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Customers clear store shelves of video rentals
By LOGAN D. MABE © St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 1998 "We're getting hammered down here," said Tom Kurinzi, who works at Megaflicks on U.S. 19 in Port Richey. And he wasn't talking about the weather. "People are wiping out the shelves," Kurinzi said of the video rentals at the store. "They're grabbing stacks of them. They're taking six and 10 at a time. It's like a three-day weekend, and people are having fun." At Video View in Land O'Lakes, manager Barbara Morrison said Friday was one of the busiest days the store had seen in its 12 years. "We actually had people waiting before we opened the door this morning," Morrison said. "That hasn't happened for years, like when they first released E.T. The first hour, the other employee and me were tripping over each other. And just about every person who comes to the counter has like four movies." "It's like madness," said Mike Allen at Movie Warehouse on Little Road in Port Richey. With barely enough time to catch his breath between rentals to answer questions, Allen said, "They're getting everything. You name it, they got it." "It's a going business right now," said John Hardy, owner of Video To Roll on Grand Boulevard in New Port Richey. "I've never had a day like this. They're getting them by the armful." At Showtime Video on Grand, the run on videos left employee Mary Govoni grasping for words to describe the carnage. "It's been constant," she said. "And overwhelming." Govoni said she had rented a number of disaster movies throughout the day, "but nothing in the line of documentaries." At the Zephyrhills Blockbuster video rental location, clerks said Friday was busy but no busier than any other school holiday or weekend. Still, by early afternoon all the Playstation video game terminals had been rented for the weekend, and movie lovers were toting armloads of tapes out the door. Dawnya McCance had five tapes, favoring actor Jim Carrey, to stave off boredom during what she expected would be a wet, gray weekend. "I want to make sure we've got something to do," she said. The choices for McCance, her 5-year-old daughter, Jamie, and friend Kristy Ward included Liar, Liar, The Mask, My Giant, a Jackie Chan action flick, and something starring Jamie's favorite actors, the Olsen Twins. Reilly Owens, an employee at Video Bar in Land O'Lakes, said he had to call in more clerks to help handle the crush of customers in the middle of the day. "The new releases are pretty much gone, so they're going for older titles," Owens said. "I've rented Twister and Hard Rain. Everyone's staying home this weekend." That's what Land O'Lakes resident Susan Maffeo had in mind as she left Video Bar with four movies. "We already did all our storm preparation," Maffeo said. "We did the boards, the tape, the water and the sand bags. We just figured we're going to be bored tomorrow." To fill the hours in the aftermath of the storm that wasn't, Maffeo and family planned to watch a bunch of romantic comedies with titles that eerily reflected Pasco's experience with Georges. They included Circle of Friends, Picture Perfect, As Good As It Gets, and The Mirror Has Two Faces.
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s the threat of Hurricane Georges seemed to diminish Friday, attention suddenly shifted from bottles of water and bags of sand to boxes of videos.
