In Montreal West, a lone video store swims against the tide

MONTREAL WEST – Deborah Marcogliese likes the tactile experience of being able to pick up a DVD and look at its dust jacket. She also likes the community experience she gets from visiting her local video store.

“I like to talk to people. I like to walk to get to it,” she said while perusing movies at Avenue Video, a DVD rental store, “rather than being very much removed in the virtual world.”

The store she was visiting is a location that opened in September in an attempt to buck recent trends in the age of iTunes or Netflix.

“There are still those people out there who come in and want to speak to someone about movies and find out what’s actually worth watching,” said Geoff Hirst, who works behind the desk.

Avenue Video was founded in 1986, at the height of the movie rental boom. It had three locations at one point but was dealt a severe blow by the rise of streaming online services and high overhead. The business was about to fold when Chris Hagemeyer, an employee, bought the owner out.

“I had two options: I could liquidate the stock for nothing, really, and give up. Or try. And at the end of the day I thought ‘I’m a single guy, I’m 27, what’s the worst that could happen?'”

The store offers films in several specialty and art categories that might be difficult to find in readily accessible places like the Google Play Store or the iTunes Store. It has a section devoted to terrible films as well, such as the oft-panned Roger Corman effort Dinocroc vs. Supergator.

But despite these best attempts to corner a niche, the store’s chances of survival in the digital age are likely slim. It’s not just that people are renting fewer DVDs, McGill communications professor Will Straw said, “it’s just people aren’t watching as many movies.

“They aren’t watching them in cinemas as much… they’re looking at TV shows, or doing Facebook.”