# Ask the (big chain) Video Store Clerk **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 24, 2002, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420 "2002-09-24T06:11:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/1 "2002-09-24T06:11:01Z")
Okay, so I’m not a video store clerk now, but I was for a summer. I worked at one of the big chains (starts with a “B”, ends with an “R”, and has a “lockbuste” in between). I’ve noticed a lot of venom directed against video stores, and this chain in particular. But really the place I worked wasn’t that bad (for the customers, not for the employees). For some reason, it gives me some kind of sick pleasure to defend my former employers, even though I consider them a big evil corporation. So bring it on! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/2 "2002-09-24T10:09:39Z")
How come no one carries Erasherhead? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/3 "2002-09-24T11:15:37Z")
Do you have the one with that guy? You know, the one where he says that line? Seriously, though, why do they use their floorspace so inefficiently? Tsutaya, and every other video chain in the neighborhood, has 7-foot-high shelves with every video stacked spine-out, library-style. This way, a single, 3-foot-wide shelf holds over 300 movies. You may not be able to reach everything without help, but if it’s on video, it’s there. Blockbuster, on the other hand, has shelves that are only 4 feet tall, with each video facing cover-out and at least two inches of space between each title. This gives you room for only about 20 videos per shelf. The end result is that while Blockbuster had[sup]\*[/sup] double the floorspace of Tsutaya Video, they had only a tenth the selection (prices were the same). [sup]\*Past tense. The one in my old neighborhood went out of business four years ago, and I haven’t seen a Blockbuster anywhere in Tokyo since.[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/4 "2002-09-24T12:30:48Z")
What with most of the floor space dedicated to: video games DVDs movies for sale new releases candy and popcorn who gets to decide which 50 or so older movies make up the general VHS stock? (I know, it’s a slight exaggeration, but geeze the selection variety sucks if the movie is more than 5 years old) ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/5 "2002-09-24T12:58:44Z")
Why do you keep raising your prices every few months? **$4.49 per night??** ($4.74 with tax) This is getting effing ridiculous! Isn’t the company making enough damn money already? ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/6 "2002-09-24T12:58:44Z")
Why do you keep raising your prices every few months? **$4.49 per night??** ($4.74 with tax) This is getting effing ridiculous! Isn’t the company making enough damn money already? ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/7 "2002-09-24T13:11:04Z")
I haven’t seen this happen in a while, but my local Blockbuster used to slap “parental discretion advised” stickers on not only straight-to-video soft core porn, but on every unrated foreign movie including family films like “King of Masks.” Whose decision is it to place these stickers? Do the store managers even look at the description on the box before labeling it unfit for children? Or is it corporate policy? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/8 "2002-09-24T13:30:41Z")
I think I can answer the price deal. I worked in these stores (although not B) for over seven years. Most videos are priced to rent; that is, their retail cost is $99 or more. I know, a bit high. The video store generally pays $65-70 per movie (although this may have changed recently). So if a store buys 20 copies of a movie that is priced to rent, you’re looking at a bill of around $1400. Not chump change, exactly. And every time the studios raise the prices on their movies - say, up to $75 for a video - then the video store has to eventually compensate by raising the rental rate so they can get their money back. Ah, you say. But other chains are cheaper than Blockbuster. Why? For one thing, Blockbuster stores’ purchasing and marketing is controlled by the mother company, not the franchisee. So they have to maintain not one or two store, but a zillion of them. They have to raise the rates sometimes so that all of their stores - the successful ones and the failing ones - can all do okay. For another thing, Blockbuster is a public company and answers to stockholders (I think). And for a third thing, they’re greedy little bastards. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/9 "2002-09-24T13:32:44Z")
By the way, my WAG is that store managers have little to do with what movie gets placed where and how they’re labeled - it all comes from the mother company. This is why you won’t see any Blockbusters with “unrated” versions of films - it’s not a decision left up to the individual manager. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/10 "2002-09-24T13:40:33Z")
I have another question. Who decides which videos to stock for rental and how many of each? Individual store manager/franchisee or corporate? ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/11 "2002-09-24T13:54:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*I think I can answer the price deal. I worked in these stores (although not B) for over seven years. > > Most videos are priced to rent; that is, their retail cost is $99 or more. I know, a bit high. The video store generally pays $65-70 per movie (although this may have changed recently). > \*\* I remember VHS tapes _used_ to cost this much to the consumer in the early 80s - early 90s, but these days a newly released video is typically $19.95 or so. Why can’t they just run across the street to WalMart and buy 20 copies of LOTR: FOTR? Is there some sort of copyright infringement on renting these types of store-bought cassettes (I’ve never bothered to look)? Or are those high priced videos recorded on higher quality stock specifically made for many viewings? ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/12 "2002-09-24T14:06:38Z")
I work for a BigTime Video Distribution Company. The video stores aren’t charged anymore than the general public buying at Wal-mart (which doesn’t do much mark-up on video media). The movies that are going to be priced at “rental” prices are the smaller films that didn’t make a splash at the box office. Since the studios figure no one will want to own these movies, and (I imagine) to recoup some of the production costs, they charge anywhere from $40-70. These aren’t the movies the video stores are buying 20 copies of. They may have one of two, but that’s it. StG ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/13 "2002-09-24T14:30:13Z")
Does the same apply to DVDs? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie DVD (as opposed to a season of a TV series or collected set of films) priced higher than $29.99. ---
**Author:** ![effac3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@effac3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/effac3d)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/14 "2002-09-24T14:34:51Z")
Why doesn’t Blockbuster(we own the world,you only rent it)carry more foreign and obscure indie films? And their censorship policy really gets me,still mad i never got a chance to see an un-edited version of Requiem for a Dream. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/15 "2002-09-24T14:41:10Z")
I’ve been looking over the prices of some upcoming titles and DVD is generally no more than $29.99, even if the VHS cost is high, For example, the suggested retail for the VHS of Sum of All Fears is $107, but the the cost for the DVD is only $29.99. StG ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/16 "2002-09-24T14:48:09Z")
Things may have changed drastically since I was in the business, but the vast majority of movies (video, not DVD) carried a retail price of $99. The only ones that were less were the “sell-through” movies, the ones people were supposed to buy, not rent. Now, that may have changed. Now, when it comes to movies that were intended to be bought, such as LoTR, the cost for the retailer was usually ~$16; he then turned around and sold it to you at $22. Of course, since Blockbuster’s so darn big, it buys a lot of movies in bulk, thereby earning discounts. They’ll by a load of them and “guarantee” it’ll be there for the renter, thereby ensuring more people will come in to get it. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/17 "2002-09-24T15:05:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Neidhart \* > \*\*Why do you keep raising your prices every few months? **$4.49 per night??** ($4.74 with tax) This is getting effing ridiculous! Isn’t the company making enough damn money already? \*\* What Blockbuster do you go to? Mine is $4.49 for five nights, not per night. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/18 "2002-09-24T15:57:17Z")
I purchased a “pre-viewed” video at BB. The video jammed in my VCR and couldn’t be removed without destroying the VCR. I was able to persuade BB to refund the cost of the video (although I couldn’t actually return it since it was jammed in the VCR); BB would not, of course, buy me a new VCR. My question is, how common is it for people’s VCRs to be ruined by rental or pre-viewed tapes? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/19 "2002-09-24T16:25:23Z")
Yep. Our store takes them out of the machine for you though. “Mine is $4.49 for five nights, not per night.” Well, ours changed it to 7 nights… ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420/20 "2002-09-24T17:11:01Z")
Alright…This is ask the video store clerk, not the video store exec. A lot of decisions are made at the corporate level, and must be followed (under threat of fines) even if they do not make sense in the specific situation. So here we go…let’s hope I don’t make too many mispellings. **Sublight** I’d imagine that the face-out low-wall set up allows for easier browsing when you don’t know what you want, and easier communication between groups of people all looking for a movie. In any case, the individual stores have no control over the style of shelveing. **divemaster** At the end of the month, the computer spits out a big sheet of paper listing what movies were rented the least over the past month. Those movies are thrown out (actually, sold as pre-viewed) to make room for new items. The company I worked at was strongly commited to getting their stock to be at least fifty-percent DVD, so don’t expect it to stop any time soon. **Neidhart** Why does any company raise their prices? To make money. Prices are not set by the individual stores. Rental places do pay more for their videos, not because they are “priced to rent”, but because they receive the videos before the official video release date. The large chains typically make deals with distributers so that they do not have to field these large fees up front, and instead have a profit-sharing setup. This is one of the things that makes it harder for independent video rental places to compete. **hsapians** All stickers are corporate policy. For example, the price stickers on the pre-viewed videos must be placed in a specific corner, even if that placement covers up the title. As for stock, I think that indvidual store make the decisions, but they base them on corporate formulas. There are lots and lots of printouts and records that give the store a good idea of what will fly in a given neightborhood. **effac3d** Blame the uncultured cretins in your neighborhood. Decisions about what to carry are based on what rents. In your town, obscure foreign films arn’t what rents. These stores are businesses. Why would they fill their shelves with an unprofitable product? In my experience, I find the selection is usually not all that bad. The place I worked carried my favorite obscure foreign film (_I am Cuba_). Of course you will never get the same selection as you would at a university library, for example, but that is why public support of the arts is still needed. As for censorship, it isn’t what most people think. They don’t go around cutting out wide swaths of movie. Instead, they do not carry unrated or NC-17 rated films. If you create a film that is unrated or rated NC-17, you must find a way to get it rated at least an R if you want it carried. Yeah, it’s stifling, but making a movie is a commerical venture (unless you’ve got lots of money you don’t mind burning) so everything that has to do with supply and demand is going to be stifling. Time for more public support of the arts, I say. **lainaf** I only worked there part time for a few months, but I never had somebody’s VCR ruined by a faulty tape. They do try to find a balance between pulling bad tapes out of circulation and yet accounting for the fact that customers will sometimes say a perfectly good tape is bad. Blockbuster will give refunds on almost anything, but I really can’t see them ever paying for a VCR because it could never really be conclusively proven that it was their tape that did it, not your VCR. It would open the door for a lot of scamming. And believe me, there are droves of scammers just waiting for new scams to pull on video stores. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-big-chain-video-store-clerk/129420.md?page=2)