I’ve been thinking about this all week.
Not because a new streaming service launched. Not because there’s another show everyone says you have to watch.
I’ve been thinking about how weird it is that I honestly can’t remember getting Netflix.
I know that sounds strange.
I remember walking into United Video like it was yesterday. I remember the smell of the carpet. I remember the DVD aisles slowly replacing the VHS shelves. I remember trying to decide whether I was going to hire a movie or a PlayStation game because I only had enough money for one.
But ask me when I first subscribed to Netflix?
I’ve got nothing.
It’s like entertainment quietly changed while we weren’t paying attention.
And maybe that’s because it didn’t happen overnight.
For me, it started with DVDs.
The first two DVDs Mum and I ever owned were Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Shrek. Mum had bought this massive television on hire purchase from Noel Leeming in Papatoetoe, and a guy named Bruce threw in the DVDs for free.
I still think about Bruce.
It’s funny what sticks with you.
People come and go, but somehow every time I see Shrek I think about Mum wheeling that giant TV into our lounge and us trying to work out what all the DVD menus did.
Back then, DVDs felt magical.
You could watch deleted scenes.
Listen to the director talk.
Find bloopers.
It felt like you’d unlocked secret levels inside your favourite movie.
Then I started working at United Video.
Honestly, I don’t think people today realise what those stores were like.
Everyone remembers walking through the front doors.
Nobody remembers what happened behind the counter.
Every movie case sitting on the shelf was empty.
The real DVDs were hidden out the back.
You’d grab the case, we’d disappear through the swing doors, hunt through shelves organised like a library, check the disc for scratches, spray it with this magic cleaning solution if it needed it, polish it with a cloth, then bring it back out.
Customers never saw any of that.
To them it looked easy.
Behind the scenes, there was a whole system keeping movie night alive.
By then DVDs had started taking over.
At first there was only one little aisle.
Then two.
Then three.
Eventually VHS started disappearing altogether.
Far out… we really watched one format replace another right in front of us.
The funny thing is, when people ask me why United Video means so much to me, it isn’t because I love movies.
Well… I do love movies.
But it’s bigger than that.
Growing up wasn’t always easy for Mum and me.
There wasn’t always heaps of money.
Movies became our escape.
Working at United Video meant I could bring home films for free.
That became our Netflix before Netflix existed.
Every shift meant another movie night.
Another chance to disappear into another world for a couple of hours.
Looking back now, I honestly think that place helped shape who I became.
Then something changed.
Around 2006 I remember sitting at radio school when someone showed me this new website called YouTube.
They typed in the Spice Girls.
Suddenly there was a music video playing on a computer screen.
I remember thinking, “Bro… what is this?”
It felt impossible.
Not long after that people started downloading movies.
USB sticks turned into little movie libraries.
Hard drives became the new DVD shelf.
Then somewhere in the middle of all that…
Netflix happened.
And that’s the part I can’t remember.
I remember the DVDs.
I remember the USBs.
I remember asking my uncle to load Star Wars, Stargate Atlantis and Game of Thrones onto hard drives.
I remember going to other people’s houses just to watch the newest episodes because there wasn’t anywhere else to see them.
But I don’t remember the day streaming became normal.
One day we were hiring movies.
The next day we were paying subscriptions.
Now we’ve got Netflix.
Disney+.
Neon.
Prime Video.
Apple TV+.
HBO Max.
It feels like they’ve always been here.
But they haven’t.
Maybe that’s why I still collect DVDs.
People laugh at me sometimes.
“Why do you still buy physical movies when you’ve got streaming?”
Because streaming can disappear.
Licences expire.
Shows get removed.
Internet goes down.
But when I look over at my DVD shelf, I know those stories are still mine.
Maybe it’s nostalgia.
Maybe it’s because they remind me of Mum.
Maybe they remind me of United Video.
Or maybe they’re just a little piece of a time when Friday night wasn’t about scrolling for half an hour trying to decide what to watch.
It was about jumping in the car.
Walking the aisles.
Finding that one movie everyone wanted.
Buying some lollies.
Heading home.
And for a couple of hours…
escaping.
Streaming changed how we watch entertainment.
United Video taught me why we fell in love with it in the first place
