Many thanks to Dave from Cardiff for this response. Please keep the contributions coming.
Do you have any memories of video shops?
Morriston near Swansea was where I grew up , and my main memory is of finding a shop which would let me buy many of their older titles on the basis that people didn’t rent them out anymore. I would have been about 15, around 1987. I remember Death Race 2000, Insemenoid, but they wouldn’t let me buy Texas Chainsaw Massacre because I was under 18 (never mind that they shouldn’t have had the film out on display in those days … ! )
Another one with a friendlier owner let me have a promo poster for Evil Dead 2 , which I should never have got rid of , it’s probably worth something today.
It never occurred to me at the time, but the people in the shops obviously had a record of what people rented, since I was a big horror / cult fan especially back then, it was cool when I went in, to be told in advance that, for instance ‘Maniac Cop is due out after Xmas’ , pretty good personal service really, and that was in a chain also, not an independent shop.
Do you know of any shops that currently stock video tapes?
Not currently , although it’s interesting to see VHS versions of House of the Devil and Trash Humpers appearing as part of the marketing approach.
Do you have photographs of video shops or photos of your collection of video tapes?
No, I might be a film geek, but I do have limits!
Thanks for this Dave. I always used to try and get promotional materials off of video shop owners but was never successful. Pity that you got rid of the poster for Evil Dead 2, if it was the one with the Graham Humphrey’s artwork it would definitely be worth something now.Regarding the straight-to-video documentary please get in touch with us at videocultures@gmail.com. We would love to contribute. Oli.