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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/spinly_jaye on 2025-08-30 02:00:30+00:00.
I read a tale today about a person who worked in a toy store back in the day and it struck a memory.
I used to work at a video store. That is a very old sentence. Back in the day if you wanted to see a movie in your home before it became available to buy you had to go to a video rental store. So from 2001-2005 I managed a place. Legit the best job I’ve ever had, mmmmaybe a tie with when I was a night manager at a movie theatre. Basically if you had the keys and codes to either of these places the movie watching potential was endless. Anyway, this story takes place at the end of my video place journey. At this point VHS was starting to die out and DVD was becoming king. My store was a sister store to one in the next town over, the manager there was an awesome guy, J, who had been there forever, really knew his shit. Every Thursday at the slowest part of our day we’d spend about an hour going over the movies we needed to order for a release date a month away.
I remember this one time J was SUPER pumped about this movie he had read reviews for. I remember it was a French language flick. I cannot remember what it was called because it’s been 20 years. I can’t remember what it was about because I had no interest whatsoever to see it. Which is why I didn’t want to order any copies. Zero, none. We are in Canada, which is an English/French speaking country, but we’re in the middle of Canada and no one cares about French here, tbh. So I said no, but J said yes, insisted on it saying I should get at least 5 copies. Because he wouldn’t leave me alone about it (and because it wasn’t my money) I said ‘fine. I’ll get 1.’ He over ruled me and ordered 3 for my store, I think 8 for his store. I made a point of stating it was not my call and saying I was not responsible, J laughed it off.
A few months later…..
As I said before the end of the video store was on the horizon. With the invention of the DVD there was no longer a delay from movie theatre to being able to buy stuff at any store. Before this a movie would do a theatrical run, then some months later it would be available on VHS. What maybe some people didn’t realize that VHS’ were INSANELY EXPENSIVE in the period before they were available for purchase by the public. I remember the average cost for a single VHS was anywhere between $100 and $400. If I remember correctly the VHS copy of The Fellowship of The Ring was $240-ish. DVD’s were always cheaper and better quality, their introduction was the beginning of the end. My boss recognized it was coming so he did not renew the lease for our building for the last year. Eventually a pharmacy chain came by and bought the building and we had a month to get out. QUEUE MOVIE SALE EXTRAVAGANZA!!
Quick blurb about my boss: he was a great dude. Great sense of humour, often giggling about something BUT!! He could be the most intimidating person if he needed to. He’s 7ft tall and an ex-hockey player. In the early days of his store if people didn’t return the movies he’d show up at their houses and make them :p so if he was grumpy, look out.
We started liquidating the stock and all the good stuff went relatively quickly, leaving the movies no one wanted after about a week and a half. Boss was there everyday, grumpy the whole time, questioning every little thing, reorganizing shit I already did…..it was annoying. Eventually he did a walk around to see what was left and settled on 3 copies of a particular French movie. He was not happy, the conversation went something like this:
*note: his tone was grumpy as shit, but as soon as he held up the movie I was in a very chipper mood :)
Boss- what the F is this movie? Me- oh! some awards darling J liked B- …….. is it only in French?? M- you bet! B- why the hell did you get 3 copies? M- J ordered them, I didn’t want any. B- have they rented at all? M- (checks the computer) not even once! B- why the hell did you order them?? M- I didn’t, J made the call. B- and if I call him right now what will he say? M- go for it! :)
So Boss called J and I got to listen to my Boss give him shit for wasting his money because as it turns out J’s store’s stock of 8 copies had rented out twice. Of course I never got a sorry, but that ‘I told you so!’ Was a delightful little cherry on top of a crappy couple of weeks :)