Five Stores Where We Used to Rent VHS in the Capital Region

In the 80's, 90's and early to mid-2000's a trip to the video store and a 'night in' was typical for a Friday or Saturday in the Capital Region. There was no Hulu, or Peacock and Netflix was, at its infancy, a DVD by mail service. 'On-Demand' via cable offered a few new movies each week. But if there was a flick you wanted to catch, and it was no longer playing in theaters, a trip to the video store

Blockbuster Video

No doubt, the granddaddy of them all. 'Make it a Blockbuster Night'. There were around 9000 stores when it was at its peak. Here in the Capital Region there was pretty much one in every town.

Screen Jems

A locally based video store chain, Screen Jems was around in the mid 1990's and had five locations.

Video World

Video World was exclusive to the Capital Region. Based out of Johnstown, there were eleven stores in the area. They also had that catchy jingle

Video World's got it on the shelf, so why in the world go anywhere else?

 

Hollywood Video

The biggest competitor to Blockbuster. They went belly up in 2010.

Video Environment Plus

This was located on Full Road for years. They had quite the selection of VHS tapes. But, it was more famous for its 'backroom' where plotless movies were stored.