With the surge in popularity for vinyl records came a newfound love for the record store (Sonic Boom, anyone?). But what about its cousin, the indie video store? How has it survived the influx of iTunes and Netflix, when other movie rental giants have not? Should it not be shown some respect? That’s what the folks at Eyesore Cinema thought. They created International Video Store Day, which kicks off tomorrow.
Here are our top five reasons why indie video stores still rule.
- Selection. Hey, we like new releases as much as the next cinephile-who-prefers-not-to-shell-out-$20-at-the-movie-theatre, but sometimes we want to catch a classic movie we haven’t seen before, or maybe re-watch an old favourite (we just saw The Wizard again. Still awesome). Indie video stores offer us the wide selection we want without shoving in our faces every new weekly release (Transformers 3 is coming out. We know. We get it).
- Service. If you’ve seen the movie Clerks, then you know there’s a group of walking encyclopedias on film out there, who live and breathe movies. Not only will they quickly guide you to what you’re looking for, they can probably recommend ten movies you’ll love without breaking a sweat. Some people may call them video geeks, we prefer video gods. (Oh, and if you haven’t seen Clerks, well, then, uh, rent it).
- Street cred. Saying you’re going down to the video store just sounds a lot cooler than saying you just downloaded a bunch of movies off Netflix. It’s got that retro-sounding, hip-without-trying-too-hard vibe . You know, similar to how “vinyl” sounds compared to “mp3.”
- Savings. Sure, you can rent some movies on iTunes for $2.99, but those ones usually suck. And the $7.99 fee for unlimited Netflix is pretty reasonable, except their Canadian selection sucks too.
- Sticking it to The Man. What better way to flip off corporate greed than bypassing iTunes and Netflix and heading straight to your local mom-and-pop video store? Think of it as Occupy Queen Street.
