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International Independent Video Store Day; Saturday, October 18, 2014
Topic Started: Oct 13 2014, 04:59 PM (725 Views)
Mike
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Have some stories to share about your favorite video store? Do you use Netflix or Redbox now? Maybe you still have a store open nearby, do you rent from there frequently? Heck, maybe you aren't one for renting, do you buy movies from a video store or elsewhere?

INDEPENDENT VIDEO STORE DAY
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hawkeye24
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I think the days of video rental shops have been long gone. We do have a couple pawn-esque shops that specialize in video games and movies, but they usually fail to organize their inventory and the discs are almost always scratched so I don't frequent them anymore.

Happy Independent Video Store Day in advance for those of you who still have a store nearby!
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Mike
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A master list of remaining open video stores, a work in progress! (if you can contribute to this list, I'd appreciate it!!!)

UNITED STATES (sorted by state)
California
FloridaVideo Rodeo - 1119 W. University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601
GeorgiaVideodrome - 617 N. Highland Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30306
IllinoisThat's Rentertainment - 516 E John Street, Champaign, IL 61820
KentuckyWild and Woolly Video - 1021 Bardstown Rd, Louisville, KY
Massachusetts Hollywood Express Video - 1740 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA
MichiganThomas Video - 4732 Rochester Rd, Royal Oak, MI 48073
North Carolina
New York
OregonMovie Madness Video - 4320 Southeast Belmont Street, Portland, OR 97215
PennsylvaniaViva Video! - 16 W. Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, PA
Texas
Washington


CANADA (sorted by province)
Alberta
British Columbia
New BrunswickSpin-It Records and Video - 467 Main St, Moncton, NB
Ontario
SaskatchewanVideonomicon - Suite 100 – 220 3rd Ave. South, Saskatoon, SK [/list]
Edited by Mike, Dec 11 2014, 10:25 PM.
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Mike
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Its no surprise with technology advances and the growing number of convenient ways to watch a movie, that the video store is dying if it hasn't already. There are still a handful of independent stores who are still thriving but let's face it, they're exceptionally rare. This discussion came up the other day when I stopped in to a recently found closing video store I never knew existed, they had a sign on their door that said "After 30 years, we are closing." Naturally when I walked in, I realized just why they can't compete with VOD/Netflix/Redbox.

1) Rental costs. I realize they have more overhead to worry about, but from what I could tell this store didn't even try to compete with their local competition (Redbox). They were charging $4.25/night for new releases. That's great while you have the advantage (the first 30 days of release) but once Redbox gets it, they're only charging $1.50/night. It seems like common sense to drop the cost to at most $2/night at that point?

2) Catalog titles. Or in this store's case, the LACK OF catalog titles. This store reported being open for 30 years but I don't think they had a single title from the 90s not to mention any older. Almost everything they offered I could easily walk into Walmart or Big Lots (two big department stores around here) and BUY for $5 or less throughout the year. Not everyone is interested in collecting movies I get that, but it appeared to me that this store was buying movies out of discount bins just to pad the # of titles they have. No obscure, hard to find stuff that Redbox or even Netflix won't have.

3) Relying on video rentals to pay the rent/utilities. If you check out the websites of the stores listed above you'll find out that most video stores gave up relying on video rentals to pay the bills. They sell comic books, apparel, snack items, books, bike shop stuff, coffee, general merchandise, etc. If only this store added some movie-themed memorabilia outside of posters they'd probably still be in business. Even better, go into the buy/sell/trade business which seems to be a popular pop-up storefront these days.

4) Video games This irked me the most, the store had a small video game section. It seems to me that video games would make them money as games are a hit seller today, and once you beat a game it just sits there or you can choose to trade it back to stores like Game Stop for a small fraction of what you paid for it. You can't do that if all you have is a shelf full of PS2 games, I'm not a video gamer but even I know that's ridiculous in 2014. Sell/rent older console games (NES, Sega) or stick with modern technology like the PS3, X360, PS4, Xbox One, Wii, etc.. Again it seemed like this store just bought up some cheap ps2 games to make it look like they had a wide selection, that's not success that's wasteful spending. Find out what your customers WANT and go from there. Walk around Walmart and take notes, you'll see nobody looking at the PS2 games, heck they don't even need to keep them in locked cages anymore..that should tell you something!

We're all consumers here, can you offer any other suggestions to someone who wants to keep their video store open? Or discuss the points I've mentioned?
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hawkeye24
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Video stores in general, rental/sell-through, are a dying breed. A local shop that once focused on movies and games, are now branching out to other electronics (laptops, HDTVs, iPods, etc.), since these items require more space, the games/movie selection has taken a major hit. That now leaves online market places like Amazon and eBay, it's sad but true.
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Mike
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hawkeye24
Dec 21 2014, 12:45 PM
Video stores in general, rental/sell-through, are a dying breed. A local shop that once focused on movies and games, are now branching out to other electronics (laptops, HDTVs, iPods, etc.), since these items require more space, the games/movie selection has taken a major hit. That now leaves online market places like Amazon and eBay, it's sad but true.
It's unfortunate, but obviously true that a shop cannot make money off of movies alone. Video games, on the other hand I can't imagine why not, they take up little space and are popular even in today's digital age. Just look at GameStop, they seem to be doing well off.

I've been playing the idea on starting a side business like this one. I would imagine overhead costs for a "weekend" or seasonal business wouldn't be too high, and I wouldn't have to invest all my time/money into it. But in the end I think it would be unrealistic.
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