Star Video sign still says they rent DVD-VHS, I didn't ask if VHS rentals were still available I didn't even know the store was opened still, but they are, and just in time for a closing sale that is going on through March 5th amazing it lasted this long, been here for 20 years or so. Lee, the owner, told me he was the 5th owner, "always Vietnamese people." It's next door to a Vietnamese Bodega and across from Miss Saigon, a very good restaurant (I love their summer rolls!). But families are moving away, Lee says a bar will replace the business. "Going to be just like Hoboken."
That's a common concern, as the long hoped for Restaurant Row on Newark more fully takes shape, given a big boost by a bar whose selling point are 80s video games and a recently passed JC ordinance allowing live music in the hoped for bars, with an official licensing fees the bars, I mean, a-hem, cabarets, must pay (although no legislative definition of acceptable audible levels at outdoor concerts seems pending so concert interruptus will again plague summer entertainment). The next Hoboken... bemoaned by some, encouraged by others.
Change is inevitable and like I said, I thought video rental stores were already indeed a thing of the past, but this one hung on, the last one left in a neighborhood that once claimed half a dozen, at least that many in the 90s. Think about that for a moment: there were enough film enthusiasts and glad-to-rent customers to support that many shops all within a half-mile radius. I assume they are still watching movies, and there are (I think) at least a few thousands more residents in downtown than in the 90s. All that business isn't gone – the stores are, the owners and their employees are gone, those video Clerk jobs and small business investment job opportunities are not coming back – but people are still watching movies at home but now all the profits go to one monopoly.
I used to belong to two video stores during the height of my rental career, but I was mainly a loyal (never returned a movie late) customer of Video Rent All, a reminiscence of which can be found here.
I wasn't a Star Video customer, it is a little off the beaten path for my typical routine routes, plus it was one of those Video places that emphasized new releases. Most new releases I want to see I see on the big screen, and few are worth seeing twice. Not that I never rented new releases, I did all the time, but I tend to seek out off-beat films, foreign films, independent releases, low budget and obscure as well as classic movies (Video Rent-all had an entire shelf devoted to Humphrey Bogart).
I noticed last month new construction on this block. Development marches on and has now finally trampled our last video rental store.
Going inside was like being transported back in time. It was like a loyal recreation of an actual DVD rental store, except that it was still in business and had been for years, way after all the rest were long gone. I was filled with nostalgia for a way of life – browsing film titles in a physical, actual space not the cyber efficiency by which we browse online inventories – that is rarely possible under the New Order.
Racks and racks of DVDs, narrow cases the width of a hard cover Novella. Most of the films were within the last 15 years or so, the titles without any organizing principle, unintended juxtapositions. Did I see that one; if I did was it any good? A mini-eruption of pop culture stream of consciousness occurred; accompanied by random references slipping in and out of grasp at the edges of my memory. I used to love going to the video store to rent a movie... didn't you? remember... remember... stop at the video store, rent a movie, get some take out and a bottle of wine. There was something special about the limited choices of the video rental place. You had to decide if they had something right for that evening – even it wasn't a date night of sorts, just some alone time – what would fit in the mood.
Remember that decision making process? Sure, many times you knew exactly what you wanted, if it was a store you were loyal to, a quick call and they would reserve the copy. But other times, it was like what will work, what's best for your current state of mind or the evening that was planned and who was coming over to spend it with you.
VHS was never really a product made for sale, while DVDs can be bought for usually reasonable prices and there is Net Flix, which has every DVD ever made but the spontaneity of the visiting the store, realizing what your mood is and then finding something among the limited but creative choices that will fit the mood is completely lost.
The real rental experience was VHS. Every once in a while I'll be trying to find some obscure flick and do a search on Amazon and see that they still sell a VHS, used, because it has to yet to be revived on disk. Now when we want to find out about the video store experience, we watch Clerks, a document of a bygone era that was not long ago at all but is still gone.
Star Video reminded me of all those special video rental store moments: have you ever seen this? No subtitles tonight, please. Discovering some groovy film that you had no preconceptions of whatsoever. Or going on a film jag, watching a bunch of Woody Allen all weekend, trudging to the video store through the snow. That's all gone now, sure movie nights still happen – video stores made the movie night at home a reality, before VHS you just had television and commercials to watch – but you already know what you ordered from Net Flix and regardless of your mood, that's what you will watch on movie night. The film determines your mood instead of the other way around, something about that change makes me long for the past.
Independent stores, like Video rental places once flourished in inner cities as well as strip malls. Sure, chains, like Block Busters or Hollywood Knights challenged these entrepreneurs, but the independents had a strong hold on this market. Movie companies catered to them, especially when it was VHS. How did the independents grow? By being knowledgeable about films and knowledgeable about their customers. That knowledge and skill set is no longer relevant in the New Order.
So, somehow progress is one company instead of thousands of business owners and semi-professional film buffs and another piece of spontaneity disappears from our lives. With that spontaneity hasn't another piece of our humanity also been erased?
Like his long gone colleagues, Lee rode out the transition from VHS to DVD, eventually replacing all the tapes with Disk. "We got rid of the VHS, invested in DVDs, then Net Flix killed everything."
He showed me his computer. "Still working, 20 years old, original computer for the store."
He said it still works. It was a pre-windows machine – MS-DOS – I could only marvel at this genuine artifact.
He is selling off the inventory – $5 per disk, 3 for $10 – through March 5th.
When was the last time you rented a movie?
"I still have customers, I'm still renting. I will rent movies until I close."
Many nesting evenings began with Star Video! Began Netflix around the same time, but Star still held the allure of the "browse" for surprise or purely commercial stuff. Planning and referring to a queue of videos has advantages, but doesn't serve all purposes. John was the owner then. Thanks for the memory.
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