Retro rewind: Looking back at the most iconic video stores in Phoenix

Once upon a time in the Valley, video stores were everywhere to be found. Long before streaming services and digital downloads were a thing, video rental joints were the epicenter of home entertainment, where families and friends gathered to select the perfect movie for their night in.

Independently owned stores like Arizona Video Cassettes, Adventure Land Video and Sounds Easy to Me operated throughout the metro Phoenix area in the 1980s, serving up the latest movies on VHS and later video game cartridges for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis home consoles. Then came the ’90s and the rise of national chains like Blockbuster Video, Hollywood Video and Video Update, each of which had multiple locations throughout the Valley.

In the 2000s and 2010s, though, the bottom fell out of the home video industry because of the rise of Netflix and the arrival of streaming services. Video stores all went belly up and the national chains went bankrupt. Today, there’s only two stores renting in the Valley, Superstar Video in Phoenix and The House of Used in Mesa.

In celebration of National VCR Day on June 6, we’re rewinding back to the era when VHS tapes ruled and video stores were community hubs with a collection of vintage photos of local video stores.