Video Store queries
Dubious
1,865 Posts
hey peepsfigure somebody o nhear must have some first hand experience wit hthis ...ill be moving back to my hometown of halifax NS in a month or so and with that looms the fact that i need to get a new job.. whic hstresses me to no endanyhow i've often thought abotu opening my own bizniz.. and with that in mind im toying with the idea of opening a DVD rental place... maybe sell some used cds, dvds and even soem used wax too wuddevabut im curious are there any sorts of regulations / liscencing needed in opeing such a bizniz? ive searched online and i cant find ANYTHINGadditionally what is the deal with stock? could you rent dvds you bought used or from other places??and im also curious about the concept of dvdr's... there's a MAJOR video store here in toronto that rents tonnes of things that are dubbed straight off vhs, or are straight up bootleg dvds yet they dont seem to run afoul of the law... what's up with that??? curious as to why they are pretty much the only dudes in town doing this... anyhow and video store employees / owners etc please chime in... am i loco for even contemplating this???
Comments
answer my questions bitches!!!!!!
i have had two different friends who ran video stores. both of them were pretty vigilante in certain respects. pretty sure all you need is a sellers permit, and an occupancy permit to open that business. i can make a couple calls and get more detailed info.
basic laws i've learned from watching their moves:
-dvd's are the only things that rent.
-best to have every item in the store for sale as well as rent.
-always buying cheap movies on the streets(just like records)
-when it comes to vhs, the more nitch the better (maybe this should be applied to the whole store) although people need their big studio junk movie diet. the big studio flix always rent the best.
-television series on dvd are mad popular (tvd's)
-porn at the end of the day is one of the biggest renters/sellers. sad truth.
-selling used records out of the store would be a fantastic idea. especially cheapo dolla bin stuff.
-get in bed with the local film school if possible, they will hook you up hard.
-get interns to work for you for nothing.
-selling film to film students can be a big plus, or video gear, definitely look into this.
-KEEP UP WITH NETFLIX! understand that lots of people are using this, so try to do your best to be competitive. offer a month long netflix style deal, for a fixed amount.
- you will lose regulars if you tax on late fees excessively.
get the cheapest rent possible in the most ideal location, try to be near campus if possible, foot traffic yatta yatta yatta.
book shows, have events, be active. don't spend too much on advertising. flyer campaign like your store was a local band. especially for small cities.
I think there will always be some market for good dvds, especially if u go niche.
people aren't that saavy yet. of course big chains will be taking the lion's share, the lil dude still makes out. best way to run a video store is to couple it with other money making solutions. it takes very little to run. most (actually all) of the video store owners i know are using their store as a money making office space.
True... I spent some time over the last few weeks doing qualitative research at my local store for a class. Some hilarious stories came out of it but far as what I picked up..
My local place has been here 18-ish years and stays in business only because of the dedication of the local customers. It's nice to have a joint you can walk to. Customers almost all know the clerks, and it's kind of a social thing to do, go to the video store, shoot the shit and see what's out.
ALL of the people who work there have other jobs and every year the profits are down a little more. The blockbuster just closed down, so they might get a boost temporarily, but in the long term it's going downhill. The store owner is thinking about the Internet and video-on-demand as a possible escape strategy for brick & mortar retail.
They sell comics in the store, too, but that section is just about dead. A CD/record music store in part of the shop would be cool! Another local place combines a coffee shop/cafe with a large niche genre video store. All the uber violent kung fu, sultry foreign, and indie flicks you could imagine, with varying degrees of legitimacy. But I have a suspicion they make at least as much $ off morning coffee as videos.
Step 1-porn rentals
Step 2-there is no step 2
Step 3-profit
This is absolutely true, I used to work in a video/record store chain and Porn rentals kept business in the black.
Another great thing to have is an angle (beyond porn). Chais like Blockbuster aren't really indie-film savvy so you may be able to capitalize on that. I'd highly recommend opening near a college too. The students love the idea of an indie record/ video store.
i will clarify
halifax is a smallish town seriously underserved in the mom and pop / independent level
the only indy video store went ounder close to ten years ago!!!!
that's mind boggling
so there is a glut in the market.. considering there are 5 universities there.. yes 5!!!!!
yes film school is a clincher.. luckily i went to film school there and i know EXACTLY how impossible it was to rent those classics come term paper time .. so you can best believe i would be stockin my criterions.
additionally i agree on the niche market... i would try and use my own encylopedic knowledge of flim snobbery to my advantage and stock the GOOD shit... and be able to back that shit up with the recomendations.
additioanlly the dollar bin records are a potential gold mine in hali
there is ONE record store
i repeat
ONE store
lucikily the asshole who owned it died but somebody else bought it out.. i would be SHOCKED to see if they arent still sitting on the same $30 copies of badfinger's Ass that they had 15 years ago... dude priced his stock in the pre ebay days higher than gemm... insanity...
so to have a cheapo bin could be a killer as there is no wax available in the entire town.. the reasonable store closed down a few years back.
part of me does worry that the vid store model is a dying breed but at the same time there's lot to be said for mom and pops.. and here in toronto the small dvd specialty stores are coming out the yin yang.. so i have a few models to import to hali wholesale from t-dot.
remember this is canada, we gots NO netflik
outside of halifax and other bigger towns there is NO high speed internet in nova scotia people!! My uncle lives about 40 minutes outside of hali and he wants high speed.. well they would have to lay cable to get it to him and the cost is INSANE!!! There is no massive downloading goin to happen anytime soon in this region... hell you cant even get cable TV
what sort are we talking here? are we talking serious double dong back seat of a van nasty shit or are we talking russ meyer, euro arty shit, queer stuff??
i worry about the space.. to stock the real nasty nasty shit you need a seperate room i think... to stock the good softcore / weird / arty shit is less of an issue.
Your opinion is skewed because you don;t like to pay more than a couple bucks for a record. Agreed he was an ass, but the quality of stock in there was a lot hgigher than many stores I can think of. Got Sidewinders LPfor $15. 6 copies of this for $6 each. I could talk for a day citing examples.
What did he die of, lung cancer? Never saw dude without a butt.
K.
I work for a video distributor. I can vouche for the fact that video rental is a declining business because of other market forces like video-on-demand, netflix, priceclubs, tivo etc. Stores that I deal with are losing money every year, year after year. It is still possible to thrive in a declining market, but you have to be extremely ambitious and clever.
yeah lung cancer from what i heard
i hear you on the prices dude
i admit to being a bit of a cheapey.. but you have to remember i grew up in hali and saw TAZ move thru all of its 4 locations... the stock NEVER moved.. dude did not sell ANYTHING
thus his prices were too high.. for the market he was located in... im not sayign their weren't deals in the store... but it was very very frustrating looking thru his bins which kept getting relegated into more and more harder to reach locations whilst he made room for cds and shit.. .and the stock DID NOT MOVE....
he had GREAT stock i will not deny.. but its painful to look at his Kinks section for example and see EVERY record in their back catalogue priced at $20+ for 15 years...
ridiculous...
I ain't gonna hate on his $30 BAdfingers and Kinks albums - dude had good records for WAAAAYYYYYY under market value and shit I've still not seen again to this day. I blew a G of my OSAP in second year ( I finessed my way back to his house after work one day) and I can't even fathom how much they'd be worth now.
HAve the new owners repriced everthing?
Does a bald white DJ dude named Nick still run that DJ/record shop downtown (Revolution Records or something like that)?
Why you moving back?
K.
we'll be getting a house there for less money than we currently spend on rent... i'll be able to settup my music studio in a more proper fashion...we've been pretty much stuck here for the last couple years.. no money to get out of town / travel.
addtionally music wise for me this town is dead with a capitol D, there's no scene, no gigs, no market no nothing... so i aint willing to pay $$$ forthat, i feel like toronto is NYC rents with kansas city culture ie nadda. Im not fooling myself that there's anything going on in hali either.. but i live like a hermit here and i'd rather live like a hermit in a pretty, nature filled more lo key environ.
so back too hali where the livin is calm and i can reconnect with my maritimer roots
revolution appears to be closed.. i couldnt find it at xmas when i was there.. i may have missed it but im pretty sure its gone.
i havent been in the new taz either... im actually kinda looking forward to it though as with the new owners / location they could have repriced some things... and i also havent dug i nthat store in a good 5 years so maybe my memories have been tainted by the cobwebs of time and reluctance to give that nob any of my hard earned $$.
sadly slect sounds in bedford is no more also.. im still kicking myself for passing on both Cake (not that cake band, the mod girly cake band) lps there last time i was in there.. always dug that store.
Maybe the best store in the maritimes IMO. Too bad.
As for this town being dead - does anything postive ever come out of your mouth? There is a long and storied scene here and plenty of vibrantly entertaining parties...but I guess since you too busy pissing on everything to attend/notice any of them. Why don't you try and create one?
You got a wife to share the rent - what do you pay? I have a multi level 3 bedroom (with 2 part Kitchen,livig room and dining room) for $1250 I share with my girlfriend and I ain't complaining. I guess I have Bruce Beach to get my sans city fix. Rent a car adn go to Point Peely.
K.
both of these were gigs featuring BIG name underground heroes who run labels, tour the world, get respect in other towns.
outside of rare groove, reggae, funk, hip hop who would you say is holding it down here when it comes to NEW shit?
who's putting on local producers? shinning a light on local labels? i'd like to know man... hip me to that shit!
cause everybody i talk to tells me t-dot is dead.. and these are cats who have productions under there belts, long gig histories, run their own labels etc..
Being a musician in Canada has always been tough.
K.
he's retired from t-dot djing ... too much hassle
and word being a musican in canada is tough.. that's a universal, that's why im tryign to cut my expenses ...
I'm not sure exacly how it works, (I looked into it several years ago) whether you have to pay per copy or just once. But basically the start up cost, if you want to do it above board, and want to have a wide sellection to rival online or established rentals, is going to be a lot.
That said, there are so many dodgy places near where I live that rent, and there's no way they're paying that much.
Good luck. As everything is going online you're going to need it. But if you realy offer a unique and knowledgable service you be alright.