I lived through the VHS and Betamax VCR format wars, the transition to disc-based media, and the birth of cell phones (my dad owned one of the old "bricks"), but I'd say the end of the age of the rental store causes me to pause and reminisce because it used to be something of a family business. My parents ran a mom-and-pop shop when I was a kid, so I grew up watching tons of movies and playing loads of video games. When the NES came out, I got all I could play—all for free—for as long as I wanted to keep them. Those were the days.
The family video store lasted from roughly 1982 until 1992. When the NES was released my mom decided to start renting out video games. I even remember drawing and coloring the poster used to advertise them. I filled it with characters from Super Mario Bros. 2. I was also made the official adviser for game purchases, and to keep me well-informed on what new releases were popular, Mom bought me a subscription to a brand new game magazine—Nintendo Power. I got the first issue and kept the subscription going until around 2001. If my mom hadn't thrown away the first forty or so issues, I might have continued to collect them.
Of course all things come to an end, and the end came for us when a big chain store, the previously-mentioned Blockbuster, moved into town. Blockbuster pretty much wiped out all of the local stores, ours being one of the last hangers-on. We sold it to a friend of my dad's who pretty much gutted it. If I'd have known that was going to happen, I'd have gutted it first, and taken all the games I liked for myself. After all, why worry about building a personal video game library when you have an entire video store at your disposal? I developed a grudge against Blockbuster because of this, and yet, years later, it was still sad to see them close that store because I knew it marked the end of an era.
These days, I don't rent things very often, see many movies, or watch much TV. I don't have a subscription to Netflix or bother with Gamefly. I did get a flier in the mail for a discount rental at the local Family Video chain store the other day though. Somehow, that store has managed to weather each passing storm and still stay in business. I think this week I'll take advantage of the offer and drive over there to pick up a few movies and games. Maybe it'll give me something to do until Amazon finally decides to ship The Last Story.