It was this very year that marked the predictable death of the biggest brick and mortar rental store around: Blockbuster Video. It was sad but nowhere near surprising. The death of the 90s spawned the expiration of things like video stores and physical copies of films as downloading and streaming sites were introduced and have now become the mainstream. However, video stores were big deals back in the 90s. They were just as much a staple of film as movie theaters were and still are. That being because there was nowhere else to find movies or discover more offbeat titles for consumption. The cult classic The Boondock Saints even found its success when people discovered it at Blockbuster Video as an exclusive rental after a failed run in theaters. One can see what a staple video chain stores, big and small, were in the 90s by watching Clerks. In the film Randal works at a smaller video store where people of all sorts come to rent movies. In a chuckle inducing scene, one woman even waits for over half an hour outside the store so she can guarantee a copy of the flick she wants. Only in the non-streaming, non-downloading 90s could something like this happen. Clerks also showed what a geek mecca video stores were for film buffs in the 90s. At one point in the movie Randal borrows Dante's car to drive to a bigger video store and rent a movie. We then see him overcome with joy as he is surrounded by seemingly endless titles of entertainment. Today film buffs search streaming sites like Netflix and Crackle for the flicks they want, but in the 90s a video store was the only real collection or library of available film you could find.
