[Dig1t]

I grew up in the 90's and have nothing but warm fuzzy memories of renting a movie on Friday night and watching in the living room with my family, eating popcorn and candy.

I think there's probably a lot of people who have that from their childhood.

[TedDoesntTalk]

Parent is referencing how Blockbuster put all the local video stores out of business, like Walmart and Main Street America.

It happened with record stores, too, via Tower Records and other national chains I can’t remember now

[JackFr]

Good record stores outlasted Tower Records. What failed were record stores which were basically Tower records, only watered down weaker versions.

[pessimizer]

Good bookstores didn't outlast Borders/Barnes & Noble/Books-a-Million etc. (or at least 90% of them didn't.) It was really annoying when people were mourning the destruction of 15 year old book warehouses by Amazon, when I was still mourning 100 year old bookstores.

[MomoXenosaga]

I don't go to bookshops anymore. Books are just a commodity now, they push the latest product for a few weeks and move on the next. It is all part of the hype machine. After a month or so it's like the book never existed at all- it had it's five minutes of fame.

[js2]

On the other side of the counter, my wife (girlfriend at the time) worked at BB in HS. Even by minimum wage, teen job, retail standards it was awful. She loathed it. I'll bet if I even just say the word "blockbuster" to her three decades later she'll give me a stink eye.

[corrral]

That part was great. Getting charged late fees because you didn't have it back at 8:00AM sharp (or whatever) sucked.

[hinkley]

They also had quite a markup on those snacks. Not movie theater levels, but a lot higher than the convenience store.

[nend]

I don't really view that as evil though, just basic market dynamics.

Similarly, CVS sells cheerios for $7 a box. I don't think CVS is evil, sometimes I'm just lazy.

[chihuahua]

I totally agree with you, but there are people who refuse to see it that way. If there was an ice cream cart at the bottom of the Grand Canyon selling a scoop of ice cream for $10, some people would be outraged. Never mind that it's a remote location, it's very difficult to supply ice cream there, it's incredibly convenient to be able to buy ice cream there, etc.

For Blockbuster selling snacks, no one is under any pressure to buy snacks there. If you're really pressed for time or don't want to drive to another store for snacks, then maybe the ludicrously high price is worth it. If it's not worth it to you at that moment, then don't buy there.

It's only bad if there's a monopoly or some other form of coercion involved, which is clearly not the case for Blockbuster selling snacks. And yet, to some people, it proves that Blockbuster is the devil...

[hinkley]

Convenience stores also generally have a markup versus grocery stores. That they had a markup above that was always a bit questionable. My recollection is that over time they switched to some more niche candies, things you couldn't necessarily find down the street and so the apples-to-oranges problem gave them a bit of an excuse.

[altdataseller]

Same, Growing up in the US, I also have warm memories of TGIF, where we'd watch Family Matters together as a family on Friday night.

[solardev]

Wait, did TGIF go away too?! :(

Lol, I grew up overseas and TGIF was where we'd go to celebrate "American style" as a family, like on the 4th of July or whatever. First time I ever had potato skins. Didn't even know that was considered an edible food source until that day. Blew my mind as a kid.

[fetus8]

Poster above you is talking about a block of TV programming called TGIF as well.

The fast casual restaurant chain still exists, and is definitely still cartoonishly embellished with Americana, and surprisingly decent food for what it is.

[curlftpfs]

Still, not once has the United Nations passed a resolution to fund the building of TGI Fridays franchises in South Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly everyone lacks access to warm, inviting restaurants with vibrant Americana-themed decor [1] https://www.theonion.com/tgi-fridays-is-a-human-right-182535...

[solardev]

Lol! They jest, but TGIF was literally my main reference for "America" before I visited for the first time. They do a better job propagandizing than VoA for sure.

[TGIF]

They had a TGI Fridays on the US military bases in Afghanistan.

[solardev]

Ahhh, thanks for the clarification. I'm glad the restaurant is still around.

[LeifCarrotson]

I did as well. While helping set up my parents (now Grandma and Grandpa) on our Disney+ and Netflix plans, we discussed the demise of Blockbuster.

As it turns out, they did a really good job of insulating us as kids from the backup plans for broken VHS tapes, late fees, mis-boxed movies, returns that were accepted but never registered, out-of-stock hit movies, and other 'adult' problems. Their memories of movie nights did not have quite the same golden hue, but they were happy that they'd fostered that kind of memory in spite of the stresses of parenting.