Funny how you are talking about those video stores and I remember very well how much I enjoyed visiting the store, the excitement you get walking in and the smell of the videos in the air. I remember Poppinga video store, it was a few blocks away from my house and I used to walk over to rent movies on the weekends when I was in my teens. There was Video Mania store...downtown...it was the oldest of all the video stores...the grandfather of them all in my town...that is where I used to find all of the treasures of the old classic movies and so many B movies and then some more. They had the BEST collection of horror films. It was amazing! It was like a maze in the store cause it was so big and a bit dark in there. Not enough lights to go around from what I remember and in the back...way back of the store there was stairs that leads to a smaller room for XXX rated movies.
Of course I was too young at the time and never had a chance to go up there as it closed down by the time I turned 18 years old. Hollywood video stores...BlockBuster...its really too bad for the new generation of kids like you said not being able to experience the wonderful feeling of walking in the store and hurriedly walking directly to a certain movie you want to rent before its OUT!
Thanks for bringing it up just so I could remember the old days all over again. What a nostalgic feeling that was. Damn Im pushing 40 in a few years...