I finally noticed the rental store sticker evolution

Back in 1992, every tape from Video Hut in Portland had this big yellow sticker slapped right on the front cover. You could barely see the artwork through it, and half the time it peeled off leaving that nasty sticky residue. Fast forward to 1998 and Blockbuster had those tiny white barcode stickers tucked on the spine. Nobody talks about how that changed the whole browsing experience. You could actually see the cover art and the movie title without squinting. Anyone else remember fighting to get those old stickers off without ripping the cardboard sleeve?

1 comments

1 Comment

mia_anderson7d ago

Portland's Video Hut was a gem though, and I actually liked those big yellow stickers because they made the rentals feel like a local secret, not another chain store. Blockbuster's clean spines were nice, but the art mattered less to me than knowing I was walking into a place run by people who knew where the horror section was.