It smells like popcorn. The new release boxes line the outer wall, one or two whole shelves of the same movie over and over again. It's not 1997, but it sure feels like it at the Bend Blockbuster—the last Blockbuster, to be precise.

At one time there were more than 9,000 locations of the movie rental giant, about half of them in the US. A failed attempt to Netflix-ize by mailing customers DVDs preceded the company's eventual bankruptcy in 2010, with only franchise locations remaining until the second to last one shuttered in 2018. That left the very last one standing in a small strip mall just northeast of downtown Bend, Oregon. Today it's as much shrine as shop.

The shift to tourist attraction happened "overnight," says assistant manager Santana Aguilar. "As soon as we became the last one, it definitely blew up. Definitely night and day." Even as our slate of streaming services bloomed with Peacocks and Maxes and Apple TV Pluses, nostalgia junkies came calling to remember—or see for the first time—how at-home movie rentals used to work.

That's why the center of the Bend store is all merch: Fanny packs. Baby onesies. Trucker hats that say "Be Kind Rewind" (even though actual VHS offerings are limited to the bargain for-sale bin). A T-shirt with a giant bug monster looming over the iconic Blockbuster marquee with the words "Until the Bitter End" emblazoned above it. It's a sea of blue and yellow ranging from $6 sunglasses to $35 sweatpants—irony on the cheap.

But when I entered this relic I was, like a hardy stable of loyal local customers, there for OG reasons. I strolled the Drama, Comedy, and Action sections remembering the affirming nature of recognizing titles you've seen and titles you always wanted to watch. A shelf of Eastern Promises and then Eat Pray Love and then Elizabeth I, the simplicity of the alphabet in place of the condescension of an online algorithm. 

I texted a photo to a group chat with a cheeky "Remember this?" only to have a film buff friend spot a copy of the 2006 film The Fall on the bottom shelf. "The Fall is like famously not available to stream," she texted. "So it's a Blockbuster special!" I snagged the box. (My other selections: Out of Sight for classic Clooney and So I Married an Axe Murderer to really commit to the nostalgia thing.)

The fact that Blockbuster doesn't rent equipment limits the rental customer pool; as I browse I hear a woman say, annoyed, "I want to go to the Airbnb first, it's useless if there isn't a DVD player." Still, staff at the counter say the visitors are pretty split between merch buyers (or photo takers) and movie renters. It's a solid tourist destination; most items for sale are made in Bend and they support the locally owned store.

One corner of the space holds a roped-off couch and TV. "It's a display of what a '80s or '90s living room looked like," says Aguilar. "Give people a nostalgic look." That popcorn smell comes from a branded candle ($12.99). The promo banner for 1980s classic Uncle Buck in the opposite corner hit harder, personally; John Candy mugs over the message "The Buck stops here!" 

But anyone lucky to have the proper mechanics at home will find something beyond a simple throwback. The tidy organization, the employee recommendation wall (where I spotted the Axe Murderer classic), and the act of committing to what you're going to watch before sitting down to the TV were all, frankly, better than stream surfing. The previews that aired before the DVD main menus were, as ever, half ridiculous and half intriguing. Bend boasts plenty of breweries but little nightlife, making movie night an ideal vacation experience.

Renting meant opening a Blockbuster account, complete with a laminated card. Out in the parking lot, next to the Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza (naturally), I inspected the receipt only to realize our weeklong rentals ranged from $0.99 to $1.99, the individually wrapped microwave popcorn just $1.39 each.

As a novelty, the shop endures. A 2020 documentary, The Last Blockbuster, highlighted Bend and eulogized the entity. In a tech-age twist, Netflix—the company that heralded the end of the rental era—made a comedy series about a fictional last remaining Blockbuster in 2022, setting it in Michigan. It was canceled, fittingly, after one season.

But in Bend the movie-ticket-shaped Blockbuster sign still illuminates at night. The DVD boxes still snap open and shut with a satisfying click. There was a time when the chain was the big baddie, crowding out funky video rental shops; this one converted from the independent Pacific Video Store in 2000. But a few decades later, its last-standing status has stripped the corporate slickness from the place. What's left, believe it or not, is plenty of charm.

Bend Blockbuster

211 NE Revere Ave #3, Bend, OR 97701
Travel time from Seattle: 6 hours