Our mission at SAW is to foster conversations about this thing we all love (or love to hate): film/TV. Many of our features are designed with you in mind. Your opinions, to be more to the point. You have ’em. We want to hear ’em.
Question of the Day (QOTD) is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a film/TV-related question that we put to you, the reader. The comments section below is like the feedback box at work; except, in this example, we actually read what you write and care about what you have to say.
Yesterday, one of two remaining video stores in Austin closed its doors for good. Vulcan Video had been struggling for some time, shrinking from two locations to one, and then moving further south for cheaper rent. In May of last year store owners launched a GoFundMe campaign to keep the store afloat after the rent in their new location was raised to such a point that they could no longer cover operating costs.
The news crushed me, but I realize I’m kind of an outlier when it comes to renting physical media. Most people, given the opportunity, would obviously rather not leave the house if they don’t have to.
Streaming is great. It’s super convenient. But as many streaming services focus on original content and licenses for media libraries are being pulled as other companies race to grab a piece of the streaming pie, movies that once filled the shelves at your local video store are becoming harder and harder to find on streaming. If you’re lucky and they are out of print or foreign, you may find a really bad VHS transfer on YouTube. Beyond that, scoring physical copies of many of these movies is the only way to watch them.
Which brings me to my question. Vulcan’s social media channels were filled with messages mourning the loss of the beloved video store, but a couple people suggested there may be a way to save the store, or at leas its library of physical movies. Someone even suggested the local Austin Public library buy Vulcan’s movie library to preserve it for the community.
The suggestions got me thinking: Should video stores, or at least their physical libraries, be preserved for the public?
For me, the video store has always been kind of an event, something to look forward to. Driving to the video store, picking out movies, and then paying real money for them meant committing to those movies. You might grab some burgers or pizza while you were out and then you went home and you watched your movies. They might suck. They might be great. You had to roll the dice. But variety is the spice of life, right?
But the real loss is just having access to a huge library of movies. Movies that may only rent once or twice a year but that will always be there on the shelf, no matter how much dust they collect.
So, for me, the answer to the question is yes.
Given the option, I’d love to see a private interest either offer to help fun the video store’s operating costs or buy the collection outright and operate the video store as a charity. Something like a museum or private library. And I’m not convinced video stores are going to disappear completely. It’s just going to take some intrepid entrepreneur coming along and reinventing the business model, modifying it, or adding something to it to bring in revenue (coffee, booze?). The small town video store is probably never coming back, but I think there’s definitely a way to make it work in hip urban areas. We’ll see.
What about you guys? Do you think video stores are worth preserving? Or is physical media just an outmoded way of watching movies? Should we embrace new technology and hope the gaps in streaming libraries eventually get filled in?
Tell us what you think in the comments and we’ll see you there.
