Ahhhh remember the good old days of heading to the video store, especially Blockbuster, and renting a video or two - or three - for a laid back date night, or a cozy night in with just you and a movie? I personally have so many memories, but my favorite, and one my husband and I talk about until this day, was when we had a fluke gift card that kept giving us free movies.
We saw that our local Mazda dealership was giving away Blockbuster gift cards if you test drove one of their cars. And since we had just purchased from them, we thought it would be fun to head over and do the test drive. Anyway, we received our gift card, BUT this wasn't just any card, it wound up being the gift that kept on giving! It was supposed to be a value of 5 free rentals, but every time we gave the card to the cashier, we weren't charged!
EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.
Most weekends we would rent two movies, sometimes three movies at a time, and then at checkout when we went to pay, they would say - NO CHARGE. Needless to say, we always had a great laugh, but the best part is, it's now a fond memory that we will never forget.
On a side note, I met my husband while I was working at a video store, ABC Video in Galloway, so this type of date night was kinda our thing.
Fast forward (see what I did there) to today, and apparently Blockbuster has recently reactivated their website, and there have been some cryptic messages on the landing page including "Be Kind While We Rewind" and "We Are Working on Rewinding Your Movie"! So what does this mean????
Blockbuster stores went out of business in 2014, except for one location in Bend, Oregon known as "The Last Blockbuster on the Planet" which became the last remaining Blockbuster in the United States, and in March 2019, the last in the world.
However now with all of these cryptic messages, who knows what the future holds. In fact just a couple of weeks ago, the official Twitter account for the brand tweeted "New business idea: We're going to come back as a bank and use VHS and DVDs as currency. Time to go visit your mom."
If you get a chance to read some of the replies, there are some funny gems like "I'm about to be rich" and "How much are boxed sets worth" and "Ok well we’re gonna have to discuss that late fee from ‘89 then".
As I write this, I remember that I found my old Blockbuster card from 2004 and had posted it on Facebook a few years ago. Great, now I'm feeling all nostalgic!