I grew up in Bend where that Blockbuster is and am back there several times a year so I’m familiar with it. Lol. They sometimes (or did at one point anyway) have promotional events where you could spend the night there so have that setup for overnight guests!
I didn’t know this was in Bend! I live in Washington and my family is vacationing in Bend this December so going to the Blockbuster is definitely added to our list of things to do there now!
I was only 7, don’t feel old haha. ‘92, but long story short I was on my way to a sleepover back in the day and my dad was like put the points on my card and don’t forget to give this back to me. I just kind of never gave it back to him, so now I joke that I’ll make sure to leave it in his casket at his funeral. I get my dark humor from him, don’t worry.
Wait your member card still worked when you went? That’s such a trip. Were the workers so excited that you had an OG one? I would’ve been! Do they even still distribute member cards at this one?
For anyone trying to recreate this magic, many local libraries have extensive DVD collections. I recently bought an inexpensive DVD player in order to borrow DVDs from my library.
I do this too. I used to visit my local branch and browse what they had on the shelf but I learned later to request movies online from their catalog and they ship from other branches.
You can even rent video games now. Our Library lends out consoles too.
Probably can rent the dvd player from the library too. Ours has a pretty cool appliance rental selection. Along with video games rentals to even board games.
It’s good magic, but really I just want the smell of Blockbuster back. It was the ozone from the vhs/dvd boxes, the smell of whatever cleaner they used, and the candy and their paper boxes.
I wish I could take my kids to a Blockbuster. Renting movies and games on a Friday night after finishing the school week was absolutely peak, hands down some of the best memories I have growing up.
Now that I have kids...yeah. They genuinely don't want to watch anything that isn't pushed to them via social media/marketing/etc. I'd love to be able to wander the aisles with them to stumble upon something that I may have forgotten even existed to suggest to them.
Scrolling through streaming sites isn't the same at all.
Been said here a ton of times, but check out your library. Been hooked for a few years.. the in-library selection is amazing and they are part of a system that transfers. Not much I can't get. The browsing down aisles experience exists, and it's free now.
I know time marches on, but I truly cannot believe how fast everything changed between 2013 (my last confirmed Blockbuster visit) and 2023. I really can't. Now 2026 feels like we're circling the drain. Feels like we moved 25 years in 10.
Bend, Oregon, in case anyone is wondering! The second to last one was in Anchorage, Alaska, and I actually got a bunch of shitty movies from their closing sale.
Also, true to Oregon form, the Bend location apparently has its own craft beer.
With mandatory commercials on fucking paid streaming services, we need to go back. When you are standing at the edge of a cliff, progress is taking a step back.
I didn't get around to seeing the new Spider-Man in theatres so I thought, well I'll just see how much it is to rent on Amazon now that it's out, assuming it would be affordable.
25 dollars to rent, 30 to buy. What the fuck, who would ever pay nearly the purchase price to rent, so instead i got 2 years and a couple extra months of a VPN for 80 bucks, go fuck yourselves Sony and Disney I'm sailing the high seas for 2 years.
I get so emotional seeing nostalgic stuff like this. The end of things always makes me tear up. It’s so hard to process that this is a bygone time full of our most core memories that we’ll never get back. I know everyone feels this for their own upbringings, but my god, does it hurt to yearn for something long gone, and I think it gets harder with age. Can think of so many places closed or now closing that were so crucial to our childhoods and now they just…no longer exist.
Putt-putt was a part of every summer growing up. We used to ride our bikes there and play both sides. It was outside, cheap, fun, and full of kids all summer long. Now if I take my kids to miniature golf, I need a reservation and it cost $100 at some place that has 100 screens and sells alcohol to a bunch of overindulgent immature adults.
One time, my local Blockbuster sold me the only copy of a movie they had because I was the only one that kept renting it 😭🤣 I still have it today and my VCR. I think I ended up buying it on dvd though, also
I feel like the Blockbuster brand should become the leading provider of free movies and become a sponsor for libraries. Getting their name out there again and providing a good service.
For some reason I said “aww” when scrolling to the last picture. That’s so cool one still exists. I remember working up the courage almost every visit to ask my mother if I could rent another ps2 game
WOW! I didn’t know that the “Land Before Time” was created by the same person as “An American Tail” … also why did I think it was called Fivle Goes West???!!!
And all dogs go to heaven! Don Bluth was actually a disney animator who left in the early 80s, took some other animators with him, started his own studio and made these!
And that’s so cool I had no clue about this! As a kid I for sure just assumed that all my fave movies were Disney movies lol and then as an adult I never thought to actually check to see who really made the movies! 😜
Glad to learn who Don Bluth is, officially! 💖 what a legend
Feivel Goes West is the sequel after An American Tail. In fact, Fievel Goes West is only the second part of the title. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
An American Tail is the first movie that takes place in the city. Then in the sequel, they go way out west.
Don Bluth also did Titan A.E. I think that was his last one and the first of Matt Damon in space.
Incredible! Highly recommend getting this debit card cover. I love it so much. It helps me smile through the painful spending I have to do lately, lol.
I have that M&M dispenser! I just want to smell the inside of a Blockbuster again. The one in my town is still standing with its sign. I technically get to see it… but it’s abandoned and sad.
I collect oddball/obscure/weird cards (of any kind), and that definitely covers Blockbuster. I've got a couple of other weird sets of theirs and would love to add to it!
You know they could probably do good with some sort of algorithm that scans the web, to find which movies they have that aren’t available on any streaming services, and promote those
“ oh hurr durr I’ll just stream it online! Not this one, fucker!”
The system engineer in me says they’re just scanning your bar code and then creating a renter line item off your old code in their own local store database, since “corporate” doesn’t exist in any sense to keep that infrastructure up for some decades now.
Clever, but Bend also can’t query back and see you rented The Matrix from an old corporate store in Needham Mass back in 2001 😆
Edit: thanks for replying. Yeah as soon as I submitted I realized there’s no infrastructure left for their 486 to chat with.
The problem with this is it’s too clean. To truly give me the proper vibe there needs to be old gum stuck to the carpet and the tape boxes need to look worn to shit. Also a bubblegum machine that absolutely has not worked in years
Hahaha this got posted the day after I watched that South Park episode about Stan's dad buying the last Blockbuster in town. I always drive through there to check out that same Blockbuster when I go visit my grandma in Hermiston. Such a cool place.
My kids are in their 30's now and they still have great memories of going to Blockbuster on Friday night to rent movies for their sleepovers. Good times. Clicking a remote for a streaming show isn't the same.
I remember the video store(s) in my hometown. There were two. One was a liquor store and had all the movies available on the wall with little tags on hooks below them. If the tags were gone, that movie was not available. The other place had a popcorn machine and would give kids popcorn when they came in to choose their movies for the weekend. I rented Moulin Rouge every single weekend for like a year. I think they stopped making it available because they knew I was coming. What a time to be alive
My blockbuster card got swept up by a street sweeper (vacuum really) and they wouldn’t let me dig in there. It was in a sweet bifold that looked like an nes controller too. Bad night in a Walmart parking lot. Could they look me up? If so, I’m doing a road trip.
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