This memory of renting a video on Friday nights will take you right back to the VHS glory days
Kids today with their multiple streaming options will never know the magic of going to your local video store on a weekend night to rent a blockbuster you hope they’ll have in stock or just to take a punt on an unknown movie simply because you liked the cool VHS cover art.
It’s a memory so evocatively conjured by the @SoVeryBritish Twitter/X account this week.
Shoutout to everyone who remembers going to the video shop on a Friday night to rent a VHS tape. You’d take the empty box of the popular new film up to the counter and they’d shock you by saying all the copies were out. “Well why is this box on the shelf then?” Then you’d end up…
— VeryBritishProblems (@SoVeryBritish) November 15, 2024
And people of, ahem, a certain age (y’know, us old people) are enjoying the trip down memory lane.
1.
Was about 1982, family went to Cardiff to buy our 1st VCR, I was about 9. We trooped down to the local video shop, independent of course no chains in those days.
We got a lovely family film about rabbits called Watership Down.
My brother was 4 -not sure he’s over the trauma yet.— Ashur (@AshurTrades) November 15, 2024
2.
Renting something based on an epic trailer… only to discover the best scenes were the trailer.
— Jim Osman (@EdgeCGroup) November 15, 2024
3.
or get home to find a totally different film in the box!
— VickiJ (@VickijEth) November 15, 2024
4.
Eliminators springs to mind. Many kids – myself included – saw this in the video shop in the 1980s and assumed it must be the greatest fillum ever made because look it! A ninja AND a mandroid, you say? Get in! And then we watched it and it was a great big pile of shit. https://t.co/2Ot653D54x pic.twitter.com/bc9pKeXQvZ
— Napoleon (@moanaparte) November 16, 2024
5.
I’m glad I lived through those times. My kids don’t even understand that when I try to explain it to them. Hanging by the return bin just in case someone dropped the movie back & ending up with the Goonies (love that film though) https://t.co/Xs3re5n5EM
— Barry Lewis (@MrBarryLewis) November 15, 2024
6.
I just smelled this memory. Every rental place I’ve ever stepped into had the same smell.
— jslabar (@jslabar) November 15, 2024
7.
We had a man in a van who used to travel around with all the latest films. My parents used to rent 2 for a week. One for them and one for me and my siblings
— TheTruthOrNotTheTruth? (@or_not26265) November 16, 2024
8.
Forget to rewind or return the tape? Boom. Your weekend fun turned into a Monday penalty.
— Jim Osman (@EdgeCGroup) November 15, 2024
9.
Absolutely, hearing “Sorry, they’re all rented out” was one of life’s first great disappointments.
— AB (@realminimalist) November 15, 2024
10.
In the US, VCRs when they first came out were very expensive, so video stores rented the machines as well as the tapes.
— Jane Nightshade, Writer (@JaneNightshade) November 16, 2024
11.
I remember that AND the van that would come around.
Only in Wales!?
— Ceri Angel (@Ceri_Angel) November 15, 2024