The Blockbuster Chronicles - Chapter 9: I Quit

For most of my first year at Blockbuster, leaving the store represented progress. A real job would have better hours, better money, and some hint of a future. Kelly eventually gave me a chance to test that theory.

When Kelly left Blockbuster to work at the now defunct Memphis Motorsports Park, also once known as Memphis International Raceway, she wanted to take me with her. She was leading the marketing department and did not have a perfect position available, but she promised to help me find work selling tickets.

By the time I arrived for the interview, the ticket positions had been filled. The park still needed a seasonal maintenance worker, so I reluctantly accepted the job. I was relieved to escape Blockbuster and excited by the possibility of a new beginning that did not involve customers yelling at me every night.

After two days, I knew I had made a mistake.

The maintenance crew consisted of an unemployed stockbroker, another high school student, an older man who managed the crew from his office, and one person who actually seemed suited to the work. I liked them, but the schedule was brutal. Fridays could stretch to eighteen hours, and I had no interest in surrendering all my free time. I was also considering college and beginning to think more seriously about what came next.

After a couple of weeks, I called Kelly and told her I was quitting. She said she understood, but I could hear the disappointment in her voice. She had believed in me and created an opportunity, and from her perspective I had abandoned it almost immediately. She asked me to stick around through the race season, but I just couldn’t. I was over it.

Things between us were never quite the same after that.

The decision carried me out of Blockbuster, but not very far. Just before I left, I had worked a handful of shifts with a new employee named Matt Brady.

I met Brady while I was on my way out the door at Blockbuster. Even in that short amount of time, we bonded over NASCAR, something we were both obsessed with. In return, I began educating him on the virtues of independent film and introducing him to the world of Kevin Smith. Brady was sheltered enough that I’m not sure anything could have adequately prepared him for that particular education, but I considered it my responsibility to try.

I was disappointed to leave so soon after meeting him, but I thought I was moving on to something better. Two weeks later, I walked back into Blockbuster and asked for my old job.

Blockbuster didn’t welcome me back immediately, either. I had to meet with both the store manager and the district manager and convince them that rehiring someone who had quit two weeks earlier was a reasonable business decision. Fortunately, I had been a good employee before leaving, and they eventually agreed to bring me back.

I had left Blockbuster convinced I was moving forward. Two weeks later, I was asking to come back. It was humbling, but it also turned out to be one of the luckiest reversals of my young life.