Adventures of a former Blockbuster employee

By: Joe Stumpo

Posted: 11/9/09

"The times they are a-changin'."

Such was the line from that famous Bob Dylan song. When it comes to the variety of options consumers now have to rent movies, the times really are a changin', especially for Dallas-based Blockbuster Video.

If the video retailer's announcement Sept. 15 that it may close as many as 960 of the more than 4300 stores Blockbuster operates in the country as a result of continuing low profits and the massive beating from competitive rivals Netflix, Inc. and Redbox is any indication, it looks like "the Buster" is well on its way to becoming a dinosaur.

Of course, it wasn't always like this.

Working for "the Buster" from 1988 to 1996, I can't tell you how many times I heard
the comment that Blockbuster's days of being one of the top video store chains, were numbered thanks to upcoming technology that would make renting movies easier.

What amazed me was every time someone made such a comment, the Blockbuster CEOs and executives managed to prove the naysayers wrong.

I equate working for Blockbuster those eight years to being a member of a successful, long-running sitcom. I looked at Blockbuster like working at a popular bar, like "Cheers."

At the Town East Blvd. Location, where I worked, which is no longer there, we had our regular customers who were the equivalent of Norm Peterson, Cliff Claven, and Frasier Crane. You can almost set your watch as to when they'd show up. If they didn't, you knew something was up. They'd gather at the front door at 9:45 a.m. every morning, especially Fridays and Saturdays. Their lives depended on them getting their hands on that copy of Die Hard or Bull Durham from 1988 or that only copy of Millennium (1989) the company stupidly ordered when demand for lousy box office flops was always high.

One customer named Howard had rented over 3,000 movies. When he passed away unexpectedly, the priest at the funeral said the one question Howard will ask St. Peter as he passes through the pearly gates, "Where is the nearest Blockbuster?"

When the company was big on protecting children by shooting identity videos of them, one customer had one of the employees set up the camera to propose to his girlfriend.
She said yes.

In addition to the Norm Petersons, there was even a Carla Tortelli behind the counter, who didn't get off on being chained to the front register for eight hours checking out customers. She referred to customers as cattle and it was her responsibility to get the herds out the door by any means necessary. Customer service was not high on her list.

When customers weren't at the front door waiting to be let in, they would hang around at the drop boxes, whether they were inside or outside. Sometimes they'd bother other renters near the outside drop box, asking them what movies they were returning. Instead of serving drinks, the clerks were serving movies.

The last time I was inside a Blockbuster Video was last summer and that was to return some late DVDs I had sitting in the car for a couple weeks. I didn't pay the late fee either. Sure, there are several movies I'd like to see that I missed at the box office this year, such as Defiance, He's Just Not That Into You, or Revolutionary Road.

What do I need Blockbuster for when I've got a wireless Internet/cable service provider and can just order the titles from them off their Video-On-Demand stations, record them on DVR and watch them later?

Or if I want, I can just drive to the local Walmart and get the titles from their Redbox machine. Walmart is now the new Blockbuster. With such websites as YouTube, Hulu, and IMDB making older movies and television shows available for download off the net, all one needs is just to open up an account. Since they show R-rated movies at no cost, who needs Blockbuster?

I predict the day will come when that video store I referred to as the place "where everybody knows your name" will play out a scene similar to the one in the last episode of "Cheers." Except in this case, the store will never reopen.

Instead of a patron at the front door wanting a drink, I can easily picture a customer after closing time wanting to check out a movie and like Ted Danson's bar owner, Sam Malone, the video store manager will come out of his office for the very last time to say, "Sorry. We're closed."