Former Blockbuster Employee Opens Free Movie Library

"ROHNERT PARK, CA — "Be Kind, Rewind." Many of us can recall renting VHS movies and even VCR players, and most of us were kind enough to rewind.

While our neighborhood video stores no longer exist and most of us use our TV remote these days to rewind something we are watching, there is a new way to check out a video DVD or VHS movie. Free Blockbuster boxes, free mini neighborhood libraries stocked with DVDs and VHS tapes rather than books, have started cropping up in recent years in multiple U.S. cities, most recently right here in Rohnert Park.

"A Free Blockbuster is a place where people can leave movies so other people can borrow them," the website states. "Like those Little Free Libraries where you can take or leave a book, but for VHS tapes and DVDs (and anything else you want to share with your neighbors)."

Free Blockbuster was launched in December 2018 by a former Blockbuster employee and VHS tape collector in the Los Angeles, California area who imagined a way to breathe new life into abandoned LA Times newspaper dispensers. About three months later, the first Free Blockbuster was born.

In March 2019, screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker cemented his place as the first person ever to return movies to FreeBlockbuster. Hopefully, he was not the last.

The first Canadian franchise was launched in June 2021.

The Rohnert Park Free Blockbuster was founded in January on Garmont Court by a former Blockbuster training store manager who served Blockbuster for 10 years and is enamored with the Free Blockbuster movement. It is the first Free Blockbuster box in Sonoma County and one of three in the Bay Area. There is one in the Oakland area and one in San Jose.

For those inspired to set up a Free Blockbuster in their community, Free Blockbuster encourages people to get out there and find an abandoned newspaper box.

"They're pretty common in shopping districts or train stops," Free Blockbuster said. "Rescue it, take it home, and DIY it into a Free Blockbuster for your neighborhood. Also, there's no rule saying that a Free Blockbuster needs to be built from a newspaper box — you can use anything that works for your community."

FreeBlockbuster.org has a limited number of freestanding fully-decorated Free Blockbuster boxes available for a fee on its franchise supplies page.

The jury was still out on whether Free Blockbuster has permission to use the name and logo. Free Blockbuster received a letter from Blockbuster LLC and responded by requesting a license to continue to use the trademarks.

As for Blockbuster, according to its website, it is still working on rewinding your movie. There is also still one remaining Blockbuster store and it is in Bend, Oregon.