When most of us want to watch videos these days, we either stream them over Netflix or perhaps we may rent them and stream them online. It’s a very convenient way for us to do it and it is something that we have become quite accustomed to doing. You only need to think back a couple of decades, however, to remember driving out to the local Blockbuster store in order to pick up the videos that you wanted to watch. You would rent them for a few days and you always had to be careful to return them on time, so you didn’t have the late fee!
Those days are gone, and most of us are thankful that we don’t have to go to Blockbuster any longer. Then again, perhaps we’re looking for a little bit of nostalgia and if you would like to go back to a simpler time in your life, then the last Blockbuster in existence is where you would want to go. It’s available to rent for an overnight stay now on Airbnb. Of course, you have to travel to Bend, Oregon in order to take advantage of the stay, but the manager of the store, Sandi Harding is offering one night reservations in September as a way to thank her local community.
“In appreciation for all that the local community has recently done to support the last-of-its-kind during these uncertain times, this end of summer sleepover will offer movie lovers in Deschutes County the chance for a 90s-themed stay to relive the bygone Friday night tradition just as we remember it,” read a press release.
Any residents in the area can reserve a stay starting on August 17. The stay will be on September 18, 19, and 20 and the amazing part is, it only cost $4! Guests will be able to stay there all to themselves and it will be cleaned according to the current pandemic standards. You can even grab all the candy you want!
“Whether you want to stay up until sunrise or pass out on the couch, we’ve created the perfect space complete with a pull-out couch, bean bags and pillows for you to cozy up with ‘new releases’ from the ‘90s,” it reads. “Crack open a two-liter of Pepsi before locking into a video game, charting your future in a game of MASH, or watching movie after movie. But be wary of reciting ‘Bloody Mary’ in the staff bathroom off of the break room, as you just may summon the ghost rumored to haunt the store.”
This is the final Blockbuster store in existence after those in Australia and Alaska closed their doors. It stayed open during the pandemic, although the was a lot of curbside pickup and disinfectant going on.
“I had a customer come in and she said, ‘I am so grateful that you reopened because I couldn’t flip through Netflix one more time,'” Harding told Vice in May.
