Just aced that trivia question posted here at the Techspot Website .. but reminded me of my first experiences renting VHS tapes ( or buying as this memory of mine shows .. ) thought I'd share my experience from the Pacific North West ( Vancouver BC ) .....
<<Anyone remember their first video rental experience and the store ..? Mine would be Video Only ..Feb/Mar 1981 (late winter).. Located at 1500 W Broadway Vancouver BC . .the store mainly sold factory TV's and Video Cassette Players-recorders (VHS/BETAMAX ) .. But they were the ONLY store for a few fleeting weeks at that time that specialized in handling behind the counter video movies on cassette . BUT you couldn't rent these video movies as the practice at that time was not authorized.by the owner/studios . so V.O. 's practice was for the few dozen movies they had..
1. you had to Purchase a limited issued title from $85 to $140 each..
2.and if you returned the title within 7 days they would give you 95% credit 'on file' to buy another title..., cumbersome but True!. .

I had to come in from Port Moody, long 25 mile drive, and my first purchase was Blazing Saddles for $90 .,( I remember being so fascinated at home holding the VHS cartridge in my hand and knowing that the entire 90 min comedy was in my hand , truly was at the time .., was amazing .... really! ) ...


Then a week later back to get another movie with my now ..$85.50 credit.... but the small selection of titles Video Only had also ran up to over $140 retail .. so my next purchase (again $90.00 ) was (for my five year old daughter ) The Wizard of OZ.! .
and then. ......by now .wouldn't you GUESS it- ..but in the spring of 1981 'three NEW video stores' opened up!! .. One in Richmond and one in North Vancouver at 11th Lonsdale both were named Video Stop . and a third store opened in East Burnaby along E. Hastings 4400 blk? named Laser Video..
The Video business policy's had now opened up.. that you could indeed buy/rent vhs/beta movies., but the titles were expensive.. running $79 to $149 wholesale each !! .. so Laser Video being my nearest store had a policy of a $50 'onetime' membership that in turn gave you a punch card for one free movie a month (@$5) rental.., and the rentals per three days were $5.00

A Deal ! So what was I to do with my Wizard of OZ tape..?? well I sucked it up and decided to make one more purchase and then to never return the purchase & would be mine for ever.. But it had to be a good title.., so I picked ( for $130 ) - '2001 a Space Odyssey! .', which I was happy to do so.. not knowing or even envisioning that my present purchase was pan and scan and in mono .. LOL ....
those were the days ... Maybe More on the future of other stores later.. ( I.e. 7-11 , which was a long time before Blockbusters) .....................

I still remember having to rent the VHS player from our local grocery store. I was pretty lucky in that my parents liked watching movies as much as I did. I'd say we'd rent the player and at least 3 or 4 videos at least 2 or 3 times a month. I couldn't tell you which ones were the first, but I do remember that when VHS players were finally affordable enough, we were one of the first ones in my family to buy one. We had it until the late 90s when we finally recycled it because it no longer was able to be attached to our TV. (Remember those prongs you had to wrap around those metal tabs and then tighten down?)

My family's first VHS player, likely bought sometime around Christmas 1980. A heavy beast, built like a tank and it kept serving us well into the 90s. The remote control was attached with a long cable, no wireless there! 

We kids would rent pretty much everything that was available, age appropriate or not, but video piracy was prevalent even then, some of it were definitely second (or third) hand copies of copies... No one seemed to mind that the video quality was sometimes so bad that it was difficult to make out what was going on although I'm sure the horror movies were much less scary that way.

Be kind...rewind!