‘Owner of UK’s only surviving DVD rental store says shop is booming 40 years later | SWNS’:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoV-9eKrW_M - a 3 minute video at the SWNS youtube channel.
The blurb: 'The owner of the UK’s longest surviving DVD rental store is surprised that business is thriving - 40 years after they opened.
Colin Richards, 71, opened TVL Allstar Video in Haverhill, Suffolk, UK in 1984 and it originally started as a company that leased video tapes to other shops.
He then decided to start renting films and the store now has around 8,500 DVDs including Forrest Gump - which has been borrowed at least 2,000 times.’
Thanks for sharing this oojason. 😃
The availability of physical media remains an important resource on many fronts, despite the rise of VOD services. Just last month, Ofcom published a report detailing that four and a half million Brits lack Internet access and another 400,000 have broadband accounts but don’t (know how to?) use them.
Imagine how many of them have become cut off from new releases with the disappearance of DVDs and Blu-rays from supermarkets etc?
Spot on, mate - and also likely explains the mini-resurgence of DVDs and blu-rays (especially in pawn and charity shops).
Brings a warm feeling and some welcome nostalgia when I see those type of videos online too. 👍
From lockdown times…
Liverpool video shop delivers classic VHS tapes to the elderly | 5 News - a 2 minute youtube video from 2020.
^ the blurb: ‘In Liverpool, one of the UK’s last video shops delivering free packs full of classic tapes, to elderly people, for a welcome fix of nostalgia.’
Now, the major Hollywood studios are beginning to release their latest movies for sale, directly to the public, sometimes only months after their theatrical release. The Oscar-winning drama Rain Man will hit the shops and the rental stores simultaneously, and will be available for purchase at a fraction of the price of a typical new release. Will the public snap it up? Barry Norman chats to retailers, video distributors, video rental stores and the general public to find out.
Ahhhhh Rain Man! My English teacher had that on VHS and offered to lend it to me as a reward if I completed and submitted my homework. I never did… Oh well. 😄
That’s a very interesting context as to why she owned what was presumably the sell-through release as that would’ve been the landmark period when home video releases became affordable in the UK. Prior to that, I remember the prices hovering around £70 and it’s incredible to reminisce that people actually forked out that amount of money for a film!
Yeah, my nephews and nieces look at me like like I’m mad when I tell them how much videos used to cost in the early 80’s (likely to also boost the blossoming rental market at the time). Then I explain there were multiple video rental stores on the high streets were also quite prevalent - even the petrol stations used to try and muscle in on the rental tape market. That we’d spend 20-30 minutes deciding which film to hire out (if in a large group trying to agree on renting something) from whole walls filled with video tapes - and they look at me like I’ve lost my marbles!
Kudos to your English teacher - I wish mine was like that (though I’d have never got the tape either!) 😃