---
title: The video store is back, and it's not about nostalgia
description: A wave of small rental shops is opening in cities with plenty of streaming. Their customers say they're paying for something algorithms can't sell them.
date: 2026-11-08
section: culture
authors: [hana-sato]
format: feature
tags: [film, streaming, community]
image: ../../assets/news/video-store.jpg
imageAlt: Shelves of film cases in a warmly lit small video rental store with a few browsing customers.
imageCaption: Friday night at a rental shop that opened in a former bakery last spring.
imageCredit: "Illustration: Blakey / AI-generated"
---

On a Friday night, the shop is full. Not with people buying anything. With people browsing. A couple argues gently over two horror films from the 1970s. A kid sits on the floor in the animation aisle. Behind the counter, the owner is recommending a Hungarian comedy to someone who came in asking for "something weird, but not too weird."

Rental stores were supposed to be extinct. Streaming killed them, and the last big chains closed years ago. But in the past two years, a handful of small independent shops have opened in neighborhoods where nearly everyone already pays for three streaming services.

## Paying for the shelf

The owners don't pretend they're competing on convenience. You have to walk there. You have to bring the disc back. Late fees, in some shops, are back too.

What they sell instead is the shelf. "Streaming gives you a thousand choices and no context," says June Abara, who opened her shop in a former bakery. "Here, every film was chosen by someone. You can ask them why."

Many shops organize their films by mood or by director, not by genre. Staff picks come with handwritten cards. Some host screenings in the back room.

## The catalog gap

There's a practical side, too. Streaming libraries change every month. Films disappear when licenses expire, and many older or foreign titles were never streamed at all. Physical media fills that gap. Several owners say their most-rented titles are ones you simply can't find online.

> "People think they can watch anything. Then they look for the film they loved at fifteen, and it's gone."

## A room, not a service

The business is fragile. Rents are high, and most shops survive on memberships, events, and coffee as much as rentals. Few owners expect to get rich.

But they keep opening. What these shops share is less a love of discs than a love of rooms: places where strangers talk about films, where a teenager can find something nobody recommended. Abara's shop has a couch near the door. On Fridays, someone is always on it.