 "Photo: Andy Bowden")
After 22 years in business, the Video Americain on Elkton Road has closed its doors for the last time, and mourned the loss at a “wake” Sunday night. The family-run business has been struggling for years now, battling the increasing popularity of instant movie streaming.
Barry Solan, owner of the video store, remembers attending a video conference 15 years ago and hearing people predict that in only a few years time video rental stores would be obsolete.
“Video rental has been a bottom-up revolution,” Solan says. “Film studios had no idea there would be a burgeoning market for videos, and they were caught unaware.”
Solan and his wife Annie made the decision to shut down Video Americain because the lease on the building ran out and they didn’t want to renew it.
Solan owns three other branches of Video Americain, two in Baltimore and one in Tacoma Park, Md., which have been more profitable than the Newark branch and will remain open.
“This store has been an act of love,” Solan says. “It has been supported entirely by the other stores, but we live here and raised our kids here, and couldn’t bear the thought of Newark without Video Americain.”
Emerging in the 1980s, the early genre of films that caught on immediately was the erotic film industry, Solan says.
“Like with many technologies, including the printing press, erotic products drove the industry,” he says. “Before we knew it, we saw a huge market to see movies at home.”
He says that the specialized and niche video stores will most likely be the last to go.
“Change is agonizing,” Solan says. “The first big wave of changes was the loss of the wonderful era of Mom and Pop stores, then a lot of the major chains.”
Larry Bricker, the manager of Blockbuster in College Square, has been working for seven years there. He says that though he hasn’t seen a decline in business yet, he hasn’t seen any growth, either.
“With technology and computers, you can just go online and watch a movie,” Bricker says. “I don’t think video stores will always be necessary.”
Bricker says that because he has constant access to movies at Blockbuster, he doesn’t have to use Netflix or On Demand services. But for those who crave instant streaming movies, Blockbuster has begun to offer its own online video rental system that works like Netflix.
“You can get the videos delivered to the house, and [then] either mail them back or drop them back off at the store,” Bricker says.
The store still has a following of regulars though, mostly college students and families.
“We definitely see a lot of the same people coming in weekend after weekend,” Bricker says.
Sophomore Jessica Ruiz says she can’t remember the last time she went into a video store.
“It would probably be middle school or early high school,” Ruiz says. “There used to be three or four video stores around my house, and now there is only one.”
Ruiz says she started using Netflix this September and loves it.
“There are instant movies, which have been out for a while and are not so popular, and you can get those movies right away,” she says. “Then, there are newer movies which are not instant, and you can get them shipped wherever you live within two days. Its really convenient.”
Ruiz says she and her roommate decided to subscribe to Netflix because both their families use Netflix at home.
“One thing that’s great is that not only does it have movies, but it also has TV shows, so we can get complete seasons of a show if we want to.”
Ruiz says she also watches movies on her computer with iTunes, which allows users to rent movies.
Solan says studios have always wanted to digitize to get rid of video stores — it just took much longer to move into that direction.
“The last technology hurdle to be achieved is to connect the computer to the TV,” he says. “As long as there is a wall between that and the living room, video stores will still be around.”
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