The Video Store Allure

Ahhh, Merchant Square Video.

If you were into horror movies in the 80s or early 90s you almost definitely had a mom and pops independently owned video store that you frequented. Merchant Square was mine.

So many memories of the place and of all the sweet, sweet horror contained within. Merchant Square Video, located on the outskirts of Warwick, NY, was the video store that helped to fill my young head with all sorts of horror movie imagery and viewings. It was a medium sized video store on the tail end of a very 80s outdoor strip mall (the road it was on was even named Ronald Reagan Blvd.) consisting of about 10 other shops. The horror selection was big for the size of the store. This wasn’t really abnormal, as horror was a HUGE market for the VHS industry and literally hundreds of small time video production companies spewed out tapes for retailers and rental services to distribute. It was the initial golden age of horror distribution and it was the first time that horror lovers could easily and accessibly get their hands on more horror movies than they had previously ever dreamed of. Yes, I know beta and laser discs were around first, and some argue are the superior format when comparing different points, but VHS was king in terms of accessibility.

Now with the online ordering, on demand titles, torrent downloads, Redbox, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and a slew of other services and methods of making even really obscure horror movies come directly to you quickly and from little to no money in many situations, all of those old video stores are outdated and have been eliminated from the way we obtain movies in all but a very slim number of cases. Of course, the access that we have to horror movies now is better and this is a great thing… but to everyone who was around for the mom and pops days there’s a common truth that’s spoken of those yesteryears:

We lost something and we fucking KNOW it.

Yup, it’s gonna be that rant if you haven’t already guessed it. The “in MY day we used to walk to the video store, FILM a movie, walk back with it while pushing a hoop up the hill with a stick and watch it on a tin can, and it was GREAT” rant. Last chance to stop reading.

Truth of the matter is, I was on the tail end of the mom and pops video store days. I’m 32, was born in 1982. My days of truly independently owned video store going were from about 1989 to about 1996 I estimate, and I was on the young side, about 7 to 14 years old. Sure, they were still prevalent into the late 90s and there were a semi-decent number still around in the early 2000s, but by those years there were more bigger chain places and huge Blockbuster corporate stores than anything else – and they were dealing with DVDS of course (but that’ll be a different blog). Anyway, those weren’t always necessarily bad, but they lacked the same simple charm in some ways.

The local video store from my youth was in this plaza... not so much anymore

Now, youth has a way of obscuring vision and the way things “really were” a lot of the time. EVERYTHING was better when you were a kid because everything was new and awesome and you didn’t have to do shit besides sit back and enjoy the finer things in life with about zero responsibility. Fine, very true, I acknowledge that. However, there are certain truths that I feel resonate through the veil of childhood for me when it comes to these old-school video store days.

I mean hey, we weren’t all 7 – 14 in those years and I know a number of other people who feel the same way. Are we all just pining for youth and how things used to be? Maybe.

Am I just some hipster retro throwback guy who digs things because they’re retro and retro is in? Nay sir, afraid I’m not cool enough for keeping up with trends.

Am I just an old soul that is more akin to years gone by? Incredibly likely. I smoke a tobacco pipe, love skeet shooting, fishing, and drinking tea and wearing a bathrobe at night, amongst other “old white man” activities – or maybe that just makes me some odd nerdy hillbilly sea captain combination… I’m not quite sure, but regardless…

Things we lost and we fucking KNOW it:

1) Physical format – There’s something about having something physical in your hand as opposed to just pushing a button and having a digital version of it pop up. Half of what was so cool about and intrigued so many of us to check out a bunch of those 80s horror movies to begin with were the incredible hand drawn graphic covers. Shit, half the time they had nothing to do with the damn movie, but it left long lasting impressions and set a mood. Not only are the original covers usually not represented on the digital formats we get now (if there are any), but the act of being in the store and flipping over all those boxes one by one while your discovered them made you feel like you had something more tangible.

2) Destination - I actually LIKED going for a ride to the video store. It wasn’t a task for me as much as a destination that was part of the movie watching experience. It was a process and it added to the experience for me. Plus, they had snacks and other trinkets you could indulge with if you wanted to. Watching a movie wasn’t just sitting on the couch. It was an activity… and then sitting on the couch.

3) Connection – Ok, I’ll admit, this one was a half and half for me. There are plenty of times where I don’t want to have to talk to or look at anyone and just want to watch a movie, but it WAS really cool that you could bump into some guy looking at a movie you really like and be like “Hey man, that one was great” and maybe get some of their suggestions too. Maybe check out the staff picks for that one dude who always favored the most sinister horror flicks. Chatrooms and online groups are great, but those random encounters and bits of info you would pick up at the store really made you feel like you were privy to some exclusive info that you would then likely pass on by word of mouth to someone else. It felt more special. Plus you were less likely to end up being called a “n00b”, “homo” or a long list of racial slurs because you said you liked a movie they didn’t… That would just be fucked up... All might not be lost here. It seems some businesses have paid attention to the increased disconnect the internet age has created in film watching and ushered in a new wave of the swing back to the community gathering of the video store http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/15/film-camp-and-party-supplies-how-local-video-stores-are-scrambling-to-survive/. Some even claim they’re still far superior to modern offerings in this way amongst others http://www.citylab.com/design/2012/11/meet-independent-video-stores-making-it-age-netflix/3775/

All in all, now is a great time to be alive in terms of horror movie distribution and I order and watch movies via modern methods all the time. We just get a little spoiled. It’s great to have a million choices, but it’s kind of a shame when some things get so automated and easily accessible that they can cause the overall experience outside of the movies themselves to feel kind of washed out when comparing to some of the simpler, more manual rituals that made the experiences of the past richer. Of course, if you’re under 27 you have no idea what I’m talking about, and that’s okay too. I’ll just always remember those great days of Merchant Square Video quite fondly.

Now where the hell are my pipe and slippers?...