Ode to the Video Store

When I was a child, I don't remember roaming the aisles of the toy store or the candy store. I remember roaming the VIDEO store. That's right. My love of movies traces back to as far as I remember. I remember my step-dad rushing me after I had spent an hour slowly pacing the aisles at the Blockbuster on Central Avenue in Columbia Heights. I remember trying to convince my dad to let me rent two movies from Mr. Movies in Shoreview when we spent the weekends at his condo. I even spent five years of my life working at an independently owed video store that sold porn and normal movies. Was 15 too young to sell porn to sleazy old men?

With the dawn of Netflix (I'm a subscriber) and RedBox (never tried), video stores have slowly gone out of business. Hollywood Video went goodbye. Blockbuster has filed for bankruptcy. What are people supposed to do if they are in the mood for a good old catalog title? An oldie but a goodie? You can't get those through RedBox. What if you're craving a movie and don't want to wait 2 days for Netflix? What's a desperate movie geek to do?

Last night, I was in the mood to watch "Mystic Pizza" as part of my new duty to write foodie movie reviews for a foodie blog. LUCKILY, Video Stardom in the Quarry came to the rescue! They were still open. I went in and was in heaven. Not only were they playing "Hocus Pocus" in the background, but they had my movie in stock! I filled out my membership card and paid for my video. Wait, I mean DVD. Today at work, I got a courtesy call from them asking how my first rental was. Now that is good customer service.

Oh, how I wish there were more video stores around.

-P McG