Video Stores, the NES, and my Mom
I know I've said this in bits and pieces here, but I don't think I've ever actually told the WHOLE story. I share it with all of you to see if anyone had a similar experience, to ask some questions, and to brag.
For a long time, my Mom worked in the video store business. She never went to college and took six years off of work when she had me to stay home with me. Not until I started school in the first grade did she go back to the work force. It was 1982 by then, and after doing some office work for a year she ended up being hired at a video store.
Mom and Pop chains were all the rage in those days. The national chains really did'nt exist, especily in the rural areas. We lived in MI and IL at the time, although I don't remember too much about the area. To this day, she loves movies, and is always watching them and renting them and giving out cheap movies as gifts.
Anyway, in 1984 we moved to Amherst NH -- back them, a fair size town but nothing really all that happening. With her experience, my Mom had no problem landing more work in another store in nearby Milford, and soon she was assisant manager. She made friends with someone over there who owned several stores and in 1987 aproached my Mom with the idea of her managing a new video store that he would own. She'd have the authority to fully run the place -- hire and fire people, buy inventory, control day to day operations. Of course, she took it.
The store is still open today -- Cinema Scope Video, in case any of our NH posters ever happen to go through Milford.
I thought it was cool cause I got to watch numerous movies before they officialy were released. Companies send stores 'screeners' which are full vrsions to try to convience the stoes to buy numerous copies. I also could ask for any movie in the store (well, anything that a 10 year old can watch) and she'd bring it home for the night if it was'nt a new release and it was in.
I got my Nintendo for Christmas in 1987 and by the summer of 1988 I was hooked on it. My Mom really did'nt know much about the whole NES thing, but she could see (like everyone else in the country) how big it was and how much it was taking off. When the court case between Nintendo and Blockbuster was settled that year saying the stores COULD rent NES games, the owner aproached my Mom with the idea of renting games as well to bring in more money. My Mom agreed it was a good idea but really did'nt know about how to go about it. So she asked me for help.
Being only 12 at the time, I thought I was in heaven. Of course, the help I could give was really limited.....she mostly just wanted advice on which games she should buy for the store that would rent well. This was really uncharted waters at the time and it's not like anyone knew what they were doing. But I had been renting from Blockbuster and some other local stores since they started doing it, and swapping games with my friends was common, so I knew which games were hot. Plus I had my subscription to Nintendo Power, which was also a godsend in those days.
I drew up a list of about 50 or so games that I suggested would be good for the store to carry. She placed the order with a large retail company for less then retail prices and worked out a price scheme for the games. Originaly when it started you could rent a NES game for two nights for 2.99 or for five days for 4.99 -- better then Blockbuster was doing, and better then many other stores (it seemed all the video stores, and some other places, started to rent games right around this time). She also bought these ugly (but perfectly fine) clear cases for the games to go in when they rented out (the game boxes were on the display in the store) and photocopied the manuals to go with the games, since she did'nt want to include the manuals.
I still recall that wonderfull night when she brought home the boxes with the new games for me to try out.The store was'nt ready to start renting quite yet so I got to play those games for two weeks. I had'nt played everything that we bought, but I was in heaven, going through 50-60 games and trying them out and all my friends wanted to come over.
Anyway, the experiment worked. The games did well for rentals and soon my Mom and I worked out a deal on the side. She would continue to bring home new games she bought for the store and I could play it for as long as I wanted (well, within reason -- no more then a week) and she would bring home a game for a night if it was in. In return, I agreed to clean and check out any non working games if a customer had a problem with it (with my official Nintendo cleaning kit and one of the special screwdrivers to open the cases) and to continue to advise her on what games to buy for the store. Of course, I also was expected to keep my grades up, do other things besides play NES all day, do the chores, etc.
She would place a order for new games about once a month -- normaly around 3-5 titles. That was also the time that she would go through the books and decide which ones were too old or not renting anymore and get rid of them. Sometimes that ment giving them to me, sometimes that ment selling them on the floor, and sometimes that ment rewarding employees of hers who said they would be happy to take the game.
This continued well through the rest of the NES's life. In early 1992 she branched out into starting to rent SNES and Genesis games as well, and I continued to help. Finally in the summer of 1994 she quit the job as she was just burned out and the store had come under new ownership. I went to college in September anyway, so that was fine. But for six years, I considered it a dream position for me to be in.
I can't tell you how wonderfull a experience this was -- trying out literaly dozens of new games for free and as long as I wanted them, then asking my parents for the best games for the holidays myself. My friends always wanted to come over when I had a new game, and I could play older games anytime I wanted also. These games were expensive back them, keep in mind -- I must have saved hundreds of dollars on rentals, not to mention on not buying bad games.
The question I had -- shortly after she started renting games, another court ruling was passed down saying the manuals could not be photocopied. So my Mom ordered 'one sheet instructions' from a company. They were attached to the inside cover of the case that was used to hold the rented cart, and were just a summary of the instructions. I know other companies made them also, but this one was pretty good -- it had the goal of the game, a screenshot (in color) of the game and a explanation of what the screen ment and the major items in the game, the controls, and even hints and tips for the game. The text was pretty small but there was a lot of info cramed in here.
I have'nt seen one in over 10 years. Has anyone who has done collecting for the NES found these? I imgine the SMS, the SNES, and Genesis must have had them also. They may even be uncommon these days.
All in all, I consider myself a lucky kid.
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. As any DP member would, I took care of it. My brother and I have always been able to rent games and movies for as long as we wanted for free. At one time last year, I had over 2,000 screeners in my basement so we always had something to watch. I agree with the topic creator here. I was (and still am) a lucky kid to have my parents work in the video store business.
