
Miles and I used to have so many choices for seeing movies at home. Up until recently, we had two large video rental stores on either side of our block. If one of them didn’t have a movie, the other would. Me, Miles, and my ankle-length Spongebob pajama pants were late-night regulars at both. Now we walk by both large empty buildings everyday and I feel a pang of sadness over the ghost town feel. Sure, there are online options for video rental, but sometimes, I just want to wander down familiar grungy aisles, feel the rich fiery musk of rotting carpet and stale popcorn stinging my nostrils, get irritated at Miles for not allowing me to freely browse at my leisure because he is rolling on and snorfing on said carpet, and stare at and flip over a billion empty dvd boxes while complaining to a friend that I can’t find anything good until finally giving up and randomly picking something I haven’t seen. This is a process I have done my whole life, and, with the exception of blissfully welcoming a move to this neighborhood with the two video stores right outside my door, is a routine I have always taken somewhat for granted. The only video rental store now left within our walking distance is a small independent one. It lacks the classic pungent aroma (no semi-wet definetely-rotting carpet, no stale popcorn), and actually makes it frustratingly straightforward to pick a video due to the thoughtful handwritten notes everywhere about what is actually decent viewing material. But, they have a fairly good selection of dvds, and the store is named after a dog, so we are set, for now…







One of the best video stores and probably one of the last. Hopefully the neighborhood will continue to support them; especially one that still allows dogs inside Hoorah for progress.
Miles looks like he he really enjoys the cool floor in the place a lot of dogs like lying on the concrete.Nice to be able to bring him inside and get his opinion on movies too.
I love black Dog, great part of the community, so nice to have dogs in the space so often. Great article!
The only video rental retailer in my area is Willow Video. They've been alright but I usually rely more on Netflix Canada's growing catalogue and actively record movies I want to watch that show up on Movie Central.
They are disappearing because the cost has gone down since the VHS and beta-max tapes.