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Greg Abbott talks alcohol to-go and property taxes at Dallas restaurant convention A heat wave without wind is a problem for the Texas grid Rangers will do their part to conserve energy, turn up thermostat at Globe Life Field Arts & Entertainment Meet the Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive Dave Carrera doesn't need to rewind for memories of the old video rental chain -- they're sitting in his home office. Dave Carrera still supports the last remaining Blockbuster store in Bend, Ore., from his... Dave Carrera still supports the last remaining Blockbuster store in Bend, Ore., from his home in Plano, Texas. The company's entire point of sale system resides in Carrera's home office, where he's pictured on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.(Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor) By Dana Gerber 6:00 AM on Jul 6, 2022 CDT PLANO -- When Blockbuster first opened its doors in October of 1985, David Carrera was first in line. Well, one of the first -- customer number 2,027, to be exact. He still has his membership card from the original store in Medallion Center, where he would browse the mammoth selection of VHS and Betamax tapes as a teenager. "Back then, of course," said Carrera, 54, "renting videos was the entertainment of the day." Over the next three decades, Carrera went from being a Blockbuster customer to working in the stores -- shelving new titles, doling out recommendations and enjoying free rentals -- to becoming a corporate IT employee. At Blockbuster's peak, he helped manage the computer operations for 6,000-plus stores out of the company's McKinney office . He met his wife while working at the Blockbuster call center in Lake Highlands. "The level of camaraderie and family that you had with the Blockbuster family, it's infectious," said Carrera. Dave Carrera celebrates the opening of a Blockbuster store in Tyler. Dave Carrera celebrates the opening of a Blockbuster store in Tyler. (Courtesy of Dave Carrera) Even as the advent of streaming services and video-on-demand spurred layoffs, downsizing and outsourcing, Carerra hung on. When Dish Network, which bought Blockbuster in a 2011 bankruptcy auction, announced in late 2013 that it would close all remaining company-owned stores, Carrera wasn't quite ready for the end credits to roll. Approximately 30 Blockbuster franchisees scattered around the country opted to stay open even after corporate support was cut off. But these franchisees faced an existential problem: They needed a centralized computer system to operate. Unless these remaining Blockbusters made the hefty investment to do a complete technological overhaul, they would have no way to do business. Carrera, coming off years overseeing Blockbuster technology, saw a way to keep his tenure going a little longer -- even though he knew he was on rented time. "I'm literally taking parts out of old systems, almost like a junkyard," Carrera said. "I've..."I'm literally taking parts out of old systems, almost like a junkyard," Carrera said. "I've got a finite amount of equipment, and I'm shocked that it's lasted this long."(Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor) "I reached out to the front of the remaining franchisees and said, 'Hey, if you want to still keep going, I'll support you,'" said Carrera. With no way to upgrade the already-antiquated software, in early 2014, he and a handful of ex-Blockbuster employees gathered at his Plano home to cobble together a system that Carrera could use to control the franchisees remotely. He became the owner-operator of the Carrera Company, exclusively catering to the remaining Blockbuster stores. "Blockbuster, through all those years, never ever upgraded that system to a 21st-century computer system," said Alan Payne, who was a Blockbuster franchisee owner until 2018 and wrote a book about Blockbuster's rise and fall, published last year. "Dave, fortunately, had the expertise to patch things up as we went along." Since then, the number of Blockbuster stores has dwindled down to just one: A location in Bend, Ore., where rafts of nostalgia-seekers make pilgrimages to take photos in front of the ticket stub sign and peruse the racks of DVDs. But the lone store couldn't rent out a movie, redeem a coupon or run a credit card if it weren't for Carrera running the circa-1990s servers in his home office, a role he considers "a badge of honor." He is the last of the Dallas employees working to preserve the Blockbuster brand -- a brand that, even more than a decade after its downfall, still enchants the cultural memory in shades of blue and yellow. Visitors mill around outside the last Blockbuster store in Bend, Ore., on May 31, 2021.Visitors mill around outside the last Blockbuster store in Bend, Ore., on May 31, 2021.(Dana Gerber) "There's this long goodbye," said Carrera, who also works full-time at Austin-based Trinsic Technologies. "Then it's the challenge of keeping it going." Carrera's contributions to the scrappy store, he admitted, are modest. Every week, he inputs new titles into the system. Once in awhile, when a part needs replacing, he'll ship it up; knowing the franchisees would need backups, he snagged as much equipment as he could before the distribution center shut down. But this technology, he said, was built to last. "I'm literally taking parts out of old systems, almost like a junkyard," he said. "I've got a finite amount of equipment, and I'm shocked that it's lasted this long." For the most part, Sandi Harding, the manager of the last Blockbuster in Bend, deals with day-to-day technical issues, "but every once in a while, there'll be a critical thing where the main server will go down," she said. Those times, she calls Carrera. Harding said that she and the owner of the Bend store, Ken Tisher, have discussed upgrading the systems, "but now we've got the nostalgia piece," she said. "When people come in, they expect to see my IBM computers. They expect that I'm going to still have those floppy disks behind the counter." View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Official Last Blockbuster (@blockbusterbend) Carrera has visited the store in Bend only once, last summer. "It was everything I was hoping," he said. "It's like time stood still, because you walk into the store and the smell, the view, the setup, the configuration -- it's exactly the same as it was when I visited my last store here in Dallas." Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Harding said, business in Bend is going well. When the store eventually does close, she doesn't anticipate it being due to the computer systems, but "because people stopped coming and renting." This doesn't stop Carrera, though, from worrying about his end of the bargain. "It's the thing that wakes me up in the middle of the night: 'Oh my gosh, what happens if we run out of computers?'" he said. "Well, it is what it is. It's just going to run until it doesn't run anymore." Either way, Carrera said: "I'm here to the very end." Blockbuster employee Dave Carrera has an assortment of memorabilia, as well as his...Blockbuster employee Dave Carrera has an assortment of memorabilia, as well as his membership card and employee cards. (Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor) Dana Gerber Dana Gerber, Arts & Entertainment Reporter. Dana Gerber is a reporter covering a variety of stories about culture, entertainment and the arts at The Dallas Morning News. She previously interned at the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine and Bethesda Magazine in Maryland. She graduated in May from Emerson College in Boston with a degree in Writing, Literature and Publishing. dana.gerber@dallasnews.com @DanaGerber6 Featured * Today's ePaper * Your City's News * Podcasts * Timeless in Texas * Curious Texas * Public Notices * Newspaper Archives * Puzzles and games * Al Dia - Noticias en Espanol * Obituaries Top Arts & Entertainment Stories Here's where Shaquille O'Neal has appeared in North Texas, his new home Shaquille O'Neal, Carrollton's newest resident, is spreading cheer and social media is... Carlos Santana postpones some concerts, including Dallas, after health scare FILE - Carlos Santana performs at the BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival in Napa, Calif.,... 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