Anyone else miss mom and pop video stores?
 

Just got to thinking tonight how much I missed the old mom-n-pop video stores we used to have in this town and the town over.There were such amazing collections of older,hard-to-find, and rare films in those places.The giant rows of eclectic almalgamations of horror,drama,comedy,westerns,action.I miss even the smells from those places.Much more comforting and accepting than the sterile atmosphere of the major chains.Once Blockbuster moved in all the local stores shut down within a year, two tops.Then Movie Gallery moved in and chased out the remaining stragglers.I used to spend every weekend with my best friend perusing the old horror aisle and picking up a half dozen movies we had never seen to entertain us for the weekend.Stumbled onto such gems as Evil Dead, Phantasm, Night of the Demons, so many more that had us up all weekend with glazed eyes.Usually followed by a case of soda and some snacks at the local grocery store to chase down the flicks.Kind of got nostalgic tonight looking at my remaining vhs tapes I have in my collection and seeing the stickers from the stores that closed down.Those places have all but disappeared it seems now.I actually am honest when I say I boycotted those dang franchise conglomorates that raided our area.I hate going into Blockbuster and the like.Same crap on all the shelves and RARELY is there anything non-mainstream,and older.Plus it was nice to rent places where they knew you and you knew them.You knew the money helped the community as well.Same thing as the arcades I guess.So many great memories growing up in those places.Ah hell this has went on long enough, just thought I'd rant a little and see if any of the rest of you pine for the old days of hole in the wall video shacks.

I miss them too but luckily our Hollywood has been buying them out and adding the VHS to their invetory for $2 rentals.

The amount of old classics I have found just makes me wish that those mom and pop video stores still existed! You gotta wonder how many treasures were sold off when the stores closed or were simply thrown in the garbage

Yeah that's one of the major things to me.I built up a collection of around 400-600 original video tapes I bought mainly from mom and pop video stores, and flea markets.They always purged tons of olders titles and HTF cartoons on vhs routinely.I did some work for a guy that bought out one of the local video stores in town years ago.He gave me the option of cash or video tapes.I chose video tapes lol.I got to go through the entire video store's collection and take what I wanted. I left that day with my front/back sets full of vhs tapes.Lots of rare horror.

Hollywood Video just opened a few blocks down :) I m currently transfering Harry & The Hendersons lol Love that movie . Flea market is, no joke, behind Hollywood video lol I go there mainly to look for out of print Vhs. The other video store used to carry a great collection of 80's toons and movies. Which pepe has some of ;)[88] The cases & tapes were always in great shape .

Sun video purchased the remaining of their Vhs inventory . It's too far to walk to though [(#)]

I agree the smaller video stores are great for older releases. Just move to a small town weevil [:p][88]

cp I live in the smallest town.Population of a hair over 1000 people lol!

We still have 2 or 3 in our area. Most are family owned businesses, one of the two that I know of is way out on the far side of the county and have no competition, therefore they can get business from the people who don't want to drive so far for a movie.

CP let me know when you get that transferred, I would be interested in that....one of my sisters favorite movies.

I have harry and the hendersons on dvd already.

Now he tells me [:0] Gee, thanks weevil [}:)] Had I known. I wouldnt have rented it ;)....Men [88]

lol sorry, you never asked.If you want I'll throw it in there with Brimstone which I finally planned to mail you this week.

lol you know I miss 'em since my parents owned one of 'em!

I'd like harry and the hendersons, I have a good quality divx file.. but thats it.

Near me, there are video game stores owned by one family. They take anyting for store credit so people just trade in their old vhs tapes, cds games, etc. All throughout the store there are tons of vhs tapes. They have some rare stuff too. Like bearstein bears volumes, power rangers, a couple of charlie browns. Lots of looney toons. They even have a TMNT live concert. They have tons of movies and cartoons that weren't released on dvd. Tapes are 3.00 a piece. Sometimes they give deals like 2 for 5.00

If you are in the springfield massachusetts area, I suggest you check out Video Game Hunters

There is still a place in Dallas called "Premiere Video" and they refuse to sell or clean out their video stock. In fact, they are very aggressive in getting videos returned, and they won't even let you check one out unless they have 3 forms of ID and can prove residence by telephone. They have a huge inventory of VHS, almost no DVDs whatsoever (just foreign discs, for the most part).

The store is always filled with people!

I rented a number of things there in years past, such as the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles releases.