5 days ago
San Francisco's last video rental store tucked away in Noe Valley neighborhood
Once a staple of neighborhoods everywhere, video stores all but vanished in the age of streaming. But tucked between a Supercuts and a nail salon in San Francisco's Noe Valley is a surprising survivor: a small, independently owned video shop where movies are still picked by hand and watched on disc.
Welcome to Video Wave, it's believed to be the last remaining video rental store in San Francisco. It has rows and rows of DVDs and a loyal crowd keeping an old ritual alive.
Owner Colin Hutton said he never thought he'd be the last one standing.
"There's been many, many moments when I thought I wouldn't survive it," he said.
The trouble began around 2008, when streaming services took off and video stores across the country began to fade to black. But then, something unexpected happened: Customers started to come back, some drawn by nostalgia, others by curiosity.
For 23-year-old Kailxn Xephyr, it was a refreshing experience.
"When it comes to things that are streaming on your phone, it feels like everything's demanding your attention right away, and these other things are like a step removed from that," Xephyr said.
Believe it or not, DVDs are having a moment. Not quite a blockbuster comeback, more of a cult-classic rewind.
While overall DVD sales dropped more than 23% last year, 4K editions jumped 10 percent, and collector versions climbed 25 percent, according to the Digital Entertainment Group.
"There's been a real resurgence in tangible media," said Lucas Hildebrand, chair of Film and Media Studies at UC Irvine.
Hildebrand said for Gen Z, part of the appeal isn't just the films. It's the boxes, the artwork, even the act of browsing.
"There's also hunger for people who grew up with social media, who grew up with the Internet, to actually have in person interactions," he said.
Ironically, the future of the store may depend on the very thing that nearly wiped it out: a subscription model. Hutton said he had 556 subscribers, just enough to keep Video Wave from avoiding the final cut.
"With my business model being subscription, if I had 150 more subscribers, that would be the difference between not making it and making it," Hutton said.
