know they took the one I liked away, the note, but they did give me the pen, which is also a great feature because you get the pen automatically. You can use the pen as a remote. You can use the pen. This is like one big giant Samsung conversion.
SPEAKER_03:It really is. Okay, I'll stop. All right, back to the story. The birth of video rentals. Video rental stores began popping up all over the globe in the early 1980s, fueled by the growing adoption of VCRs. Remember when VCRs were like so expensive? And then on Black Fridays, they started being like 10 bucks.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you could rent a VCR too from the video store.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, that's right. Uh renting movies became a convenient and affordable alternative to buying tapes, which were initially quite expensive. Some movies retailed for around$50 in the early 1980s, a steep price for the average consumer. So renting a film for a few dollars was a far more attractive option. The 1980s were a golden age for video rental stores. Before streaming services and on-demand content, these brick and mortar establishments were the go-to places for entertainment. Video rental stores were a cornerstone of local communities, offering a vast selection of films to choose from. Uh in the early in the early years, the video rental industry was dominated by independent shops, some of them family run. These smaller stores catered to local communities and often had unique collections of movies that reflected the tastes of their owners. So you know about the family run.
SPEAKER_02:Back in the day, um, I guess my uncle decided he was like the entrepreneur of all entrepreneurs, and he opened up three video stores, and they were called double feature. Um, and of course, because I was child labor, I worked in in them um when I could see over the counter. I I I did have to look it up because I couldn't remember exactly when, but I know that the movie Heathers was out because when it first came to video, I got all the merch for it. Ooh, yeah. That was one of like the greatest days ever. Uh-huh. Um, and that was 88. So apparently I was working there in 88.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Which would have made you 14. 14.
SPEAKER_02:So that was working age.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. But that was probably it doesn't mean you started there when you were 14. No, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_02:But um, so yeah, that's how I have seen so many of the 80s movies, is because you would have to they played video they played movies all day and they would play like the new releases and stuff, and you would have to just watch video after video after video after video after video. And that might be why I don't watch movies anymore. Because I was like I did nothing else to do. But yeah, it was but and when he closed them, that's how I got the little mermaid.
SPEAKER_04:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because when he closed them, we went in and picked out all the ones we wanted to keep and then brought them home. So we had like, I don't know, I don't know, they're all gone now, but like a fuck ton of videos and any posters that we wanted, any merch. But I did have the Heathers whole merch line. I up until I would say maybe five years ago, I still had a Heather's keychain bottle opener from that.
SPEAKER_03:All right. If the local store wasn't in walking distance, um being able to drive was essential. The journey would often take an hour, which included half an hour of deciding which film to watch. Should you bump into someone you know, then you could add another half hour to your trip. Unless you're like Heather and I, who dodge people like the plague. Like the plague. We don't want to talk to people in public. That is something we both have in common. I will get in a clothes rack quick. I hate small talk, I hate it. How you doing? How's the kids?
SPEAKER_02:Me too. I hate it. I have to do it all day. Oh god, long. It is nothing but how's the weather? How are you? Oh, it's cold out here, oh, it's warm out here. Keep dry, stay dried. That's just small talk all day.
SPEAKER_03:All day. If I come to you, like someone at work and say, ask how your kids are or how your husband's doing, or something, it's because I genuinely care. Right. Like there's something going on and I want to see how it is.
SPEAKER_02:I will never just so but the problem is, like my work bestie the other day. Yes, no, today. Today, as a matter of fact, he got caught talking to an old lady for 20 minutes, which is in mailman time, that's long time. Like you could be halfway done. Like you could be far too polite. Yeah. Well, because she's he she tugged at his little heartstrings. See, she was talking, telling him all this stuff, and she said, you know, you're the only person I see every day, so you're the only one I have to talk to. So then, you know, he became a big giant puddle of mush. But that's it. That is that sounds god awful. I mean, a lot of these neighborhoods, like I have an old people neighborhood, and they're all dying, and like one will die, and then the other one comes up. This one lady, she brings me a soda. Like the other day she brought me a soda and she just whipped it out of I don't even know where.
SPEAKER_03:Don't ask me.
SPEAKER_02:She came up and she was like, Is it too, is it too chilly for sodas? And I was like, It's never too chilly for sodas. And she was like, Wabam. And I was like, All right. And she was like, Sooner, I'll have to be bringing you chocol hot chocolate. And I was like, and soda. Score. I know. Tell her make sure she puts whipped cream on it. Oh, I forgot. Yeah, it makes my throat crawl. Oh, I love it. Because I have a touch of the tism. Um yeah, we my therapist and I really went over that yesterday.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. All right. Yep. Um, stepping into a video rental store in the 1980s was an adventure. The air was filled with the unmistakable scent of plastic casings and the low hum of VHS tapes. Shelves were lined with thousands of titles, organized by genre or alphabetically. Browsing the aisles was a delightful experience as you discovered hidden gems and rediscovered old favorites.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like it always smelled like popcorn too, like microwave popcorn.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I worked in um video stores too when I was like 15, 16 years old. My first one, my mom was working there. There's a part-time job on the side from working at the post office. She worked for the post office. And um that place was really dumpy, like it was small. Um, we didn't have any snacks or anything. We had a huge triple X room. But but the the customers weren't allowed back there. They just had to look in a book and pick a number. So it was like super awkward interaction, especially for a 16-year-old. He'd be like, Oh, I'll take number 986. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I don't really want to look at Debbie today.
SPEAKER_03:We don't want to do this, but okay.
SPEAKER_02:I know we had a room.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so the second one that I worked at, the second store, it had the room with the curtain. Yep. And putting those away was always what a wild fucking quiet. Can you imagine? We just went into like Walmart and got porn.
SPEAKER_02:It's insane. I mean, uh hey.
SPEAKER_03:And the children working there putting the cassette tapes away.
SPEAKER_02:You used to have to pay for porn, not like it's free now. Yeah, yeah. Anything you want, you can get now. No, you had to like and it was all like Rodney nurses. Yeah, you had to really search for some porn.
SPEAKER_03:Not that I know anything about that, but but the second one that I worked in, we were fancy. We had popcorn, we had a cotton candy machine. Oh man, I ate a lot of cotton candy while I worked there.
SPEAKER_02:I think we had a popcorn machine. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03:Probably.
SPEAKER_02:I can't remember.
SPEAKER_03:And then we had like candies and stuff, but yeah, we did have candy, I know that. Because we had MMs. Making cotton candy. It was so much fun to make.
SPEAKER_02:I'm so I was watching somebody make cotton candy today on TikTok. And now I want a cotton candy machine. Mm-hmm. It's amazing. I can see it like it becomes something.
SPEAKER_03:It does. It's really fucking cool. Just out of air. Yeah, exactly. I love that. You just dump some sugar in there and boof.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we always had we did have candy in there, but my dad was involved, so of course there was candy. I'm surprised there was candy since your dad was there. That's true. He didn't need it. So I'm borrowing his van right now right now, right? Um I texted my sister and I was like, so he had I don't know if I told you all this, but he has Mr. Goodbars in the door handles. Every single door handle of the van has a Mr. Goodbar in it, like the little fun size. And then I found Rice Krispie treats in one glove box, and then there's Tootsie Rolls in there also, because that is his like go-to, as I guess, because they I they don't melt, I guess. I do love Tootsie Rolls. I don't care for them. But he also wears this vest that has like it's like I guess like an angler's vest where it has like 1400 pockets in it. And if you ever are like, man, I would really like some have some chocolate, he will ask you what you want, and then he will pull it from a certain pocket. He'll be like, here.
SPEAKER_03:You better not get caught talking to children on a playground with that vest on.
SPEAKER_02:He's insane. You should see the candy they have down there right now. Like four baskets full. I know. There are there's always huge bowls. They got one time they got a trick-or-treater. That's the only time they ever got a trick-or-treater. And my dad was so excited and emptied the f that poor kid. Emptied the bowl. At least he shared. Oh, yeah. He would hit with his ne his his grandchildren. His my nephew would always say, Can I have some of you MMs? He'd say, I don't have any. And Matt would just look up and be like, I can see them. They're in the MM spot where they live.
SPEAKER_03:And anybody that knows your dad knows there are always MMs. Always. Always. When I met you, he was still working in restaurants and he lived off MMs and potato chips. I remember that. That's literally all he ate. Yep. All right. There was eye-catching cover art and intriguing movie posters lining the walls. Many stores had special sections dedicated to new releases where you could rent the latest Hollywood blockbuster, though you often had to act fast before all the copies were rented out.
SPEAKER_02:True story.
SPEAKER_03:Choosing a film involved reading the synopsis on the back of the VHS case, looking at the cover, and sometimes relying on the recommendations of the store workers. Often a movie buff who was more than happy to guide you through the vast collection. This personal touch and the physical presence of the films gave the video rental store a special charm. It was also a place to socialize. More often than not, you would spot a work colleague or a neighbor and simply uh wouldn't simply chat about the weather. You would discuss films that you had watched the night the night before and recommend something. Uh that you watched last week. Sharing your viewing experience with others was a joy. And that is something that is sadly missing from the isolating experience of streaming within your own four walls. I don't know. That's a matter of opinion. Yeah. Like my uh uh stepmom hates self-checkouts.
unknown:I love them.
SPEAKER_03:It enrages her. Like she wants some, she's like, I'm not getting paid to ring my own stuff up. She's just she's an older lady, and this is just how she feels about it. I I per purposely go to stores that I know have self-checks. Me too. And I will wait in a line 12 people deep rather than go to the empty cash.
SPEAKER_02:I actually got yelled at at the um at the one at the safe way the other day because I had more than 15 items and some narc behind me. She was like, Aren't were we not paying attention? And I turned I literally turned around, I said, You got a problem? And he was like, Yeah. And I was like, I will have these things done before you get up here. Don't you worry. I'm way fucking faster than you, clown.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-mm-mm. The excitement of bringing a freshly rented VHS tape home was unparalleled. Settling down on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, pressing play, and immersing oneself in the world of the film was a cherished ritual.
SPEAKER_02:Remember it, and like sleepovers and stuff, you would go, like the mom, whoever would stop at the blockbuster, or whatever. We didn't get a blockbuster here until way late. Um would stop at the video store, and like who all the six girls or whoever was there would run and like everybody's picking out, and of course, I'm the odd one out. That's like, oh, look at this. Let's get this horror movie. 30 the 13.
SPEAKER_03:No, that's R-rated. Yeah. Yeah. You only got to watch one of those when it was Halloween. Yeah. I didn't. I got to watch. My parents were. When you had finished watching your film, you would need to rewind it. Please be kind, rewind. Blockbuster even had their own slogan, as Heather just said. Uh, you also had a limited amount of time to watch it. Returning your film after the deadline would result in a fine, and some rental stores issued a fine for not rewinding it.
SPEAKER_02:I was just gonna say you would get a fine if you didn't rewind. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, and it sucked when, especially as a kid, when these adults are coming up and you're like, oh, you owe us ten dollars in late fees, and then they're all pissed off at you. One time, because I took a lot of Spanish in high school, I had a um Hispanic man come in and he was trying to rent a movie and he still had a porn out. Oh. And I had to explain to him in my high school Spanish.
SPEAKER_02:Oh shit. Yeah, good times. Now we had at ours, we had one of them rapid rewinders. So I don't know why. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:We did too.
SPEAKER_02:It really wasn't that big ideal to just shove it in that thing and it would rewind it real quick. But whatever. Just to be a dick. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Some popular genres of the time included action and adventure films such as Top Gun, Die Hard, Indiana Jones, and Mad Max. Uh, they were must-haves for any self-respecting video rental patron, except Top Gun. Although I did watch it back then.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't. Indiana Jones would be the only ones of those that I watched. Oh, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. But anyway. We go into that also on whatever the Christmas episode is. My Christmas episode. I can't remember what it was called. Me neither. Um Holy Gremlin's Batman. That's what it is. That's it. You're so good at remembering that stuff. I make them up. I spend like all week.
SPEAKER_03:I scan through our catalog and I see a title. I'm like, what was that episode about? Um, but that's my memory for you. All right. Uh science fiction such as The Terminator, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, and E.T. Captured Audiences' Imagination with their futuristic worlds and alien encounters. Did you like all of those movies?
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I um, yeah. Yeah. I never saw E.T.
SPEAKER_03:until I was an adult.
SPEAKER_02:I saw E.T. in the theater. Um, yeah. That was traumatizing. But then, like most of our movies were traumatizing back then. True.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, horror was a hugely popular genre in the 1980s in the films like The Shining, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, terrified and thrilled viewers alike becoming cult classics. Did you know that there is a documentary type show, like a week, like a dateline kind of thing? Um, that is the real murders of Elm Street, and it's people who have been murdered in the street.
SPEAKER_02:On Elm Street, I have seen not the Elm Street on A Elm Street on A Elm Street.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, I have seen that. And it's crazy how like really creepy the murders are, too.
SPEAKER_02:Didn't we do an episode on The Shining? We did. Red Rum and Coke. Look at you. That's one of my favorite titles. The Shinnin. Great movie. I mean, that's one of like the I mean, yeah. I watched Fright Night too, because it's Halloween, it's it's October, so um Yeah, Halloween's only 11 days away. No, I already know what I'm gonna be. And I think that not anybody except for one person in my office is gonna know who I am, and I'm so excited. And I told him today, I was like, Are you gonna be here on Halloween? And he was like, I think so, yeah. And I was like, because you're gonna be the only one who knows what my costume is, and he was like, It's gonna be something Tim Burton, and I was like, Yes. And he's trying to guess movies, and I was like, I'm not gonna tell you that part, but trust me, when you see it, you will know immediately.
SPEAKER_03:Ooh, send me a pick.
unknown:I know.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna wear it if I can get it in time when we record the Halloween episode. And then we'll so you're gonna need to dress up. You're gonna need to pony up. Let's bring a witch hat.
SPEAKER_03:I don't dress up often, but when I do, I do it good. I I I was um Mary Poppins once, I was Lucille Ball once, and they I crushed it. All right. Uh the comedy genre included Blockbuster Ghostbusters, which we talked about last week. We did. And then I was in a store. I was in uh Bath and Body Works buying some. Uh they had a sales wreck, and um who you gonna call comes on. I was cracking up. It's that time. And Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which I've mentioned before, one summer. I watched it every single morning on summer break, every day. Yeah, I love that movie. It's fine. Um provided much needed laughs and escapism, or maybe some stand-up like Eddie Murphy. Classic, classic. Everybody loved Raw, but I preferred Delirious.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Delirious was the ice cream man. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. When the big brown shark came in the bathtub. Um, many films such as Gremlins and Beetlejuice blended horror and comedy to great effect.
SPEAKER_02:So we watched Fright Night the other day, the original Fright Knight, which is one of my fucking favorite movies. And I remember the day that when I realized that the vampire in Fright Knight is also Jack Skellington. Mind blown Shut up! I will not. It's Chris Sarandon. Whoa. Yes, and my I can so my friend who lived across the um the water from us that was only here in the summer, her mom.
unknown:I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if she listens. Hi, Gretchen, if you do. Um she let us watch Fright Night all the time. It was like something we watch all the time. She made us Black Cherry Kool-Aid and and um double decker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So I literally know almost every word for word of that movie, and I quote it all the time. And of course, very few people know.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You have to have faith for that to work on me. Mr.
unknown:Vincent.
SPEAKER_03:Uh in the 80s, video rentals became a crucial secondary revenue stream for Hollywood studios. Many movies that performed poorly in cinemas found second lives as rental hits, and an entire industry of direct to video films emerged.
SPEAKER_01:Direct to video.
SPEAKER_03:Low budget horror, action, and comedy movies became staples of rental store shelves, and some even achieved cult status. Um, let's talk about videotape defects. The worst. All right, something that we had learned to live with in the 1980s was the wonky cassette. Sometimes the cassette reels could be at fault, but more often than not, it was the videotape itself.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:This was prone to wear and tear. And as video rental cassettes were watched numerous times, this overuse would sometimes result in a loss of picture and sound quality. Usually it wasn't bad enough to stop you from enjoying the film.
SPEAKER_02:Sometimes though. Sometimes.
SPEAKER_03:Especially if you got one that you wanted to watch a couple times over, and each time you got to that part that happened, and you're just Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because it would always be the best part.
unknown:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Uh pictures would occasionally jump, develop lines, discoloration, and fuzziness, and the sound would occasionally have that wonky quality that synth wave musicians often try to replicate in their latest songs. Hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_02:I found that I just learned two days ago, there's a whole depeche mode album I didn't even know existed. Their second one. I never have never I looked because I was looking for something. Never saw it before. I have never heard any of those songs off of it. I can't remember the name of it. I'm gonna have to look into that.
SPEAKER_03:I was like I know every word, every depeche mode album. I know. I know you do. Not necessarily by choice, but but while you look it up, let me say, as a video store employee, do you remember having to splice the videos? I never had to do that. So yeah, so when they would come, and I felt like I was the smartest person on the planet when I learned this skill. So somebody would bring one in and the VEHS had eaten it, or something bad had happened to it, and you would take the cassette apart, and you would take out the bad part, and you would splice it back together, and I was very good at it.
SPEAKER_02:It's called a broken frame. Broken frame. I had never heard any song off of it.
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna have to listen to it and see if I've ever heard any of it. Because we know the first album.
SPEAKER_02:I know. I never written entirely by Martin Gore. Is it all music? It was the day. It was released the day before my birthday. Is it all is it all instrumental? I don't know. I didn't listen to it. No, because there was one song I did listen to.
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SPEAKER_02:No shaking, no stirring, just pop the top and enjoy. Use code Like Whatever Pod for 15% off. Gardenstate.com, because sometimes you just want a proper cocktail in your hand. And we're not here to judge. Song break. Sorry.
SPEAKER_03:I had to let her listen to it. In the early 1990s, large chains like Blockbuster began to appear. These chain stores offered a broader selection of films, extended hours, and competitive prices, gradually pushing smaller independent stores out of business. Blockbuster was the Walmart of uh video stores. Video stores. Uh with the rise of DVDs in the 1990s and digital streaming in the 2000s, the stores gradually disappeared, but the memory of them remains a nostalgic touchstone for those who grew up in the era. So before we get into the blockbuster business model, which is actually quite interesting. When I was looking up, I was like, this is gonna be boring, but it was kind of neat. Oh, here we go. Um we have a new segment that we are starting in year two. Oh my gosh. I um found an old diary of mine. Um, it looks like I received it um in '84. So I would have been 11. And apparently I had some pictures taped in here that fell out because there are like little writings like Uncle Donnie in 1984. No, that wasn't him. All right. So we're gonna start with page one. So excited. Oh my god, it's so good. All right, so this is Saturday, March 31st of 1984. I had a slumber party, got a diary, a pen, watermelon jewelry, summer suit. I don't know what that is. Todd, the Barbie doll.
SPEAKER_02:Oh happy birthday. Is that the Dollar Tree Ken?
SPEAKER_03:Todd. Uh, happy birthday balloon cards, and a light.
SPEAKER_02:Oh. It's kind of late for your birthday though.
SPEAKER_03:Well, okay. You'll find out. Hold on. Um, took 12 pictures, had all my friends that I love, like sisters. Right. They're my three best friends. We played pillow fights, Barbies, and took pictures. I had my birthday slumber party. Well, I had written my slumber party and then I put the little V in and inserted birthday. Sure. I need to clarify. Right. I had my birthday slumber party on this date because I was supposed to have it on the 3rd of March, but I got the chicken pox that we've got.
SPEAKER_02:There's never been anything more easy than this diary.
SPEAKER_04:Can't even stand it.
SPEAKER_03:And it's it's a cute little diary. It's got um, if you guys remember the little twin stars, I still have the pen that I use to write in it inside the plastic cover. It doesn't work anymore. And I have anyway, we are going to.
SPEAKER_02:That was the greatest start to any segment, any ever. I don't care who you are or where you are or how famous you are. New news, Jason Kelpy. Uh it's no. This is where it is.
SPEAKER_03:I know. I when I pulled it out last night and I read the first page and I text Tather, this is pure gold. Like it is golden. And I just only looked through a few other little things. Um, I found something very interesting that I can't wait to share with my dad. Um, but I know what you're talking about. But I kind of want to surprise myself with it. Like, I don't I didn't want to read through the whole thing. But yeah, it's I'm so excited that I found this. And so this is gonna be a new little segment for it.
SPEAKER_02:I could not be more excited about this situation. I just can't.
SPEAKER_03:It's so cute. I'll put a picture of it up on socials too. All right.
SPEAKER_02:We were talking about chicken box at work the other day because um one of the one of the one of my friends that uh is has a daughter and uh they were talking about getting she has to get her the chicken box vaccine, blah blah blah. And one of the other people that were in there at the same time because she said she had the chicken pox vaccine, and the other person that was in there, I don't I didn't think he was that old, but apparently he is. Um he was like, back in my day, you didn't have chicken pox vaccines, we all, and I as soon as he he said we all, I turned around and I said, You went to a chicken pox. And he was like, Yeah, and she just looked at us, like she's like, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_03:And he was like, Yep, you'd go to your kid got chicken pox, you were obligated to call all the other moms and be like, bring them over.
SPEAKER_02:Everybody will come over and get the chicken pox.
SPEAKER_03:Just get it out of the way. Do it now. God. I remember having chicken pox too. My mom was just new with the post office, so she was a sub.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03:So she couldn't take off or anything. Right. And my sister went to, I guess, I mean, it's all foggy, but I guess she went to a daycare in someone's house. And they had little kids, and I was 11, so I was older than the little kids. My sister's six years younger than me. Um, so this lady let her, let my mom let me stay there while I had chicken pox. So I was in this, it was an old dark bedroom, and they put like a baby gate up in the door, and all the little kids would just stand there and stare at me when I'm laying in bed.
SPEAKER_02:I'm like, ugh. I hardly had them at all.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't get a bad case. My friend had them in their ears, my sister down her throat. Yep. Yeah, my sister had them bad. Yeah, I was lucky I didn't get them that bad, but I didn't get them lately either. I got them.
SPEAKER_02:I barely had any. Oh. I'm so scared of shingles. I've already had shingles. Are they contagious? Can I get them from you? Keep your shingles over there.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I had them like 12 years ago, so I think you're safe.
SPEAKER_02:You never know.
SPEAKER_03:They are no fun, man. I'm telling you. And that's back when they handed out Per cassettes like candy. Yeah. And that didn't even help to paint. Nowadays, you're just fucked if you get them.
SPEAKER_02:If I get them, get it, I just have to become a heroin addiction.
SPEAKER_03:There you go. Seriously. Like it was bad. All right. Anyway. Yeah. Back on track. Yeah. So now we're going to talk about uh Blockbuster and how it came to be. All right. So the Blockbuster business model provides an advantage over the large home video chains and significant advantage over single store competitors. The key elements of this business model are to provide a large number of copies and broad selection of movie titles. Operate conveniently, located and highly visible stores, offer superior and consistent customer service, optimize the price to local market conditions, nationally advertise, and market the Blockbuster brand name and the differences between them and their competitors. Use the extensive customer transaction database to effectively operate and market the business and improve efficiency and lower costs through self-distribution. So some key dates for Blockbuster. In 1985, the first Blockbuster store opened in Dallas. Boo. Is that the same one that's still open? Is it the original or no? I think the one that's opens in the Midwest somewhere. Okay. Um, or maybe like further up closer to Canada.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um, in 1986, Blockbuster went public. In 1987, the founder David Cook left the company. Um and the company headquarters moved to Fort Lauderdale. Uh in 1989, Blockbuster opened its first stores in London and in Canada. In 1992, Blockbuster acquired Sound Warehouse and Music Plus chains to create Blockbuster music stores. Do you remember those? Oh, me neither. We probably didn't have it around here. We're too country. Yeah. Uh in 1994, media giant Viacom Inc. acquires Blockbuster. 1996, company headquarters moves back to Dallas. Uh in 1999, Viacom holds an initial public offering of Blockbuster shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
SPEAKER_01:I love an IPO.
SPEAKER_03:So the company's history. Blockbuster is a leader in the field of video and video disc rentals. With approximately 27% of the U.S. market shares, Blockbuster operates about 6,500 video stores serving more than 87 million customers in the United States, its territories, and 25 other nations. Founded in the mid-1980s as an alternative to small local operations with limited video rental selections, the company grew quickly into a nationwide chain with other interests in the entertainment industry as well, including music retailing. In 1994, Blockbuster became a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc., allowing Viacom the financial resources to proceed with its bid for Paramount Communications. Viacom retained total control of Blockbuster until its 1999 initial public offering of 31 million shares, which was about 18% of Blockbuster's stock.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, damn. I was hoping you were going to tell me what the IPO was.
SPEAKER_03:What it came out as. I don't know. In I don't think it's in here.
SPEAKER_02:I love a good IPO.
SPEAKER_03:In the late 1990s, Blockbuster faced challenges brought about by new ownership, increased competition, and a relatively soft market for videos. Nevertheless, the company has coped admirably by refocusing its efforts on its core video rental business. In 1999, Blockbuster boasted a store within a 10-minute drive of virtually every major neighborhood in the United States and strove to guarantee the availability of new video releases in most markets. They would too, man. They get like 30 copies of something that came out. Yeah, they did.
SPEAKER_01:Oh god.
SPEAKER_03:What? It was$15. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Blockbuster traces its history to the formation of Cook Data Services Inc. in 1982. This company was founded by David Cook to supply computer software services to Texas's oil and gas industry. When the industry went bust, the company was left without a strong customer base. Cook was searching for another source of revenue when his wife Sandy, a movie fan, suggested entering the video retail business. Cook learned that the video rental field was highly fragmented. Most stores were relatively modest family operations that carried a small selection of former big hit movies. Providing a large selection of movies required a large investment of capital, since distributors typically charged approximately$70 per tape. In addition, tapes were generally not displayed but kept behind the counter to discourage theft and had to be fetched and laborously signed out by the customer. Cook saw that operations could be greatly streamlined by a computerized system for inventory control and checkout, something his software background prepared him to develop. After Sandy Cook conducted several months of research into the video rental industry, David Cook sold his oil and gas software business to its managers and entered the movie rental business. In October 1985, Cook opened the first Blockbuster outlet in Dallas. With 8,000 tapes covering 6,500 titles, it had an inventory many times larger than that of its nearest competitor. In addition, tapes were displayed on shelves throughout the store as in books, as in a bookstore, so that customers could pick them up and carry them up to the desk for checkout. A magnetic strip on each video and sensors at the door discouraged theft. Computers were used to keep track of inventory and a laser scanning system which uses used barcodes on the tapes and on members' cards, simplified and reduced the time involved in conducting transactions. I might still have my blockbuster card. I don't think I do. I might, I don't know. Yeah. If I find an old wallet somewhere, it's probably in there. The first Blockbuster store was an immediate hit. The cooks discovered that the public had a much greater appetite for running video movies than anyone had previously suspected. People were interested not just in seeing hit movies they had missed in the theaters, but also in a broad variety of other features.
SPEAKER_02:See, you'll also have to remember children's that were not around. After a movie left the movie theater.
SPEAKER_03:Oh god, like a year.
SPEAKER_02:At least. But it would come out on video. And then in order for it to get to cable where you could see it consistently, it would be five, six years before.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, like on HBO, that's kind of what it was.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, then it would go to HBO, and then eventually Rocky went to cable and you couldn't spit without hitting a Rocky movie in any given day.
SPEAKER_03:Which isn't a bad thing. No, that's how I know it so well. Um, by summer 1986, Cook had expanded the Blockbuster concept to three additional stores. To reflect the different nature of the company, Cook Data Services became Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation in June 1986. In September, the company set out to raise money for further expansion with an initial stock offering. However, days before the sale was to take place, a financial columnist wrote a damaging article citing Cook's background in the oil industry and questioning the company's know-how in the video field. The article caused the equity offering to be canceled, and without this infusion of cash, Blockbuster began to run out of money. The company finished 1986 with a loss of$3.2 million.
SPEAKER_02:That would explain the$15 IBL.
SPEAKER_03:Please give us money. They're still everywhere. I know. They have their own golf agreement.
SPEAKER_02:Whenever I hear waste management, all I can think of is Mafia.
SPEAKER_03:That's just it. True. But the actual company Waste Management.
SPEAKER_02:It's probably Mafia.
SPEAKER_03:Sponsor. True. That's why they sponsor everything. Um Wayne Hoosinga had a 1972 co-founded uh Waste Management, which grew to be the largest garbage disposal business in the world. Is that an Italian name?
unknown:Man.
SPEAKER_03:And served as its president and chief operating officer until 1984 when he retired. John Melk, the president of Waste Management's International Division, was first to invest in a Blockbuster franchise. Joined by Donald Flynn, the chief official uh financial officer of waste management, the group invested$18.6 million in Blockbuster stock. They made a pretty penny off of that. They certainly did. With this move, Cook surrendered future control blockbuster, and Hoosinga became the dominant voice in determining the company's future. Where Cook had envisioned growth through franchising, selling Blockbuster's name and computer system to individual entrepreneurs, Hoosinga foresaw growth through company ownership of stores. In April 1987, two months after the men from waste management bought into Blockbuster, Cook left the company. So thereafter, the company's headquarters were moved to Fort Lauderdale. By June 1987, Blockbuster owned 15 stores and franchised 20 others. With this base, Hoosinga set out to transform Blockbuster into the industry's dominant player. He kept most of Cook's policies, such as store hours from 10 a.m. to midnight every day, a three-day rental policy, which encouraged customers to rent more than one tape at once, and a broad selection of titles. Despite conventional wisdom that the videotape rental business was heavily dependent on hits, 70% of Blockbuster's rental revenue came from non-hit movies, which had the added benefit of being less expensive to purchase from distribute from distributors. In addition, Blockbuster's management decided to SQ SU revenue from X-rated adult films, opting instead for a family environment. That's right. They didn't. See if they took all the fun out of the family businesses. Go find your porn somewhere else. I think they were there long before video rent. With these policies in place, Blockbuster set out on a program of aggressive expansion. The company began to buy back franchised operations with the goal of 60% company owned Blockbuster outlets. In addition, Wayne Hoosinga began to buy up chains of video stores that already dominated their local markets, using this as a shortcut to quick expansion. In March 1987, Blockbuster Blockbuster bought Southern Video Partnership as part of this policy. Two months later, it purchased Movies2Go Inc. of St. Louis for$14.5 million. To support its expansion, Blockbuster established six regional offices, including a distribution center in Dallas, that prepared tapes to be placed in stores. By the end of 1987, Blockbuster was operating 133 stores and had become the country's fifth largest video chain in terms of revenue. The fifth largest? Fifth largest. Sales rose from 7.4 million in 1986 to 43.2 million that year. Blockbuster continued its ambitious expansion program in 1988. In March, the company purchased Video Library Inc. Well, there's one for 6.4 million plus stock. The following month, Blockbuster made a deal with the United Cable Television Corporation to open 100 franchise stores over the next two and a half years. In addition, UCTC purchased 5% of Blockbuster stock for$12.25 million. By November, the stake had risen to 20%. With 200 stores, Blockbuster had become the largest video rental chain in the country. At the end of the year, the company's number of stores had risen to 415. I wonder if Dave Cook regretted selling it. I bet. I bet he had still had stock in it. Yeah, true. Typically that's the way it goes. Yeah. In January 1989, Blockbuster finalized its purchase of Las Vegas-based Major Video Inc., the country's fourth largest video rental chain for 92.5 million. That's a lot of money. True. It's a lot of money now. Yeah, for real. It also purchased Oklahoma Entertainment Inc. The following month brought the purchase of Hector Video Inc. and Video Super Stores Master Limited Partnership. That's a lot to say. Which, with 106 stores, had been Blockbuster's largest franchisee. In June 1989, two years after Hoosengaz takeover, the company ran 700 stores, sales had tripled, profits nearly quadrupled, and the value of the company's stock had risen sevenfold. All right. Despite these gains, in April 1989, Blockbuster's efforts to buy up other chains with stock suffered a setback when an analyst at a large stock brokerage issued a report condemning what he considered to be the company's misleading accounting practices. In calculating its earnings, Blockbuster spread out the cost of purchasing video chain store chains and buying new stores over a 40-year period and also spread out the cost of buying large numbers of hit tapes over three years, much longer than tapes retain their value. In addition, the company relied on one-time only franchise fees for 28% of its revenue. Despite this criticism, Blockbuster declined to change its accounting practices, and the company's stock price eventually regained its former level. Because people have very short memories. Indeed. In November 1989, Blockbuster's largest shareholder, the United Artist Entertainment Company, announced that it would sell its 12% holding in the company, having previously sold its 28 franchise Blockbuster stores in an effort to streamline its own business holdings. Worries that the video rental industry was reaching a saturation point cast doubts on Blockbuster's ability to keep opening stores indefinitely. Jokes on them.
SPEAKER_02:So I don't know if you're going to talk about this because I didn't read it, but um that's weird that it was UAE because I remember Blockbuster started carrying video games.
SPEAKER_04:Mm-hmm. Later.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It did.
SPEAKER_02:And well, isn't UAE a video game?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you're right. Uh one response to this concern was to look to markets outside the United States for growth. Accordingly, uh original investor John Melk was dispatched to start up a British subsidiary with the company's first foreign store to open in South London called The Ritz. Blockbuster's management continued to maintain that since the video superstore concept was open for anyone to copy, it needed to grab market share as fast as possible in order to exploit its groundbreaking concept. Carrying out the philosophy, the company opened its thousandth store before the end of 1989. That'll happen in like one year. I was gonna say that's they yeah, we went from like no blush blockbusters to all the blockbusters to increase business. Blockbuster embarked on a$25 million ad campaign and also undertook joint promotions with such fast fast food outlets as Domino Pizza and McDonald's.
SPEAKER_02:I remember the Domino's Pizza One.
SPEAKER_03:I do too. I don't remember the McDonald's one.
SPEAKER_02:You could get like a pizza and two movies or something for yep.
SPEAKER_03:In addition, in addition, the company accelerated foreign expansion, augmenting its operations in Britain and planning for operations in Australia and the rest of Western Europe. In the United States, the chain had opened its 1200th store by June 1990. New outlets opened at a rate of one per day. Wow. Yeah. In October 1990, Blockbuster announced plans to cooperate with Denfujita, the company that ran McDonald's franchises in Japan in the development and franchising of video rental stores in that country. The following month, Blockbuster made its largest acquisition to date when it acquired Airrolls, a video store chain with 200 outlets on the East Coast and in the Midwest for 30 million, including cash notes and debt assumptions.
SPEAKER_02:Not this part of the East Coast, because I never heard of that.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_02:Or square in the middle. Yes, we are. In case you don't know where Delaware is. Yes, smack in the middle.
SPEAKER_03:Although Blockbuster continued its strong pace of new store openings in 1990, this are the slowing growth of the video rental industry was becoming evident. I was thinking that as I was reading all this, I was like, all this buildup and all this stuff they're doing was quickly gonna. I hope people got rid of their stock in time.
SPEAKER_02:All because of a company that is still around today.
SPEAKER_03:And we're gonna get to that. The company's earnings grew an astronomical 114% in 1988. They contracted to still a still impressive 93% rate in the growth in 1989, followed by a rate of 48% in 1990. In keeping with this trend, first quarter financial results for 1999 were disappointing. Huzinga blamed the Gulf War for keeping people interested in television news instead of running videos. That doesn't sound right. In early May, because we still watched the news and watched videos. Um, in early May, Cox Communications, one of the company's franchisers, announced that it would sell all 82 of its Blockbuster stores. I think Cox is the um uh cable company out west, like I think in Arizona. Who is it? Um faced with a rapidly maturing industry, Blockbuster began to expand its offerings to mainstream profitability. The company began to offer video game equipment and Sega Genesis video games at some of its stores. The company considered selling audio cassettes and compact discs. Blockbuster also acquired the rights to market tapes of the 1992 Olympic Games. Exciting. In a further effort to encourage rentals, the company launched an advertising campaign themed Win in a Flash and made an agreement with the Showtime Cable Network for a joint promotion. In August 1991, Blockbuster dropped its rental prices for hit movies for the first three months after their release and shortened the time they were taken out as a further step to raise earnings. In an effort to ensure the company would be just as good at running video stores over the long haul as it was at opening them. Blockbuster hired more senior executives with long-term experience in the retail field. In addition to these efforts to increase earnings in the United States, Blockbuster increased its foreign efforts. Along with its operations in the United Kingdom and Japan, the company found markets in Europe, Australia, and Latin America. With 30 stores already established in Britain, Blockbuster announced in November 1991 a large expansion in the that country designed to make it the nation's number one rental chain. All right, so I feel like I've rambled on long enough about the comings and goings of Blockbuster, how it all got going. So we're just gonna jump ahead to the Blockbuster. All right, the early signs of trouble. Blockbuster's rise to the top of the entertainment industry was meteoric, but within weeks it faced a setback that nobody had expected. By the late 1990s, technology had begun to shift. DVDs had replaced VHS tapes, and the internet was spreading. Ultimately, the biggest challenge to Blockbuster's dominance came from a new and disruptive business model, online DVD rentals and digital streaming. We all knew who that is.
SPEAKER_02:They cost an arm and a leg now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they were awesome back then though.
SPEAKER_02:I never use it.
SPEAKER_03:Really? Nope.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh. You didn't get the little red envelopes in the mail? Oh man. And I delivered them up five years ago. We were still delivering them. When I started at the post office, we were still delivering Netflix. Oh. Yeah. The little red envelopes.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I'm getting ready to say three words. In 1997, Netflix is an online DVD rental company founded by Reed Hastings and Mark Rude Randolph. Uh Netflix offered a subscription option that let users order DVDs on the web and have them sent by post without penalty. This was a groundbreaking idea that had appealed to consumers, fed up with late fees, blockbuster charged, and having to visit a physical store. Despite this, Blockbuster did not immediately see Netflix as a threat, which is crazy. Perhaps most importantly, for the downfall of Blockbuster, they rejected buying Netflix. Back in 2000, Reed Hastings approached Blockbuster and arranged for Netflix to be sold for$50 million.$50 million. Bam. At that time, Blockbuster leaders reportedly laughed at the idea, seeing Netflix as a niche business service that could not compete with their brick and mortar empire. Oops. As Netflix was expanding and maturing, Blockbuster stuck to its physical stores and traditional rent-to-own model, where Netflix worked on the customer experience and the potential of digital streaming. Blockbuster failed to innovate. Users were leaving the medium of media in favor of digital streaming services. Netflix was originally a DVD rental company, but started online streaming in 2007, and viewers could watch movies and TV shows using their computers or other devices. So that goes back to 2000.
SPEAKER_02:Like I don't know. Has there ever been a 20, like a quarter of a century that has been so quickly advanced? Yeah, like just like boom, boom, boom. Like just I mean, we went in 2000. I mean, we had cell phones, but you could barely use them. And you know, I mean, you had a person, people had computers, but um they were big and bulky and they cost an arm and a leg.
SPEAKER_03:You had to plug it into the phone line and it took forever to reconnect.
SPEAKER_02:You know, the internet was slow, and I just I can't imagine like a 25-year period. And I'm sure I'm not a history history buffer.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe when electricity maybe, maybe, but I don't really know a lot about we have gone light years from twin 2000. It's technology, it's insane. And now you have an AI best friend. And now I have an AI best friend. Who would have thought in 2000?
SPEAKER_02:Not me. I don't care for the robot revolution, but I do have a Roomba and I do like the AI.
SPEAKER_03:So uh Blockbuster was not quick to catch up with this transaction or transition. In 2004, they even started their own online rental platform, but that was a very late and unproven attempt to compete with Netflix. It was not as easy or appealing as Netflix, and Blockbuster continued to insist on its brick and mortar outlets that were getting outdated. Blockbuster in 2007 offered Total Access, a program by which consumers could rent movies online and bring them back to physical stores. The idea sounded promising, but it was too little too late. Blockbuster was already losing market share to Netflix, which was gaining popularity thanks to its growing library of downloadable shows and its innovative recommendation algorithm. Blockbuster's problems were only made worse by the 2008 global financial crisis. Customers were cutting back on discretionary spending, and with affordable digital stream streaming, consumers were not making a push for hard copies. Blockbuster's branches were expensive to run, and the company's dependence on late fees, its biggest source of revenue, became a liability. By 2010, Blockbuster had accumulated more than one billion dollars in debt. Wow. Yeah. The company was forced to close hundreds of stores in the pursuit of saving money, which alienated its customers. In September 2010, Blockbuster declared bankruptcy, marking the beginning of the end for the once-dominating movie Rental Giant. In 2011, Blockbuster sold in a bankruptcy auction to Dish Network for$320 million. Originally, Dish Network planned to leverage Blockbuster's brand and footprint to establish a streaming channel that would challenge Netflix, but those effects never gained traction. The remaining Blockbuster shops continued to close, and in 2014, nearly all of them had shut down. And today there is only one Blockbuster remaining, and it is in Bend, Oregon. West Coast. West site. West site. The site has become an old-fashioned emblem of the past, attracting visitors who remember the days of browsing movie aisles and renting videotapes. While streaming services have changed the way we consume content, the nostalgia of visiting a video rental store in the 1980s will always hold a special place in the hearts of those who grew up in that era. The thrill of browsing the shelves, the anticipation of watching a new release, and the shared experiences created in these stores are memories that will last a lifetime.
SPEAKER_01:Last a lifetime. And that's that's lovely. Blockbuster.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. When I first I first I was just gonna do Blockbuster, and I was like, uh, that'll be boring. But there was actually a lot about Blockbuster. There was that was a lot about Blockbuster, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Who knew? It went through a lot and Netflix ran uh 50 million dollars. They could have bought it.
SPEAKER_02:Imagine some of this I'll tell you. Sometimes you know how they always say if you could go back in time I I 100% would go back in time and buy some Amazon. Oh, for sure. Or Google. Mm-hmm. Because I mean I don't know. I just I I I had a huge mistake in my I remember. Yeah. In my stock marketing at the time.
SPEAKER_03:I mean you put it to good use. You had the best of intentions, but you just didn't realize they made money off of it.
SPEAKER_02:I just you did, and you used it to purchase your first home. My life would be a whole lot different right now had I listened to my own self. Yeah. Well anyway. And I speaking of Amazon, I mean I I if you go back, you can look and see how far back you used Amazon, and there are from like I have books on there from like the earliest days of Amazon. In fact, I do believe, if I can remember correctly, the one of the first things, it's either the first or second thing I ever bought from Amazon is what to expect when you're expecting for me for you for your first.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's all they used to sell, right?
SPEAKER_02:It was books books and CDs.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and then they start with the Kindle.
SPEAKER_02:That was way later than they started with. I don't know what they came with next. Um, but I know it just started out as books and and music. Yeah, crazy, so crazy. Yeah, those were the days. Yeah, anyway, yeah. That was nice. Thanks. Video. Mm-hmm. Yeah, video killed the radio star. It did.
SPEAKER_03:And then Netflix killed the videos.
SPEAKER_02:I know. I just it's so weird. Like I said, like just the last 25 years have been a wild fucking ride.
SPEAKER_03:They really have. And and doesn't it it freaks me out to think about like 25 years from now? What are things gonna look like? I know. I mean, we really might be have flying cars and shit by then.
SPEAKER_02:I won't. I'll be dead. Shut up. Um, I'm not gonna be fucking 75 years old. Anyway, look, so I was watching a TikTok the other day, and I had my little atheist mind blown. Don't worry, I'm not believing in God.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, goddamn.
SPEAKER_02:Just calm down. Um not that not that but hey, just listen one minute. Okay, just hear me out. So one of the tick it's it is an actual thing, and I forget what it was called because I didn't write it down. But it is a thing where it's and you don't actually die, you just move timelines. So and like if you suddenly wake up like you were really sick, and then you wake up and you and you're all better suddenly, you died and you move to a new timeline. Like whenever you die, you just move to another.
SPEAKER_03:I could get down with that.
SPEAKER_02:I could get down with that too. Yeah, like that.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I'm pretty sure Einstein talked about shit like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I forget what the fuck it was called, but um Yeah, it was like wow, really yeah, that uh maybe yeah, that's crazy, right? So that's what I've decided that I'm gonna start looking into now.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, that's your new religion.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I hope that the next one is better than this one.
SPEAKER_03:I'm just gonna continue to believe uh turn into dirt. I'll be a video of decayed body with one of your weird websites. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um yeah, I I don't know. Like, cause I thought about it with I was telling like I was telling my sister, like, think about it. My mom one day went to sleep because she had a little bump on the noggin. And then the next day, she was in a rehab and had no recollection of the past six, nine months, something like that. Like she thought the accident was in March, she didn't remember anything past December, Christmas that year. So who knows?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I mean, all that we know about space and time is what our little brains, our little human brains know. I mean, I was listening to something the other day where our time's all fucked up anyway. Like for an actual leap year, we would need to make up a day. I don't know. It was somebody explaining the breakdown of time, and it's like it's I forget, I do know. But time is what we made up, like that's human-made. We decided what time was gonna look like. The Mayans thought we were all gonna be dead like 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. It's called the Pac-Man Theory. I had to take another break and look it up because it was called the Pac-Man Theory, and basically it's the same thing as like the Pac-Man game when Pac-Man goes off one side and then reappears at a different position in the same game. Yes. And I made her watch the video. Yes, and you should all watch it now because yep. Yep. That's what I'm going with. So back to this timeline.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I could have just we just heard some really loud noise. So we might be.
SPEAKER_03:We did, so we might be, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to our new reality.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we're glad you were here for it.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks for following us. Um, but thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Like, share, rate, review. Please. Find us where you listen to podcasts. Please. In this timeline or any other. Follow us on all the socials at like whatever pod. Send us an email about what consciousness you're in at the likewhateverpod at gmail.com or don't like whatever. Whatever. Bye.
