On October 19, 1985, the first Blockbuster video-rental store
opened, in Dallas, Texas. At a time when most video stores
were small-scale operations featuring a limited selection of
titles, Blockbuster opened with some 8,000 tapes displayed
on shelves around the store and a computerized check-out
process.

The first store was a success and Blockbuster expanded
rapidly, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest
providers of in-home movies and game entertainment,
before eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2010.

Blockbuster was founded by David Cook, who had previously
owned a business that provided computer software services
to the oil and gas industry in Texas.

In 1987, he sold part of the business to a group of investors
that included Wayne Huizenga, founder of Waste Management,
Inc., the world’s biggest garbage disposal company.

Founder David Cook.

As of August 2018, the last Blockbuster store is in Bend,
Oregon.

AUGUST/1991

Peterson opened his first store in 1964, which grew to a regional consumer electronics, home appliance, and furniture chain in the
1970s.

In the mid-2000s, the Petersons sold their last remaining property
at the corner of Southeast 82nd and Foster and moved the store
to a side street a block away, just off 82nd Avenue. The final
location closed on February 28, 2009.

The former Tom Peterson’s store at the corner of SE 82nd
and Foster.

Thomas Howard Peterson (February 23, 1930 – July 25, 2016)

Sign outside last Tom Peterson’s location in late 2008.