Lawrence KS has Liberty Hall Video, which is adjacent to Liberty Hall, an independent movie theater and live music venue.
We did have a Family Video a few years ago, but it closed and is now a liquor store, which I find kind of ironic and amusing.
I don’t think there are any straight video rental places left in the greater Boston area. The last one I knew was in Marblehead, and that went belly-up a couple of years ago. You can still rent DVDs from the “Redboxes” at supermarkets and convenience stores, but I think you’re talking about non-automated sitres.
(Heck, it’s hard enough finding places that still sell DVDs. Newbury comics used to have awesome collections, but they no longer sell them. FYE had a decent collection, but they’re gone from the area. A few places like Best Buy and some Barnes and Noble stores still sell them, and Target sells relatively new or popular DVDs… And you can get a few at used record stores and some comic shops, and I still know of a few other places that sell them. But they’re hard to come by, especially any selling older or more obscure titles. It’s much easier to buy DVDs over the internet.)
as for rentals, there are a few niche stores. There’s a Kung Fu video rental in Boston, there was a place in Jamaica Plain, and I’ve seen stores renting Spanish-language DVDs or Russian DVDs or Chinese or other languages.
Heck, even all the adult DVD places seem to be gone.
You know where you can still borrow DVDs? Most of the local libraries still have small collections. And still sell old used ones.
None that I’ve seen in Honolulu. But googling tells me there is one left, but it looks like they deal mostly in video games.
11 posts were split to a new topic: Off-Topic observation in Cafe thread about Video Stores
as veryfrank mentioned earlier, Bay St. Video in Toronto is still renting. Further to the west in Toronto, Eyesore Cinema (1176 Bloor), is also still renting DVDs and retailing DVDs and Blu-Rays, along with hosting the occasional screening of cult, independent, and offbeat films and video.
I believe Eyesore is run by a former Suspect employee who worked at their Queen West store, which burned down in 2008.
Yeah, “memories” would be “Boy, I remember Hollywood Slim’s Cine-Hut. Slim had all these great old movies. They had the best staff and used to have classes about…”
Not “There was one named X and they closed a year ago.” That’s just an elaboration on the “No”
I visited Boston a couple of years ago and there was a coffee shop/video rental store that was in business then. They did have a few shelves of videos for rent but I feel their main focus was selling coffee and the videos were just a gimmick to draw in customers.
I can’t remember their name now and I didn’t find them with a quick google search so I suspect they’ve since closed.
Modding: OK, enough with the observance that the OP was ignored and whether another poster is Modding or not. Back to the actual thread please.
I’m trying to figure out what to do with this odd hijack especially as so many posts did ignore the OP.
Saying No and a small elaboration doesn’t seem out of line.
A couple of specifics:
@Martin_Hyde: Your post really doesn’t belong in the thread and was liekly and did indeed derail the thread.
@CalMeacham: clearly you only read the title, the OP mentioned RedBox and libraries. Maybe read the OP next time, I’ve made the same mistake.
I’m going to take Martin_Hyde’s post and its replies and split them off. I’m just trying to figure out where.
As long as I am here …
No, not one is left in my county of over 600,000 people.
Does Facets still rent out videos at their store?
I plan on driving through Memphis in a few months. I might have to make a stop.
Vulture Video (formerly Plan 9) in Bloomington, IN is still around. I went there Saturday for Video Store Day (like Record Store Day, but for video). They are hanging on for dear life, though. They have a small room in the back with theatre seats where they show films sometimes.
Videodrome in Atlanta is also still alive, I went there a few weeks back when I was in town for an event.
I’m surprised none of you Toronto folks mentioned Videoflicks, on Avenue Road in the north part of the city. It’s an independently owned video store that started up long before the big chains, and is still around. I haven’t been there in years but I used to love it when I lived in the area.
I think the reason it survived is that it’s owned by a couple who are real movie fans. The upstairs is a fairly conventional video rental store, but go down into the basement and man, it’s like a trip to the past. You first get hit with the wafting scent of popcorn (help yourself, it’s free!) and then get to explore a treasure trove of classic old movies and TV shows, most of which I’m sure are long out of print. Everything upstairs has to compete with digital downloads, streaming, pay-per-view, etc. But the lower level is unique and I’m guessing a large part of what keeps it going. Plus, to add to their other virtues, the place has always been dog-friendly, even providing water dishes for our thirsty canine friends. 
As I said, I haven’t been there in years and some things might have changed, particularly in the era of COVID.
I was gonna nominate I Luv Video in Austin, but it seems they closed last year. Pandemic influenced, but not because of business - they actually saw a surge of customers and rentals. Their landlord put the property on the market, and the owner didn’t think the business could continue as it had in the past.
I have a friend who’s a cinephile, wants to watch the original version of a film with the original cut and soundtrack, etc. So I know he would go to I Luv Video rather than stream a film on Netflix.
Bummer, it was one of the “Keep Austin Weird” type of hangouts that are rapidly disappearing from my town…
Based on google maps only giving redbox locations in the results for a “video rental” search I’m going to go with No.
Yes, there is.
Google maps says 35 miles away in a whole other city from the major US city I live adjacent to. Without thinking of any specifically, I guessed there would be three or four within 12 miles of me. It seems not.
Yes. We have a Mom-and-Pop Video rental/coffee shop/laundromat place called “Film Festival,” with free WiFi that students can take advantage of while they do laundry. They’ve also got brownies and good cookies to carry home for movie treats, like when we watched A Quiet Place on DVD the othernight.
Tripler
It’s just up the street from me–I’m looking at it out the window now. . .