Listen it’s not the most convenient vacation for Bay Area residents, but for Millennials, a Blockbuster Video sighting feels more significant than the world’s biggest ball of twine.
If you didn’t know: There is only one Blockbuster Video left on planet Earth. It is in Bend, Oregon, and it’s a relic of a bygone era when the country had more than 9,000 locations. “Make it a Blockbuster night” is a slogan that brings me back to the days of Orange Julius at the mall, Abercrombie & Fitch, and beating the old VCR so my rented copy of Hackers appeared less grainy on my fifth rewatch. And of course, the sanitized sort of warehouse-looking sameness of any Blockbuster Video shop, the movie theater candy at checkout, and the blue-and-yellow decor that now lives on at IKEA. They’ve got it all in Bend:
I only spun around long enough to feel nothing had changed, except that this sole-surviving Blockbuster looked more like museum gallery meets Instagram palace. The top-row shelves circling the inner perimeter of the store all have DVD covers spelling out “THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER”; memorabilia displays are thoughtfully placed throughout, and it feels like there’s at least as much tourism merch as there are movies to rent.
My favorite of course is a roped-off corner with a small living room that has 1990s magazines on the table. I picture little children tugging on their parents’ shirts and asking what the big boxy black VHS tapes are.
The store felt fairly empty for a Friday afternoon except for a few people who appeared to be taking pictures like me. I didn’t ask a lot of questions except for one that employees must get the most: do people still rent movies and TV shows here?
“Yes, we have many regulars who still rent. But our store wouldn’t be in business without our merchandise sales,” said a cashier who I can only describe as an early 20-something Oregonian beatnik with a pierced nose and ear; he looked completely at home in these surroundings.
It’s a sort of confusing emotion to feel nostalgic and comforted by this once-behemoth franchise store that many of us groaned about in the 1990s and 2000s. I think a lot of people celebrate the slow demise of malls and when fast food locations close because it means we have more opportunities to support local, privately-owned businesses. This one Blockbuster in that way reminds me of when we giggle and say, “Remember when we thought cocaine was medicine and cigarettes were considered healthy?”
Remember when franchises dominated our entire lives? I spent my whole childhood at Applebee’s, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and yes: Blockbuster Video. San Francisco is a city so robust with mom-and-pop stores that we generally must take field trips to find a franchise location within our 49-square miles, and life is better for us that way. But now and again it’s nice to feel the numbing sameness of retail in my Northern California suburban youth.
Saul Sugarman is editor in chief of The Bold Italic.
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The world’s last Blockbuster Video is located 211 NE Revere Ave #3, Bend, OR 97701. There was a documentary on it in 2020 that’s free to watch on Tubi. There’s also a TV series Blockbuster that premiered in 2022 — it was canceled after one season but is available to stream on Netflix.
