Blockbuster nostalgia

'This nostalgia is kind of ironic. Because a lot of people at the time hated us.'

I’m Bill Murphy Jr. Welcome to Understandably (formerly “The Byliner”), my new regularly published email about the “story behind other stories.” Please consider subscribing!

About 20 years ago, before he became a journalist, Ben Unglesbee worked at a Blockbuster video store.

We learn this early on in his recent, comprehensive article for Retail Dive, ‘Who really killed Blockbuster?’ which suggests the common wisdom about the demise of his former employer might be wrong.

For Unglesbee, working at Blockbuster back then was a job, but it wasn’t just a job. He and his fellow employees had a passion for film. The stores became their social hub.

We were geeks. We followed directors and actors (I was particularly obsessed with Michael Mann’s movies), we argued with each other and customers about movies (we defended Ang Lee’s Hulk movie against the hordes of haters), we judged people based on movie taste (disliking “Fight Club” was a troubling character flaw).

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Our stores, after the main rush of a…