Video Store Millionaire (documentary)
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- The last video store in all of Lancaster County prepares to close for good. This documentary follows the Stalter family as they cope with leaving the video rental business after 35 years.
LancDocs
monellifilms.com/lancaster
The owner passed just 7 months later.
That's just tragic. Rest in peace Mr. Jeff.
Great video.
He didn't outlast family video. Big chain like blockbuster here in the US east coast. they lasted until 2022. just closed down this year,.
Love the fact that he sold to the competitor blockbuster for $1.5M then brought the same building from those funds and was charging Blockbuster rent. Pro-move big time.
Bought not brought
@@MoviesAtTheBarcorrecting grammar on a 3-year-old comment is literal basement behavior.
everyone hates you
This younger generation has no idea how important and fun renting video tapes actually was. The absolute joy of getting out of school on Friday, going out to eat with the family or friends, and then renting a few videos for the weekend. A feeling completely and totally lost in time. And it’s an absolute shame. Maybe it’ll return one day when we realize that convenience is far less important than our humanity. What a fantastic documentary.
It was also a very captive experience... no distractions from iPhones, social media, etc. You were totally present, making great memories with your friends and family.
People not realizing that convenience is far less important than humanity is a THE tragedy of this age.
I can certainly relate. I closed down 2 video stores, the last one in 2005. I miss the VSDA conventions back when they were fun and I miss a lot of my customers...Competed with both BB and Movie Gallery. Never again will kids get excited and jump for joy because the movie they wanted was "in" stock on a Friday night. Movies on demand or Netflix will never bring that level of excitement back to "renting" movies.
More than movies, a lot of us kids outside of big cities didn't have cable tv facilities so we weren't able to see Wrestling ppv live on TV.
These ppv wrestling videos would arrive like 3 days later or a week later in local video stores.
Imagine the excitement we felt especially on weekends like Friday or Saturday when we were told it would arrive. Sometimes I would have sleepless nights getting so excited to go to the video store the next day after school.
It also helped that during those days wrestling match results weren't leaked out as is the case now with the internet.
Now the whole world can hear about the results of matches whether the show is in Japan or UK because of spoilers from the internet.
There was also a possibility that the Wrestling cassette or new movie releases we wanted to watch was in high demand among our peers & could potentially miss out renting the videos if someone else arrived before us. It happened to us a lot of times even if the video store had 3 or 4 copies of the video, we'd still miss out.
Me and my friends often had to pay off some of the store clerks with extra dollars to reserve the video tape for us by hiding it from other customers & in this way we made sure we had the videos we wanted to watch for the weekends.
Man, i miss those days, the nostalgia.
The anticipation the excitement of knowing we had the physical copy of what we're dying to watch in our living room with my family, friends or even neighbours at times who would come over if it was an exclusive new movie. 😀
Damn straight
Ironically, two libraries in my area rent movies and you see that same excitement in kids’ eyes. Which makes me believe that you can still maintain a video store, but you have to offer extra services and product to keep folks coming in.
@@TruSoulDj Their eyes are just watering from the smell of hobo urine
@@TruSoulDj Their eyes are just watering from the smell of hobo urine
The world has changed, lads, and I've got the sensation that I can't adapt to it, even though I'm not even 30 years old.
Neat documentary. The whole blockbuster deal was an ironic twist. The emotions of the owners really came thru in your portrayal of their business, well done!
Thanks, Adam. Yeah his deal with Blockbuster was what really drew me to their story.
Monelli Films thanks
So sad :(
The whole transition from psychical form of video; VHS, DVD and Blu Ray to all being online is kind of melancholy
@@kevinkelley3906 It makes picking and watching a movie no different to a UA-cam video.. movies are supposed to be immersive and make an evening. Spending a half hour choosing a movie in a store like BlockBuster or equivalent and getting home, ordering your pizza or whatever and watching said movie! Your selection was crucial because what you chose is what you have to watch!
Now, you just browse via a online library and if 10 minutes in you dislike the film you hit back and choose another one! It's just not the same man.
I am done with streaming.
I am pretty much buying physical media again, getting it for dirt cheap and bolstering my collection.
Don't have to worry about internet or if Netflix takes the movie off. I put it in my blu ray player and watch away.
Very sad but excellent video. I love physical media and will always collect and preserve it. I have no interest in Netflix or any other streaming service, it's all soulless to me
Couldn't have said it better myself (or typed it better). I am a huge fan of physical media too...I haven't got Netflix either and never will. I am still collecting classic movies etc on VHS. I feel bad for the generation who never got to experience going to the Video store and choosing a movie apposed to sitting on their ass at home and just clicking on anything. I have to have a hard cover w/ sleeve of a movie not just a remote...kind of cheapens the experience.
Rusty Blades Definitely my friend, nice to hear from someone else who feels the same 👍
@@horrorhands666 Absolutely!!. I really hate this digital age. All I want to do at times is talk to actual Human Beings only to be told.. "Do it online", sometimes I like to pay stuff in person to prevent any hacking of accounts if you know what I mean 👍
Rusty Blades Yeah, I totally get that
I only watch movies on laserdisc now
When I was 16 I worked at a video store and our store was threatened by Blockbuster, Family Video, and Movie Gallery the same way this store was. The only difference is that the owner of our store, let's call him "Mike", didn't give a shit. He didn't care. Let me explain that... when I say "Mike" didn't care, he wasn't going to sale that store to anyone for any amount. The video store, like his salvage yard and furniture outlet, was a front for his real business. He was a bookie. His plan was to have the video store to lose money. Well, that was the plan, the problem was that he never told any of us (the employees) this.
"Mike" tried his best to fail. His recipe for disaster went as follows: (a). hired a friend of his "Randy", who knew nothing about running a business to manage the store. (b). hired a stay at home mom to be the assistant manager. And the piece de resistance (c). hired a bunch of pot-smoking high school kids that he figured wouldn't show up half the time. The reason why we succeeded was that we didn't know how to run a video store, which meant that we didn't know what not to do. So we started reading all of the video store newsletters and magazines that we got every month.
Bottom line, the video store was very successful. It was so successful that "Mike's" wife took over the running of the video store and opened two other locations.
That's a movie right there!
That's the spirit! Hell yeah
That's a great story
You said he wanted his video store business to fail since he was a bookie.
Can you please explain how intentionally "failing" would benefit the owner? I don't understand that part!
Do you mean to say that he was making a bet with others on a huge amount of money as bookies do for eg (in horse races or match results) that his store would close down or something?
@@kurumi9714 He had a lumber yard, an antique mall, and a video store. He could launder large amounts of cash through all three. Two of them could be profitable but the video store was going to be the (tax write-off). But it didn't work out like that, the video store ended up being too profitable.
Enough time has passed, I could write a script or a book. It would come off like a John Hughes movie, we basically tormented the comic book store, the Chinese restaurant, and the Circuit City that was in that same strip mall. We all got along but we just played a lot of tricks on each other.
And when I say he was a bookie, he was a bookie. He had about five different locations where you can play poker, and if you knew who to call you could bet on any sport at any given time with him.
Best ten minute documentary I've ever seen!
Also, it _was_ a better time. Don't ever let anybody tell you differently
That’s great. What a great story. Amazing are people’s lives. And what means most to them.
i spend my whole youth roaming the aisles of our town's 8 videostores back in the 80s/90s and now we have none and i still miss them dearly. This interwebs thing has destroyed physical media: our town went from 8 videostores to zero, from 3 libraries to zero and from 3 record stores to zero!!! So just like a commentor below i also started collecting myself and am now up to 3000 movies on VHS/DVD and 6 bookcases with books, zines and CD's and i also refuse to even acknowledge Netflix!
This was a really well done documentary. Perfect execution and gets right to the point. It is surprising to see it with so few views. It deserves more recognition.
Thanks
This. This is exactly why netflix, hulu, and all the other streaming companies have not, and will never, see a dime of my money. I was lucky enough to begin collecting movies a few years before rental stores started going out of business. I've got about 3,000 titles all on DVD, blu ray and 4K, and will soon be looking into starting a rental store in my small suburban community in California using my own personal collection.
Wish me luck.
Did you ever pursue this? If so, I’d love to hear your story.
@@RetroInjectionDave Not yet. But it's constantly looming. Just waiting for the best time to pull the trigger.
I live in AZ but as a a lover of physical media, I'd make the trip to your store when you do open it
Please keep us updated!
Were you ever able to make it happen? Super curious. I'm wanting to do the same. I currently only have about 500 titles, and am building it up by thrifting whenever my wife lets me lol. I spent 10 bucks last week on about 75 dvds and blurays. This video made me want to make it happen even more.
Powerful. Much truth in that people are missing out on social interaction, word of mouth, recommendations... Suddently, the whole experience has turned to virtuality. Which has some highlights, to be fair, but there's a longing for simpler, more wholesome and innocent times. Greetings from Argentina
Wow that transition from 9:30 on. Well done! Cool doc, and certainly brings back some memories of my own childhood experiences with rental stores. We certainly did appreciate content more then.
Nothing makes me want to open up a video store more than this. Wow. Man, I miss the 90's more than I could ever explain. Never would have thought I'd say that back then as a kid. Couldn't wait to grow up and do my own thing. Now, I want to take my family back to the 90's with me and live it all again. Was a much better time. But, we all must move on I suppose. This video just hit me with a nostalgia brick right in the face. Boy oh boy.
The day my Dad signed me up for my first Video Rental Account and I got my own card to rent was one of the best days of my life. ☺️ Finally I got to check out all the horror films and anything else that sparked my interest. It was very liberating.
This was wonderful and sad at the same time, thanks for sharing this story.
Thanks for watching. I love combining wonder and sadness
This was so emotional and great. Thank you for posting this!
This makes me Sad so many movie store memories.
I never thought of Blockbuster being a bully after watching their Netflix documentary. Such a heartbreaking story. This documentary definitely served up some good tea though 🍵
Loved this, very moving. I miss my local video store.
The true essence and term of endearment that "All good things, must come to an end."
😢😭😭😭😭😔
Some of my greatest memories was my parents bringing me to blockbusters and renting movies for the weekend,I miss that so much.
Me too. All over the world we are nostalgic. But still close down UA-cam and open up some other app to watch a movie or series. Kinda sad
Everyone says that and yet block buster went out of business. It's almost like people say things they don't mean. It's wierd.
You can see Blockbuster logo still on that building
It was like a ghost hanging over the place.
video store like this were a huge part of my late teens and early adulthood. I turned 19 when vcr's finally became affordable to everyone and video stores were everywhere.
working full time at 19 (in what became my lifelong trade). I could rent anything. (hot just pon. those black curtains creeper me out.) it opened me up to movies I most
likely would never have seen. so, thank you.
To be honest. What killed these stores was the mass sale of all vhs to DVD. That was part of their niche. The better move would have been to remain VHS centric and do what a place like Scarecrow does. Have a massive library of tapes and rent them online and appeal to collectors.
Some might say this store did that and still closed, but they were the longest survivor which says the method was the right way for many other places who closed 10-15 years ago.
No streaming killed it off and Netflix
So sad to see shops like this no longer around. Physical media over digital media anyday.
Touching documentary. Short and sweet. Less is always more. Thank you, it was a pleasure watching
Thanks I really appreciate that
A reallly depressing yet relevant video in so many ways!
It's extremely painful to watch videos like this.
you can always rent these,and watch them over and over again.
Great story, worth making into a film.
Hit me in the feels...
Excellent video! Love your passion for film making!
Thank you. I love it very much
people that didnt grow up with video stores really dont get how important they were to the social fabric of america..... the downfall of these places in my eyes is really the start of the social problems we have right now. this is what people mean when they say make america great again, life used to be fun and everyone was included. ugh what are we doing?
This was delightful, I can’t believe it only has 30k views at the time of this comment.
Thanks I appreciate it. I have tons of other shorts and features for your viewing pleasure
Thank you for showing this. This was well done but it still stinks that there are no more video stores. I found one next to a truck stop in New Mexico five years ago and for miles, all the towns looked deserted.
I went in and this older woman was at the counter she was very nice. I walked around just looking first then bought two adult movies and Heat with Al Pacino. I returned a year later and it had closed which was no surprise because in the area, there was really nothing but abandonment.
What a great documentary. I love how you waited to show that adam fella. Unique taste he's got. A+
Thanks. It was my M. Night Shyamalan twist.
Amazing documentary. Absolutely awesome work.
Thanks. They were easy to work with and so natural on camera. Thanks for watching
This needs more public views
Thanks. I agree
when you grew up in upstate ny in the country things like a video store and mcdonalds were a rare treat couldnt even get a pizza delivered so this vid is awsome
I miss the excitement I had as a kid of renting a VHS tape I never saw before...
these video rantal docuemantries are fascinaticing
Started in 1985 still roling in Mcminnville, OR. Big stores made us change our name, now their gone and we are now known as The REEL HOLLYWOOD VIDEO
Do you just sell or do you also rent?
@@Ty-bl5pm We are primarily a rental store, but also have many titles for sale.
This Is very Sad since HD Tv all Analog was left to Die. dvd players Vhs was Obsolete over Night...
I wonder if businesses in California were called “West Virginia Video”
In a deleted scene he mentioned naming it California Video to make it sound big like Blockbuster Video or Hollywood Video.
I've been into all sorts of collectibles both old and new. I am not from Pennsylvania but It seems like that's where the best collectibles reside.
Hope that coffee shop fails.
Unless it's a Starbucks or something, then it will since it's literally next to a McDonald's. 9:41 (On the right)
When I seen the blockbuster shut down after years of excitement going to it since I was a child to my mid teens (when it closed)... the shock... the saddening feeling... it really sucks. Yea Netflix is cool and shit if you get snowed in or something is keeping you locked in the house. But there’s just something about finding movie titles you never seen before and holding it in your hands and the excitement of racing home to make a nice snack to going along with this treasure you now behold lol. No but I really do miss physically going to a store to look at movies.... and no Walmart doesn’t count. They only keep movies that are well known and popular
good luck ..people all you done great job ..
Hoy fui ah la.ultima video renta, aca en tijuana y diablos que bien se siente entrar en ese lugar... mucha nostalgia
I used to work at a Videostore in Australia back in the 90s. The owner sold the store to Blockbuster for $260,000. The only stock they didn't want was the adult movies and international movies.
Dude, what a story about an American family that just keeps on moving forward. Even some lessons to be learned. The goth kid looks odd, but seems well mannered and smart.
I think Adam rented Edward scissorhands way too many times.
Just hit me that I'll never have the opportunity to take my children to a video store for a movie night. Some of my fondness memories was going to the video store on the weekend with my folks. Another thing streaming doesn't have is a variety of independent films or tv show box sets of rare cancelled tv shows. Also u can't get an honest opinion from someone about a film before renting. The movie rental store will always have a special place with me.
Sad... but a very well made documentary
Leaving the Blockbuster label scar was brilliant
Yeah it’s such a wonderful metaphor. Thanks for watching
Hate that this happened films will never be the same again it's just not the same with so-called Netflix the excitement is not there but I am so glad I got to experience renting great moves over the years. Would have loved to shared it with my son but time moves on. :(
The world I grew up in is gone.
Amazing documentary
Thanks for watching
Wow! About 4 mins into this and Marilyn Manson shows up!
Perfect ending to the documentary
5:13 I can see that he likes Marilyn Manson too.
Wow, the intro sound is the one from the Evercade.
Very well done.
Thank you
I nearly spit-taked and died laughing at 4:23
the staff and family seem pretty cool.
Sad to see it go under...
nice documentary.
2:51 Heisenberg early days
I feel like that old lady about old thing that you don't want to see disappear. It hurt so much. you can do nothing about it except watch it go and adapt.
IT'S SAD THAT VIDEO STORES ARE NOW GONE.
damn that was awesome!!! very well done!!!
The best solution for in person physical media, is really hands down thrift stores or flea markets.
STAAAAANNNN. STANY BOY. I'M COMING STAAAAANNNNNN!!!!
So good
Progress (so it's called) pushes out mom and pop stores to kneel before souless corporations. Evin though I have no financial obligations to small businesses, it makes me mad that "progress" ruins the passion and dreams of so many. That's not the AMERICA I want.
I know the blockbuster on roherstown road was there at least 1992. Video rental will come back . The best video stores in Lancaster were Hollywood video on Columbia ave and superstore video on new Holland pike
Addam seems like a really nice dude
okie
They honestly made out on the buyout. $1.5 million is nothing the shrug off about if you’re good at finical management. They could’ve opened some laundromats and been set for an easy life.
He didn't outlast Family video tho. they just closed down this year
Thanks for letting us know
First of all blockbuster came to Lancaster way before 1996
I actually live in a small town in PA n we still have a video store
Awesome, what town? And what is the video store called? Would love to visit it.
Sorry to hear about Jeff passing. coffee not good.
David here from Sebring Florida I been a movie buff for over fifty years and owned Movie Memories poster shop in Palo Alto California for 25 years I had to close my store too I sold movie and rock posters.
I was just curious Did the young man ever consider having a smaller store with movie and rock posters, Records,8 track tapes, and rare classic and out of print DVD rentals? I was not sure, was the store in California? Please let me know your thoughts Thanks!😊
I’m not sure but I think that’s a good idea. He ran other stores previously. Thanks for watching
If that goth kid's edge had a sense of humor he should've worn a _brown_ *SALO* shirt!
2:42
Hey, is that a Ryo-oki poster in the background?
pretty sure it is
i'm sure that goth kid would totally be into tenchi muyo
RIP family video 2021
I remember grabbing some vids, impulse buying a bag of Orville Redenbacher Caramel Microwavable Popcorn, over heating it, damn near burning my fingers on the burning hot caramel, and settling in for a movie hoping that my vcr didnt eat it... good times
The best times. Thanks for watching
Great doco, having the goth guy pop up was a bit of a twist, just shows the 'broad church' of the video store, no 'community' in streaming...
i think adam scared all the people away
sad... i lived as a kid thru these great 90s and boy going to the movie store on wednesday with mom to get the new hottest game .... hits the feels
should have opened that coffee shop,what happened to all the vhs and dvds ?
this is sad to watch, part of me died watching this
Hopefully that sadness inspires someone to start a new video store somewhere. At least we have another coffee shop.. thanks for watching
@@monellifilms I hope so, video stores were like a third of my 90s kid childhood
video stores will come back. this time they will sells toys, games nostalgia ect. give it 5 years, the golden age will be back.
RIP
I hate it when chains buy out their competitors
Never cry nor don't entertain losses, since stores are not for losses, it is going to be trimmed to create they "knew its new" concepts. Rephasing to be a phase of a lifetime. Don't forget that SKA employee of yours, priceless.
....to be clear this didnt make any sense
Bit of a dumpster fire at the end eh?
Here’s what we do if we want to go back to better times... GET RID OF THE INTERNET! shit has ruined so many things.
The internet has ruined the analog era. But social media has ruined Us.
@@monellifilms social media is evil.