Remember how good BlockBuster was?

[EBHughsThe1st]

Blockbuster used to be awesome. They had the hottest Nintendo 64 games and every Friday I would rent one to go home, upstairs into the gameroom to play for hours on end. Then they took away late fees, which was awesome. Then they started having less and less games, which was not awesome. Then they reinstated late fees without telling, and it sucked. Now it's a 99 cent rental store that's slowly going down hill.

Remember how good it was before all of this?

 

[Neverhoodian]

Meh, I learned not to trust that company long ago.

The whole reason why they started that whole "no late fees" deal was an attempt to improve their image after a major lawsuit. Long story short, they were overcharging their customers, and their interpretations of "late" were questionable at best. I should know, My family was one of their victims. When my parents returned some N64 games on time, they still demanded a late fee. They lied through their teeth and told us that we should have returned the games before midnight the night before.

My parents went ahead and paid the fee just to put the whole business behind us, but all of us decided then and there to boycott Blockbuster. They can rot in hell for all I care.

 

[Vern]

Well, to be fair Blockbuster charged me a 6 dollar extra rental fee for a game when I returned it 12 hours late. To be fair, I was late and also caught in a blizzard and the interstate and highways were shut down, however the extra 6 dollar rental fee should've meant I could keep the game for an extra 5 days, that didn't happen. The main problem I had with Blockbuster is that they only stock films from the last 20 years, or films deemed classic by the Academy Awards. I can never find anything I want there. But I do have fond memories of going there as a wee lad and renting Chrono Trigger and Judge Dredd, and now sadly those two things are linked in my mind forever.

 

[Neverhoodian]

....The above poster seriously needs to reconsider his world views. That was a single employee earning a quick buck, doesn't mean the whole corporation is evil because of it.

It wasn't just us. They were doing this all over the country. Nearly all of our friends told us similar stories. It wasn't the greedy whim of one man, it was their corporate policy.

This was back in 1998 mind you. I'm sure they don't do this anymore (they had to pay millions to settle the suit against them), but I just can't bring myself to go back and support them again.

 

[EmzOLV]

I used to love going to Blockbuster. Especially when I was little and it was Ritz instead... I remember they had a reaaaally teeny weeny shop where I lived and each section was really small, the childrens VHS were all in this little cupboard like area and I would go in every week with my mum to pick something and I would pick the same VHS over and over. No idea why.

But more and more recently I've just been getting into Lovefilm, I guess I found it more convenient.

 

[Jonny1188]

I only have fond memories before I had a concept of money. As soon as I realized a 3-day rental cost $8 or some such nonsense, I stopped renting. Thank God for Netflix, rot in hell Blockbuster!

 

[Calo Nord]

I still go to Blockbuster occasionally for DVDs. Not like when i was alot younger though, back in the good old VHS days where there was a half-price deal thing on Saturdays where you could rent a stack of five or so tapes for a much cheaper price. Good times.

Over time though they seem to have become more demanding, like how new release video games now have three options for which you can purchase them which is something like this:

1 Night = $5.00
3 Nights = $7.00
7 Nights = $15.00

I generally just don't like how they do things now, assuming each store is relatively the same especially internationally.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

I've never rented games, from anywhere.

I remember my parents renting a movie once or twice from Blockbuster, when I was a kid -
then they just stopped. Said they couldn't be bothered and it was too expensive.
We didn't really go to the movies either. Every so often we would.
We were content to wait for whatever came on t.v.

It didn't really affect me. Except when I got older, I realized I hadn't seen all the movies everyone else had.

Only recently, within the last month, have I decided on getting Netflix.

I've watched so many movies within the last two weeks. I thought my eyes were going to melt out of their sockets.
My movie queue is also perpetually full.

 

[Okuu_Fusion]

I have fond memories of the place... Going there every Friday with my family and renting movies and games... Also bad memories, I remember how disappointed I was going there to rent my first game for the SNES... Being only 5 I think, I didn't know the SNES wasn't backwards compatible... Also thanks to Blockbuster, I discovered Neon Genesis Evangelion...

I stopped going when I realized they were ripping me off... there were at least 3 other video rental stores that rented out there goods for way cheaper...

 

[spartan1077]

I used to love Blockbuster and was amazed when they had the no late fees. But then I found a sign that says they had them back(it was kind've a depressing read) and now they have 0 games that are useful. They do however have a "$30 dollars a month and rent unlimited games" but it just seems useless if they don't have any of the good games. Now it's Roger's Video or Internet for me.

EDIT: Last game I rented was Halo: Reach because I didn't have enough to buy it but I wanted to play with some friends. My friends told me to replace the Reach disc with Halo 3 and then bring it back...but I didn't :/

 

[EllEzDee]

They replaced ours with a Papa Johns. That's how bad it was.

 

[ace_the_poet]

They replaced ours with a Papa Johns. That's how bad it was.

I find that VERY funny. Blockbuster occasionally has good deals on used games. That's the only time I frequent them.

 

[SturmDolch]

I remember a video rental place called "Video Update" near my house. You could rent classic movies for 25 cents. That's how I was introduced to Indiana Jones and multiple other movies.

Then along comes big bad Blockbuster. They open shop a couple of doors down, and even though their prices are ridiculous, they sap away all of Video Update's business. It closes in a couple of months.

At least they got rid of late fees after a while, which essentially meant I could keep a game for 30 days.

I rented a few times from them. Sometimes, I would get that "3 for 2" deal or whatever it was. Every time, one of the games would be scratched up. I remember I had to return twice in one day and the employees thought I just didn't like the game, which wasn't true at all. I bought a used game once, too, but it wouldn't even start on my Gamecube. I got to bring that back, too.