Local video store "Video Review"

[Scott0]

This is a bragging post. I recently went to my local video renter that I love so dearly, and did a broad counting of approximately all the movies they rent. The total came out to over 15,000 movies. They have so many movies, there are dozens of subsections of one genre just to eliminate confusion. There is a "children's" section and a "family" section with distinct dividers. Suspense has its own wall. Comedy has about half the store. Drama is enormous to say the least, and even then it is further split up into a seperate "Classics" section. The Horror section is to die for, and Sci-fi is equally as great. Most of the sci-fi is then split up into another section called "Fantasy" that includes anime. War and Western have their own sections, as does Martial Arts. HALF OF ONE WALL IS DEDICATED TO MUSICALS ALONE. There is even a porn row that stretches the length of the building. Here are the general breakdowns of each section and number of movies:

Children - 693
Family - 547
War - 356
Western - 457
Drama - 2850
Classics - 616
Comedy - 2500
Fantasy - 539
Suspense - 745
Musicals - 410
Action - 1925
Porn - 486
HORROR - 1078
SCI-FI - 693

This all works out to apprximately 14,000 movies, but including New Releases, and Movies for Sale, plus video game rentals, Displays, and movies in the back, it puts the place well above 15,000. It's difficult to imagine what it's like to be in the midst of that many movies if you haven't ever experienced it before, but I still get the hairs on the back of my neck raised when I walk into that building. The guy who owns the store also owns the strip of stores it rests in, which includes an Outback Steakhouse, a Home Stereo store and some other smaller stores. The man is unbelievably well set. And, with his good wealth, it means that he has never had to return a single movies he's bought to rent out. Now, the store's been open since 1981, meaning almost all of the movies in the store are originals from their releases from 1980 onward.

How about your stores? Where do you guys wallow when you want a hard to find movie, or any movie? I'd like to hear about your sanctuaries where you live!

Scottie

[Paquita]

Im so jealous!! i know what its like to go into a place like that! youd think living in a big city thered be a really great video store SOMEwhere! but tehre isnt! instead they try to make up for a few good video stores with tons of crappy video stores all over the place flying out of everyones BUTTholes! anytime i go to the boonies to visit a relative theres some greasy looking video store on the corner with so many cool movies it makes me want to cry!  theres one place called nationwide with i think only 3 stores one is mostly porn tho and the rest used to be alright except now they got rid of a lot of the VHS to make room for DVD so it sucks.  and we have a card for tower records rentals but i think its only 2 or 3 nights and its kinda far and its no fun to get to without a car and no one wants to take a bunch of fat poo buses and lumber over to the video store to return videos after work! its not even that good anyway! arr! yarr!

does your video store have the raggedy ann and andy movie with the camel and babbette with the pirates and the big gooey dough guy with the candy stuck in him?

love colleen

[Brother Ragnarok]

I usually turn to my own collection, or to eBay.  I've seen all the flicks from all our local stores.  I used to work in one called Movies America here in Waverly, IA where I got to college.  It sucked, the management are idiots, and I quit.
I can, however, brag about music.  I work at CDGB's, one of the biggest independent record stores in the country.  We have over 150,000 titles, and on average it's five bucks a record cheaper than Sam Goody.  There's also a frequent buyer card that gets you free CD's and discounts.  

Brother R

[Scott0]

It wouldn;t surprise me if they did. They have Heathcliff home videos for goodness sake, copies of Thundercats episodes, including the feature length movie. Honestly, their kid's section is the most impressive of all their sections. It's scary to see what kind of kids shows existed, and that they have them on tape.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Damn Scott, that's quite the place that you have there.  It's definitely cool to be able to rely on great places to find quality (or not so quality) movies.  Almost 2,000 action movies!  That's incredible right there in itself.  Where do you live?  Just curious to see what place has this kind of movie heaven.

As for myself, being a student at the University of Toledo here in Ohio, the only place I have to go to is right down the street.  It's a place called Video Connection, and it's sort of like a Blockbuster, only it's twice as big.  The place is huge.  And it has probably around 1-2,000 movies on VHS that are dirt cheap for sale.  There's a constant buy 2, get the 3rd free deal always going on.  So that's where I've been going lately, and I've found quite a lot of great b-movies there.  So that's my goldmine, although eventually it will unfortunately dry up.  

Nick

[peter johnson]

Okay, I live in Longmont, Colorado, but just 16 miles up the road in Boulder, Co., is the king bull-goose looney of all video stores:  The Video Station.   They have, drum roll, please:  Over 45,000 titles, all under one roof.  That is even an old figure, as they are getting new ones all the time.
They advertise as "The Largest Video Outlet in Colorado", but for all I know they may be the largest in a 5-state area.
What I like best about them is their silent film section.  They have it divided by genre, director, and country(!), so it's real easy to find the Czech Yiddish Cinema version of "Der Golem"(1924), for example.  Where they get some of this stuff is beyond me.  Some of the boxes are all in Icelandic, for example -- They even have an Icelandic film section, consisting of 9 titles, last I looked.  I use this only as a for-instance . . .
The copies are usually first-rate too.  And now, of course, they're getting all the DVD stuff in.  It's so amazing to see a copy of Fritz Lang's "Seigfried" with no scratches or lines.
I recalled an obscure BBC TV series from 1979 called "Danger: UXB", a really cool show about bomb-difusers during the Blitz, and 3 days later they had the whole series on the shelf, ready to rent.  For all I know, I was the only one who did, but they got it in anyway.
For you gore freaks, every Thursday EVERY horror title is 99 cents.
peter johnson

[Deej]

You guys all suck...HARD! All I have is Blockbuster, Hastings, and Hollywood Video. They all pretty much just cater to the new-release market. I enjoy classic movies, and so I'm pretty much ass-out. Hastings, which I think is a regional, midwest thing, had a pretty kick ass classics and cult-films section when I was a kid. But when I moved back a few months ago, it had all gone to hell. Everything is in disaray, and most of the movies are missing.

So, mostly I get all my stuff online. I usually buy through Amazon or rent through Video Library(who have an great selection). I'd like to check out that store in Colorado, It's almost impossible to find a silent film here. I don't think there's even a Suncoast video store in Oklahoma. Oh, the humanity!

And Icelandic Cinema!!! I was just saying to my friend Harvey, about the shocking lack of Icelandic cinematic fare in the Blockbuster, facist bastards.

[Vermin Boy]

Around here there's a video store called the Music Forum that always has TONS of obscure old movies for sale. I literally have two shelves devoted entirely to stuff I've gotten there.

Also, last time I went to New York, I found a great place called Kim's Video Underground. From the outside it looks like a porn shop, but inside it's got massive quantities of cult movies for sale or rent, including a wall of movies that I don't think have ever been officially released (I picked up copies of Skidoo and Frank Zappa's Uncle Meat).

[The Burgomaster]

Back in the 1980s I used to rent from several stores (in fact, I used to work in one). One of my favorite stores was actually fairly small (I'd guess that they had about 3,000 tapes). The reason I liked the store so much was that the owner was a horror/cult film fanatic and he had many, many obscure titles that no other stores in the area had (including the one where I worked).

These days, things are different. I haven't rented a movie in at least 6 or 7 years. I've moved along from VHS to DVD and I just buy everything rather than renting. It will take me quite a while to reach 15,000 movies. (I am certainly impressed with the size of the store you mention).

I guess what I would really like to know is how many different TITLES they have. I would assume that there are many duplicate titles among the 15,000 movies you mentioned.

By the way, when I worked in the video store our PORN movies generated FAR more revenue per tape than our mainstream movies.

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[Scott0]

>>I guess what I would really like to know is how many different TITLES they have. I would assume that there are many duplicate titles among the 15,000 movies you mentioned.>>

Yes that would seem to be the case, but I counted with that in mind, and instead went by the number of boxes on the shelves. I have no idea how many there are in the store including duplicate copies. I think that would require a more thorough counting. By the way, if you were wondering, the store is located in Greensboro, N.C. Not exactly a booming metropolis like you would expect a store of such magnitude to be in, but I like to call it home. In about a week or so, I'll make a post regarding another store nearby, only this store is only in the business of selling movies, and all for $6.50 and under.

Scottie

[Lee]

Hey Deej at least  you have three places to rent from I'm stuck with two. As far as I know there are two Suncoasts in Oklahoma(I know this because I've been to both). One is in Tulsa and the other is in Oklahoma City. Gas up before you leave. Peter, I know that place in Boulder. I've never been in it but I've driven buy. My friend David raves about it. He said he couldn't beleave all the stuff he found there. I miss Colorado!