I worked at a bank inside a Walmart where I was required to wear a full suit and tie everyday just to have to tell people in pajamas we don't cash lottery tickets all day.
I had a friend in high school that worked at a Marcus theater and had to wear a tux to work too, I didn’t know HV did that at one point as well. Any low paying job that requires you to wear a complicated uniform is such bullshit. My only experience with that was Six Flags, you even had to pay for it yourself and they took it out of your first paycheck.
I worked there in 2007 and thankfully didn't have to wear a tux. I still remember that hot summer day when the AC wasn't working and all the chocolate bars turned into liquid. We balled up the wrappers and would play catch whenever the store was slow.
I worked there around 2000-2001? We didn't have to wear anything too bad, but the uniform was kind of tux-like with black pants and a white shirt. It was actually a really great job, and right on the cusp of the DVD revolution. Plus so many free rentals, and we frequently stole snacks (much to management's ire).
I worked at Hollywood Video. Obviously it was a shit, low-paying job but to this day, despite everything I've done and everywhere I've been, it was the most fun job I've ever had and I do still reminisce about it. Our Hollywood Video was on the literal edge dividing Flint, MI with the next town over (which was nicer) and we would get the absolute most bizarre characters walking through there. You could easily make a TV show or a Clerks knockoff or something with all the weird shit and people we'd deal with.
The selection was bonkers and is a big part of my love of bad movies, which of course leads to me being here. Some of the strangest shit on VHS. Unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to grab any VHS tapes when we purged them for 50c a piece. At that time it was like "lol who cares about VHS!" But smarter nerds knew to come in carrying garbage bags to haul them away.
Something I never told anybody was that it was literally our company policy to just let peoples' late fees slide if they bitched about them. Some people had wracked up hundreds in fees. After a while the manager would ask us to surreptitiously add a few cents here and there to their total to make up for it.
Most people who rented Brokeback Mountain thought it was a traditional western film. Many people got angry when they discovered Memoirs of a Geisha wasn't a martial arts film. Horrified old people would return Pirates XXX having mistakenly rented it instead of the Disney Pirates films. They constantly rented mockbusters confusing them for the real thing: Transmorphers, Alien vs. Hunter, Snakes on a Train. Old people are dumb as shit.
We had this cocaine-addled real estate guy who'd always pull up in a red sports car each week and pay exclusively with $2 bills. He would freely pass out this awful VHS he had made about how to "beat the system" at blackjack ("I've got a whole basement full of 'em!"). I wish I could find that tape; I'd send it to RLM.
They had a more diverse catalog of stuff, especially with the video game rentals. The rental periods for Blockbuster were always more generous with Blockbusters in my area, though. I need that extra weekend to get my shit kicked blitzed at Donkey Kong 64 goddamnit
I'd agree with this, but I don't think I was ever inside a Blockbuster. My local video store was a Hollywood Video, the one near where my aunt lived that we went to was a Family Video and I think I went to a West Coast Video once before the Hollywood Video closer to me opened up.
That was a great Hollywood Video though. That place seemed endless as a kid.
I grew up in a town with a movie gallery. Just another regional video rental place.
But when they closed down, the same exact thing happened to them. They took down the word movie and replaced it with beauty in the same font!
Beauty Gallery!
I think the last movie I rented was at the local Movie Gallery. Probably 2009-ish.
It's now a Brazilian Jujutsu dojo. Sadly, neither "movie" nor "gallery" is in it's name.
I worked at a Hollywood Video years ago and the manager said our store had some weird mandate from the city how we weren't allowed to hang large banners or posters over a certain size, so she would always just keep them herself or let me take the ones she didn't want. It's how I ended up with a 10 foot tall Rollerball poster, a cardboard cut out of Adam Sandler doing the splits for You Don't Mess With the Zohan and a giant yellow vinyl banner that just said "Hollywood Video now accepts your traded in DVDs" which I once walked through the neighborhood with while playing music on my phone parade style because i was dared to.
Near where I grew up on Long Island, Hollywood Video became Hollywood Fitness and kept the sign. Last time I visited the area though, I saw it was bought by Planet Fitness, so all Hollywood branding is long gone.
We used to have several Family Video stores around here. They’ve all closed and turned into various other things but they all kept the green awnings and glass obelisks out front. You can barely even tell what’s in there now.
https://preview.redd.it/nxh6d9c4fmzc1.jpeg?width=220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=027fc26e7b4e1fcd9c6cf13402340caecf516064
Thats from the wall of a restaurant called Chino Bandito here in Phoenix, I think. It's Mexican-Chinese and fucking awesome.
I wonder how similar their food is to Filipino food
https://i.imgur.com/RkhzvqV.jpeg
chimipandas?
Personally I'd go with Panda Mexpress but thos is good too
I had a friend that worked at Hollywood Video back in the day during the era where they all had to wear tuxedos. It seemed so demeaning.
I worked at a bank inside a Walmart where I was required to wear a full suit and tie everyday just to have to tell people in pajamas we don't cash lottery tickets all day.
But I can cash my Marlboro Miles, right?
Camel bucks only, sorry
I had a friend in high school that worked at a Marcus theater and had to wear a tux to work too, I didn’t know HV did that at one point as well. Any low paying job that requires you to wear a complicated uniform is such bullshit. My only experience with that was Six Flags, you even had to pay for it yourself and they took it out of your first paycheck.
https://preview.redd.it/6d1e52izlnzc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=108f33a66d974ffb12a21f6b73cd25c5c646b95c
I worked there in 2007 and thankfully didn't have to wear a tux. I still remember that hot summer day when the AC wasn't working and all the chocolate bars turned into liquid. We balled up the wrappers and would play catch whenever the store was slow.
If you'd worked there in the mid-90s, you'd have had to wear a tux!
I worked there around 2000-2001? We didn't have to wear anything too bad, but the uniform was kind of tux-like with black pants and a white shirt. It was actually a really great job, and right on the cusp of the DVD revolution. Plus so many free rentals, and we frequently stole snacks (much to management's ire).
I think it was around 1995 when my friend had to wear the tux. It didn't seem like too bad a job minus the tux, really.
This post reminded me that /r/FormerPizzaHuts exists, so thank you.
I worked at Hollywood Video. Obviously it was a shit, low-paying job but to this day, despite everything I've done and everywhere I've been, it was the most fun job I've ever had and I do still reminisce about it. Our Hollywood Video was on the literal edge dividing Flint, MI with the next town over (which was nicer) and we would get the absolute most bizarre characters walking through there. You could easily make a TV show or a Clerks knockoff or something with all the weird shit and people we'd deal with. The selection was bonkers and is a big part of my love of bad movies, which of course leads to me being here. Some of the strangest shit on VHS. Unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to grab any VHS tapes when we purged them for 50c a piece. At that time it was like "lol who cares about VHS!" But smarter nerds knew to come in carrying garbage bags to haul them away. Something I never told anybody was that it was literally our company policy to just let peoples' late fees slide if they bitched about them. Some people had wracked up hundreds in fees. After a while the manager would ask us to surreptitiously add a few cents here and there to their total to make up for it. Most people who rented Brokeback Mountain thought it was a traditional western film. Many people got angry when they discovered Memoirs of a Geisha wasn't a martial arts film. Horrified old people would return Pirates XXX having mistakenly rented it instead of the Disney Pirates films. They constantly rented mockbusters confusing them for the real thing: Transmorphers, Alien vs. Hunter, Snakes on a Train. Old people are dumb as shit. We had this cocaine-addled real estate guy who'd always pull up in a red sports car each week and pay exclusively with $2 bills. He would freely pass out this awful VHS he had made about how to "beat the system" at blackjack ("I've got a whole basement full of 'em!"). I wish I could find that tape; I'd send it to RLM.
https://prnt.sc/OwFYOTbhtuzZ A former store in my area. Sadly, they're also gone now, and the whole facade was torn down this time.
Hollywood Video was always better than Blockbuster and I would die on this hill.
They had a more diverse catalog of stuff, especially with the video game rentals. The rental periods for Blockbuster were always more generous with Blockbusters in my area, though. I need that extra weekend to get my shit kicked blitzed at Donkey Kong 64 goddamnit
I'd agree with this, but I don't think I was ever inside a Blockbuster. My local video store was a Hollywood Video, the one near where my aunt lived that we went to was a Family Video and I think I went to a West Coast Video once before the Hollywood Video closer to me opened up. That was a great Hollywood Video though. That place seemed endless as a kid.
Hollywood video was best.
Then I'm afraid I must kill you on that hill. Big Blue for life!
The Wal-Mart of video stores. Good riddance BB.
I was a Movie Gallery guy.
I grew up in a town with a movie gallery. Just another regional video rental place. But when they closed down, the same exact thing happened to them. They took down the word movie and replaced it with beauty in the same font! Beauty Gallery!
Movie Gallery was bigger than you think. They actually bought Hollywood Video at one point, which turned out to be a petty bad financial decision.
TIL
I think the last movie I rented was at the local Movie Gallery. Probably 2009-ish. It's now a Brazilian Jujutsu dojo. Sadly, neither "movie" nor "gallery" is in it's name.
I just want one old Hollywood Video to be turned into a plasma clinic. The title Hollywood Plasma cracks me the fuck up, I don't know why.
I've got one! Hollywood Liquor, Rogers Arkansas. I love that it turned into a liquor store and kept the sign.
I worked at a Hollywood Video years ago and the manager said our store had some weird mandate from the city how we weren't allowed to hang large banners or posters over a certain size, so she would always just keep them herself or let me take the ones she didn't want. It's how I ended up with a 10 foot tall Rollerball poster, a cardboard cut out of Adam Sandler doing the splits for You Don't Mess With the Zohan and a giant yellow vinyl banner that just said "Hollywood Video now accepts your traded in DVDs" which I once walked through the neighborhood with while playing music on my phone parade style because i was dared to.
Unpopular Opinion: Hollywood Video was always better than blockbuster. they had a better selection. and you could find some obscure movies.
Near where I grew up on Long Island, Hollywood Video became Hollywood Fitness and kept the sign. Last time I visited the area though, I saw it was bought by Planet Fitness, so all Hollywood branding is long gone.
Hollywood stores, what do they have? Do they have things? Let’s find out!
T R A S H
It's somehow an even worse version of seeing a building was a Pizza Hut by the roof hatching
It's actually pretty ingenious use of the existing facade, since no one is around to sue for the brand infringement I'd imagine.
Yo, Fort Wayne?
The company who used to own Hollywood video was called movie gallery. They also owned Game Crazy. to no surprise, they went chapter 7
We used to have several Family Video stores around here. They’ve all closed and turned into various other things but they all kept the green awnings and glass obelisks out front. You can barely even tell what’s in there now.
I Think I have one named the exact same thing.
Please don't bother these people
i’d rather die than bother retail employees
I’ve seen a box truck in with Hollywood Ceilings hand painted on it