One of the last video rental shops in British Columbia has announced plans to close this summer.
Black Dog Video, a major product in East Vancouver, surpassed Blockbuster by 11 years, but owner Darren Gay says video rental is not comparable to the myriad streaming services that moviegoers have access to today.
“These are the streaming services that brought us here,” he told On the Coast host Gloria Makarenko. “Their explosion in the last year or two, it’s just another nail in the coffin every time another one launches.”
Rents and other costs have risen, while a rental company has no luxury of raising sales prices, forcing Gay to make the difficult decision to pack.
Black Dog Video has been running for 26 years, 16 of which are on Commercial Drive. During this time, Gay and his staff have made friends with clients and curated a collection of 17,000 films for true moviegoers.
“It’s easy to just turn on your streaming services. I like to call it the convenience of mediocrity, because these are basically streaming services, “said Gay.
“It will be sad when we all leave, because the availability of these amazing films will disappear. You won’t find most things in streaming services.
CBC visits the last DVD rental store in Vancouver
Catch up with Darren Gay, owner of Black Dog Video. 1:41
Gay is now tasked with selling thousands of films, which he said was devastating in itself.
“It’s hard because I spend my days here and I love being among these movies.”
He expects to start selling the collection on May 1.
After owning and running a small business for so long, Gay isn’t sure what’s next for him.
“I’m really too young to retire, and I’m too old to find a meaningful job. I haven’t had to look for a job for almost 30 years and I don’t know how to do it anymore. “
He says the thing he will miss the most when he rents out movies to Vancouver people will be the people.
“The clients I’ve met and made friends with will just miss this daily interaction. I know so many people, you know, by name, and I consider them friends, so it’s going to be really hard. ”
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