For years, my family resisted renting movies from RedBox, iTunes or Netflix. Instead, we supported our local video store, Power Video. The store had been there ever since I could remember. It was a small store with five aisles, but don't judge a book by its cover. Even though it was small, it was always well-stocked with movies. The new releases were on the far right, and the classics were on the far left. In between were the comedies, mysteries, thrillers, family movies and TV shows. The only flashy sign in the store was the one above the register that featured the cover of a DVD, framed by lights, and titled with the words "Coming soon" in thick, black capital letters.
Picking out a movie at Power Video embodied an air of leisure. Of course we could enter the store with a movie in mind, and be in and out in five minutes, but it was more fun to browse the shelves with the possibility of running into people we knew, which we almost always did. I loved picking up DVDs, looking at their covers and reading the plot synopses. After the rest of my family did the same, we would meet back in aisle one with our findings and discuss which two movies to check out. If we really couldn't decide, we would ask the employees whether they had seen any of the movies we were considering. Chances were that they had, and they could help us make our decision.
Happily supplied with movies for our evening's entertainment, we walked home swinging our bright yellow Power Video bag.
During Winter Break last year, my mom told me Power Video had gone out of business. I went through a few of the stages of grief. At first I was angry with the neighborhood for not supporting Power Video while I was away in college, but I finally accepted the change and said goodbye to my childhood video store.
In an attempt to move on, my family brainstormed possible ways to get movies. Nothing was ever an acceptable substitute, however. The library had only a very limited selection. We couldn't turn to Blockbuster because it, too, had gone out of business. Nor could we turn to Redbox, iTunes or Netflix because doing so would threaten other local video stores.
This past Winter Break, my family broke down and got a Netflix account. We had gone a year without movies and were finally ready to embrace the modern way to rent them. We were amazed that we could watch movies instantly. The first day that we created the account, we watched movies until it was almost midnight. Although I miss the local, cozy feel of Power Video, I love having unlimited access to movies - even at college - and not having to wade through Clemons' disorganized movie shelves.
Sheila's column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at s.bushman@cavalierdaily.com.
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