• Black Dog Video closed for good on Saturday, after more than 25 years i

    From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to All on Fri Jul 1 23:49:00 2022
    Devoted customers say final farewell to long-standing Vancouver
    DVD rental store | CBC News

    Black Dog Video closed for good on Saturday, after more than 25
    years in business

    Rhianna Schmunk · CBC News · Posted: Jun 27, 2022 3:00 PM PT | Last Updated: June 27

    It's almost 8 p.m. on the first true summer night of the year
    in Vancouver. Rowdy clusters of friends fill patios on
    Commercial Drive with chatter and roaring laughter.

    Chantelle Parsons would rather be indoors, alone in a place of
    comfort.

    She lingers quietly in a dim corner of a DVD rental store at
    Commercial and Grant Street, poring over the documentary
    section. One at a time, she tucks a few picks into the crook of
    her elbow. When her arms are full, she creeps shyly to the
    checkout.

    "A few more," she said, sheepishly sliding three more titles
    across the counter to add to her pile. Chantelle Parsons holds
    some of her final movie choices from Black Dog Video on Friday.
    She said she visited the shop often during her childhood in
    East Vancouver.

    It was the second-to-last day in business for Black Dog Video
    after more than 25 years. Beat down by a steady decline in
    customers and a steep rise in operating costs over the last
    decade, the shop shut down for good on Saturday - leaving just
    one surviving DVD rental store in the city.

    As the store prepared to close, it sold off all of the 16,000
    movies in its inventory: anything ranging from new releases,
    classics, dramas, comedies, cartoons, documentaries, adult
    films and sci-fi. On the first day of the sale, movie
    collectors and regulars from across the Lower Mainland and
    Vancouver Island lined up around the block.

    Classics from filmmakers like Billy Wilder went first, as did
    foreign films from those like France's François Truffaut and
    Belgium's Agnès Varda. A special edition, Blu-Ray copy of
    1949's The Third Man sold for $175.

    By the final Friday night, it was mostly regulars coming back.
    Some had handwritten wish-lists and cardboard boxes to fill.
    Others just wanted to be there.

    "I'm kind of sad ... I've been coming here for a long time,"
    said Rosemary Mah, who came to the store regularly from her
    South Granville apartment.

    The feeling was shared by Jeff Shantz, who travelled an hour to
    the store by bus and SkyTrain from Surrey.

    "I'm going to miss, I guess, a little bit of everything," said
    Shantz, who teaches criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic
    University.

    "When you bump into people who are interested in the same
    movies and you have a chance to talk about it ... it's
    different," he said.

    Customers agreed the store offered a place of community that
    doesn't exist through streaming. You could ask a human being
    what to watch instead of scrolling the "recommended" tab. When
    you came back, you could debate what made a movie good or bad
    with people who cared.

    The owner, Darren Gay, said the writing had been on the wall
    since streaming giants like Netflix launched. He thought the
    pandemic might boost business, with theatres being closed, but
    it did the opposite: people stayed home more than ever and
    didn't come back once restrictions lifted.

    "It's just the way we live in the world right now," Gay said,
    letting out a deep sigh at the mention of streaming. "I've made
    so many good friends with customers and staff through the
    years. I'm going to miss seeing all of them ... but it's time."

    Shortly before the end of the night on Friday, Gay left his
    colleague to close up shop and slipped out the back door for
    the "two-minute" walk home. He carried a copy of Donnie Darko
    for his son and Contamination for himself, adding to the 100 or
    so titles he'd already taken for himself.

    Jeff Shantz said one of his favourite things about Black Dog
    Video was their selection of often hard-to-find documentary
    films.

    "Fifteen minutes to close!" video clerk Josie Boyce announced
    from behind the desk to the customers left in the aisles.

    "Do I hear 16?" one man called out a mock auctioneer's voice,
    drawing a laugh from everyone inside.

    Parsons made her way toward the front door with two dozen DVDs
    - mostly "embarrassing" documentaries - stuffed into a blue
    canvas bag. The shop's '70s playlist had stopped, leaving only
    the hum of the ceiling fan and creak of the floorboards to
    drown out the noise outside.

    Asked what she'd miss about the store she grew up visiting,
    Parsons' tears burst out so suddenly they seemed to surprise
    even her.

    "I'm highly introverted ... It was just your one last contact
    with people who are having a genuine conversation," said
    Parsons, a library worker who now lives in Coquitlam.

    "It's one of those last places you can come and just be a
    person."

    --- OpenXP 5.0.51
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to Ogg on Sat Jul 2 07:09:19 2022
    [Black Dog Video closing article....]
    "It's one of those last places you can come and just be a
    person."

    Thanks for sharing the article, Ogg. I know of a couple 'Black Dogs' that I miss, too... I'm sure we all do.



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  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Ogg on Sun Jul 3 16:08:11 2022
    On 01 Jul 2022 at 11:49p, Ogg pondered and said...

    Black Dog Video closed for good on Saturday, after more than 25
    years in business

    Poop, here in Dunedin, we lost our last video store about 12 months ago. I'm still in mourning...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to paulie420 on Mon Jul 4 20:04:00 2022
    Hello paulie420!

    ** On Saturday 02.07.22 - 07:09, paulie420 wrote to Ogg:

    [Black Dog Video closing article....]
    "It's one of those last places you can come and just be a
    person."

    Thanks for sharing the article, Ogg. I know of a couple 'Black Dogs' that
    I miss, too... I'm sure we all do.

    Compare that to THIS story not long ago at the other end of the
    same country:

    "Highly profitable" Bay Street Video store in Toronto thrives
    despite mainstream consumer shift.

    "Located at 1172 Bay Street in Toronto at the base of a 1980s
    luxury condominium tower, customers can walk into a time
    machine to rent or buy their favourite movie for the weekend.
    The location of the video store has been around for 40 years
    and changed ownership in 1993 to Bay Street Video. Now, the
    retailer is known to have the largest DVD collection in
    Toronto.

    "We are a very profitable store, we view ourselves as the
    little store that could," says Dwayne Aylward, the Bay Street
    Video store manager. "In this city, you see these types of
    stores closing, and we are thriving. It really confuses people
    when they find out we exist."

    "Bay Street Video has close to 40,000 titles, a number you
    can't find anywhere else.

    "Customers can find newer movies, or you can buy an 80s classic
    - there is something for everyone. Bay Street Video has the
    largest collection in Toronto, and even possibly Canada says
    Aylward. They offer thousands of titles in DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K
    UltraHD.

    "Video stores are becoming a dying industry and as streaming
    services are on the rise, Bay Street Video is having a harder
    time getting new releases on DVD.

    "The biggest challenge is a lot of newer movies these days are
    only available on streaming service," says Aylward. "People are
    hearing about a movie, and we have to say that movie is only
    available on Apple or Netflix. The hope is a company will get
    the rights to the movie and put it out on DVD, but that is not
    always the case."

    More to the story, with some photos:

    https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2022/06/highly- profitable-bay-street-video-store-in-toronto-thrives-despite- mainstream-consumer-shift-interview/

    https://bbs.lc/Y2z2C

    --- OpenXP 5.0.51
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to Ogg on Mon Jul 4 18:25:11 2022
    [Black Dog Video closing article....]

    Compare that to THIS story not long ago at the other end of the
    same country:

    "Highly profitable" Bay Street Video store in Toronto thrives
    despite mainstream consumer shift.

    https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2022/06/highly- profitable-bay-street-video-store-in-toronto-thrives-despite- mainstream-consumer-shift-interview/

    https://bbs.lc/Y2z2C

    Another interesting read - its awesome to see that SOME DVD store is still chugging along... I love that they are doing well and seem to know that the little store that could continues to thrive in a w0rld where streaming seems to be everything.

    If I were closer, I'd certainly visit and be a customer... neat stuff.



    |07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
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    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/04/26 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o for beeRS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)