The movie rental store lives — and it’s not going anywhere | 24CA News
It could also be a business mannequin of a bygone period, however cinephiles can nonetheless bodily flick thru aisles of incredible flicks at one of many final film rental shops in Ottawa.
Tucked away in a small and unassuming strip mall on Kilborn Avenue in Ottawa’s south finish, film rental buffs with a eager eye will discover Movies n’ Stuff.
Inside is like taking a step again in time: 12,000 film titles (largely DVDs) are stacked alongside partitions. A big figurine of Darth Vader looms over clients as they browse. There’s a cardboard cutout of Uma Thurman from Kill Bill.
As you make your rental buy, you should buy some sweet and microwave popcorn.
It’s a business Peter Thompson carries on with satisfaction. He inherited the shop from his mother and father 5 years in the past, who ran it for 30 years earlier than that.
Thompson, who beforehand labored in gross sales, practically shut it down.
“There was a pretty good backlash from people around here that said ‘Look, don’t do it, don’t do it. You know what you’re doing. Trust us, you can do it,'” he mentioned.
“My wife and I talked about it and we decided to do it, and it was a good decision.”
In a world of streaming and free content material on-line, most clients have deserted in-person visits to video rental shops. Many have stopped coming in during the last 15 years, mentioned Thompson.
‘Like going to the library’
Still, there are sufficient loyal clients, a few couple hundred every week, that stroll by way of the door to maintain Movies n’ Stuff regular.
“It’s like going to the library and browsing the shelves and enjoying the books that way,” mentioned Phoebe Gowdy, who has been renting from the shop for the final 10 years. “We enjoy the movies that way and we get very good advice here.”
“We actually don’t have to spend a long time browsing because he knows what we like.”
Thompson mentioned it is that private contact that has folks coming again. That, and never everybody enjoys paying for a number of subscription companies which can be going up in value.
There’s additionally a good bit of hustle concerned. Thompson works with a distributor to inventory his cabinets with the most recent or uncommon releases — the important thing to maintaining with the competitors, he mentioned.
“At night, usually I’ll lay in bed and I’ll scroll through. ‘OK what are the big foreign films? What are the good foreign films? What are the unknown foreign films? Unknown dramas out of Ireland, unknown dramas out of Britain?'”
“I’ll search for them until I find them.”
No sequel for video rental shops
Thompson is not the one one preserving the largely forgotten custom alive. Glebe Video International on Bank Street additionally affords 18,000 film titles from a much less standard location: a church basement.
But do not name it a comeback, based on Ottawa-based movie reviewer Di Golding.
“I don’t think we’re going to see the video store back the way it was and maybe that’s OK. It’s like a perfect moment in time. It’s such a cultural thing,” she mentioned.
Golding, who labored at Elgin Video that closed down practically 10 years in the past, believes streaming companies have cemented the tip of in-person leases.
“There aren’t very many places that you can go where you can just hang out … and then you can just leave and you haven’t done anything, but your life has just kind of been changed or opened a little bit from being around the movie experience itself,” she mentioned.
“We don’t have that anymore. You know, I find that really sad.”
While Thompson additionally would not count on a resurgence of video rental spots, he mentioned he is grateful to his neighbours that are available to speak and lease films.
“There’s some nights when it weighs on you, right? You’re thinking to yourself, ‘OK. This is a model. It’s not gonna explode. You’re not gonna become busier,” mentioned Thompson.
“Then there are other times I feel very proud.”
