If you were a child in the 90's or earlier you probably went to the video store to pick out a movie to watch on the weekend or for your families movie night. I distinctly remember going to the video store almost every week I was at my mom's to pick something up for Saturday night viewing pleasure.
The video store became a safe haven for my childhood and it has been a place i look back on often. It had it's own unique atmosphere and it's own smell especially back when they were filled with VHS tapes instead of DVDs and Blu-rays. An important institution of the weekend and of the family.
Sadly it has all but disappeared.
At Blockbuster's peak in 2004 it had over 9,000 stores across the United States. At Movie Gallery's peak it operated around 4,700 stores. Both, along with smaller chain stores, made up the video store landscape.
Where did it all go wrong?
Three things: Netflix, Redbox, and Lease agreements.
Being more convenient for customers putting the movies directly into their mailbox then right onto their screens with streaming service in the case of Netflix and getting rid of the need to interact with a associate or actually walk the aisles in the case of Redbox, made it hard for Blockbuster to compete.
But what do Lease agreements have to do with it?
There is a third video store that I visited as a child called Family Video. It has existed since 1974 and is eleven years older than Movie Gallery and Blockbuster both opening in 1985.
Family Video however did not disappear like the other two power houses. They still exist in the Midwest from Michigan to Kentucky and there is one not five minutes from my old house.
How did it survive while the others went under? The big reason is like I've stated above, Lease agreements.
Unlike Blockbuster, Family Video owns all of it's buildings, they don't lease them. When Netflix started to steal the market share from Blockbuster the lease holders started to pull the leases from the company forcing them to close some of their stores. That coupled with not being able to sustain their many stores and compete with Netflix, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010.
They were then bought out by Dish Network who then closed all remaining stores, save a handful.
Family Video, being family owned and operated and franchised since 1974 is not subjected to such strife. They don't have leases and they now they don't really have any competition for that, what some would say, antiquated market.
Their business model also has them teaming up with Pizza restaurants such as Marco's Pizza, giving the restaurant part of the building, effectively turning it into a Video/Pizza Hybrid store. (Which by the way was an idea I had ten years ago but thought it'd be stupid now a days)
So coupled with the convenience of Netflix, not being able to compete with online services, and having the rug pulled out from under them, Blockbuster and other's like them fell to the way side.
I can only hope that Video Stores become enough of a retro novelty that they come back like Vinyls have in music or how fashion trends shift back to the past.
As always.
Keep reading. Keep learning.
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