Runesmith's Top Ten

Everyone has a Top Ten list for the new year, but I thought I'd do something a little different.

I've been working part time at a very cool, charmingly scummy, independent video store for almost a year now. I won't say which one, but it's one of those places that still has an 'Adult' room and still has old VHS copies of 'They Live' and 'Singing In the Rain' for rent. I like it a lot. I make a bit of extra money, I get movies cheap (but not free), and I get to watch and talk about movies all night.

Still, it's not all rosy. So here's my

Top Ten Pet Peeves About Working at the Video Store:

10) People who will refuse to watch a movie if they know it’s Canadian.

9) People who think that you can only watch the Wide Screen version on a Wide Screen TV.

8) People who, even after you explain the whole Wide Screen / Full Screen thing to them, still prefer to have large chunks cut off the sides of their movie rather than tolerate two barely noticeable black bars top and bottom.

7) People who complain about late charges. My explanation is always the same - that every night they keep the movie is a night when we are losing money by not renting it to someone else. That, and the fact that our prices are about half of what the major chains charge. But still they complain.

6) The dozen or so people who rented 'Pan’s Labyrinth' and then brought it back asking for a refund because it was in SPANISH.

5) The guy who comes in every week to rent five or six of the cheapest, oldest movies we have, always complaining about something, always trying to get an even better deal than 3 for 6 bucks, refusing to pay his late charges because he doesn’t think he should have to being such a good customer and all - and then drives away in his shiny new BMW.

4) People who have obviously mistaken me for a family counsellor. Seriously, I’m not interested in why your movies are a month overdue because your rat bastard of an ex-husband is still using your account to rent movies for his new wife’s delinquent children who then loan them to their friends and never return them. Not. My. Problem.

3) The fact that we have to hand write the nightly deposit and cash count forms on paper recycled from old DVD covers because the boss is too cheap to spring for paper and printer toner - and yet we have a motion-sensitive garbage can that opens when you wave your hand at it.

2) Thinking I can get a head start on counting the till when some skeezy guy walks in ten minutes before closing and entrenches himself in the Porn Room.

And my number one pet peeve about working at the video store,

1) The 2-10 shift. I hate the 2-10 shift.