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Are you sure it isn’t the other way around? Wasn’t video store clerk a sought after job among young people with little work experience, because it was related to something that’s fun? Wouldn’t the staff usually be at least somewhat helpful because they’re passionate about movies?

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This misconception that people who worked at those stores were all movie buffs is very much nostalgia poking through.

Context: I was one of those employees, and I worked in multiple regions of the USA and have conferred with friends who worked at Blockbuster UK as well.

Anecdotally, every video chain store I have ever visited, from Blockbuster to Video Ezy, Civic Video, Channel X, United Video (here in New Zealand) has had at least one movie buff employee.

I've also never experienced a long line at a video store, despite it being a regular Friday night thing for me to do for many years...

Gotta say, the thing I miss most is the ease of browsing through a curated back catalogue. Netflix and co are terribly awful by comparison. Several hundred square metres vs a 55" television screen...

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