Family Video in Stranger Things: the video store where Steve and Robin work
Universe, Season 3, Season 4
Family Video is the Hawkins video store, next to the Palace. In October 1985, Keith hires Robin at once and Steve only afterward. In the spring of 1986 they still use it, computer included, to track down Rick, Eddie's supplier.
The mall has burned. The ice-cream cones are gone. Three months later, Steve and Robin push open the door of a video store attached to the arcade, and an old high-school classmate asks each of them for three favorite films.
The essentials
- Sign: Family Video, a rental chain, the Hawkins branch
- Next door: the Palace, the arcade
- Hiring: October 1985, three months after the mall fire
- Staff: Keith, then Robin and Steve
- 1986: they still work there during the murders
Contents
Three months after the cones
During the summer of 1985, Steve and Robin sell ice cream at Scoops Ahoy, in the mall. On July 4, the building burns. The counter, the uniform, and the pay disappear together.
In October they are in front of Family Video. The branch is in town, attached to the Palace, where the boys already spent their coins. The video store is not a backdrop invented for them: Family Video was a real American rental chain, and Hawkins has its own branch.
The change matters. Steve leaves the role of the humiliated ice-cream server without leaving the counter. Robin, for her part, finds a shelf where she knows more than he does.
Steve and Robin drawn as Scoops Ahoy sailors: the duo from before the video store.
In the shopPin Scoops Ahoy Steve and Robin drawn13,90 €See the product
Three films, and a Phoebe Cates standee
Keith runs the interview. He was already seen at the Palace, in 1984, behind the cabinets. He went to the same high school as they did, and he still has an old score to settle with Steve. He is surprised that Steve gave his mother as a reference, then asks each of them for three favorite films.
Robin names « The Apartment », « Hidden Fortress », and « Children of Paradise ». Steve stammers out « Animal House », the Star Wars one with the teddy bears, and the one with the DeLorean. Keith hires Robin for Monday and turns Steve down. Robin takes Keith aside. Her argument is not cinema: Steve will bring customers in. At Scoops Ahoy, she swears, they sold so much ice cream that a second shipment had to come from Michigan. Keith, who is still sore at the former king of the high school, lets himself be convinced. He asks her whether she has a thing for Steve. She replies that they are only friends.
Steve, meanwhile, trips on a Phoebe Cates standee and adds « Fast Times at Ridgemont High » to his top three. The scene settles two things: he gets hired, and he does not owe it to his culture. He owes it to Robin.
What is on the shelves
The set is precise. In October 1985, the shop window displays « Firestarter », « Sixteen Candles », and « Scarface ». Inside, you can also spot « The Outsiders » and « National Lampoon's Vacation ». They are video-store films, not clues.
The job is simple. You return a tape, you take another, you pay the late fee. Steve, who stammered through his three films, ends up recommending them. Robin, who knows them, puts up with his recommendations. In 1986, Steve even notices that Vickie, the girl Robin likes, returned « Fast Times » paused at 53 minutes and 5 seconds, at the point where Phoebe Cates gets out of the pool. Their friendship, born in a mall storeroom, continues behind a plastic counter.
Keith is no longer on screen the following spring, but nothing says he left the shop. His name is still heard. The video store, for its part, is still open.
The spring of 1986, a name in the files
The murders begin. Eddie is wanted. Steve and Robin are still behind the counter, and the shop keeps its rentals on computer. On the shop phone, the group learns that Eddie buys from a certain « Reefer Rick », whose last name nobody knows. Robin finds twelve Ricks in the file and reads their rentals: « Annie » and « Dumbo » for one, « The Blue Lagoon » for another. Rick Lipton, for his part, rents « Fast Times » and three Cheech & Chong films. His address: 2121 Holland Road, near Lover's Lake.
The video store then becomes something other than a job. It is the only place where they have a terminal, hours, and a reason to be in town while the others are running. The investigation goes through the customer files before it goes through the woods.
The lead takes them to Rick's boathouse, where Eddie is hiding. The investigation then leaves the counter, at the moment when the rest of the town cracks.
Steve, to put together, the one who trips on the standee and gets hired anyway.
In the shopBuildable mini figure Steve Harrington14,90 €See the product
Why this counter suits them
At Scoops, Steve and Robin wore the same sailor costume. At Family Video, the costume is gone. What remains is two employees who know each other too well to lie, and Keith, who only hired Steve reluctantly.
In the spring of 1986, Steve is not short of dates: he is supposed to see Heidi the next evening. At the counter, he recommends « Doctor Zhivago » to a customer, before learning that she has a boyfriend. In the aisles, Robin has the advantage on a subject the high school did not grade. The shop is small. That is exactly why it serves them as a home between two disasters.
The show could have found them any job. It chooses a video store, and the job interview becomes a film-buff test: Robin passes it with three classics, Steve fails it with three popular hits.
An ordinary shop in the middle of the rest
Family Video does not hide a secret base. No one opens a gate there. It is a rental shop, with a grudge-holding recruiter, late tapes, and a standee in the aisle. That ordinariness is the point.
After a summer of Russians and monsters, the story needs a place where a card gets stamped. The video store is that place. It links the summer of 1985 to the spring of 1986: it is known where they work, who hired them, and why Steve nearly was not hired.
When the town closes in on them, they leave from the same counter: that of an ordinary rental shop.
It is behind this counter that, one morning in the spring of 1986, Robin tells Steve about her conversation with Vickie. Shortly after, the TV announces that the body of a high-school girl has been found. Later, Dustin bursts in, asks how many phones the shop has (two, three counting Keith's), and sets up his « base of operations » there. It is a Saturday, the shop's busiest day, and the rental counter becomes a switchboard.
Robin to put together: the one who passes Keith's interview and gets Steve hired.
In the shopBuildable mini figure Robin Buckley14,90 €See the product
To rememberIn October 1985, Robin gets the job and gets Steve hired. In the spring of 1986, the same counter and its computer are still used to track down Rick, Eddie's supplier.
Frequently asked questions
Who works at Family Video?
Keith, who runs the interview, then Robin and Steve from October 1985. Keith worked at the Palace the year before.
Why is Steve turned down at first?
He names his three films clumsily, and Keith has held a grudge against him since high school. Robin convinces Keith that his being there will bring customers in.
Where is the shop?
In Hawkins, next to the Palace, the arcade.
Which films can you see in the shop?
In the shop window, in October 1985: « Firestarter », « Sixteen Candles », and « Scarface ». Inside, « The Outsiders » and « National Lampoon's Vacation », among others.
Do they use it in 1986?
Yes. They check the shop computer to find Rick, Eddie's supplier.
Does Keith come back afterward?
He is not seen on screen in the spring of 1986. Robin and Steve, for their part, still work there.
