Working in a video shop isn’t all that common anymore, and with the resurgence of love for all things 80’s and 90’s we’re going through I’m forever being told how cool it is that I work in a video shop. It totally is cool, I love it a lot, but like most things there are some downsides.
For one, you might not think tapes are heavy but once you’ve spent eight hours moving boxes full of them you’ll think differently. So much of working in a video shop is moving stuff from here to there and there to here. Then because you’re moving boxes of tapes that may not have been moved in a while or have come from god knows where they’re dirty. There are spiders, the tapes are dusty or mouldy or someone spilt something on it years ago and now there’s a fungus on the tape. 
You’ll also never have time to watch everything you want to. I have ended up with hundreds of tapes since working here and although I am making my way through them, I doubt I’ll ever reach the end before adding new tapes to my collection. Of course this isn’t really a downside, I have more great movies than I could ever watch available to me at any given time, the horror!
I also hear people say the same things all day everyday, and I don’t mind it because o had the same reaction and said the same things the first time I can so I totally get it, but I could probably guess the first three lines anyone visiting for the first time is going to say. We also have the regulars though and the people that regularly rent from a video shop in 2019 are some of the coolest people around. I’ve had some really fantastic and engaging conversations with customers and I even have a few that I actually enjoy seeing!
The video shop I work in has a TV studio connected, which also becomes a cinema, meaning I regularly get to attend some of the coolest events around for free! We’ve had so many cool events in the past and have our Little Shop of Horrors event on the 26th which I’m really looking forward to! I may or may not have done a lil bit of networking when I paid a visit to Doughmain Wirral and long story short there are going to be some incredible vegan Little Shop inspired doughnuts that I’m already drooling over!
Finally, the people that work or volunteer in a video shop (or own one! My boss is super cool I swear) are pretty much guaranteed to be interesting, not speaking about myself of course. We have such a great little team of brilliant creative people, there’s just no where else I would rather work right now. Every job has its downsides and mine definitely has fewer than most, I’m so glad to find a job that I love despite them and maybe even a little bit because of them. If the first thing I think of when thinking about downsides of my job is that tapes are heavy and dirty, my job clearly isn’t that bad!
I’d love to hear about your job (past or present, or just your dream job!) in the comments and for now, I’m gonna stop writing blog posts in work and actually do some work!
-Dana
Carry on Beautiful! 